Myths of American Slavery

by Walter Kennedy

  SLAVERY IN THE NORTHERN UNITED STATES

  Slave auctions, slave codes, slave families being broken apart, slave beatings, and slave uprisings in the minds of modern Americans are unquestionably associated with the Old South. The fact that all the above-mentioned blights upon American history are part of Northern history is poorly appreciated in modern America. Thus, whenever the aforementioned evils are discussed, it is the South that is placed in a negative light.

  As will be demonstrated, in the early days of the Northern colonies slavery was as important to the North as it was to become to the South. On the third of August, 1713, Josiah Franklin, the stepbrother of Benjamin Franklin, ran the following advertisement in the Boston News Letter,

  Three negro men and two women to be Sold and to he seen at the House of Mr. Josiah

  Franklin, a well-established merchant of Boston, sold many articles at his place of business, including slaves. His place of business was also used by many other slave traders as a convenient place to sell their slaves. Although not directly involved in the slave trade, Benjamin Franklin did publish ads in his newspaper advertising the sale of slaves. This was done by Benjamin Franklin at the same time as other newspapers in the area were, in principle, refusing to publish such ads.44

  Slavery, north of the Mason-Dixon line (i.e., in the North) existed from 1626 until the eve of the War for Southern Independence. For all practical purposes, the history of slavery in the North lasted approximately 225 years.45

  The use of Native American and Negro slaves was not uncommon throughout the British American colonial empire. But the British were not alone in this practice. In 1626, the Dutch found it expedient to bring Negro slaves to their colony of New Netherlands (New York). For what purpose did the Dutch inject the system of African slavery into their colony? The answer is rather simple: the need for a reliable labor force. It was not racism that stimulated slavery; rather, it was an economic imperative that was the driving force in the establishment of slavery in the North. In this respect, the North and the South have a common history. As historian Eugene D. Genovese points out, "[S]lavery as a system of class rule predated racism and racial subordination in world history and once existed without them."46 Regardless of which colony one looks at-North or South, North America or South Americait was slavery, Negro slavery for the most part, that provided the means of obtaining a degree of prosperity that assured the colony's success.47

  At this point, it must again be pointed out that the mechanism driving slavery in the Americas was the need for a stable and reliable labor force. Fields had to be cleared, homes built, food grown, forts constructed, and roads established. All the work of clearing, building, and growing was done by hand. This fact alone demonstrates why slavery was needed in the North as well as in the South in the early colonial period. Today, one man with a chain saw and a small tractor can do the work of ten or more men of the 1600s. If slavery is a system to provide labor sufficient to get the job done, then mechanization and the internal combustion engine would have ended slavery. Given the proper amount of time, progress, not Radical Abolitionists and war, would have freed America from the institution of slavery and spared hundreds of thousands of young American lives in the process.

  One of the many hardships suffered by the early colonies was the chronic shortage of free white labor. This shortage was acute as well as chronic, so much so that a system of "unfree" labor (i.e., indentured servants) was established early in colonial history. Unfortunately for all parties concerned, the system of unfree white labor did not provide the number of workers needed to make the colony self-sustaining. After all, not every European was eager to risk a perilous Atlantic crossing only to land in the American wilderness as the property of another man. Another problem often surfaced with indentured servants. More often than not, when their indentureship expired, they left the farms of their masters and followed the lucrative fur trade or went into a trade for their own benefit. This tendency reduced the available free labor force. Without an adequate and stable labor force, the colony would fail. Therefore, African slavery was the only logical alternative.48

  With an increase in African slavery in addition to the "unfree" white indentured servants, land and infrastructure development increased. In essence, the unfree laborers were conquering the wilderness of America and making civilization possible. What was true in the colony of New York was true throughout the Northern and Southern colonies.49

  New England, home of some of the most radical, blue-blooded abolitionists, has a remarkable slavery history. Historian Lorenzo Greene places the beginning of New England's affair with slavery between 1624 and 1630.5° Other historians, such as George H. Moore, place the inception of New England slavery at 1637.51 During that time, the colony of Massachusetts engaged in war with the Pequod Indians. As in Africa and Europe, success on the field of battle yielded prisoners who were sold into slavery. Thus we see the beginnings of slavery in New England with the enslavement of the Native American population of Massachusetts. The beginning of African slavery in Massachusetts can be pinpointed to the arrival of New England's first slave ship, Desire, back in its home port of Salem, Massachusetts. Returning from the Bahamas, the Desire brought back to Massachusetts several African slaves who were quickly bought by the local population.

