Re Slaves Sentenced to Transportation:

As of 1801, Virginia law required that any slave reprieved from
execution and sentenced to transportation be sold to a slave trader and
then removed from Virginia and from the U.S. These provisions were
violated so often that in the late 1850s a new law also provided for the
use of reprieved slave convicts on the public works, such as canals and
railroads.

So it is possible that Alsop's slave was sent to the public works rather
than to any place outside the U.S. or (illegally) to the one of the Gulf
states. The records are rarely specific about destinations.

See my _Slave Laws in Virginia_ (1996), chap. 4.

Philip J. Schwarz
Virginia Commonwealth University


Automatic digest processor wrote:
>
> There are 2 messages totalling 49 lines in this issue.
>
> Topics of the day:
>
>   1. McKim
>   2. Slaves Sentenced to "Transportation"
>

> ------------------------------
>
> Date:    Mon, 20 Nov 2000 16:55:24 -0500
> From:    [log in to unmask]
> Subject: Slaves Sentenced to "Transportation"
>
> One of my volunteers found the following article. Can anyone tell us where
> that slave might have been transported? Liberia? further South?? Any help
> would be appreciated.
>
>   "A slave belonging to Mr. Alsop was tried at Spotsylvania Court House on
> Monday for striking the overseer with intent to kill, and was sentenced to
> transportation.  The Court allowed his owner $1050 for him."
>
> Transcribed from the Alexandria Gazette, Thursday, December 6, 1860, page 2.
>
> Suzanne Levy
> Virginia Room Librarian
> Fairfax County Public Library
>
> ------------------------------
>
> End of VA-HIST Digest - 19 Nov 2000 to 20 Nov 2000 (#2000-47)
> *************************************************************

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