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The New World: Origins of Slavery
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In Colonial America, what was the relationship between slavery and freedom?
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The question requires you to construct a coherent essay that integrates your interpretation of the provided documents with your knowledge of the period. Do not forget to consider the point of view of the sources you employ.
Primary source:
Virginia Slavery Act X, 1639#8211;40.
Background information: Prior to the 1660s and the 1670s, the status of black people in the Southern colonies was ambiguous. During the 1660s and 1670s, Maryland and Virginia established slave codes that singled out people of African descent as slaves and made the status of slaves hereditary.
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ALL persons except negroes to be provided with arms and ammunition or be fined at pleasure of the Governor and Council.
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Virginia Slavery Act X (1639–40), reprinted in Statutes at Large; Being a Collection of all the Laws of Virginia, ed. William Waller Hening, vol. 1 (Richmond, Va.: Samuel Pleasants, 1819–23), 226.
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Primary source:
Virginia Slavery Act, December, 1662.
Background information: In 1662, Virginia made the status of slaves hereditary; a slave woman's offspring became the property of her master.
Whereas some doubts have arisen whether children got by any Englishman upon a Negro woman should be slave or free, be it therefore enacted and declared by this present Grand Assembly, that all children born in this country shall be held bond or free only according to the condition of the mother; and that if any Christian shall commit fornication with a Negro man or woman, he or she so offending shall pay double the fines imposed by the former act.
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Virginia Slavery Act, (December 1662), in Statutes at Large; Being a Collection of all the Laws of Virginia, ed. William Waller Hening, vol. 2, (Richmond, Va.: Samuel Pleasants, 1809-1823), 170.
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Primary source: Nathaniel Bacon, "The Declaration of the People," manifesto, 1676.
Background information: Nathaniel Bacon issued this manifesto in response to Governor Berkeley's declaration that Bacon and his followers had committed treason.
. . . .But let us trace these men in authority and favor, to whose hands the dispensation of the country's wealth has been committed. Let us observe the sudden rise of their estates, composed [compared] with the quality in which they first entered this country, or the reputation they have held here amongst wise and discerning men. And let us see whether their extractions and educations have not been vile, and by what pretense of learning and virtue they could soon [enter] into employments of so great trust and consequence. Let us consider their sudden advancement and let us also consider whether any public work for our safety and defense, or for the advancement and propagation of trade, liberal arts and sciences is here extant in any [way] adequate to our vast charge.
Now let us compare these things together and see what sponges have sucked up the public treasure, and whether it has not been privately contrived away by unworthy favorites and juggling parasites, whose tottering fortunes have been repaired and supported at the public charge. . . .
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Nathaniel Bacon, "The Declaration of the People" (1676) in William Waller Hening, Statutes at Large; Being a Collection of all the Laws of Virginia (Richmond, Va.: Samuel Pleasants, 1809–23), vol. 2, 270.
Courtesy of Margaret Caffrey, Department of History, University of Memphis.
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Primary source:
Virginia Slavery Act, 1669.
Background information: During the 1660s and 1670s, Maryland and Virginia established slave codes.
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Whereas the only law in force for the punishment of refractory servants resisting their master, mistress, or overseer cannot be inflicted upon Negroes, nor the obstinacy of many of them be suppressed by other than violent means, be it enacted and declared by this Grand Assembly if any slave resists his master (or other by his master's order correcting him) and by the extremity of the correction should chance to die, that his death shall not be accounted a felony, but the master (or that other person appointed by the master to punish him) be acquitted from molestation, since it cannot be presumed that premeditated malice (which alone makes murder a felony) should induce any man to destroy his own estate.
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Virginia Slavery Act (1669), in The Statutes at Large: Being a Collection of all the Laws of Virginia, from the First Session of the Legislature, in the Year 1619, ed. William Waller Hening, vol. 2, (Richmond: 1809–23), 270.
