___________________________
Kevin R. Hardwick
Associate Professor
Department of History, MSC 8001
James Madison University
Harrisonburg, Virginia 22807
________________________________________
From: Discussion of research and writing about Virginia history [[log in to unmask]] on behalf of Eric Richardson [[log in to unmask]]
Sent: Thursday, May 10, 2012 6:21 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Peculiar Institution
Paul,
From an African Diasporic standpoint, there were no good masters, right?
Silvia Jacobs made sure I understood that presumption in African Diaspora.
As to inclusion in the stratum of human society, women were property
regardless of ethnicity during the same period and coming from English
tradition, there were questions as to whether they had souls. John Donne,
Shakespeare, And Milton all hold a similar viewpoint about women. In 1784,
the Dunkard Annual Conference received a query as to whether a slave owner
could become a Brethren; the church held that holding one's "fellow man" as
property was inconsistant with the Christian principles of our faith. We
never held slaves and appear to be heavily involved in the Underground
Railroad ie. we were slave-stealers. The Society of Friends dispossessed
themselves of their chattel but not through sales but under the
requirements of "kind treatment to one's fellow man." By the 1830s, the
question of souls (inclusion in human society) among the enslaved people
was a fairly settled religious question, with exceptions, and the
Abolitionist churches (United Brethren and Wesleyan) agitated for Christian
charity to the "lesser of God's creation." Adam Crooks, the first Wesleyan
minister in the South, was banished from North Carolina for distributing
copies of the Ten Commandments in the modern Winston-Salem area and asking
"How can you hold your brother in slavery?" Even Thomas Jonathan
"Stonewall" Jackson acknowledged the humanity of the enslaved people around
Lexington, VA by supporting an African American Sunday School at the
Presbyterian Church there, in flagrant violation of VA law; it almost
prevented his commission in 1861. (See James I. "Bud" Robertson's most
recent book, I have been told, for a secondary source confirmation of the
following) Having grown up in Roanoke, I went to school with children who
were members of 5th Avenue Presbyterian Church (African American) and the
son of one of Jackson's "Sunday School scholars" (Jackson's own words) was
pastor and in 1906, if memory serves, the congregation presented him with a
stained glass window for the Church, dedicated to Jackson with his final
words on the panel. It is there today, directly behind the pulpit. Even
Mary Boykin Miller Chesnut acknowledged the humanity of the enslaved people
by placing them in a Biblical setting "Like the Patriarchs of old..." If
we take her at her word, then the parallel is Issac and Ishmael, both
children of Abraham by a Semite and an Egyptian (African) woman,
respectively. Granted that this is the amelioration of slavery but even
UVA had a recent PhD candidate whose dissertation was on that topic,
whereas a decade ago, they refused to allow one from one of my former
professors. Abolitionists agitation in the 1820s and 1830s forced a
realization of humanity and was part of the rationale for Harriet Jacobs'
and Frederick Douglass' escaped slave narratives.
Not to nitpick, but Emancipation was not followed by Jim Crow. Under
Presidential Reconstruction, Black Codes, similar to those in the Northern
states, attempted to reduce the Freedmen to the status of chattel but
Radical Reconstruction intervened. After 1877, in VA, Readjustment under
Governor and Confederate General William Mahone was a mixed race
government, even SC under Governor and Confederate General Wade Hampton was
a mixed race government (problems under Ben Tillman, his protege, in
1894-5) and Helen G. Edmonds'* The Negro and Fusion Politics in North
Carolina, 1894-1901* clearly illustrates that more than three decades
intervened between Emancipation and Jim Crow because the NC 1901
Constitution introduced segregation and disfranchisement, not Confederate
defeat. Since this list focuses on VA, the 1902 VA Constitution (a *coup
de main *as opposed to the *coup d'tat *in Wilmington) disfranchised 90% of
Virginians, regardless of ethnicity. It really makes me question
Virginia's claim as a "Commonwealth." Perhaps, it was such for the 10% who
maintained suffrage but it was an equal opportunity discriminatory document.
Also, thank you very much for including my family on p. 989-90 of *Free
African Americans*. My Public History professor from Howard U. now
introduces me as "passing as white since 1830." The format has made
finding "Black" Confederates much easier and it made my great grandfather
one. It did not make the rest of the family very happy but well, that is
what happens to "free persons of color" who are "generally...industrious &
well behaved." Are you sure we are not Haliwa-Saponi and really African?
Proving your point, a branch of my family is OK with the Indian, but not
the African, ancestry. Either way, great grandfather was a "Black"
Confederate who married a white woman (had a white mother, too) as did his
sons and grandsons in VA under the Racial Purity Law. Oh, we got caught in
1930, enumerated as "Nig," and had to move to my grandmother's county of
birth to become white again. All long before my birth but it was what
happened to some of the descendants of the people in your book. I'll leave
the "Dark Whites" of SC out of the current discussion but their ancestors
are also in your monograph. Three sources prove my point: Heinegg, Census,
and Confederate service records. I'm sure it was not your intention but
thank you again for the help.
Eric Richardson
On Thu, May 10, 2012 at 12:24 PM, Paul Heinegg <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> Many historians discuss slavery in terms of "Free food, a place to stay,
> etc.," good or bad diet, good or bad physical treatment, rape, whether
> they were treated as family members, etc. This ignores the most basic fact
> about slavery. Slaves were their owners' property--like a chair, table,
> horse or cow, an implement with which to farm. Not just the lowest stratum
> of human society--not part of human society at all. Acknowledgement of this
> fact enables us to understand why Emancipation was followed by Jim Crow,
> and even today some in this country still have trouble accepting African
> Americans as equals.
> Paul
>
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--
Eric J. Richardson
Master's of Arts in History
Master's of Arts Candidate in English
North Carolina Central University
Durham, NC 27707
[log in to unmask]
(336) 202-7341
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