Slavery and Freedom in the Age of Revolution - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

1 / 59
About This Presentation
Title:

Slavery and Freedom in the Age of Revolution

Description:

Early Slave Revolts as 'Rudimentary' Struggles for Freedom not 'Revolutionary' in Aim ' ... services he sought his freedom, noting that his master would ' ... – PowerPoint PPT presentation

Number of Views:605
Avg rating:3.0/5.0
Slides: 60
Provided by: rdb9
Category:

less

Transcript and Presenter's Notes

Title: Slavery and Freedom in the Age of Revolution


1
Slavery and Freedom in the Age of Revolution
  • AAS-HIUS 365Wednesday, October 6, 2004

2
Lecture Outline
  • Resistance, Rebellion, and Revolution
  • Paternalism and Patriarchy
  • Rise of Anti-Slave-Trade/Antislavery Sentiment in
    18th C
  • Manhood and Citizenship Black Loyalists and
    Patriots in the Revolutionary Era

3
1.Resistance, Rebellion, and Revolution
4
Defining Resistance
  • To some historians, resistance applies to all
    acts of non-cooperation/disobedience on the part
    of the slaves, such as
  • -- feigning illness
  • -- stealing/taking from master
  • -- poisoning
  • -- sabotaging the crop
  • -- destroying tools
  • -- mistreating animals
  • -- arson
  • -- running away/running around

5
Resistance v. Non-Cooperation?
  • Historians Christopher Lasch and George
    Frederickson question whether individual,
    unorganized forms of non-cooperation constitute
    resistance.

6
  • How do we read these acts of non-cooperation?
  • Lasch and Frederickson Malingering may have
    reflected no more than a disinclination to work,
    especially when the rewards were so meager.
    Likewise, what is taken for sabotage may have
    originated in apathy or indifference. Acts of
    violence are subject to varying interpretations
    as well.

7
  • Lasch and Frederickson define resistance as a
    political concept that is, collective action
    designed to subvert the system, to facilitate and
    regularize escape from it, or at the very least,
    to force important changes in it.

8
Slave Revolts as Political Action
  • Lasch and Frederickson describe slave revolts
    sporadic and usually shortlived outbursts of
    destruction -- as the most rudimentary form of
    political action.
  • What make these upheavals political at all is
    that they rest on some sense, however primitive,
    of collective victimization. They require,
    moreover, at least a minimum of organization and
    planning.

9
Early Slave Revolts as Rudimentary Struggles
for Freedom not Revolutionary in Aim
  • What makes them rudimentary, Lasch and
    Frederickson write, is that they do not aim so
    much at changing the balance of power as at
    giving expression on the one hand to apocalyptic
    visions of retribution, and on the other to an
    immediate thirst for vengeance directed more at
    particular individuals than at larger systems of
    authority.

10
Weakness of Slave Revolts in Absence of a
Revolutionary Ideology/Collective Consciousness
  • In the one case, the sense of grievance finds an
    outlet in indiscriminate violence in the other,
    it attaches to a particular embodiment of
    authority. But in neither case does collective
    action rest on a realistic perception of the
    institutional structure as a whole and the
    collective interest of its victims in subverting
    it. That explains why such outbreaks of violence
    tend to subside so quickly, leaving the
    exploitive structure intact.

11
Genovese of Special Character of Slave Revolts
in Atlantic World
  • The revolts of blacks in the modern world had a
    special character and historical significance,
    for they occurred within a worldwide capitalist
    mode of production
  • Whatever else may be said of the revolts, they
    everywhere formed part of the political
    opposition to European capitalisms bloody
    conquest of the world and attendant subjugation
    of the colored peoples.