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Primary source: "Declaration of Nathaniel Bacon in the Name of the People of Virginia, July 30, 1676."
Background information: In his "Declaration of the People," Nathaniel Bacon listed Governor Berkeley's crimes against the people.
1. For having, upon specious pretenses of public works, raised great unjust taxes upon the commonalty for the advancement of private favorites and other sinister ends, but no visible effects in any measure adequate; for not having, during this long time of his government, in any measure advanced this hopeful colony either by fortifications, towns, or trade.
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4. For having protected, favored, and emboldened the Indians against his Majesty's loyal subjects, never contriving, requiring, or appointing any due or proper means of satisfaction for their many invasions, robberies, and murders committed upon us.
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7. For having, with only the privacy of some few favorites without acquainting the people, only by the alteration of a figure, forged a commission, by we know not what hand, not only without but even against the consent of the people, for the raising and effecting civil war and destruction, which being happily and without bloodshed prevented. . . .
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Of this and the aforesaid articles we accuse Sir William Berkeley as guilty of each and every one of the same, and as one who has traitorously attempted, violated, and injured his Majesty's interest here by a loss of a great part of this his colony and many of his faithful loyal subjects by him betrayed and in a barbarous and shameful manner exposed to the incursions and murder of the heathen. . . .
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"Declaration of Nathaniel Bacon in the Name of the People of Virginia, July 30, 1676," Massachusetts Historical Society Collections, 4th ser., 1871, vol. 9: 184–87.
Courtesy of the Massachusetts Historical Society Collection.
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Primary source: "The State of Virginia" (1676), in Virginia Magazine of History and Biography, 20, no. 4 (1912): 354–357.
Background information: Bacon's Rebellion (1676) highlighted the problems of indentured servitude and resulted in the shift to slave labor.
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Virginia is at this time under the greatest of Distractions, yet it hath felt since the yeare 1622, when the Indians in one Night Murthered soe many, that they left not 500 alive in ye whole Collony. At this time the Indians seeme to have conspired, as the other have done neare New England. And ye present danger of this place is the greater, because of their Discontents among themselves, which are grown to soe great a Height, for the defence of ye Country against the Indians, a Body of about 500 are in Armes, without the Commission of the Governor (who denyed one to them) setting forth a Declaration of their Dangers and their Grievances; and taking no Notice of the Proclamation sent from the Governor to forbid and suppress them. . . . they are at this time conducted by Mr. Nathaniel Bacon. . . . [Mr. Bacon and his supporters] complaine that the great Taxes are Imposed upon them every yeare, by the Poll, whereby ye poorer sort are in the hardest Condition, who having nothing but their labour to maintaine themselves, wives and children, pay as deeply to ye publike, as Hee that hath 20000 Acres. One principall occasion of these levyes is said to be the often meeting of ye Assemblys and ye very great allowances to them that serve in it as members of it. . . .
By inlarging their Liberty, in declareing that all such as are born there shall bee free borne Subjects of England to all intents and purposes. . . .
Although perhaps some of the richest sort will not like it, who hold greater proportions of Land then they actually plant, who may then (by an Expedient very beneficial to the Country) lay downe part of their Land to bee taken up by such as will Employ it. By which means the Country will be better inhabited, and the Kings Customes increased. And the people living nearer together, will be better enabled in their Defence against their Common Enimy the Indians. Such Considerations as these, are amongst many sober men heere, and may perhapps be worth the Considering by such as have the care of his Majesties Interests in England.
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"The State of Virginia" (1676), in Virginia Magazine of History and Biography, 20, no. 4 (1912): 354–357.
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Primary source: Virginia General Assembly, Virginia Slavery Act, state law, 1705.
Background information: In 1705, Virginia singled out people of African descent and Native Americans as slaves.
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An act declaring the Negro, Mulatto, and Indian slaves within this dominion, to be real estate.
For the better settling and preservation of estates within this dominion, . . . .
