To add to what Ellen Eslinger noted a while back about an 1856 fear of a slave uprising, Brethren [often called "Dunkers" in the 18th & 19th centuries] leader John Kline of Rockingham county wrote in his diary for 11 September 1856: "Council meeting at our meeting-house. Decide the question as to what the churches here in the slaveholding States should require of any slaveowner desiring to come into the church. A very delicate matter to act upon in the present sensitive condition of public feeling on slavery. But it is the aim of the Brethren here not to offend popular feeling, so long as that feeling does not attempt any interference with what they regard and hold sacred as their line of Christian duty. Should such opposition arise, which I greatly fear will be the case at no distant day, it will then be seen that it is the fixed purpose and resolve of the Brotherhood to 'obey God rather than men.' It was decided in council that every slaveholder coming into the church must give up his or her slaves as property; and yet not turn them off houseless and homeless, but allow them to remain, and labor, and be fed and clothed as usual, until suitable and lawful provisions can be made for their complete emancipation." (Benjamin Funk, Life and Labors of Elder John Kline...Elgin, IL, 1900, p. 381f.) The Dunkers had gone on record against allowing slave-holders in their churches for decades, but the "present sensitive condition" Kline mentions may refer to a new uneasiness in the "public feeling." Rob Hewitt [log in to unmask] 7F00,0000,0000> Date: Thu, 19 Jul 2001 14:40:14 -0500 > From: Ellen Eslinger <<[log in to unmask]> > Subject: Re: Free Negro Registrations > > I've been studying free blacks in the Valley & closely examined all the = > registers I can find for that region. The monthly pattern you describe = > prompts me to think that the trigger was the Christmas 1856 fear of a = > slave uprising experienced in many parts of the South. > > The registers I've looked at suggest that only about 1/3 of those free = > blacks who were required to register did so. But at times of crisis- -after = > Nat Turner or John Brown, there was usually a temporary surge. Whether = > this was the result of greater vigilence by the authorities or black fear = > is unclear.=20 > > Ellen Eslinger > DePaul University > [log in to unmask] > > >>> [log in to unmask] 07/17/01 16:05 PM >>> > As an archivist in local records at The Library of Virginia, recently I > have been sorting through the loose court records of Cumberland County. In > the decade of the 1850s, Free Negro Registration "passes" routinely number > one or two a month. Today while sorting through the records for 1857, > suddenly there are 13 for January, 52 for February, 15 for March and 10 = > for > April. Then it's back to 1 for May, none for June, 2 for July. > I checked Acts of Assembly for 1856 to see if some new statute would > explain the sudden, dramatic rise in registrations, but there was nothing > that logically would provide a reason. Several colleagues consulted here = > at > LVA are just as baffled as I about the increase. > (By way of explanation, the law of 1794 required all Free Negroes to > register regularly (usually every five years in rural areas) with the = > Clerk > of the Court, be entered in the Register and be issued a pass describing > the individual to be carried on his/her person. Usually when the person > registered, the old pass was turned in and a ne one issued. The clerk > often put the old pass into the loose records where they were retained to > the present day. These old passes are the ones that suddenly increase in > numbers.) > So, I put it to the folks out there in Historyland: does anyone have an > answer to the question why so many in such a short span of time? It may be > a local thing that ever will defy explanation (e.g. mean sheriff, panicky > rumors, etc.) or there may be some other cause I have overlooked. Many > thanks. John Hopewell, LVA > > To subscribe, change options, or unsubscribe, please see the instructions > at http://listlva.lib.va.us/archives/va-hist.html > > ------------------------------ > > End of VA-HIST Digest - 17 Jul 2001 to 19 Jul 2001 (#2001-121) > ************************************************************** > To subscribe, change options, or unsubscribe, please see the instructions at http://listlva.lib.va.us/archives/va-hist.html