Dear VA-HIST list members:
Apparently Simon Schama's new book 'Rough Crossings' and Cassandra
Pybus's new 'Epic Journeys of Freedom' both mention a slave in
Gloucester County named Ralph Henry who escaped to the British in 1776 -
and both books state (mistakenly we believe) that Ralph Henry was owned
by the governor and orator Patrick Henry, of Hanover County.
We've begun receiving queries about these statements through the Patrick
Hemry Memorial Foundation's website. To our knowledge the
orator/governor Patrick Henry owned no land or slaves in Gloucester.
Henry was a common surname in 18th-century America, but the governor and
orator's line of the family was in Hanover and lived in the
Hanover-Louisa-Richmond area and later the southern piedmont but never
the tidewater and certainly not in Gloucester, a wealthy county settled
a century prior to the immigration of Gov Henry's father and namesake
uncle from Scotland late in the 1720s.
With permission from the Rose McAphee, who submitted one of these recent
queries, I forward below our recent email exchanges on thsi subject. As
noted in the closing lines of my last response (far below), I can say
with some certainty that we know of no primary-source evidence that
links gov/orator Henry with the Gloucester escapees Ralph and Molly. But
if anyone has previously unknown primary-sources about this (or any
other aspect of Henry's career), we are very interested in knowing about
it, and open to adjusting our 'narrative' in light of it.
Dr. Jon Kukla, Executive Vice-President
Red Hill - The Patrick Henry National Memorial
1250 Red Hill Road
Brookneal, Virginia 24528 www.redhill.org - www.PatrickHenry.com
>>> Did Patrick Henry ever own a plantation or quarter in
>>> Gloucester, Virginia. There is a reference in the Book of Negroes
>> (which lists the names of African-Americans who evacuated with the
>>> British in 1783) to a "Ralph Henry, former slave of Patrick Henry,
>>> Gloucester, VA..." Is this Parick Henry, "the orator" or a relative?
>>> Thanks!
>>>
==================
>> From: Jon Kukla [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
>> Sent: Monday, July 24, 2006 12:32 PM
>> To: McAphee, Rose
>> Subject: Re: Red Hill Information Request
>>
>> No, Patrick Henry the orator owned no land in Gloucester and to our
>> knowledge had no close relatives there. His father and namesake uncle
>> immigrated to Hanover County Virginia from Scotland - and their
>> landholdings were all in the piedmont or west - none in Tidewater and
>> certainly none in the ancient county Gloucester, which had been
>> settled in the mid 17th century.
>> I hope this information is helpful.
>> Jon Kukla
>>
=====================
>> Dear Dr. Kukla,
>>
>> Thanks so much for your prompt response. If I may, I'd like to ask a
>> follow-up question that explains this inquiry. I was doing additional
>> research on African-American who fought in the Revolution (on both
>> sides) and came across a notation from the "Book of Negroes" (list of
>> slaves, free blacks who left New York with the British in 1783). The
>> entry is as follows:
>>
>> Ralph Henry, former slave to Patrick Henry, Gloucester, VA.
>> Left him in 1776 with Dunmore. Aged 30, described as
>> an ordinary fellow, and escaped with his wife Magnae,
>> age 25. He served in the Royal Artillery Department
>> aboard the ranger captained by James Duncan. While
>> in New York, they had a daughter who was named Molly (age four).
>>
>> Does any of this sound familiar? Is there a slave named Ralph or
>> Magnae in Henry's possession who is not mentioned after 1776? We
>> are trying to answer questions that have been raised by this
>> intriguing entry.
>> Also, two new books on the plight of those who left with the
>> British have recently been published and both allude to Ralph Henry
>> as the slave of Patrick Henry "the orator". The books are, Epic
>> Journeys of Freedom: Runaway Slaves of the American revolution
>> and Their Global Quest for Freedom, by Cassandra Pybus and Rough
>> Crossings: Britain, the Slaves and the American Revolution
>> by Simon Schama.
>>
>> Pybus writes: "As head of the independent Commonwealth of Virginia,
>> Henry proved ineffectual in stemming the tide of slave defection to
>> the enemy. Sometime during his stay in Williamsburg, one of his
>> enslaved servants, a man in his early twenties named Ralph, slipped
>> away to join Lord Dunmore." [Epic Journeys of Freedom (page 16)]
>>
>> Schama writes: "Ralph Henry, for example, evidently took his master
>> Patrick Henry's theatrical announcement of "Give me Liberty or give me
>> death" very much to heart, but not quite in the way its author
>> > intended, since he ran away at the earliest opportunity to the
>> British lines." [Rough Crossings, page 8-9]
>>
>> I teach a session in our interpreter training in African-Americans and
>> the Revolution and have indicated to staff that this Ralph is not the
>> slave of "the orator". These two excerpts will most likely be read by
>> some interpreters who will indeed question our position and I wanted
>> to get as much background as possible. As questions arise we want to
>> be able to explain our position with as much documentation and support
>> as possible. Thanks for your insight into this matter.
>>
>> Rose McAphee
>>
> From: Jon Kukla [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
> Sent: Tuesday, July 25, 2006 12:00 PM
> To: McAphee, Rose
> Subject: Gloucester escapees
>
> Thanks for the context - which comes as no surprise. In fact last week I
> exchanged emails with Michael Nicholls on the subject, and understood
> from Mick that he was conferring with CW's research department etc etc.
> Mick and I agreed that Schama didn't know Virginia geography. Pybus's
> supposition would be that Gov. Henry had brought Ralph Henry to
> Williamsburg -- but again if Ralph Henry is linked to Gloucester
> there's simply NO WAY he could have been connected with the gov/orator
> Patrick Henry, who had NO property interests in the tidewater.
> George Morgan's The True Patrick Henry (1905, 1929) prints an
> accurate transcription of Henry's estate inventories and gives names
> of slaves in 1779/1802. These are the best available record of slave
> populations on his plantations - for what its worth neither a Ralph
> or Molly is listed, but logically they wouldn't appear in a list that
> dates from Henry's death and long after their escape. Henry's account
> books are in the archives at the library of Virginia. I've not yet
> studied them as thoroughly as I'd like to, but I have read a number
> of pages and do not recall seeing mention either of slave purchases,
> or certainly of names of slaves ... but given the often cryptic nature
> of account-book entries a more thorough search MIGHT shed some light
> on the persons he owned earlier ... However, with no reason to think
> that he had ANY property in Gloucester, a laborious search through
> Henry's account books doesn't strike me as promising in regard to this
> specific question.
> If Mick is still around, though, he is far more knowledgable about the
> general situation than I am. On the particular matter of gov/orator
> Patrick Henry, though, I can say with some certainty that we know of no
> primary-source evidence that links gov/orator Henry with the Gloucester
> escape of Ralph and Molly..... and that if anyone has previously unknown
> primary-sources about this or any other aspect of Henry's career, we are
> very interested in knowing about it, and open to adjusting our
> 'narrative' in light of it.
> All the best,
> Jon Kukla
>
> PS: Would you have any objection if I shared our exchange with the
> VA-HIST on the off chance that someone there might be able to shed
> new light on the matter?
===================
> I don't mind at all. I think these questions have probably come up with
> others who have read these books and references. Thanks again for your
> prompt and thoughtful responses!
> Rose
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