Paul,

Rather than just write ... (or rationale?) .... in: <Of course another
reason (or rationale?) might have been fear that their slaves would suffer
even more if they had their "freedom" -- and a lack of their former paternal
oversight, care and discipline.> as I wrote...

it would have been clearer if I'd added additional words (such shown in CAPS
below)
(or rationale IN THEIR OWN MINDS FOR NOT RELEASING THEIR SLAVES?)

Shows that one should not hurriedly assume that readers will read into "(or
rationale?)" the human tendency to create self-serving rationales.  Of
course in some cases such a fear would have been quite justified - not a
self-serving rationale - based upon the normal differences in human genetics
as well as the differences in life experiences and education.  In other
cases such fear would be clearly inappropriate.  In many cases it would
probably have been a gray area without a clear consequence, thus somewhat
justifying such a fear.

Mark
PS - Before I retired I once received a "Bureaucrat's Buck-slip" with some
humorous check-off blocks - one of which was: "This is my decision - develop
supporting rationale."  No doubt some readers have suspected that some
decisions they have seen were sometimes justified by support developed in
such a manner, eh?

On Tue, Apr 29, 2008 at 11:51 PM, Paul Heinegg <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

> <Of course another reason (or rationale?) might have been fear that their
> slaves would suffer even more if they had their "freedom" -- and a lack of
> their former paternal oversight, care and discipline.>
>
> The free African American Mayo family seems to have done very well without
> the "paternal oversight, care and discipline" of Joseph Mayo. Joseph tried
> to free his slaves by his 1780 will, but it was not until 1789 that the
> administrator of his estate managed to procure an act of Assembly which was
> carried out by the High Court of Chancery in 1789.
>
> Several members of the family settled in Mecklenburg County. Fortune Mayo
> owned 3 cows, 2 calves, 5 sheep, a mare & colt, 14 hoes, 4 axes, a set of
> cooper's and carpenter's tools, 25 barrels of corn, 400 pounds of seed
> cotton and many household items by 1795 when she died.
> Susanna Mayo bought 50 acres in Mecklenburg County in December 1797 from
> John Chavis Walden, an African American who had been free since colonial
> times. She was head of a Mecklenburg County household of 13 "free colored"
> in 1820. There were 16 members of the family who headed households in the
> 1810 Virginia census. Fortune Mayo's children and other members of the Mayo
> family married into African American families that had been free since
> colonial times in both Mecklenburg County, Virginia, and Warren County,
> North Carolina.
> Paul

______________________________________
To subscribe, change options, or unsubscribe please see the instructions at
http://listlva.lib.va.us/archives/va-hist.html