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

by Taylor, Alan

  30 Miles King to Christopher Tompkins, June 30, 1809 (all quotations), TFP (Mss 1 T5996 d 13), VHS; Mathews County Court of Oyer and Terminer trial transcript, June 15, 1809, JTEP, reel 6008, LV. For Miles King’s pious correspondence, see King to Thomas Jefferson, Aug. 20, 1814, in PTJ-RS, vol. 7:573–89.

  31 Miles King to Christopher Tompkins, June 30, 1809 (all quotations), TFP (Mss 1 T5996 d 13), VHS; Mathews County Court trial transcript, June 15, 1809, JTEP, reel 6008, LV.

  32 Miles King to Christopher Tompkins, June 30, 1809, TFP (Mss 1 T5996 d 13), VHS.

  33 George Washington, quoted in Chernow, Washington, 115; Fithian, Journal and Letters, 51; Ball, Fifty Years in Chains, 44.

  34 Darrell, “Diary,” 146; Morgan, Slave Counterpoint, 102, 136–39, 358–59; Lobb, Uncle Tom’s Story, 22; Steward, Twenty-Two Years a Slave, 14; Walsh, “Work and Resistance,” 98–105, Chernow, Washington, 115–16; Herndon, William Tatham, 104.

  35 Grimes, Life of William Grimes, 40; Fedric, Slave Life in Virginia, 17; Lobb, Uncle Tom’s Story, 25 (“driving a pig”), 49; Schwarz, “Gabriel’s Challenge,” 296–97; Schwarz, Twice Condemned, 222–27; Walsh, “Work and Resistance,” 102; [G. Tucker], Letters from Virginia, 115–18.

  36 R. Parkinson, Tour in America, vol. 2:432; Ball, Fifty Years in Chains, ix; Steward, Twenty-Two Years a Slave, 29. For masters who understood the morality of slaves stealing from their exploiters, see Jefferson, Notes on the State of Virginia, 132; John Randolph to Harmanus Bleeker, July 26, 1814, in Kirk, John Randolph, 247.

  37 R. Parkinson, Tour in America, vol. 2:420; Sobel, World They Made Together, 33 (“Nigger day-time”), 253n12 (“uncurbed liberty”); Egerton, Gabriel’s Rebellion, 17; Morgan, Slave Counterpoint, 509, 525; Stanton, “‘Those Who Labor for My Happiness,’” 165; Steward, Twenty-Two Years a Slave, 30; Old Dick quoted in J. Davis, Travels, 415; [G. Tucker], Letters from Virginia, 79.

  38 Lobb, Uncle Tom’s Story, 24–25 (“Slavery did”); Grimes, Life of William Grimes, 39; Morgan, Slave Counterpoint, 121–22; Frederick Douglass quoted in Aptheker, American Negro Slave Revolts, 64.

  39 Sobel, World They Made Together, 96–98; Morgan, Slave Counterpoint, 521–24; Nicholls, Whispers of Rebellion, 13–18. For a sophisticated interpretation of slave neighborhoods elsewhere in the South, see Kaye, Joining Places, esp. 4–12, 21–50.

  40 Birkbeck, Notes on a Journey, 14–5; Fithian, Journal and Letters, 245; Torrey, Portraiture of Domestic Slavery, 12–13; Steward, Twenty-Two Years a Slave, 32; Schwarz, Twice Condemned, 211–14. Schwarz found that the prosecution of arson surged between 1785 and 1831 but that it was a difficult crime to prove and so to convict.

  41 Trial of Daniel, Aug. 11, 1815, trial of John Fox and Nelson, May 21, 1816, and trial of Delphy, June 10, 1816, in WCNEP, boxes 2 and 4, LV; Schwarz, Twice Condemned, 203–5, 210–11; Birkbeck, Notes on a Journey, 17; Wyatt-Brown, Southern Honor, 424 (“palma-christal”).

