Colonial America

by Richard Middleton, Anne Lombard

  Where masters failed to offer religious instruction, as was generally the case in the South, slaves increasingly filled the gap themselves. From 1750 they received considerable help from the Baptists, who had no slave-owners among their membership and were far more egalitarian in their doctrines than the Anglicans. The interest was quickly reciprocated. African Americans were often drawn to the informality and evangelical style of the Baptists, as well as their emphasis on universal salvation. African religions customarily placed great importance on divine revelation; thus the Baptist appeal to salvation through the mediation of the Holy Spirit had an obvious attraction, as did the possibility of conversion without the need to master a complex theology. A further attraction may have been the practice of adult immersion, which bore similarities to African water cults. Also appealing was the fact that the Baptists demanded no specially trained ministry; a simple license from an existing minister and an ability to preach were all that was required though no African American became a minister until the 1770s. Lastly, the Baptist use of singing and emphasis on trauma during conversion seem to have complemented earlier African religious practices, notably the “ring shout” when participants formed a circle, drumming their feet and clapping their hands, while they sang and danced.

  The Baptists began making inroads among the African American community in the aftermath of the Great Awakening, when Shubal Stearns and other ministers passed through the southern backcountry. The first predominantly African American Baptist congregation was established at Lunenburg in 1758 near the estate of William Byrd III. Estimates suggest that up to 40 percent of the African American population in the Chesapeake had converted to some form of Christianity by 1760, though the figure for the lower South was much less owing to the slaves' isolation and the higher level of imports. One owner there confessed even in 1779 that his slaves remained as “great strangers to Christianity, and as much under the influence of Pagan darkness, idolatry and superstition, as they were at their first arrival from Africa.”

  Thus, although specific cultures disappeared, new African American cultures were built out of African elements. Most notable were the lack of distinction between the natural and supernatural world, particular styles of rhythm and dance, and the sense of time as cyclical rather than linear. All these elements gave African Americans a style of expression and belief that was quite different from those of either Europeans or Africans. What was emerging among the second generation was a shared African American ethnic identity which replaced the narrower tribal or national identities of native Africans. This is not to say that all Creole blacks had a common identity, given the lack of contact between the different regions of British North America. Nevertheless, many had created vibrant new American cultural identities distinct from those of Europeans in the colonies by the mid-1700s.

  Finally, some scholars now believe that African American cultures exerted a deep influence on the culture of southern whites. Styles of religious worship, music, healing, and cooking in the South all appear to have been shaped by African American influences. The most noticeable influence was surely in the area of language, as African words and speech patterns came to be commonly used in southern white people's spoken language. As one traveler commented towards the end of the eighteenth century, “common country folk talk very much like Negroes.”22

  5 Free African Americans

  Not all Africans in British North America were slaves. Even after 1700, a small number of slaves continued to secure their freedom, or obtained their manumission as a reward for loyalty over a long period of time. Others were freed because they were infirm, though most provinces had laws against this practice.

  Estimating the number of free African Americans is no easy task. In Virginia there may have been as many as 2,000 by 1760, despite a law of 1699 that required all newly freed slaves to leave the colony. Free African Americans may thus have represented between two and three percent of the total African American population in the colony, sufficient for a clause to be included in a 1723 statute banning the manumission of African American slaves without the permission of the legislature.

  In South Carolina the ratio of free to slave was smaller, perhaps one percent, or between 200 and 300 individuals by 1760. The contrast to Virginia may have been the result of the more rigorous enforcement of a law of 1722 ordering all freed slaves to leave the province. White South Carolinians, as always, were terrified of slave rebellions, and feared the presence of free blacks who could help to organize them.

  In the North the proportion of free African Americans was higher, but because they made up such a small percentage of the general population, the actual number of free African Americans was small. In Connecticut perhaps 20 percent of the province's 2,000 African Americans enjoyed such status by 1760. In New York, on the other hand, the percentage had shrunk, from 20 percent of the African American population in the seventeenth century to only seven percent in the eighteenth. The total throughout the North amounted to only a few thousand, or one out of ten blacks living north of Maryland.

