18. Slavery in Virginia

As tobacco plantations expanded, the extent of Negro slavery increased as well. In 1710, there were 23,000 Negroes in Virginia among 55,000 whites; in 1750, the colony contained 101,000 Negroes and 130,000 whites. And, contrary to historical opinion, the Browns have shown that, while the larger plantations were in the Tidewater area, the proportion of slaves was no greater in many Tidewater areas than in the Piedmont. In fact, the greatest proportion of slaves to total population appeared in the land between the James and Rappahannock rivers, both in the Tidewater and going back well into the Piedmont area. Similarly, the evidence indicates that the proportion of the value of slaves in the total assets of the planters was no greater for large than for small slaveholders.*

The condition of the slaves was what we might expect, where some people are owned by others as capital. Slaves were kept in compounds where they were condemned to miserable lives of severe labor, little food, long working hours, and savage treatment; above all, they lived absolutely and continuously under the direction of their masters. Torture was systematically used even by the “kindest” of masters. For instance, Landon Carter, one of the most eminent planters of the colony, systematically whipped female slaves who were wasting their time tending their young children or daring to feign pregnancy. Stealing the master’s property was a particularly heinous offense. When two slaves were caught killing a sheep, Carter ordered them tried and declared that “one shall be hanged to terrify the rest.”** Legal marriages by slaves were forbidden, and unofficial slave families were often broken up. The prevalent practice of fornication by the masters with the female slaves was regarded as “a pleasant method to secure slaves at a cheap rate.” In law, the cards were stacked against the slaves: a slave received thirty lashes for daring to hit a white Christian, but any owner could kill a slave at will in the process of punishment; runaway slaves refusing to return could be killed, and if such a slave were killed, or executed for any other crime, the government compensated the slave owner. Many runaways committed suicide rather than return to their owner.

Along with slaves came the threat of slave rebellion. Indeed, one of the chief functions of the Virginia militia was to guard against such a menace. In calling for an increase in the militia, Governor Spotswood frankly declared: “Freedom wears a cap which can, without a tongue, call together all those who long to shake off the fetters of slavery and as such an insurrection would surely be attended with most dreadful consequences, so I think we cannot be too early in providing against it, both by putting ourselves in a better posture of defense and by making a law to prevent the consultations of those Negroes.” Furthermore, Virginia provided that when a runaway slave should be caught, he be taken from one constable to another along the way back to his master; each constable was to whip the slave in his turn.

Despite these precautions, in 1722 a massive slave plot covering several counties was brought to light. Three slaves, Cooper Will and two Sams, were found guilty of conspiracy to revolt and were sentenced to three years’ imprisonment. The following spring, slaves in Middlesex and Gloucester counties were discovered to be plotting to gain their freedom; seven of the leaders were sentenced to banishment. Governor Hugh Drysdale called upon the Assembly to intensify legal punishment of slave rebellion: “You’re too well acquainted with the cruel dispositions of these creatures, when they have it in their power to destroy or distress, to let slip their fair opportunity of making more proper laws against them....”

The Virginia legislature was all too eager to comply, and passed new laws forbidding all unlicensed meetings of slaves, as well as the death penalty without benefit of clergy for conspiracy. Furthermore, the crackdown touched even the few free Negroes: they were deprived of the vote, burdened with discriminatory tax rates, and forbidden to possess arms. Moreover, even voluntary manumission of slaves by masters was restricted by the legislature and approval was required by the governor and the Council. When twelve years later the English Board of Trade wanted to know why free Negroes could no longer vote, Governor William Gooch, revealing the colony’s great fear of Negro revolts, explained: “There has been a conspiracy discovered amongst the Negroes... wherein the free Negroes and Mulattos were much suspected to have been concerned [which will forever be the case] and though there could be no legal proof, so as to correct them, yet such was the insolence of the free Negroes [that the Assembly deprived them of the vote]... well knowing they always did, and ever will adhere to and favor the slaves... and to preserve a decent distinction between them and their betters....”

Despite all the restrictions, in the year 1729 a number of Virginia slaves rebelled, procured arms, ammunition, and agricultural equipment, and escaped west to settle in the Blue Ridge Mountains. There the former slaves harmed no one, but the force of their example could have been a standing reproach and a beacon light to the colony of Virginia and even to the entire system of slavery. Hence, Virginia mobilized a strong troop of whites to march against the Negro settlement to destroy it, which they did after a pitched battle. The Negroes left alive were taken back to bondage. Governor Gooch reacted by strengthening and training the militia to prevent similar episodes in the future.

Yet only one year later, in 1730, slave conspiracies were again revealed and suppressed in Virginia. An absurdly optimistic rumor spread among the slaves that the Crown had authorized the freeing of all baptized slaves. The spread of the rumor led to numerous meetings of slaves and “loose discourses” among them about individual liberty. Virginia promptly arrested and severely whipped the leaders of the discourses. A few weeks later, two hundred Negro slaves of Norfolk and Princess Anne counties gathered and chose officers for their imminent rebellion. But the plot was uncovered and four of the slave leaders were executed. Governor Gooch smugly conveyed to the Crown his hope that the slaves would now “rest contented with their condition.”

During the early years of the French and Indian War, when defeats were being inflicted on the English west of Virginia, the slaves took the opportunity to become rebellious. Governor Robert Dinwiddie (1751–58) remarked on the notorious “villainy of the Negroes in any emergency of government.” He ordered trial for any Negroes guilty of seditious talk, and placed a number of soldiers in each county to suppress any Negro revolt. In late 1767, Negro slaves near Alexandria revolted by poisoning and killing several of their overseers. In consequence, eight of the Negroes were brutally executed and their heads exhibited in the public square. A “mob of Negroes” also rioted in Frederick County in the same year. Altogether, slave revolts occurred in Virginia in the following years: 1722, 1723, 1729, 1730, 1755, and 1767.

*Robert E. and B. Katherine Brown, Virginia, 1705–1786: Democracy or Aristocracy? (East Lansing: Michigan State University Press, 1964), pp. 72–77.

**Ibid., p. 67.