  42 John F. D. Smyth quoted in Sobel, World They Made Together, 32–34 (“in which he performs”); Jefferson, Notes on the State of Virginia, 129; Benjamin Faulkner’s Phil, quoted by Griff, a fellow slave, in trial of Phil, King and Queen County, July 21, 1813 (“that black people”), JBEP, reel 5514, LV. [G. Tucker], Letters from Virginia, 80.

  43 Ely, Israel on the Appomattox, 236–44; McColley, Slavery and Jeffersonian Virginia, 63, 103; Morgan, Slave Counterpoint, 388–90; J. D. Rothman, Notorious in the Neighborhood, 95–98; Sheldon, “Black-White Relations,” 30–41; Steward, Twenty-Two Years a Slave, 27; Alexander Dick, travel journal, 167 (Mar. 10, 1808: “began to box & kick”), reel 2370, SSCL-UVA.

  44 Hunt, First Forty Years, 89–90; Bowers, Diary of Elbridge Gerry, Jr., 193–99; John Minor to James Barbour, Aug. 11, 1812, JBEP, reel 5504, LV; Peter Francisco to James Barbour, June 21, 1813, JBEP, reel 5513, LV; Richard Cranch Norton, “Notebooks & Diaries,” Aug. 2, 1812 (“We were somewhat alarmed”), Massachusetts Historical Society, Boston.

  45 Janson, Stranger in America, 404–5.

  46 McColley, Slavery and Jeffersonian Virginia, 92–94; Morgan, Slave Counterpoint, 340–41, 464–65; Mullin, Flight and Rebellion, 89–91, 103; Whitman, Price of Freedom, 69–71; J. Davis, Travels, 400. In an investigation of the 648 slaves who belonged to John Tayloe III between 1809 and 1828, Richard Dunn found only a few runaways—and all of them eventually were caught. See R. S. Dunn, “After Tobacco,” 359–63.

  47 Mullin, Flight and Rebellion, 103–23; Ann L. Meredith, “Twenty Dollars Reward,” [Richmond] Enquirer, June 4, 1813; Morgan, Slave Counterpoint, 526–30; Whitman, Price of Freedom, 71–74.

  48 Thomas Mann Randolph Jr. to Nicholas P. Trist, Nov. 22, 1822, Trist Family Papers (10487), SSCL-UVA.

  49 McColley, Slavery and Jeffersonian Virginia, 95–96; Morgan, Slave Counterpoint, 525; Mullin, Flight and Rebellion, vii; Sidbury, Ploughshares into Swords, 24; Sterling Seawell, testimony, Gloucester County trial of Lewis Williams’s Sam, Apr. 20, 1813 (all quotations), JBEP, reel 5511, LV.

  50 William H. Cabell to Joseph C. Cabell, Dec. 31, 1810, JCCFP (38-111-c), box 2, SSCL-UVA.

  51 Morgan, Slave Counterpoint, 398–401; Sobel, World They Made Together, 150; Roberts and Roberts, Moreau de St. Mery’s American Journey, 305; Nicholls, “Passing through This Troublesome World,” 54; Jefferson, Notes on the State of Virginia, 133; Morgan, “Interracial Sex,” 77; Stanton, “‘Those Who Labor for My Happiness,’” 152–53; Cocke quoted in J. D. Rothman, “James Callender,” 108, 113n67; Onuf, Mind of Thomas Jefferson, 227; [G. Tucker], Letters from Virginia, 75. For the definitive account of Jefferson and Hemings, see Gordon-Reed, Hemingses of Monticello. For the implications of miscegenation in Virginia, see C. E. Walker, Mongrel Nation, 13–55.

  52 J. D. Rothman, Notorious in the Neighborhood, 4–10, 105–6, 134, 153; Morgan, “Interracial Sex,” 62–63, 67–68, 77. For enslaved women seeking to become concubines, see J. Davis, Travels, 400.

  53 Grimes, Life of William Grimes, 29–30, 33.

  54 Comte de Volney quoted in J. D. Rothman, “James Callender,” 87 (“as white”); Alexander Dick, travel journal, 167 (Feb. 17, 1808: “mostly his own”), reel 2370, SSCL-UVA; Torrey, Portraiture of Domestic Slavery, 14–15; Morgan, Slave Counterpoint, 433.

