A minor footnote to an entirely fascinating dialogue about the Founding generation via-a-vis slavery. Discussion of what Washington’s generation should or might have done in the 1780s, it seems to me, also needs to be aware of the full context of public opinion at the time, and especially of public opinion among those eligible to vote at the time. Clearly there many Virginians who opposed or disliked slavery based on revolutionary or religious principle. As to emancipation, manumission, and slavery, the edited texts of “Early Proslavery Petitions in Virginia,” published by Fredrika Teute Schmidt and Barbara Ripel Wilhelm in the William and Mary Quarterly, 3rd Ser., Vol. 30, No. 1 (Jan., 1973): 133-146 illuminate another segment of the population. For some reason, however, Virginia historians of the revolution seem to be as squeamish about acknowledging the existence of the following documents (published in the WMQ nearly a quarter of a century ago) as commentators on Notes on Virginia have been about certain of its unsavory passages. In their useful introduction to these petitions (originals of which reside in the archives at the Library of Virginia along with their better-known contemporary siblings on religion and the state), Teute and Wilhelm noted that efforts in Virginia in the 1780s either to rescind OR to expand provisions for manumission and emancipation were both defeated. When Methodists Thomas Coke and Francis Asbury “initiated circulation of the 1785 petition for a general emancipation,” it “was unanimously rejected by the legislature, but not without an avowed patronage of its principle by sundry respectable members. A motion was made to throw it under the table” { a parliamentary expression of contempt } “which was treated with as much indignation on one side, as the petition itself was on the other.” In 1784 and 1785, according to the editors’ introduction, the Virginia legislature received petitions from eight counties signed by 1,244 citizens. There were five basic texts, which Teute and Wilhelm transcribed. The most concise and representative of the five, I think, is Teute and Wilhelm’s transcription of this petition from Amelia County, November 10, 1785, with 22 signatures that was also submitted from Mecklenburg County, November 8, 1785, with 223 signatures, and from Pittsylvania County, November 10, 1785, with 54 signatures. : To the honourable the General Assembly of Virginia, the Remonstrance and Petition of the Free Inhabitants of Amelia County. Gentlemen, When the British Parliament usurped a Right to dispose of our Property without our Consent, we dissolved the Union with our Parent Country, and established a Constitution and Form of Government of our own, that our Property might be secure, in Future. In Order to effect this we risked our Lives and Fortunes, and waded through Seas of Blood. By the favourable Interposition of Providence our Attempt was crowned with Success. We were put in the Possession of our Rights of Liberty and Property: And these Rights as well secured, as they can be by any human Constitution or Form of Government. But notwithstanding this, we understand a very subtle and daring Attempt is made to dispossess us of a very important Part of our Property. An Attempt set on Foot, we are informed, by the Enemies of our Country, Tools of the British Administration, and supported by certain Men among us of considerable Weight, To WREST FROM us OUR SLAVES, by an Act of the Legislature for a general Emancipation of them. An Attempt unsupported by Scripture or sound Policy. It is unsupported by Scripture. For we find that under the Old Testament Dispensation, Slavery was permitted by the Deity himself. Thus, Leviticus Ch. 25. Ver. 44, 45, 46. “Both thy Bond Men and Bond Maids, which thou shalt have, shall be of the Heathen that are round about you; of them shall ye buy Bond Men and Bond Maids. Moreover, of the Children of the Strangers that do sojourn among you, of them shall ye buy, and of their Families that are with you, which they beget in your Land, and they shall be your Possession, and ye shall take them as an Inheritance, for your Children after you, to inherit them for a Possession; they shall be your Bond-men forever.” This Permission to buy and inherit Bond-men and Bond-maids, we have Reason to conclude, continued through all the Revolutions of the Jewish Government, down to the Advent of our Lord. And we do not find, that either he or his Apostles abridged it. The Freedom promised to his Followers, is a Freedom from the Bondage of Sin and Satan, and from the Dominion of Mens Lusts and Passions; but as to their Outward Condition, whatever that was before they embraced the Religion of Jesus, whether Bond or Free, it remained the same afterwards. This St. Paul expressly asserts I Cor. Chap. 7. Ver. 20. where he is speaking directly to this very Point, 'Let every Man abide in the same Calling, wherein he is called'; and Ver. 24. 'Let every Man wherein he is called, therein abide with God! Thus it is evident the said Attempt is unsupported by scripture. It is also exceedingly impolitic. For it involves in it, and is productive of Want, Poverty, Distress, and Ruin to the Free Citizen; Neglect, Famine and Death to the black Infant and superannuated Parent; The Horrors of all the Rapes, Murders, and Outrages, which a vast Multitude of unprincipled, unpropertied, revengeful, and remorseless Banditti are capable of perpetrating; inevitable Bankruptcy to the Revenue, and consequently Breach of public Faith, and Loss of Credit with foreign Nations; and, lastly, sure and final Ruin to this now flourishing free and happy Country. We therefore, your Petitioners and Remonstrants, do solemnly adjure and humbly pray you that you will discountenance and utterly reject every Motion and Proposal for emancipating our Slaves; that as the Act lately made, empowering the Owners of Slaves to liberate them, hath produced, and is still productive of, very bad Effects, you will immediately and totally repeal it; and that as many of the Slaves, liberated by that Act, have been guilty of Thefts and Outrages, Insolences and Violences, destructive to the Peace, Safety, and Happiness of Society, you will make effectual Provision for the due Government of them. And your Petitioners shall ever pray, etc. etc. ======================================== Dr. Jon Kukla, Executive Vice-President Red Hill - The Patrick Henry National Memorial 1250 Red Hill Road Brookneal, Virginia 24528 www.redhill.org