The Internal Enemy: Slavery and War in Virginia, 1772-1832

by Taylor, Alan

  9 Earl Bathurst to Charles Cameron, Feb. 2, 1815, A. Murray to Cameron, May 6, 1815 (“enjoying”), Bahamas Executive Council meeting, May 8, 1815, and Cameron to Sir Alexander Cochrane, May 9, 1815, SACP, file 2338, reel 5, LC; Anthony St. John Baker to Viscount Castlereagh, Apr. 13, 1815 (“made particular Enquiry”), MG 16, FO 5, vol. 106:179, reel B-2005, LAC; Royal Gazette and Bahama Advertiser, May 3, 1815, copy in RG 76, entry 185, box 4, folder 22, USNA-CP; James Cockburn to Earl Bathurst, July 7, 1816 (“most minute”), CO 37 (Bermuda), vol. 74:42, NAUK; Castlereagh to John Quincy Adams, Apr. 27, 1816, RG 76, entry 190, box 7, case 667 (James Young), USNA-CP. For the Nova Scotia evidence, see Bathurst to John C. Sherbrooke, May 10, 1816, Sherbrook to Bathurst, June 20, 1816 (“there never was”), Charles Reeves, deposition, June 20, 1816, and John Howe, William Minns, John Howe Jr., and Anthony K. Holland, deposition, June 20, 1816, MG 11, CO 218 (Nova Scotia), vol. 29:69, 89, 91, 93, reel B-1118, LAC. For Monroe’s response, see Monroe to Baker, July 20, 1815, and Baker to Castlereagh, Aug. 13, 1815, MG 16, FO 5, vol. 107:163, 169, reel B-2005, LAC.

  10 Thomas Pinckney to James Monroe, Mar. 18, 1815, RG 59, M 179, reel 31, USNA-DC; St. George Tucker to Monroe, Apr. 2, 1815, JMP, ser. 1, reel 6, LC; Richmond Enquirer, Apr. 1, 1815; “Captured Slaves,” National Intelligencer, June 21, 1815; James Madison to Monroe, July 26, 1816, in Hunt, Writings of James Madison, vol. 8:352–53. For a concession to the lack of evidence, see Henry Ashton to Monroe, Apr. 1, 1815, RG 76, entry 185, box 4, folder 13, USNA-CP.

  11 “Captured Slaves” and “Washington,” National Intelligencer, June 21 (“the patriotic Monroe”) and August 1, 1815 (“no liberal,” and “May it not have prevented”). See also National Intelligencer, Mar. 28, Apr. 12, and June 24, 1815.

  12 John Quincy Adams to James Monroe, Aug. 24, 1816, in Manning, Diplomatic Correspondence, vol. 1:806; Joseph C. Cabell to William Wirt, Dec. 8, 1827, JCC&CFP (38-111), box 19, SSCL-UVA. It is telling that in 1826–1828, the American claims commission set up to compensate slave owners rejected the claim of James Young, whose case relied on a deposition about the hearsay that the Jamaican vice admiralty court had sold slaves. See RG 76, entry 190, box 7, case 667 (James Young), USNA-CP. The myth of the British selling runaway slaves during the War of 1812 will never die, for the same reason that it was created: to have villainous Britons as foils to good Americans. For example, in 1983 the official history of Westmoreland County, Virginia, assures readers, “The British were not completely reliable partners; many slaves were returned to their masters after the Treaty of Ghent or sold into slavery in the West Indies when the British had completed their missions.” See Norris, Westmoreland County, Virginia, 589.

  13 Roswell King to Pierce Butler, Mar. 18, 1815, quoted in Bell, Major Butler’s Legacy, 180; Walter Jones to [George Graham], Mar. 26, 1815 (“wretches” and “on the barren Beach”), Jones Papers (Mss 2 J7283 b), VHS; “The Mediterranean Squadron,” National Intelligencer, July 25, 1815; Thomas Spalding to Thomas Pinckney, Apr. 29, 1815, and Spalding to James Monroe, June 12, 1815, RG 76, entry 185, box 4, folder 22, USNA-CP; Cassel, “Slaves of the Chesapeake,” 154–55.