12
From Rebellion to Revolution
  • Genovese argues that, by the end of the 18th
    century, the historical content of slave revolts
    shifted decisively from attempts to secure
    freedom from slavery to attempts to overthrow
    slavery as a social system.
  • Examples Saint-Domingue/Haitian Revolution,
    1790s Gabriels Conspiracy, 1800

13
Insurrection Anxieties among the Slaveholders
  • That the white ruling elite of colonial Virginia
    feared rebellion among the indentured servants
    and enslaved Negroes is evident from the
    passage of increasingly repressive laws
    throughout the seventeenth and eighteenth
    centuries

14
1680 Anti-Insurrection/Anti-Runaway Law
  • Whereas the frequent meetings of considerable
    numbers of Negro slaves under pretense of feasts
    and burials is judged of dangerous consequence,
    it is enacted that no Negro or slave may carry
    arms, such as any club, staff, gun, sword, or
    other weapon, nor go from his owners plantation
    without a certificate and then only on necessary
    occasions the punishment twenty lashes on the
    bare back, well laid on.
  • And, further, if any Negro lift up his hand
    again any Christian he shall receive thirty
    lashes, and if he absent himself or lie out from
    his masters service and resist lawful
    apprehension, he may be killed and this law shall
    be published every six months.

15
1682 Anti-Insurrection Law
  • Whereas the act of 1680 on Negro insurrections
    has not had the intended effect, it is enacted
    that church wardens read this and the other act,
    twice every year, in the time of divine service,
    or forfeit each of them six hundred pounds of
    tobacco, and further to prevent insurrections no
    master or overseer shall allow a Negro slave of
    another to remain on his plantation above four
    hours without leave of the slaves own master.

16
1691 Anti-Runaway Law White Men Deputized as
Slave Patrollers
  • An act for suppressing outlying slaves covering
    divers subjects, states whereas many times
    Negroes, mulattoes and other slaves lie hid and
    lurk in obscure places killing hogs and
    committing other injuries, it is enacted, that
    the sheriff may raise so many forces from time to
    time as he shall think convenient for the
    effectual apprehending of such Negroes. If they
    resist or runaway they may be killed of destroyed
    by gun or otherwise whatsoever, provided that the
    owner of any slave killed shall be paid four
    thousand pounds of tobacco by the public.

17
1691 Virginia Colonial LawRestricts Manumission,
Identifies Free Blacks as Pariahs
  • A great inconvenience may happen to this country
    by setting negroes and mulattoes free, by their
    entertaining Negroes from their masters service,
    or receiving stolen goods, or being grown old
    bringing a charge upon the country... it is
    enacted that no Negroes, or mulattoes be set free
    by any person whatsoever, unless such person pay
    for the transportation of such Negro out of the
    country within six months after such setting
    free, upon penalty of ten pounds sterling to the
    church wardens

18
State Offers Reward of Freedom to Slaves Who
Reveal Conspiracies
  • 1710. Chapter XVI.Whereas a Negro slave named
    Will, belonging to Robt. Ruffin, of the County of
    Surry, was signally serviceable in discovering a
    conspiracy of Negroes for levying war in this
    colony for reward of his fidelity, it is enacted
    that the said Will is and forever hereafter shall
    be free and shall continue to be within this
    colony, if he think fit to continue. The sum of
    forty pounds sterling shall be paid the said
    Robt. Ruffin for the price of Will.

19
  • 1723. Chapter IV.
  • Whereas the laws now in force for the better
    governing of slaves are found insufficient to
    restrain their unlawful and tumultuous meetings,
    it is enacted that if any number of Negroes
    exceeding five conspire to rebel, they shall
    suffer death, and but utterly excluded the
    benefit of clerg.
  • It is reenacted that if slaves are found
    notoriously guilty of going abroad at night or
    running away and lying out and cannot be
    reclaimed from such disorderly discourses, it
    shall be lawful to direct every such slave to be
    punished by dismemberment, or any other way not
    touching life.

20
  • 1748. Ch. XXXVIII. The conspiracy of slaves or
    their insurrection is a felony and the penalty
    death without benefit of clergy. It is repeated
    that incorrigible slaves going abroad at night
    may be dismembered by court order and if they die
    no forfeiture nor punishment shall be incurred.

21
  • 1792. Ch. XLI.
  • Negroes and mulattoes shall not carry guns,
    except free Negroes may be permitted to keep one,
    and Negroes, bond or free, living on the frontier
    may be licensed to keep them.
  • Conspiracy to rebel, or make insurrection, is
    deemed a felony,with death the punishment without
    benefit of clergy.