  55 W. D. Jordan, White over Black, 549–54, 580 (legislator quoted); Thomas Jefferson to Joseph C. Cabell, Nov. 28, 1820 (“in danger”), in P. L. Ford, Works of Thomas Jefferson, vol. 12:170; John Taylor quoted in Bailor, “John Taylor of Caroline,” 297; Onuf, Mind of Thomas Jefferson, 217–18.

  56 Morgan, Slave Counterpoint, 253, 354–58; Sobel, World They Made Together, 128–36; W. C. Bruce, John Randolph, vol. 2:130; John Peterkin, “Journal,” Nov. 8, 1817 (“During the warm”), WLCL-UM.

  57 Henry St. George Tucker to St. George Tucker, Nov. 11, 1802, to Frances Coalter, Feb. 16, 1803, and to St. George Tucker, Oct. 10, 1803 (“Today”), in Coleman, Virginia Silhouettes, 7–8.

  58 John Randolph quoted in Dawidoff, Education of John Randolph, 52–53 (“People may say” and “I know not”); Randolph quoted in W. C. Bruce, John Randolph, vol. 2:244.

  59 W. C. Bruce, John Randolph, vol. 2:696–99.

  60 John Faulcon to John Hartwell Cocke, Dec. 26, 1828, quoted in J. Lewis, Pursuit of Happiness, 140.

  61 J. D. Rothman, Notorious in the Neighborhood, 6–7; Ely, Israel on the Appomattox, ix–x, 13–14, 218–21, 236, 240; Morgan, Slave Counterpoint, 257–61, 269, 273, 437; Wolf, Race and Liberty, 128.

  62 Mullin, Flight and Rebellion, 102.

  63 John W. Tomlin to Benjamin Brand, Jan. 6, 1809, Elkanah Talley to Brand, Sep. 10, 1809, and Benjamin Lipscomb to Brand, May 7, 1810, in Benjamin Brand Papers, sec. 4, VHS.

  64 Powhatan County testimony quoted in James Clarke et al. to Wilson Cary Nicholas, Mar. 1, 1816, WCNEP, box 4, LV.

  65 Thomas Mann Randolph Jr. to Nicholas P. Trist, Nov. 22, 1818 (all quotations), Trist Family Papers (10487), SSCL-UVA; Gaines, Thomas Mann Randolph, 76; Stanton, “‘Those Who Labor for My Happiness,’” 83; Wiencek, Master o
f the Mountain, 101–2. My thanks to Laura Voisin George for her help with the Randolph letter.

  66 Thomas Mann Randolph Jr. to Nicholas P. Trist, Nov. 22, 1818, Trist Family Papers (10487), SSCL-UVA; Stanton, “‘Those Who Labor for My Happiness,’” 83; Wiencek, Master of the Mountain, 102.

  67 [G. Tucker], Letters from Virginia, 34–35.

  CHAPTER THREE: BLOOD

  1 Sutcliff, Travels in Some Parts, 50.

  2 “St. George Tucker Notes,” June 2 and July 25, 1798, TCP, box 63, SCSL-CWM.

  3 For St. George Tucker’s rationalism and deism, see Brugger, Beverley Tucker, 6; P. Hamilton, Making and Unmaking, 55.

  4 P. Hamilton, Making and Unmaking, 81; Drescher, Abolition, 147–52; L. K. Ford, Deliver Us from Evil, 26; Thomas Jefferson quoted in Chernow, Washington, 710; Hickey, “America’s Response,” 361–79; A Rothman, Slave Country, 21; Sidbury, “Saint Domingue in Virginia,” 531–52; Birkbeck, Notes on a Journey, 17; W. D. Jordan, White over Black, 394; Sutton, “Nostalgia, Pessimism, and Malaise,” 51.

  5 George Mason quoted in Kirk, John Randolph, 155; Jefferson, Notes on the State of Virginia, 128 (“convulsions”), 151 (“Indeed, I tremble”). For slavery as a state of war, see D. B. Davis, Problem of Slavery, 45; Onuf, Mind of Thomas Jefferson, 209–11.

