> questions, and the ones that intrigued me (that also stumped me) were about slave marriages before freedom came
I can’t answer the larger questions, but in my work on W&M history have come across a few local accounts that might be of interest.
from: http://scholarship.law.wm.edu/wmborj/vol21/iss4/6/ <http://scholarship.law.wm.edu/wmborj/vol21/iss4/6/>
[Beverley] Tucker evoked his idyllic view of local ease in an essay where he recalls the simple, shared happiness at Bruton Parish Church as white masters and black slaves joined in festive family celebrations:
The Episcopal minister of the village in which I live, celebrates the rites of matrimony between as many blacks as whites; the white members of the family, with their most intimate friends, sometimes witness the ceremony, and the parties, with their numerous guests, close an evening of festive hilarity with an entertainment of which the most fastidious epicure might be glad to partake.60
The Rev. Adam Empie (1785–1860) came to the presidency of the College (1827 to 1836) from New York; he was also Rector of Bruton Parish Church and his reports to the Convention of the Protestant Episcopal Church of the Diocese of Virginia state that he involved black people in the congregation. See id. at 235. In 1829, he reported that six of the eight marriages he officiated at were of “coloured persons” and that one of nine new com- municants was “an African.” Id. In 1833, he reported three of the four children he baptized were black, as were five of the eight couples he married; two of sixty-three communicants were black. Id. at 294. In 1834, there remained two black communicants, four of eleven baptisms were of black children, as were two of six weddings performed. Id. at 306. In 1835, there were still two “coloured persons,” among sixty-one communicants, three of ten baptisms performed were of black children, and two of eleven funerals were for black people. Id. at 329.
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Terry L. Meyers, Chancellor Professor of English Emeritus, College of William and Mary, Williamsburg Virginia
23187
http://wmpeople.wm.edu/site/page/tlmeye/ <http://wmpeople.wm.edu/site/page/tlmeye/>
http://www.ecologyfund.com/ecology/_ecology.html <http://www.ecologyfund.com/ecology/_ecology.html>
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