  The position of free African Americans everywhere was far from enviable. In Virginia they could not marry whites or enslaved blacks, could not vote or hold any office, were excluded from the militia, were forbidden to use firearms, and could testify only in court cases involving other African Americans. Miraculously, some still managed to get a small piece of land, usually as tenants. Others used such skills as they had to hire themselves out, mostly as laborers. Some found employment in Williamsburg and other towns where they could use their craft skills. A few owned farms and enjoyed some degree of prosperity, but many apparently slipped back into servitude. Apart from the economic pressures they experienced, they remained continually vulnerable to bullying neighbors, blackmail, or kidnap plots. Use of the courts in these circumstances was not easy.

  Conditions were not much better in the North even where these remained “societies with slaves” rather than “slave societies.” In eighteenth-century New York free African Americans were not allowed to own real estate. Those masters who liberated slaves had to provide sureties of £200, since “it is found by experience that the free Negroes of this colony are an idle slothful people and prove very often a charge.” They were always the first suspects in any crime and were also severely fined if they helped slaves to abscond. Free blacks faced similar discrimination in Massachusetts, where they were normally excluded from the militia and forced to work on the highways instead. They could not vote or sit on juries, and after 1705 they were forbidden to marry whites. Not the least of their difficulties was dealing with economic discrimination. While slaves found it relatively easy to get work, since their masters arranged it for them, free African Americans found work opportunities extremely limited and were pushed into the poorest housing. Although they could use the courts, they were always at a disadvantage before a white jury, and their attempts to purchase property often met with outright refusal. Freedom in such circumstances was bittersweet indeed.

  There was still one place where free blacks could live with dignity during the eighteenth century. This was the settlement of Gracia Real de Santa Teresa de Mose in Florida. Mose owed its existence to a 1693 Spanish offer of freedom to any African American slave in the English colonies who converted to Catholicism. The Spanish had always been more liberal in their attitude to slavery and manumission, though their policy was not entirely disinterested. By encouraging slaves to abscond, they hoped to weaken the economy of South Carolina while strengthening that of Florida.

  News of this offer soon spread among South Carolina's African American population, and during the early decades of the eighteenth century a trickle of refugees made the difficult and dangerous journey to St. Augustine. The largest influx occurred during the Yamasee War, when a number of slaves joined the Indians in their southward flight. By 1738 there were enough refugees for the establishment of a separate community of about 100 people two miles north of St. Augustine.

  Document 21

&
nbsp; “Afro-Floridians to the Spanish King, 1738,” translated by John DuVal and reprinted in Kathleen DuVal and John DuVal, eds, Interpreting a Continent: Voices from Colonial America (Lanham, 2009), 179–80

  This letter was written by former slaves to the king of Spain, thanking him for a decision by Florida's governor to reconfirm the earlier decree granting freedom to runaways, which some local Spaniards had recently tried to ignore. Questions to consider: How would the presence of this settlement have affected relationships between Africans and whites in South Carolina, just a few hundred miles to the north? Why do you think that the writers of this letter promised to fight against the English and to serve the king of Spain?

  My lord:

  All the Black people who escaped from the English plantations, obedient and loyal slaves to Your Majesty, declare that Your Majesty has done us true charity in ordering us to be given freedom for having come to this country and for being Christian and following the true religion that saves us … [O]beying laws which Your Majesty decreed, the present governor, Don Manuel de Montiano, has set us free, for which we greatly appreciate Your Majesty and thank him for this most royal kindness.

  Likewise, the Governor has offered and assured us that he will establish a place for us, which is called Gracia Real, where we may serve God and Your Majesty, cultivating the land so that there may be fruit in this country.