  14 James Spilman, “notes,” June 11, 1815, RG 76, entry 185, box 4, folder 22, USNA-CP; Eli Magruder to James Monroe, May 10, 1815, RG 76, box 4, folder 13, USNA-CP. For the identities of the four who returned with Spilman, see Joseph Webster, deposition, Dec. 20, 1827, RG 76, entry 190, box 5, case 462 (Presley Neale), USNA-CP; depositions of Anthony Champ, Oct. 13, 1827, and Isaac Smith, Oct. 18, 1827, RG 76, entry 190, box 7, case 616 (William Waring), USNA-CP. For John Hall, see Richard Kemm, deposition, June 1, 1815, APA-GMR, entry 258, box 779, Lancaster County folder, LV.

  15 Rawleigh W. Downman, deposition, July 13, 1815 (“Returned”), RG 76, entry 190, box 5, case 325 (Rawleigh W. Downman), USNA-CP; William Waring’s Louis, deposition, Aug. 21, 1821, APA-GMR, entry 247, box 778, Essex County folder, LV; Simon Willis, deposition, Apr. 20, 1828, RG 76, entry 190, box 8, case 769 (Lucy Clements), USNA-CP. For Willis’s unique status, see Vincent Bramhan, Nov. 8, 1827, RG 76, entry 185, box 3, folder 4, USNA-CP; depositions of Randal R. Kirk, Apr. 25, 1828, and Thomas McClanahan’s Sam, Apr. 26, 1828, RG 76, entry 190, box 5, case 418 (John Christopher), USNA-CP.

  16 Baltimore Patriot, Apr. 8, 1816 (“small eyes” and “remarkably large feet”); Gilbert W. Russell to Francis Newman, Mar. 2, 1818 (“Tom has married”), Russell to Frederick Grammar, June 24, 1818, Grammar to Horatio Ridout, Aug. 13, 1818, and the depositions of John Weedon, May 27, 1828, and John A. Grammar, Henry E. Mayer, and Horatio Ridout, May 27, 1828, RG 76, entry 185, box 3, folder 7, USNA-CP.

  17 For testimony that none of the wartime runaways ever returned to Princess Anne County, see John T. Keeling, deposition, Nov. 4, 1822, RG 76, entry 190, box 4, case 241 (Lemuel Cornick), USNA-CP.

  18 James Monroe to Thomas Pinckney, Apr. 7, 1815 (“They have professed”), RG 59, M 40, reel 14, USNA-CP; Monroe to Stephen Pleasanton, May 18, 1815, James Monroe Papers in Virginia Repositories, reel 3282, LV; Walter Jones to James Monroe, May 25 and June 11, 1815, RG 76, entry 185, box 4, folder 13, USNA-CP; Monroe to Jones, May 28, 1815, Mss 2M7576 a 9, VHS; Thomas Spalding to Pinckney, Apr. 29, 1815, RG 76, entry 185, box 4, folder 22, USNA-CP.

  19 Bell, Major Butler’s Legacy, 180; Coulter, Thomas Spalding, 190–93; James Monroe to Thomas Pinckney, Apr. 7, 1815, RG 59, M 40, reel 14, USNA-CP; Pinckney to Thomas Spalding, Apr. 23, 1815, and Spalding to Pinckney, Apr. 29, 1815, RG 76, entry 185, box 4, folder 22, USNA-CP; Spalding to Monroe, May n.d., 1815 (“instantly” and “that he would rather Bermuda”), and Edward Griffith to Spalding, May 23, 1815, in ASP-FR, vol. 4:113, 115.

  20 Eli Magruder to James Monroe, May 10, 1815, RG 76, entry 185, box 4, folder 13, USNA-CP; Thomas Spalding, memorandum, May 21, 1815, and Spalding to Monroe, May n.d., 1815 (“Every means,” “as important means,” and “paid”), RG 76, entry 185, box 3, folder 8, USNA-CP; Bell, Major Butler’s Legacy, 180; James Spilman, “Notes,” June 11, 1815, RG 76, entry 185, box 4, folder 22, USNA-CP. The federal government printed only the first part of Spalding’s undated May letter, omitting the provocative portions about the former slaves as a military threat. See the published version in ASP-FR, vol. 4:113.

