It's probably useful to keep in mind the distinction that Philip Morgan
drew between slave societies and societies with slaves. Gradual
emancipation certainly was a viable model but obviously much easier to
achieve in the mid-Atlantic states, whose economies did not revolve
around the institution of slavery. There are really few examples of
slave societies that achieved emancipation through non-revolutionary
means. The British and French West Indies certainly qualified as slave
societies, but we have to keep in mind the political and economic
conditions that informed emancipation in the Caribbean. As colonies,
they did not have control over the decision. There was tremendous moral
and political sentiment in favor of emancipation in both Britain and
France. Even still, slavery hung on in the Caribbean until the 1830s in
the BWI and 1840s in the FWI (after an earlier emancipation effected
during the French Revolution). And abolition only occurred after the
sugar economies of the French and British islands had begun to decline
(in large part because of an earlier ban on the slave trade). The other
major 19th-century slave societies, Cuba and Brazil did not begin to
dismantle slavery until after they had witnessed in horror the
revolutionary emancipation that took place in the U.S. (both passed laws
of the free womb early in the 1870s).

All of this is just to concur with Jurretta's point regarding the
difficulties facing emancipationists of the Revolutionary and Early
Republic. I don't deny that a window of opportunity existed
(particularly in the Chesapeake, where the adoption of wheat as a cash
crop lowered the need for large slave populations), but in all such
historical cases, windows are quickly shut and require far more than the
exchange of private letters to remain open. Usually there needs to be
some broken glass.

Bland Whitley
Library of Virginia



-----Original Message-----
From: Discussion of research and writing about Virginia history
[mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Gregg Kimball
Sent: Tuesday, June 12, 2007 1:01 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: [VA-HIST] Madison's slaves (and black descendants?)

The mid-Atlantic and New England states might have provided a model for
such a gradual process with their post-nati emancipation statutes. If I
remember corrrectly, children born after a certain date to slave parents
would be held in a form of indentured servitude until a certain age and
then freed.  I know that post-nati proposals were floated in 1831, but I
don't know if their authors specifically pointed to these previous state
laws as examples.

I also recall some interesting ideas in Peter Kolchin's work that
compared emancipation in the British and French West Indies and in the
U.S.  He argued that British and French plantation owners were often
absentee and didn't have the same concerns about the social consequences
of emancipation. In fact, by accepting emancipation by law these
landowners ended up shaping the labor system after emancipation much to
their advantage.  In contrast, southern slaveholders ended up losing
much of that control over labor, if for a brief time.

Gregg Kimball