  6 W. D. Jordan, White over Black, 542–67; St. G. Tucker, Dissertation on Slavery, 49–51.

  7 P. Hamilton, “Revolutionary Principles,” 533–35; St. G. Tucker, Dissertation on Slavery, 2, 27–28, 56–57.

  8 St. G. Tucker, Dissertation on Slavery, v, 54–60 (59: “middle course”; 60: “without”).

  9 St. George Tucker to Jeremy Belknap, June 29, 1795 (“a large majority”), and Apr. 3 and Aug. 13, 1797, in Belknap, “Queries,” 407, 426, 427–28; Ludwell Lee to Tucker, Dec. 5, 1796, in Coleman, Virginia Silhouettes, 4–5; Tucker to Robert Pleasants, June 29, 1797, in “St. George Tucker Notes,” 38, TCP, box 63, SCSL-CWM; P. Hamilton, “Revolutionary Principles,” 535–37; P. Hamilton, Making and Unmaking, 81–82; David Meade to Joseph Prentiss, Sep. 4, 1799 (“In truth”), quoted in Egerton, Gabriel’s Rebellion, 15.

  10 Virginia Independent Chronicle and General Advertiser, June 2, 1790, quoted in Wolf, Race and Liberty, 115; W. D. Jordan, White over Black, 384; McColley, Slavery and Jeffersonian Virginia, 118–19; Aptheker, American Negro Slave Revolts, 158; St. George Tucker to Jeremy Belknap, Aug. 13, 1797, in Belknap, “Queries,” 427–28.

  11 Boston Gazette, June 18, 1792 (“blow up”), quoted in Aptheker, American Negro Slave Revolts, 211; Barnes, Pungoteague to Petersburg, vol. 1:36–38; Col. H. Guy to Thomas Newton Jr., May 9, 1792, Willis Wilson to Gov. Henry Lee, May 10, 1792, Littleton Savage to Lee, May 17, 1792, Miles King to Robert Goode, May 17, 1792, Thomas Newton Jr. to Lee, and James Baytop to Lee, June 9, 1792 (“defenceless”), in Flournoy, CVSP, vol. 5:541, 542, 546, 547, 552, 585.

  12 Barnes, Pungoteague to Petersburg, vol. 1:36–38; Miles King to Robert Goode, May 17, 1792, Thomas Newton Jr. to Lee, and Col. Smith Snead to Lee, May 21 (“only a few”) and July 9, 1792, in Flournoy, CVSP, vol. 5:547, 552, 555, 625.

  13 Col. Smith Snead to Gov. Henry Lee, July 9, 1792, in Flournoy, CVSP, vol. 5:547, 552, 625.

  14 John Wood, editor of the Petersburg Daily Courier, quoted in Federal Gazette & Baltimore Daily Advertiser, Nov. 16, 1814; John Randolph to Joseph Scott, Dec. 29, 1806, Randolph-Tucker Papers, Brock Collection, box 7, HL; Hadden, Slave Patrols, 143; Morgan, Slave Counterpoint, 385–88, 398; Wyatt–Brown, Southern Honor, 405–6.

  15 Morgan, Slave Counterpoint, 387–88; Hadden, Slave Patrols, 143; Col. Smith Snead to Gov. Henry Lee, May 5, 1792, Thomas Newton Jr. to Lee, May 10, 1792, and Willis Wilson to Gov. Henry Lee, May 19, 1792, in CVSP, vol. 5:534, 540, 551; Wyatt-Brown, Southern Honor, 411, 418–20.

  16 Frank Carr to William Wirt, Jan. 19, 1802, quoted in Wyatt-Brown, Southern Honor, 409, see also 413–15.

  17 Janson, Stranger in America, 402–4; Wyatt-Brown, Southern Honor, 411–12, 425; Nicholls, Whispers of Rebellion, 19.

  18 Wyatt–Brown, Southern Honor, 406–8, 421–22; James Rush to John Mason, Nov. 10, 1800 (“power”), quoted in Nicholls, Whispers of Rebellion, 68; Col. Smith Snead to Gov. Henry Lee, May 21, 1792, in Flournoy, CVSP, vol. 5:555.