  21 James Monroe to Walter Jones, Apr. 14, 1815, and Eli Magruder to James Monroe, Apr. 29, 1815, RG 59, M 179, reel 31, USNA-CP; Magruder to Monroe, May 10, 24, 26, and 31, 1815, and John F. Dumoulin to Monroe, May 16, 1816, RG 76, entry 185, box 4, folder 13, USNA-CP; Magruder to Monroe, May 17, 1815, RG 76, entry 185, box 4, folder 22, USNA-CP; Francis Forbes to Magruder, May 23, 1815, and Thomas Spalding to Monroe, May 30, 1815, RG 76, entry 185, box 3, folder 8, USNA-CP; Monroe to Thomas Pinckney, July 17, 1815, and Monroe to Spalding, July 18, 1815, RG 59, M 77, vol. 3:294, 299–301, reel 154, USNA-CP.

  22 Walter Jones to Augustine Neale, June 8, 1815, RG 76, entry 185, box 4, folder 13, USNA-CP.

  23 Augustine Neale, memorandum, n.d., RG 76, entry 190, box 5, case 462 (Presley Neale), USNA-CP; Walter Jones to Neale, June 8, 1815, and James Monroe to Neale, June 17, 1815, RG 76, entry 185, box 4, folder 13, USNA-CP.

  24 Walter Jones to Augustine Neale, June 8, 1815, RG 76, entry 185, box 4, folder 13, USNA-CP.

  25 Augustine Neale to James Monroe, June 14, 1815 (“give positive evidence”), Monroe to Neale, June 17, 1815, RG 76, and Neale to Monroe, June 28, 1815, entry 185, box 4, folder 13, USNA-CP; Augustine Neale, memorandum, n.d. (“quite an intelligent”), and John Chowning, deposition, Apr. 1, 1828, RG 76, entry 190, box 5, case 462 (Presley Neale), USNA-CP.

  26 “The Mediterranean Squadron,” reprinted from New York Columbian in National Intelligencer, July 25, 1815 (“to bring home”); Augustine Neale to James Monroe, Aug. 14 and 27, 1815, RG 76, entry 185, box 4, folder 13, USNA-CP.

  27 Augustine Neale to James Monroe, Aug. 27, Sep. 5 (“The white Labourers”), Sep. 25, and Nov. 15, 1815 (“the despised”), RG 76, entry 185, box 4, folder 13, USNA-CP.

  28 Augustine Neale to James Monroe, Aug. 27, Sep. 5 (�
��But, sir,”), and Sep. 25, 1815 (“a few”), RG 76, entry 185, box 4, folder 13, USNA-CP.

  29 Augustine Neale to James Monroe, Sep. 5, 1815, RG 76, entry 185, box 4, folder 13, USNA-CP.

  30 Augustine Neale to James Monroe, Sep. 15 (“escaped to the shore”), Sep. 25 (“a Mob” and “was all most murdered”), and Nov. 15, 1815 (“were daily seen”), RG 76, entry 185, box 4, folder 13, USNA-CP.

  31 Augustine Neale to James Monroe, Sep. 15, Sep. 19 (“the most unfriendly”), and Sep. 25, 1815, RG 76, entry 185, box 4, folder 13, USNA-CP.

  32 Eli Magruder to James Monroe, May 30, 1815, Thomas Spalding to Thomas Pinckney, Aug. 5, 1815, and Augustine Neale to Monroe, Sep. 5 (“remote”) and Sep. 25, 1815, RG 76, entry 185, box 4, folder 13, USNA-CP; Roswell King to Pierce Butler, Aug. 13, 1815 (“that they can find”), quoted in Bell, Major Butler’s Legacy, 185–86.

  33 George Cockburn to Andrew Fitzherbert Evans, Dec. 12, 1814, SGCP, reel 6, LC; Whitfield, Blacks on the Border, 47–48; Fergusson, Documentary Study, 8.

