Credible?

– White Americans’ compassionate ancestors:• In 1867 The Rev. Robert Dabney (Presbyterian)

insisted that because Africans brought to North America were already enslaved and could not be returned to Africa, many colonists “were prompted by genuine compassion . . . to rescue them from their pitiable condition,” which made the Africans very grateful.

Dabney, Defence of Virginia, 51-53.

Africans and Europeans

• Anthony Johnson, Elizabeth Key, who successfully sued for her freedom in the 1650s on the grounds that she was a baptized Christian, and other Africans all influenced African-European interaction in early Virginia. These people were active participants in the Old Dominion’s development.

• Conflict guaranteed—for example, religious conflict.

Baptism Law, 1667Hening, Statutes at Large, II, 260

Causal Killing Law, 1669Hening, Statutes, II, 270

The Rev. Morgan Godwyn

• England, 1640-ca. 1666

• Virginia, ca. 1666--

• Barbados, ca. 1670-ca. 1679

• England, ca. 1679-?– Edward L. Bond, Damned Souls in a Tobacco Society (Macon, Ga., 2000), 198-202; John M. Fout, “The Explosive

Cleric: Morgan Godwyn, Slavery and Colonial Elites in Virginia and Barbados, 1665-1685,” M.A. Thesis, Va. Commonwealth Univ., 2005; Alden T. Vaughan, Roots of American Racism: Essays on the Colonial Experience (New York, 1995), 55-81.

Religious control; slave control

1680: Governor Culpeper informed The Council of Virginia that a planned slave revolt in the Northern Neck had been quashed. The Council partly blamed masters for allowing slaves too much free time on Saturdays and Sundays, enabling them to “meete in great Numbers in making and holding of Funeralls for Dead Negroes,” which allegedly allowed the slaves to conspire. The remedy: require stricter execution of the laws “relateing to Negroes” and command “all Masters of families having any Negro Slaves, not to permit them to hold or make any Solemnity or Funeralls for any deceased Negroes.”

Billings, Old Dominion in the Seventeenth Century, 160.

No Funerals?

• June 1680-ACT X. An act for preventing Negroes Insurrections.• WHEREAS the frequent meeting of considerable numbers of negroe slaves

under pretence of feasts and burialls is judged of dangerous consequence; for prevention whereof for the future, Bee it enacted by the kings most excellent majestie by and with the consent of the generall assembly, and it is hereby enacted by the authority aforesaid, that from and after the publication of this law, it shall not be lawfull for any negroe or other slave to carry or arme himselfe with any club, staffe, gunn, sword or any other weapon of defence or offence, nor to goe or depart from of his masters ground without a certificate from his master, mistris or overseer and such permission not to be granted but upon perticuler and necessary occasions . . . . And it is further enacted by the authority aforesaid that if any negroe or other slave shall presume to lift up his hand in opposition against any christian, shall for every such offence, upon due proofe made thereof by the oath of the party before a magistrate, have and receive thirty lashes on his bare back well laid on. Source: Hening, ed., The Statutes at Large, vol. 2, pp. 481-482.

No Funerals?• November 1687-Proclamation from Governor Effingham.• By His Excellency a Proclamacon- • Whereas by the prudent care of the Genll. Assembly a most necessary and good law was thereby

made, to deter and prevent the insurrection of Negroe slaves for want of due observance whereof, and by the too frequent remissnesse of Masters of families in not restraining their Negroes from walking and rambling on broad on Satterdayes and Sundayes, by such liberty given them the opportunities of meetings in great tumults, to consentt and advise by all maner of wicked meanes and contrivances to hope by such plottings to putt themselves into a capacity to extende their bloody purposes on their Masters and Mistrisses and by the execution of their sins, blood, plotts and designes to exempt and free themselves from their present slavery which of late yeares has beene too frequently notoriously made manifest threatning the total ruine and subversion of the inhabitants of this his Majties. governmt. if by Gods providence a timely discovery had not beene made of such plotts and designes and to the intent for the future that better care and diver observance may bee had and paid unto that wholesome and necessary law entituled an act preventing Negroes insurrections, I Francis Lord Howard Baron of Effingham his Majties. Leiut. and Governor Genll. of Virginia by and with the consent and advice of the councell of state have thought fitt that for the future noe Negroes slaves bee suffered to carry or arme himselfe with any staffe, clubb, gunn, sword, or other weapon, offensive or defensive, nor presume to depart from off his Master or Mistress grownd without the permission of his Master, Mistress or overseer and that to bee made manifest by certificate under the Master, Mistress or overseer hand . . . .

• Source: York County Deeds, Orders, and Wills (8) 99-100, 24 January 1687/8.