  We promise your Majesty that, whenever the opportunity arises, we will be the cruelest enemies to the English and will risk our lives in the service of Your Majesty, even to spilling the last drop of blood, in defense of the great crown of Spain and our holy faith.

  Thus Your Majesty may order any amount of service from us because we are his faithful slaves all of our life and we will always pray Our Lord to guard Your Majesty's life and the life of all the Royal Family throughout the slow years that we poor people need.

  Saint Augustine, Florida, 10 June 1738.

  Mose was ostensibly under the command of a Spanish officer, assisted by a priest, since the new settlement was designed as a military outpost for the Spanish capital. But because only the priest lived in the village, the day-to-day life of the settlement was under the control of one of its own freedmen, Francisco Menéndez. He had arrived in Florida in 1724 and first organized the male inhabitants into a militia. Otherwise Mose was similar to a Spanish Indian mission. The inhabitants lived in small thatched huts and tilled the land around the fort, fishing in the nearby waters to make ends meet. Some worked for wages in St. Augustine.

  The British regarded the settlement at Mose as a threat to their sovereignty, and James Oglethorpe attempted to destroy it during his 1740 expedition against St. Augustine. The inhabitants were evacuated to the Spanish capital for protection. Menéndez and his militia played an important role in Mose's recapture a few weeks later. Thereafter, the settlement struggled, with only about 60 inhabitants. Nonetheless, Mose continued to serve as beacon for slaves in the lower South hoping to live in freedom.

  6 Resistance to Slavery

  African Americans resisted slavery's oppression in a wide range of ways. The most common was to sabotage the system by passive resistance. Working slowly, doing poor-quality work, or pretending sickness were common behaviors but hard for owners to detect. Acts of sabotage such as breaking tools, minor theft, and even arson were widespread. Masters learned to avoid unnecessary confrontations over minor infractions of this type, which are common in any society that fails to provide adequate incentives for workers to be efficient or careful.

  Another form of resistance was running away. During the colonial period, especially in the far South, slaves sometimes sought the help of groups hostile to the British colonists in their attempts to escape. Runaways in South Carolina or Georgia often tried to reach St. Augustine, where they would be freed and sheltered by the Spanish. Other runaways obtained the help of the Indians, who sometimes adopted the fugitives into their own nations or kept them as slaves for the sachems' own use. In the Chesapeake, runaway slaves sometimes tried to go to a town like Williamsburg, where they could pass as free among the free African American community.

  Quite often, slaves ran away temporarily. Sometimes the reason was to escape harsh treatment by an unsympathetic master, or to negotiate better working conditions. Most commonly, though, slaves ran away to see their families, whose members were frequently split up. Family members could hide them temporarily, then the runaways usually returned of their own accord after a few days. The price of a permanent escape was the abandonment of loved ones, and that was a price many enslaved people were unwilling to pay.

  Organized rebellions occurred as well, most successfully in places where blacks outnumbered whites and where there were large numbers of recently arrived Africans in the population. Plans to try to overthrow the slaveholding regime in the mainland colonies were discovered in New York in 1708, 1712, and 1741, as well as in the Chesapeake in 1709, 1710, 1722, and on several occasions during the late 1720s. Most of the time rebellions were stopped before bloodshed occurred, with the exception of the New York uprising in 1712 when a group of slaves set fire to a building and then killed nine white men who were attempting to put it out. Even then, however, rapid retaliation by New York authorities prevented the uprising from spreading.

  Figure 28 Advertisement for the return of a runaway slave, Boston Gazette, April 8, 1765. From William and Mary Quarterly, 53 (1996), 145. Courtesy American Antiquarian Society.