22
  • 1798. Chapter 4.
  • Free persons conspiring with slaves to rebel
    shall suffer death.
  • 1804. Chapter 119.
  • All meetings of slaves at any meeting house or
    any other place in the night shall be considered
    an unlawful assembly, and any justice may issue
    his warrant to enter the place where the assembly
    may be fore apprehending or dispersing the
    slaves, and to inflict corporal punishment on the
    offenders at the discretion of the justice, not
    exceeding twenty lashes.
  • 1817. Chapter XV.
  • If any free person advise or conspire with any
    other free person or Negro to induce or excite
    any slave to rebel or make insurrection, every
    such free person shall be held a felon and suffer
    death by hanging.

23
Major American Slave Revolts of the 18th C
  • 1712 New York About 25 Indian and black
    slaves upset over ill-treatment rebelled, killing
    9, wounding 6. Some of the alleged conspirators
    were tortured and hanged others were burned at
    stake. Led to passage of restrictive laws.
  • 1739 South Carolina some 20 slaves living near
    the Stono River seized guns and ammunition,
    killed 25 whites, destroyed white-owned stores.
    Rebel forces grew to hundreds most were captured
    or killed, their heads posted on fenceposts in
    city of Charleston. Led to passage of both
    restrictive and ameliorative laws.

24
  • Genovese African-born slaves dominated both
    revolts and appealed to the religious sentiments
    of their brothers and sisters. The New York
    rebels espoused traditional African religions, as
    they understood it, and called for a war on the
    Christians in a manner suggestive of the early
    Caribbean obeahmen. The religion of the rebels
    at Stono appears to have been more clearly
    syncretic Angolan slaves with at least a formal
    adherence to Catholicism sought an alliance with
    the Spanish in Florida.

25
Why so relatively few slave revolts of note in
Colonial North America?
  • In his book From Rebellion to Revolution (1979),
    historian Eugene Genovese underscored the unique
    obstacles to the organization of successful slave
    rebellions in the American South.
  • Genovese listed the general conditions that
    allowed for the success of slave rebellions in
    other parts of the world conditions rarely
    found in the United States.

26
General conditions favoring slave rebellion in
Caribbean Islands and South America
  • Depersonalization of master-slave relationship
    cultural estrangement of whites and blacks
  • Economic distress and famine
  • Large slaveholding units averaging one hundred or
    two hundred slaves
  • A divided ruling class
  • Blacks heavily outnumbered whites

27
General conditions favoring slave rebellion in
Caribbean Islands and South America
  • African-born slaves outnumbered those born into
    American slavery (creoles)
  • Social structure of slaveholding regime permits
    emergence of autonomous black leadership
  • Geographical, social, and political environment
    provided terrain and opportunity for the
    formation of colonies of runaway slaves strong
    enough to threaten the plantation regime.

28
Conditions unfavorable to slave rebellion in Old
South (vis-a-vis Caribbean and Brazil)
  • As proportion of creole slaves to African-born
    increased and the cultural distance between
    masters and slaves narrowed, the foundations of a
    regional paternalism grew progressively
    stronger.
  • Economic depression did not have same effect on
    slaves in U.S. that it did in the Caribbean
    islands (I.e., no widespread famines)

29
Conditions unfavorable to slave rebellion in Old
South (vis-a-vis Caribbean and Brazil)
  • U.S. slaveholding units were much smaller than
    those in sugar colonies, where slaveholding units
    averaged 100-200 slaves.