  19 Wyatt-Brown, Southern Honor, 421–22, 427, 427–34 (John Cowper quoted on 431).

  20 Morgan, Slave Counterpoint, 387–88; Wyatt-Brown, Southern Honor, 404, 418–20; James Maud to Col. Robert Carter, Nov. 9, 1793, quoted in Aptheker, American Negro Slave Revolts, 154.

  21 Wyatt-Brown, Southern Honor, 432–33; Nicholls, Whispers of Rebellion, 9. For skepticism about slave revolts, see Johnson, “Denmark Vesey,” 915–76; Morgan, “Conspiracy Scares,” 159–66.

  22 Egerton, Gabriel’s Rebellion, 20–33, 48–49, 52–53; Schwartz, “Gabriel’s Challenge,” 287–94; Mullin, Flight and Rebellion, 141; Nicholls, Whispers of Rebellion, 25–26.

  23 Egerton, Gabriel’s Rebellion, 52–67; L. K. Ford, Deliver Us from Evil, 49–50; Mullin, Flight and Rebellion, 141–43; Sidbury, Ploughshares into Swords, 7; Shalhope, John Taylor, 101–2.

  24 Egerton, Gabriel’s Rebellion, 30–31, 34–49 (Jack Ditcher quote on 40); Mullin, Flight and Rebellion, 156–57.

  25 Egerton, Gabriel’s Rebellion, 55–57; Mullin, Flight and Rebellion, 145–46 (all quotes), 156–57; Morgan, Slave Counterpoint, 533; Nicholls, Whispers of Rebellion, 32–38.

  26 Egerton, Gabriel’s Rebellion, 49 (“all poor”); Mullin, Flight and Rebellion, 147 (Gilbert quote), 158; Schwarz, “Gabriel’s Challenge,” 295; Nicholls, Whispers of Rebellion, 38.

  27 Egerton, Gabriel’s Rebellion, 50–51, 64–65; Sidbury, Ploughshares into Swords, 6–7; Nicholls, Whispers of Rebellion, 28–29; John Randolph to Joseph H. Nicholson, Sep. 26, 1800, in W. C. Bruce, John Randolph, vol. 2:250.

  28 Egerton, Gabriel’s Rebellion, 69–79; L. K. Ford, Deliver Us from Evil, 52; Mullin, Flight and Rebellion, 151; Nicholls, Whispers of Rebellion, 57–70.

  29 Egerton, Gabriel’s Rebellion, 83–112; Nicholls, Whispers of Rebellion, 72–92; John Randolph to Joseph H. Nicholson, Sep. 26, 1800, in W. C. Bruce, John Randolph, vol. 2:250; John Minor quoted in L. K. Ford, Deliver Us from Evil, 53; Sidbury, Ploughshares into Swords, 7.

  30 Thomas Jefferson to James Monroe, Sep. 20, 1800, in Egerton, Gabriel’s Rebellion, 92–93; John Randolph to Joseph H. Nicholson, Sep. 26, 1800, in W. C. Bruce, John Randolph, vol. 2:250; L. K. Ford, Deliver Us from Evil, 53–54; Nicholls, Whispers of Rebellion, 87–88.

  31 Egerton, Gabriel’s Rebellion, 147.

  32 [G. Tucker], Letter to a Member, 3–4 (“the danger” and “has waked”), 7 (“they sought freedom”), 14 (“hold out the lure,” “have,” and “convert”), 22 (“see our folly”). For the pamphlet’s author, see W. D. Jordan, White over Black, 561–62. It remains a common mistake to equate George Tucker with St. George Tucker. For example, see Mullin, Flight and Rebellion, viii, 157.

  33 [G. Tucker], Letter to a Member, 16 (“a foreign enemy”), 18–21; Egerton, Gabriel’s Rebellion, 151–53.

