Dear Mr. Kilby:
In all but one of my three posts on this issue (I believe this is my 4th), I have mentioned white out-migration and specifically talked about it in terms of the lack of growth in the whole Va. population in the 1830s. I also mentioned it in my last post earlier today. It is an important piece of this history.
[Remember, however, this discussion began with manumission, not migration.]
However, your argument about slaves being taken to the Southwest not being forced is nonsense.
How many slaves would have said, "oh, I can't wait to labor in a place that is hotter than Va. and where there are more snakes as well as alligators. Yes,I just can't wait to get the Mississippi Delta."
Furthermore, your notion of family is wrong. Small slaveowners often had slaves who were married to slaves owned by other people. And there were kinship networks that extended well beyond a single farm or plantation or planter.
We are all trying to figure out what this history of the United States is like. We are talking about VA because this is a VA history list-serve. We could have a similar conversation on a KY, MD, DEL, or NC list serve. Even SC was an exporter in the after 1820. We are hardly picking on Virginia. In fact, in my last post I noted that slave mortality in Virginia was probably lower than the southwest because of differences in climate and crops.
I find your last comment insulting and deeply offensive. I "make my living" teaching and I make a little money lecturing and writing history. I make nothing from spending my time writing for this list-serve. Up to now this has been a civil conversation about serious issues. You have now made an ad hominem attack on me and the other professional scholars on this list. Do you really think that I am doing this for the money?
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Paul Finkelman
Senior Fellow
Penn Program on Democracy, Citizenship, and Constitutionalism
University of Pennsylvania
and
Scholar-in-Residence
National Constitution Center
Philadelphia, PA
President William McKinley Distinguished Professor of Law, Emeritus
Albany Law School
518-439-7296 (p)
518-605-0296 (c)
[log in to unmask]
www.paulfinkelman.com
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From: Discussion of research and writing about Virginia history [[log in to unmask]] on behalf of Craig Kilby [[log in to unmask]]
Sent: Friday, September 05, 2014 4:21 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: [VA-HIST] Out-miration from Virginia early 1810-140
The recent discussion on Virginia out-migration has focused entirely on how many Virginia slaves were sold at auction to deep-south plantations. One estimate now has the number up to 800,000 poor souls.
Left out of this discussion is out-migration in general. White families with only a few slaves moving west. Particularly after the War of 1812 to places like Missouri and Arkansas--by the thousands. I think if one is going to do statistical analysis of migration, one should not focus solely on the figures of Virginia's population changes and then make assumptions. One should take into consideration the huge increase of populations of new slave states like Missouri and Arkansas, and perhaps then draw more solid conclusions.
I also have to take exception to the term "forced migration" of those slaves who went with the thousands of small slave-holding white families westward. This was not the Batan death march. These family units lived and worked together and, I would hazard, talked about the move, its pros and cons, before just taking a whip to their few slaves and ordering them to get a move on.
I fully understand that many modern historians make a good living reminding us of the evils of slavery, but sometimes I wish they would take a look at the broader picture of humanity in general, and go beyond the borders of the Old Dominion in doing so.
Craig Kilby
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