30
Conditions unfavorable to slave rebellion in Old
South (vis-a-vis Caribbean and Brazil)(contd)
  • Little dissension within white ruling class.
    Slaveholders of U.S. had no metropolitan capital
    in Europe to answer to and shared power
    effectively in Washington. When faced with threat
    of slave revolt in early 19th c., they suppressed
    internal divisions and established political
    consensus by eliminating the slavery issue and
    settling other issues.
  • Blacks remained a minority in U.S. South except
    in restricted areas (such as South Carolina
    rice-growing regions)

31
Conditions unfavorable to slave rebellion in Old
South (vis-a-vis Caribbean and Brazil)
  • Slave society in Old South provided less room for
    the development of advanced strata of black
    leaders than in Caribbean Islands and Brazil

32
Conditions unfavorable to slave rebellion in Old
South (vis-a-vis Caribbean and Brazil)
  • Maroon activity in the U.S., while by no means
    trivial, could not spark general revolt as
    readily as it could elsewhere. The terrain of the
    Old South put unsual difficulties in the way of
    would-be maroons. With the exception of Florida,
    the very geographic isolation and limited means
    of subsistence drastically reduced both the
    possibilities for large-scale maroon
    concentrations and for decisive
    military-political interventions.

33
Conditions unfavorable to slave rebellion in Old
South (vis-a-vis Caribbean and Brazil)
  • The closing of international slave trade (1808)
    demanded improvement in material conditions of
    slave life in order to guarantee adequate rate of
    reproduction. This, in turn, removed one of the
    prime conditions for revolt.

34
Genovese on Paternalism
  • Genovese argues that American slaveholders
    embraced/espoused an ideology of paternalism
    that improved material conditions but undercut
    the development of revolutionary consciousness
    among the slaves.
  • What does Genovese mean by paternalism? Does he
    mean that masters were kind, benevolent, father
    figures to their obedient, childlike slaves?

35
  • No, slavery was, in Genovese's words, "cruel,
    unjust, exploitative, and oppressive." And
    Genovese acknowledges that slaves resisted their
    own "dehumanization" at every turn.

36
  • For Genovese, paternalism describes a world in
    which masters and slaves -- like lords and serfs
    of the earlier times -- "faced each other with
    reciprocal demands and expectations.
  • One might ask how a slave -- defined, by law, as
    "a possession, a thing, a mere extension of his
    masters will" -- could make demands upon the
    slaveholder?

37
  • In reality, slaves were never the mere extension
    of their masters will. They had minds and wills
    of their own.
  • Masters and slaves had to work out an arrangement
    that they could both live with, a kind of truce
    that would minimize open hostility and ensure
    some measure of stability within the plantation
    community. Though slaveholders held immense power
    over slaves, that power was never absolute. And
    slaves seized every opportunity to win
    concessions from slaveholders and improve their
    individual and collective lots.

38
  • Paternalism paradoxically improved the conditions
    of slavery while reinforcing racial
    subordination. It suggested that slaveholders
    and slaves had mutual obligations, like parents
    and children. The slaveholders had a
    responsibility to protect their slaves the
    slaves, in turn, had a responsibility to obey
    their masters.

39
Genovese on Paternalism
  • Genovese, Roll, Jordan, Roll, p. 6, 5
  • Paternalism grew out of the necessity to
    discipline and morally justify a system of
    exploitation.
  • Paternalism defined the involuntary labor of the
    slaves as a legitimate return to their masters
    for protection and direction. But, the masters
    need to see their slaves as acquiescent human
    beings constituted a moral victory for the slaves
    themselves. Paternalisms insistence upon mutual
    obligations duties, responsibilities, and
    ultimately even rights implicitly recognized
    the slaves humanity.

40
Genovese on Paternalisms Consequences for Slave
Resistance
  • Wherever paternalism exists, it undermines
    solidarity among the oppressed by linking them as
    individuals to their oppressors. A lord
    functions as a direct provider and protector to
    each individual or family, as well as to the
    community as a whole.
  • Paternalism created a tendency for slaves to
    identify with a particular community through
    identification with its master it reduced the
    possibilities for identification with each other
    as a a class. Racism undermined the slaves sense
    of worth as black people and reinforced their
    dependence on white masters.

41
  • Genovese attributes the rise of paternalism in
    the Old South to several unique historical
    factors.
  • The close proximity of masters and slaves.
    Slaveholders in the American South, unlike their
    counterparts in the Caribbean, tended to live on
    their plantations, near their slaves. Under
    these conditions, the master, like the lord of an
    English manor, established himself as a "direct
    provider and protector to each family, as well as
    to the community as a whole.
  • The closing of the African Slave Trade.
    Slaveholders had to devise methods to ensure that
    the slave population reproduced itself.
    Paternalism tended to mediate class and racial
    conflicts.