No Funerals?• July 26, 1690-Proclamation Issued by Governor Nicholson.• By the Right Honorable their Majties Leiut Governor • Whereas there are divers good lawes made in England & Va restraining the profaining

the Sabbath day & agt the wicked sins of cursing, swearing, drunkenesse & debauchery & for the good govermt of this country & amonge the rest of the good & wholesome lawes there are severall acts made for the well ordering of Negroes particularly 1 made at a genll assembly begun June 8, 1680 to prevent the rambling about of Negroes (which must frequently happen on the Sabbath day) & agt Masters of families & overseers that shall entertaine or suffer them to be in their plantacons. And whereas there is an act made that enjoynes the haveing grand juries in every county that all offenders may be presented & a due course taken for their punishmts to deter the like offences for the future. Now to the end that the Sabbath day may be kept holey, & that all prophainenesse & debaucheryes of what sort soever may be discouraged & deterred that the judgmts of God Almighty bee not drawne down upon all heads & that the good & wholesome lawes concerning the same be put in execution & all other lawes for the good governmt of this country . . . .

No Funerals?

• April 14, 1694-Proclamation of Governor Andros.• Whereas the lawes concerning Negros & other slaves have

not had the good effort by them intended for want of being duly executed & particularly one Act of Assembly made at James City the 8th day of June 1680 Entituled an Act for preventing Negros Insurrections in which it is provided that it shall not be lawful for any Negro or any other slave to carry or arme himselfe with any club, staffe, gun, sword or any other wepon of defense or offense nor to go nor part from his masters ground without certificate from his master mistresse or overseer . . . .

• Had enough? Still, notice what’s missing.

Oyer and Terminer Law, 1692Hening’s Statutes, III, 102

The Christian “escape hatch”– for European Americans

• April 1695-William Cattilla's Petition.• Willm Catillah servant to Mrs Margrett Booth haveing

sumonsed his sd mistres to this Court to answer his complainant who saith that whereas he was the son of a free woman & was baptized into the Christian faith haveing honestly & truly served his mistres aforesd to his full age of 24 years praying order for his freedom together with his corne & cloathes accord. to law with costs the same is accordingly granted & the next Court to be confirmed if the dft his sd mistress then faile personally to appear & shew just cause to the contrary.

• Source: York County Deeds, Orders, and Wills (10) 137, 6 April 1695.

Christian symbolism and slaves

• Joanna Pope's slaves at Stratford, 1706: – Burglary and burial. “Dick”: head faces west,

others’ buried with head facing east.

African Importation to Virginia, pre-1700: the numbers began to increase

more steadily

Decade Virginia Carolinas1680s 2,000 100 +/-1690s 4,000 200 +/-Total 6,000 300 +/-

“Agency”

• Ira Berlin’s Many Thousands Gone: The First Two Centuries of Slavery in North America (1998) is acutely conscious of the African and Atlantic consciousness of enslaved Americans, while Mechal Sobel’s The World They Made Together: Black and White Values in Eighteenth-Century Virginia (1987) probed the influence Africans and African Americans later had on European Americans, including religious beliefs and practices.

Why did Virginia still have the largest number of slaves in 1860?

Comparative Population of Selected Western Hemisphere Locations, 1630-1860St.

Virginia* South Carolina Georgia Brazil Cuba Jamaica Dominguewhites slaves whites slaves whites slaves slaves slaves slaves slaves

1630 2,450 50 0 0 0 0 ca.40,000 ? 550 ? 1660 26,070- 783- 0 0 0 0 ? ? 1,400 ? 26,337 9701680 40,596- 2,138- 1,000 200 0 0 ? ? 9,500 2,000 41,278 3,0001700 42,650- 5,630- 3,260- 2,444- 0 0 ? ? 45,000 10,000 52,930 16,000 3,800 3,0001740 120,440 60,000 15,000- 30,000- 2,021 0 ? ? 99,200 117,400 20,000 39,1551775 259,016 188,000 66,033 86,089- 23,955 15,278 ? 44,333 190,000 240,000 96,0001790 442,117 292,627 140,178 107,094 52,886 29,264 1,442,800 84,590 250,000 452,0001810 514,280 392,516 214,196 196,365 145,414 105,218 1,790,800 167,070 324,000 01830 694,300 469,757 257,863 315,401 296,806 217,531 ? 286,942 322,421 01860 1,047,299 490,865 291,300 402,406 591,550 462,198 1,715,000 370,553 0 0

NUMBER OF SLAVES ARRIVING IN CHESAPEAKE NAVAL DISTRICTSNaval District

York Rappa- South Upper Lower District Maryland Totalhannock Potomac James James Unknown

1698-1703 1,620 45 21 15 ? 181 2,630 4,512 1704-1718 4,370 927 174 166 743 4,915 2,315 13,610 1719-1730 11,011 2,785 197 183 1,291 2,152 17,619 1731-1745 11,727 3,212 1,169 3,405 2,433 640 2,673 25,259 1746-1760 4,283 1,279 480 5,764 1,302 2,123 3,235 18,466 1761-1774 281 2,412 214 6,732 1,110 883 5,311 16,943 1698-1774 33,292 10,660 2,058 16,279 5,771 10,033 18,316 96,409 Source: Lorena S. Walsh, "The Chesapeake Slave Trade: Regional Patterns, African Origins, and Some Implications," William and Mary Quarterly, 58 (Jan. 2001), 168-69.Note: Not all records of importation have survived, especially for Maryland. Virginia buyers often went to Maryland to buy slaves.