  34 Whitfield, Blacks on the Border, 53.

  35 Niles’ Weekly Register, vol. 4:407 (Aug. 21, 1813); John C. Sherbrooke to Capt. Henry Hotham, Sep. 24, 1813, RG 1, vol. 111, reel 15262, NSA; Hotham to Sherbrooke, Oct. 1, 1813, RG 1, vol. 420, reel 15462, NSA; Earl Bathurst to Sherbrooke, Jan. 23 and Oct. 25, 1814, MG 11, CO 218 (Nova Scotia), vol. 29:37, 47, reel B-1118, LAC; Sir Alexander Cochrane to the Admiralty, Oct. 3, 1814, SACP, file 2345, reel 7, LC; Sherbrooke to Cochrane, Oct. 5, 1814, MG 11, CO 217 (Nova Scotia), vol. 95:130, reel B-1055, LAC. For the earliest refugee landings in Halifax, see Malcomson, “Freedom by Reaching the Wooden World,” 3. For the neglect by some officers to report refugee arrivals, see Sherbrooke to Cochrane, Oct. 7, 1814, SACP, file 2326, reel 1, LC.

  36 Whitfield, From American Slaves, 113–16, 119 (Acadian Recorder, Jan. 4, 1817 quotes: “no kindness” and “a race”); Charles Morris to Lt. Col. Addison, n.d. (“The common Sentiment”), RG 1, vol. 419, doc. 81, reel 15462, NSA. For a regret that Nova Scotians blamed all blacks for the misdeeds of a few, see Seth Coleman to Richard Tremain, Mar. 5, 1815, RG 1, vol. 420, doc. 132, reel 15463, NSA. For the experience of the postrevolutionary “Black Loyalists,” see Grant, “Black Immigrants,” 253–58.

  37 Earl Bathurst to John C. Sherbrooke, Jan. 23, 1814, MG 11, CO 218 (Nova Scotia), vol. 29:37, reel B-1118, LAC; Sherbrooke to Bathurst, Oct. 5, 1814 (“miserable wretches” and “the generality”), MG 11, CO 217 (Nova Scotia), vol. 93:324, reel B-1055, LAC; Sherbrooke to Bathurst, Apr. 6, 1815 (“the greatest part”), MG 11, CO 217 (Nova Scotia), vol. 96:93, reel B-1056, LAC. For all his complaints and prejudice, Sherbrooke did keep the refugees fed, clothed, and sheltered—albeit in the discomfort of the poorhouse. Seventy-four died there between September 2, 1814, and March 2, 1815. For the deaths, see “Abstract of Sundries supplied to Blacks in the Poor House at Halifax,” Mar. 2, 1815, RG 1, vol. 420, reel 15462, NSA.

  38 Grant, “Black Immigrants,” 268; Grant, “Chesapeake Blacks,” 194; John C. Sherbrooke to the Assembly, Feb. 23, 1815, in Fergusson, Documentary Study, 17; Sir Alexander Cochrane to Sherbrooke, Mar. 25, 1815, Nova Scotia Assembly to Sherbrooke, Apr. 1, 1815 (“a separate & marked” and “discouragement”), and Sherbrooke to Earl Bathurst, Apr. 6, 1815, MG 11, CO 217 (Nova Scotia), vol. 96:93, 97, 99, reel B-1056, LAC; Whitfield, Blacks on the Border, 35, 47.

  39 Whitfield, Blacks on the Border, 50–51; Winks, Blacks in Canada, 118–19; John C. Sherbrooke to Earl Bathurst, Sep. 23, Oct. 16, and Nov. 21, 1815, MG 11, CO 217 (Nova Scotia), vol. 96:218, 224, 232, reel B-1056, LAC; “Return of American Refugee Negroes,” Apr. 27, 1815–Oct. 24, 1818, RG 76, entry 185, box 6, folder 51, USNA-CP.

  40 Spray, “Settlement of the Black Refugees,” 64–66; Grant, “Chesapeake Blacks,” 194–95; John C. Sherbrooke to Earl Bathurst, May 6, 1815, and George Smyth to Sherbrooke, Apr. 13, 1815, MG 11, CO 217 (Nova Scotia), vol. 96:131, 133, reel B-1056, LAC; Smyth to Bathurst, Apr. 17, 1816, and “A List of Black Refugees Furnished by His Majesty’s Ship Regulus,” n.d., MG 11, CO 188 (New Brunswick), vol. 22:19, 41, reel B-1126, LAC.