42
  • Genovese argues that both blacks and whites
    accepted paternalism, but with radically
    different interpretations.
  • Masters embraced the ideology because it allowed
    them to justify their subordination of the
    slaves.
  • Slaves embraced the ideology because it afforded
    them some measure of bargaining power and,
    ultimately, affirmed their humanity.

43
Paternalisms Predecessor Patriarchalism
  • Philip Morgan, Slave Counterpoint
  • Patriarchalism was an austere code emphasizing
    control, obedience, discipline, and severity. Yet
    patriarchalism also involved protection,
    guardianship, and reciprocal obligation. It
    defined the gentleman planters self-image and
    constituted the ideals and standards by which
    slaveholding behavior was judged.

44
Transformation from Patriarchalism to Paternalism
in late 18th c.
  • Late 18th c. masters more inclined to stress
    their solicitude toward and generous treatment of
    their dependents.
  • Gradually masters began to expect gratitude and
    love of bondspeople. Their outlook became more
    sentimental.
  • Masters began to create fiction of contented and
    happy slave.

45
2Rise of Anti-Slave Trade and Antislavery
Sentiments and the Origins of an International
Abolitionist Movement
46
Antislavery Movement
  • Why did the international antislavery movement
    arise in the mid- to late eighteenth century
    after centuries of apathy on the subject?

47
Factor 1Age of Enlightenment/Rise of
Humanitarianism
  • Enlightenment introduced new ideas about
    natural rights, political liberties, freedom or
    religion, and equality before the law -- The
    goals of rational man were considered to be
    knowledge, freedom, and happiness.
  • new concern for humane treatment of the poor
    and weak extended to the physical mistreatment of
    slaves
  • .. a rising belief in the malleability of human
    nature and the influence of environment on human
    behavior led to a radical rethinking of black
    inferiority. Heathens could be Christianized,
    savages could be educated in the ways of
    civilization.

48
Factor 2 Spread of Capitalism itsFree Labor
Ideology
  • contributed to the questioning of slavery.
    Early political economists, such as Adam Smith,
    believed that slavery violated central economic
    laws by preventing the free buying and selling of
    labor and by elimininating incentives for hard
    work and self-improvement. Economic hardship in
    the tobacco belt of the Upper South reinforced
    the free labor critique of slavery.

49
Factor 3The Great Awakening/Evangelical
Christianity
  • The religious revivals that began with the Great
    Awakening in the 1740s and continued into the
    1780s heightened interest in the conversion of
    slaves and stressed the equality of all men
    before God.

50
1691 Virginia Colonial LawRestricts Manumission,
Identifies Free Blacks as Pariahs
  • A great inconvenience may happen to this country
    by setting negroes and mulattoes free, by their
    entertaining Negroes from their masters service,
    or receiving stolen goods, or being grown old
    bringing a charge upon the country... it is
    enacted that no Negroes, or mulattoes be set free
    by any person whatsoever, unless such person pay
    for the transportation of such Negro out of the
    country within six months after such setting
    free, upon penalty of ten pounds sterling to the
    church wardens

51
1723 Virginia Law Establishes Strict New
Conditions for Manumission
  • No Negro or Indian slave shall be set free upon
    any pretense whatsoever, except for some
    meritorious service to be adjudged by the
    governor.

52
Manumission What Sort of Service Qualified as
Meritorious?
  • 1710 Whereas a Negro slave named Will, belonging
    to Robt. Ruffin, of the County of Surry, was
    signally serviceable in discovering a conspiracy
    of Negroes for levying war in this colony for
    reward of his fidelity, it is enacted that the
    said Will is and forever hereafter shall be free
    and shall continue to be within this colony, if
    he think fit to continue. The sum of forty pounds
    sterling shall be paid the said Robt. Ruffin for
    the price of Will.