Doing the numbers

27,300 voyages to the Americas

2007 or 2008, online: 35,000 voyages to the

Americas

1999

Volume of African Arrivals in the Americas by Region of Arrival (in thousands)British Mainland British British Windwards Jamaica Barbados Guianas French St. Domingue

Date North America Leewards and Trinidad Windwards (Haiti)1519-16001601-1650 1,400 1,000 200 25,400 2,000 1651-1675 900 5,600 22,300 63,200 8,200 6,500 1676-1700 9,800 26,600 73,500 82,300 27,800 16,600 4,800 1701-1725 37,400 35,400 600 139,100 91,800 24,400 30,100 44,500 1726-1750 96,800 81,700 300 186,500 73,600 83,600 66,800 144,900 1751-1775 116,900 123,900 120,000 270,150 120,900 111,900 63,700 247,500 1776-1800 24,400 25,300 197,500 312,600 28,500 71,200 41,200 345,800 1801-1825 73,200 5,300 4,300 70,200 7,600 71,800 58,800 1826-1850 500 2,100 900 4,800 19,500 1851-1867 300 400 All years 361,100 304,800 323,400 1,076,850 431,000 458,700 306,900 794,000 Share 3.8% 3.2% 3.4% 11.2% 4.5% 4.8% 3.2% 8.3%of trade

Spanish American Spanish Dutch Northeast Bahia Southeast Other Africa AllMainland Caribbean Caribbean Brazil Brazil Americas Regions

1519-1600 151,600 3,500 1,500 201,600 1601-1650 187,700 2,000 86,300 60,000 30,000 396,000 1651-1675 38,800 15,600 15,600 15,600 600 192,800 1676-1700 700 26,000 30,200 75,900 30,200 11,000 421,700 1701-1725 30,000 2,100 30,500 24,300 199,600 122,000 14,200 825,800 1726-1750 12,700 1,600 10,200 51,400 104,600 213,900 8,300 1,136,900 1751-1775 500 1,300 15,300 126,900 94,400 210,400 13,800 1,654,000 1776-1800 10,200 56,900 6,900 210,800 112,500 247,200 44,100 400 1,735,400 1801-1825 17,500 268,700 214,800 182,000 408,700 14,800 22,400 1,458,600 1826-1850 8,700 297,000 80,000 146,500 736,400 10,500 91,300 1,398,200 1851-1867 152,600 900 1,900 3,400 1,300 16,800 177,900 All years 419,600 780,200 129,700 844,700 994,500 2,017,800 118,600 130,900 9,598,900 Share 4.4% 8.1% 1.4% 8.8% 10.4% 21.0% 1.2% 1.4%of tradeSource: The Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade: A Database on CD-ROM and William and Mary Quarterly , 58 (Jan. 2001), 45: Table III

Africans Imported

• 1690-1775– White Virginians bought ca. 100,000 Africans

from Atlantic slave traders.• The Revolutionary War interrupted, and Virginia

legislation (1778) ended, legal importation.

One law helped Christianization• I. For preventing the farther importation of slaves into this

commonwealth Be it enacted by the General Assembly, That from and after the passing of this act, no slave or slaves shall hereafter be imported into this Commonwealth by sea or land, nor shall any slaves so imported be bought or sold by any person whatsoever.

• II. Every person hereafter importing slaves into this Commonwealth contrary to this act, shall forfeit and pay the sum of one thousand pounds for every slave so imported, and every person selling or buying any such slaves, shall in like manner forfeit and pay the sum of five hundred pounds for every slave so bought or sold, one moiety of which forfeitures shall be to the use of the Commonwealth, and the other moiety to him or them that will sue for the same, to be recovered by action of debt or information in any court of record.

• III. And be it further enacted, That every slave imported into this Commonwealth, contrary to the true intent and meaning of this act, shall, upon such importation, become free."

• Hening, Statutes, IX, 471: October 1778

Virginia Gazette, September 22, 1772

Virginia Gazette, July 10, 1762

Late 1760s Va. Gazette ads

Richmond Slave Sales, February 1770 and July 1777

The interstate slave trade cost

• Economic cost– Minimal for most white Virginians, a gain for some.

• Social cost– White leaders sometimes claimed selling away

enslaved people improved Virginia.• Human “cost”

– There is no possible measurement. But see Edward Baptist, “The Absent Subject: African-American Masculinity and Forced Migration to the Antebellum Plantation Frontier.” In Southern Masculinities, Craig T. Friend and Lorri Glover, eds., 135-173. Athens: University of Georgia Press, 2004.

Lewis Miller watercolor, 1853

Eyre Crowe painting, Richmond, 1853-4

First African Baptist Church

Gregg Kimball, American City, Southern Place, 135

Frederick Douglass on the Richmond Slave Jails

• Douglass speech, Halifax, Eng., December 7, 1859: “Slave marts and churches stood in the same market place. The groans of the slaves being sold in the shambles of Richmond were sometimes drowned by the pious shouting of their masters in the church close by.” Frederick Douglass Papers, Ser. 1, vol. 3 (1864-1880), 284.