  41 Whitfield, Blacks on the Border, 49–52; Martell, Immigration, 18–20.

  42 Earl Bathurst to John C. Sherbrooke, May 10 and June 13, 1815, MG 11, CO 218 (Nova Scotia), vol. 29:54, 56, reel B-1118, LAC; Sherbrooke to Bathurst, July 20, 1815, (“the negroes” and “dispersed”), MG 11, CO 217 (Nova Scotia), vol. 96:186, reel B-1056, LAC.

  43 John C. Sherbrooke to Earl Bathurst, July 20, 1815, MG 11, CO 217 (Nova Scotia), vol. 96:186, reel B-1056, LAC; Whitfield, Blacks on the Border, 52–53; Ferguson, Documentary Study, 38, 68; Lawson, History of the Townships, 151–76; Theophilus Chamberlain to Charles Morris, Nov. 17, 1815, RG 1, vol. 419, doc. 41, reel 15462, NSA.

  44 John C. Sherbrooke to Earl Bathurst, Sep. 23 and Nov. 21, 1815, Executive Council to Sherbrooke, Nov. 17, 1815, MG 11, CO 217 (Nova Scotia), vol. 96:220, 232, 234 reel B-1056, LAC; Bathurst to Sherbrooke, Nov. 10, 1815, and Feb. 5, 1816, MG 11, CO 218 (Nova Scotia), vol. 29:60, 66, LAC; Fergusson, Documentary Study, 38, 51–56.

  45 Fergusson, Documentary Study, 12, 28, 42–43, 51; Whitfield, Blacks on the Border, 39, 52, 55.

  46 Fergusson, Documentary Study, 39–40, 51, 68–69; Whitfield, Blacks on the Border, 37–41, 54–55.

  47 Theophilus Chamberlain to Charles Morris, Nov. 17, 1815 (“able” “industrious” and “snug houses”), and Jan. 4, 1816, and John Rule, certificate, Sep. 30, 1817 (“very ingenious”), RG 1, vol. 419, docs. 41, 46, 67, reel 15462, NSA; Rufus Fairbanks to H. H. Cogswell, Mar. 4 (“they raised”), and May 9, 1816, RG 1, vol. 421, docs. 3, 5, reel 15462, NSA; Fergusson, Documentary Study, 38–40.

  48 Seth Coleman to William Sabatier, Mar. 23, 1815, in Ells and Harvey, Calendar of Official Correspondence, 339. For Coleman’s reputation for good judgment and accurate information, see Samuel Head to Charles Morris, Feb. 1, 1816, RG 1, vol. 419, doc. 47, reel 15462, NSA; Sabatier to John C. Sherbrooke, Feb. n.d., 1815, RG 1, vol. 305, doc. 6, reel 15386, NSA.

  49 Seth Coleman to William Sabatier, Mar. 23, 1815, in Ells and Harvey, Calendar of Official Correspondence, 339; Theophilus Chamberlain to Charles Morris, Jan. 4, 1816, RG 1, vol. 419, doc. 46, reel 15462, NSA.

  50 John C. Sherbrooke to Earl Bathurst, June 5, 1816, MG 11, CO 217 (Nova Scotia), vol. 98:67, reel B-1056, LAC; Lord Dalhousie to Bathurst, Dec. 2, 1816, in Fergusson, Documentary Study, 29; Whitfield, Blacks on the Border, 56–59.

  51 Lord Dalhousie to Earl Bathurst, Dec. 9, 1816 (“Slaves by habit”), in Fergusson, Documentary Study, 30; Dalhousie, journal, July 8, 1827 (“a silly thing”), in Whitelaw, Dalhousie Journals, vol. 3:105; Whitfield, Blacks on the Border, 42–44, 60.

  52 Lord Dalhousie to Earl Bathurst, Aug. 14, 1817 (“almost”), and June 10, 1819 (“the habits”), in Fergusson, Documentary Study, 32, 33. For the local prejudice against the blacks, see also Lawson, History of the Townships, 192.