II. Be it enacted, by the governor, council and burgesses of this present general assembly, and it is hereby enacted by the authority of the same, That from and after the passing of this act, all negro, mulatto, and Indian slaves, in all courts of judicature, and other places, within this dominion, shall be held, taken, and adjudged, to be real estate (and not chattels;) and shall descend unto the heirs and widows of persons departing this life, according to the manner and custom of land of inheritance, held in [illegible] simple.
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Virginia General Assembly, Virginia Slavery Act (19 March 1705), reprinted in Statutes at Large; Being a Collection of all the Laws of Virginia, ed. William Waller Hening, vol. 2, (Richmond, Va.: Samuel Pleasants, 1809–1823), 270.
Courtesy of History Matters, a project of the American Social History Project/Center for Media and Learning (City University of New York, Graduate Center) and the Center for History and New Media (George Mason University).
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Primary source: A Georgia slavery act, 1750.
Background information: In the 1730s, British officials hoped to create a haven in the Georgia colony for Britain’s poor. Liquor and slaves were prohibited in the colony until the Georgia colony changed its position by 1750.
Read a Letter dated Savannah May 8th 1748 . . . setting forth, that Abundance of People had applied to them for Grants of Land in Georgia, and Numbers of Negro's had been introduc'd into the Province; And that They had taken Methods to drive the said Negro's out of the Province but ineffectually, And that any further Attempts to put the Act against Negro's in Execution would in their Apprehension dispeople the Colony; And giving Reasons why they hop'd the Trustees might be induc'd to permit them in the Province under Restrictions and Regulations.
. . . a great Number of the Inhabitants of the Province . . . setting forth several Restrictions and Regulations under Which They pray that Negro's may be permitted to be introduc'd into the Colony of Georgia.
That it is the Opinion of this Board that a Petition be presented to his Majesty in Council that The Act for rendering the Colony of Georgia more defensible by prohibiting the Importation and Use of black Slaves or Negro's into the same, Which was made in the Year of our Lord 1735, be repeal'd . . . .
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Minutes of the Georgia colonial assembly, 16 May 1749; reprinted in The Colonial Records of the State of Georgia, compiled and published under authority of The Legislature vol. 1, Allen D. Candler, ed. (Atlanta, Georgia: The Franklin Printing and Publishing Company, 1904), 530.
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Primary source: John Quincy Adams, The Memoirs of John Quincy Adams, Comprising Portions of His Diary from 1795-1848.
Background information: In March of 1820, shortly after Congress had passed the Missouri Compromise, John Quincy Adams, then secretary of state, and John Calhoun, then secretary of war, discussed the institution of slavery. Calhoun, a native of South Carolina, explained the role of slavery in Southern society.
Washington, March 2, 1820.
The compromise of the slave question was this day completed in Congress. . . . After this meeting, I walked home with Calhoun, who said that the principles which I had avowed were just and noble: but that in the Southern country, whenever they were mentioned, they were always understood as applying only to white men. Domestic labor was confined to blacks, and such was the prejudice, that if he, who was the most popular man in his district, were to keep a white servant in his house, his character and reputation would be irretrievably ruined.
I said that this confounding of ideas of servitude and labor was one of the bad effects of slavery: but he thought it attended with many excellent consequences. It did not apply to all kinds of labor-not, for example, to farming. He himself had often held the plough: so had his father. Manufacturing and mechanical work was not degrading. It was only manual labor-the proper work of slaves. No white person could descend to that. And it was the best guarantee to equality among the whites. It produced an unvarying level among them. It not only did not excite, but did not even admit of inequalities, by which one white man could domineer over another.
I told Calhoun I could not see things in the same light. It is, in truth, all perverted sentiment-mistaking labor for slavery and dominion for freedom. . . .
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John Quincy Adams, The Memoirs of John Quincy Adams, Comprising Portions of His Diary from 1795–1848 (reprinted, New York: Scribner, 1951).
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