  34 James Monroe to Thomas Jefferson, June 15, 1801, in Oberg, Papers of Thomas Jefferson, vol. 34:345–47; Egerton, Gabriel’s Rebellion, 151–52.

  35 James Monroe to Thomas Jefferson, June 15, 1801 (“a subject” and “involves the future peace”), Jefferson to Monroe, July 21, 1801, Monroe to Jefferson, Nov. 17, 1801, Jefferson to Monroe, Nov. 22 and Nov. 24, 1801 (“either blot or mixture”), in Oberg, Papers of Thomas Jefferson, vol. 34:345–47, 614, and vol. 35:683, 712, 718–20; Egerton, Gabriel’s Rebellion, 153–60; L. K. Ford, Deliver Us from Evil, 61; Monroe quoted in McColley, Slavery and Jeffersonian Virginia, 135 (“without expense”).

  36 James Monroe to John Drayton, Oct. 21, 1800, quoted in Mullin, Flight and Rebellion, 141; Egerton, Gabriel’s Rebellion, 164–74; L. K. Ford, Deliver Us from Evil, 55–58; McColley, Slavery and Jeffersonian Virginia, 113; Schwarz, “Gabriel’s Challenge,” 302–3; anonymous Virginian published in the New York Commercial Advertiser, Sep.
30, 1800 (“If we will”), and quoted in Aptheker, American Negro Slave Revolts, 65; Alexander Dick, travel journal, 180 (May 15, 1808), reel 2370, SSCL-UVA.

  37 Egerton, Gabriel’s Rebellion, 173–75.

  38 L. K. Ford, Deliver Us from Evil, 65; McColley, Slavery and Jeffersonian Virginia, 103–4; Jordan, White over Black, 356, 400 (quote from member in Alexandria).

  39 Aptheker, American Negro Slave Revolts, 76; L. K. Ford, Deliver Us from Evil, 65; Thomas B. Robertson quoted in W. D. Jordan, White over Black, 580; Shalhope, John Taylor, 146–49; Robson, “‘Important Question Answered,’” 651.

  40 Richard D. Bayly to John Cropper, Jan. 6, 1805, John Cropper Papers, sec. 1, VHS; John Minor quoted in W. D. Jordan, White over Black, 576; Wolf, Race and Liberty, 124–26; L. K. Ford, Deliver Us from Evil, 65.

  41 Thomas Robertson in the Virginia Argus, Jan. 17, 1806, quoted in Wolf, Race and Liberty, 124; Richmond Enquirer, Jan. 5, 1805 (“the melancholy race”), quoted in Sheldon, “Black-White Relations,” 35.

  42 W. D. Jordan, White over Black, 575–76; L. K. Ford, Deliver Us from Evil, 65; Wolf, Race and Liberty, 121–23.

  43 John Winston, petition, Dec. 11, 1820, quoted in Nicholls, Whispers of Rebellion, 146.

  44 Jeter, Recollections of a Long Life, 67–69 (all quotations); W. D. Jordan, White over Black, 552.

  45 J. Taylor, Arator, 131 (“incapable of removal”); Shalhope, John Taylor, 142–48; Thomas Jefferson quoted in Stanton, “‘Those Who Labor for My Happiness,’” 163; W. C. Bruce, John Randolph, vol. 2:130.

  46 Hickey, “America’s Response,” 365–68; Beeman, Old Dominion, xii–xiii.

  47 Riley, “Slavery and the Problem of Democracy,” 230–31; D. P. Jordan, Political Leadership, 3; Onuf, Mind of Thomas Jefferson, 252–55; McColley, Slavery and Jeffersonian Virginia, 130–31; Deyle, Carry Me Back, 23; Jefferson to Walter Jones, Mar. 31, 1801, quoted in Leichtle and Carveth, Crusade against Slavery, 47 (“that no more good”); Jefferson to William Burwell, Jan. 28, 1805 (“long since”), quoted in A. Rothman, Slave Country, 34; Jefferson quoted in Blackburn, Overthrow of Colonial Slavery, 285 (“The existence”).