  The largest slave revolt on the mainland was the Stono Rebellion in South Carolina in 1739. War was in the offing with Spain, and the authorities in St. Augustine had offered refuge to all slaves who fled the British settlements. In addition, the large number of Christian Angolans from the Kingdom of Kongo who had recently been imported into South Carolina may have given the uprising exceptional cohesion. The Kongo had converted to Roman Catholicism at the end of the fifteenth century, following contact with the Portuguese. The offer of sanctuary in Catholic Florida, therefore, was doubly appealing.23 On the morning of Sunday, September 9, a group of 15 slaves attacked a store, seized some guns, and killed some of the local whites. When they advertised their success by drum beat to encourage others to join, several dozen answered the call; but the action also alerted the local white militia. In a short exchange 14 slaves were killed while the rest fled south towards Florida, recruiting more slaves as they traveled. Eventually, after a battle between the well-armed white militia and a rebel band numbering about 100, the slaves were defeated and the rebellion came to a close.

  Document 22

  A suspected African rising prevented, 1680, reprinted in Warren M. Billings, The Old Dominion in the Seventeenth Century: A Documentary History of Virginia, 1606–1689 (Chapel Hill, 1975), 160

  This document illustrates the response of Virginia officials to a suspected slave uprising. Question to consider: Why did the council decide to prohibit Africans from assembling to bury their dead?

  His excellency was pleased this day in Council to acquaint the Council that he had even then received from Mr Secretary Spencer intelligence of the discovery of a Negro plot, formed in the Northern Neck for the destroying and killing his Majesty's Subjects the inhabitants thereof, with a design to carrying it through the whole Colony of Virginia, which being by God's Providence timely discovered before any part of the designs were put in execution, and thereby their whole evil purposes for the present defeated. And Mr Secretary Spencer having by his care secured some of the Principal Actors and contrivers, and the Evil and fatal Consequences that might have happened, being by this Board seriously considered, have found fit to order that the Negro Conspirators now in custody be either safely secured until the next General Court, to the Intent they may then be proceeded against according to Law, or if it be found more necessary for the present safety of the country that they be brought to a Speedy trial, that then his Excellency will be pleased to direct a Commission to Mr Secretary Spencer, Col Richard Lee and Col Isaac Allerton, three of His Majesty's Council Inhab
itants in the Northern Neck to sit, hear and try according to law the Negro Conspirators, and to proceed to sentence or condemnation and execution, or to such other punishments as according to law they shall be found Guilty of, by such examples of justice to deter other Negroes from plotting or contriving either the death, wrongs or injuries of any of his Majesty's subjects.

  And this Board having considered that the great freedom and liberty that has been by many masters given to their Negro Slaves for walking abroad on Saturdays and Sundays and permitting them to meet in great numbers in making and holding of funerals for Dead Negroes gives them the opportunities under pretension of such public meetings to consult and advise for the carrying on of their evil and wicked purposes and contrivances, for prevention whereof for the future, it is by this Board thought fit that a proclamation do forthwith issue, requiring a strict observance of the several laws of this colony relating to Negroes and to require and command all Masters of families having Negro Slaves not to permit them to hold or make any solemnity or funerals for any deceased Negroes.

  Map 14 Stono Rebellion, South Carolina (indicating Charleston, Savannah, St. Augustine, and Mose, Florida).

  Reproduced with permission of Yale University Press.

  Colonial responses to slave rebellions and conspiracies were undeniably brutal. In the aftermath of the New York uprising in 1712, authorities rounded up dozens of slaves, tried 43 of them, and executed 18 using methods that included burning at the stake and breaking on the wheel. Following the Stono Rebellion, South Carolina whites inflicted a series of brutal reprisals, in which offenders were burned, dismembered, and made to suffer a slow death by being suspended in chains until the birds and other animals had plucked out their eyes and eaten their flesh.24 Retaliation in the aftermath of the alleged New York slave conspiracy of 1741 was the most vicious, especially considering that the alleged conspiracy had resulted only in a series of fires with no injuries to people. Seventeen slaves and four whites were hanged, 13 slaves were burned at the stake, and 72 slaves were transported and sold to new owners in the Caribbean for allegedly plotting to destroy the city.25