53
The Revolution
  • For African-Americans, the American Revolution
    presented a unique opportunity to fight for a
    stake in Americas freedom and independence.
    For generations afterward, African-American
    orators and writers would point to the martyrdom
    of Crispus Attucks the first American to die in
    the Boston massacre and the service of some
    5,000 black soldiers in the Continental Army as
    evidence of black patriotism and manhood, worthy
    of recognition by their white fellow citizens.
    Yet many enslaved African Americans chose to cast
    their lot with the British, who promised them
    liberty in return for military service.

54
Lord Dunmores Emancipation Proclamation (1775)
  • I do require every Person capable of bearing
    Arms, to resort to His MAJESTY'S STANDARD, or be
    looked upon as Traitors to His MAJESTY'S Crown
    and Government, and thereby become liable to the
    Penalty the Law inflicts upon such Offenses such
    as forfeiture of Life, confiscation of Lands, .
    . And I do hereby further declare all indented
    Servants, Negroes, or others, (appertaining to
    Rebels,) free that are able and willing to bear
    Arms, they joining His MAJESTY'S Troops as soon
    as may be, foe the more speedily reducing this
    Colony to a proper Sense of their Duty, to His
    MAJESTY'S Crown and Dignity.

55
  • Despite threats of capital punishment and the
    heightened vigilance of slave patrols and
    colonial militia, some three hundred to four
    hundred runaways managed to reach British lines
    and enlist in Lord Dunmores Ethiopian
    Regiment. Outfitted in military uniforms
    bearing the revolutionary slogan Liberty to
    Slaves, they would fight in one major battle
    against colonial troops and serve with Dunmore
    until his retreat from the Chesapeake Bay in
    August 1776.

56
  • Petitions for compensation filed by slaveholders
    after the war reveal the high stakes involved for
    African Americans who sided with the British
    against the slaveholding American patriots.
  • In December 1775, a slave named Africa was
    captured in the service of Lord Dunmore by a
    group of patriots and taken to Williamsburg. The
    Committee of Safety ordered Africa to the lead
    mines. His master later petitioned the
    legislature for Africa's return and reimbursement
    for his hire from the time he was sent to the
    mines.

57
Petitions by Slaveholding Patriots for
Compensation
  • Edmond Ruffin Jr.'s slave Dick was apprehended
    attempting to board one of Lord Dunmore's ships.
    The Committee of Safety decided to send Dick, who
    displayed an "insolent and seditious
    Disposition," to the West Indies or to the lead
    mines as an example to other disloyal blacks.
    Dick, however, died before the example could be
    set, and his owner sought compensation.
  • A slave named Aaron was captured attempting to
    escape to Lord Dunmore's fleet in Chesapeake Bay
    and sentenced to labor in the lead mines by the
    Committee of Safety. Aaron's owner, Thomas
    Paramour, asked to be compensated for the
    services of his slave.
  • In 1775 a "Negro Fellow named Tom," age about
    nineteen years, ran away to British lines but was
    soon taken by Patriot forces and ordered by the
    Committee of Safety to work in the lead mines. In
    1776, Tom was sent to the West Indies and sold to
    pay for powder and ammunition. Tom's owner asked
    for compensation.

58
  • By contrast, many African Americans who served
    with the Continental Army petitioned for and
    won -- their freedom.
  • A slaveholder from Albemarle County requested
    permission to emancipate William Beck, a
    "mulatto" slave who had served in several
    military campaigns. The owner stated in his
    petition that Beck had behaved "in a most
    exemplary manner" and had paid his owner for his
    freedom.

59
Revolutionary Era Freedom Suits
  • A Nansemond County slave named James declared in
    his petition for freedom that he had spied on the
    British during the American Revolution for the
    French general the Marquis de Lafayette. For
    these services he sought his freedom, noting that
    his master would "receive compensation for the
    loss of a valuable workman."
  • A Norfolk County slave named Saul stated that
    during the American Revolution he spied on the
    British and served his country with distinction.
    His spying "rendered essential service to his
    Country," at least until he was betrayed in 1781
    by another black man. Additionally, he fought in
    numerous campaigns. He asked that the legislature
    "not suffer him any longer to remain a
    transferable property."
Write a Comment
User Comments (0)
About PowerShow.com