  53 Whitfield, Blacks on the Border, 6 (Maria Fuller quoted), 37 (unnamed male refugee quoted), 60–61; Mrs. Dair (elderly refugee woman quoted in Whitfield, From American Slaves, 52.

  54 Martell, Immigration, 17; Earl Bathurst to John C. Sherbrooke, Nov. 10, 1815, MG 11, CO 218 (Nova Scotia), vol. 29:60, reel B-1118, LAC; Sherbrooke to Bathurst, Apr. 20, 1816, MG 11, CO 217 (Nova Scotia), vol. 98:55, reel B-1056, LAC; Richard Inglis to Robert D. George, Aug. 20, 1821, RG 1, vol. 422, doc. 30, reel 15463, NSA; Winks, Blacks in Canada, 122–23; Whitfield, From American Slaves, 45–46.

  55 Whitfield, Blacks on the Border, 61–62; James Kempt to Earl Bathurst, Oct. 16, 1823 (“These people”), in Bell, Major Butler’s Legacy, 187; Kempt quoted in Whitfield, From American Slaves, 47 (“fanatical preachers”); Fergusson, Documentary Study, 31–36.

  56 Edward H. Lowe quoted in Fergusson, Documentary Study, 46 (“They seem”); John Chamberlain et al. to the assembly, June 8, 1838, in Fergusson, Documentary Study, 111; Whitfield, From American Slaves, 43; Whitfield, Blacks on the Border, 79; Lawson, History of the Townships, 188–89.r />
  57 Whitfield, Blacks on the Border, 58–61. For the study of refugee families, see Whitfield, From American Slaves, 25, 89.

  58 Rufus Fairbanks to unknown, Mar. 8, 1815, RG 1, vol. 305, doc. 22, reel 15386, NSA.

  59 Carmichael, “Some Notes on Sir Ralph James Woodford,” 30–31; Laurence, “Settlement of Free Negroes,” 26; William H. Burnley, report, n.d., ca. May 1815 (“lying waste” and “healthy & free”), CO 295 (Trinidad), vol. 37:97, NAUK.

  60 Sir Ralph Woodford to Earl Bathurst, June 6, 1815 (“mostly creoles”), Aug. 5, Nov. 9, and Nov. 30, 1815, CO 295 (Trinidad), vol. 37:51, 139, 209, 229, NAUK; Woodford to Bathurst, Feb. 8, 1816, CO 295 (Trinidad), vol. 39:37, NAUK; Weiss, Merikens, 12, 55–62; Weiss, “Corps of Colonial Marines,” 85.

  61 Sir Ralph Woodford to Earl Bathurst, Apr. 23, Aug. 4, Oct. 5, and Nov. 23, 1816 (“to promote the benevolent Views”), CO 295 (Trinidad), vol. 39:109, and vol. 40:17, 151, 283, NAUK.

  62 Sir Ralph Woodford to Henry Goulburn, Oct. 15, 1815, and Woodford to Earl Bathurst, Oct. 16, 1815, and Apr. 23, May 10 (“an Attempt to fire”), June 14, June 25, June 29 (“Ruin and Desolation”), July 10, Aug. 4, and Aug. 28, 1816, CO 295 (Trinidad), vol. 37:160, 177, vol. 39:109, 119, 140, 185, 203, and vol. 40:3–5, 17, 125, NAUK.

  63 Sir Ralph Woodford to Earl Bathurst, Aug. 28 and Nov. 10, 1816, CO 295 (Trinidad), vol. 40:103, 169, NAUK.

  64 John Barrow to Henry Goulburn, Nov. 14 and Nov. 28, 1815, and James Cockburn to Earl Bathurst, Feb. 10, 1816, CO 37 (Bermuda), vol. 73:180, 190, and vol. 74:9, NAUK.

  65 Sir Ralph Woodford to Andrew Kinsman, Aug. 15, 1816, Kinsman undated memorandum number 2, and Kinsman to the Colonial Marines, Aug. 15, 1816, Admiralty 1, vol. 3319:159, 161, 163, NAUK; Woodford to Earl Bathurst, Aug. 28, 1816 (“strong disposition”), and Nov. 10, 1816, CO 295 (Trinidad), vol. 40:103, 169, NAUK.