  The Desire was one of the first ships built in New England. It worked the trade route between New England and the West Indies. In the West Indies, the New England captain exchanged New England goods-fish, trade goods, and Indian slaves-for cotton, tobacco, salt, and Negro slaves.52 Governor Winthrop of Massachusetts recorded the type and amount of goods brought from the West Indies to Massachusetts in his journal. Among the items which he identified as landing from the Desire were African slaves. It should be noted that not one word of protest was made by the governor about this traffic in humans.

  As has been noted, one of the items the folks of Massachusetts were sending to the West Indies was Indian slaves. In Notes on the History of Slavery in Massachusetts, George H. Moore states that in 1637 the Pequod Indians were being pushed off their ancestral homeland by the colonists of Massachusetts. Responding to the encroaching white settlers, the Pequods went to war with the colonists. The war ended with the near decimation of the Pequod Nation. Those who escaped slaughter were captured and sold into slavery. The women and children were enslaved in New England; the men and older boys were shipped to the West Indies and sold into slavery. Of the three stages (passages) of the slave trade, we can observe in the history of New England the active enslavement of Indians (first passage), the movement of slaves from their homeland to the slave market (middle passage), and, completing the history of the nefarious trade in humans, the final purchase and employment of slaves (third passage).

  It may be of interest to note the description given by Moore of how the Indians, who were taken prisoner by the Massachusetts military, were treated:

  is certain that in the Pequod War they took many prisoners. Some of these, who had been "disposed of to particular persons in the country" (Winthrop, I), 232 ran away, and being brought in again were "branded on the shoulder," ib. In July, 1637, Winthrop says, "We had now slain and taken, in all, about seven hundred. We sent fifteen of the boys and two women to Bermuda, by Mr. Peirce.... Governor Winthrop, writing to Governor Bradford of Plymouth, 28th July, 1637, an account of their success against the Pequods-"Ye Lords greate mercies towards us, in our prevailing against his & our enemies"-says: The prisoners were divided, some to those of ye river [the Connecticut colony] and the rest to us. Of these we send the finale children to Bermuda, by Mr. William Peirce, & ye women & maid children are disposed aboute in ye tounes. Ther have now been slaine and taken, in all, aboute 700.53

  New England did not stand alone in the commerce of African slave trading. All the major European powers vied for their portion of the lucrative trade in slaves. The demand for slaves by Europeans stretched from Canada in the North to Chile in the South. The requests for slaves was so extensive an
d unrelenting that from 1640 until 1820 more than four times as many Africans as Europeans were brought to the Western Hemisphere.sa It should be remembered that of this total African immigration, only 6 percent were brought to the United States. A full 94 percent of all Africans brought to the New World from Africa were sent to Cuba, Brazil, and the islands of the Caribbean. Is it not just a little unusual that in only two countries was slavery ended by a bloody war? Those countries that ended slavery by war were Haiti and the United States. The British West Indies, Cuba, Brazil, and the other Latin American nations did what the United States and Haiti could not do-end slavery peacefully.

  As appalling as the revelations about New England slavery have been thus far, the history of New England vis-a-vis the institution of slavery offers more shocking surprises. Although Virginia is often cited as the first American colony in which slavery existed, few people know that it was Massachusetts and not a Southern colony that passed the first law to recognize and protect the master's right in the property of his slave; this was done in 1641.55

  It may be beneficial to look at a few notable firsts in the history of slavery in America. For example, the first attempt at slave breeding took place in Massachusetts. George H. Moore gives this account of the attempt:

  An early traveller in New England has preserved for us the record of one of the earliest, if not, indeed, the very first attempt at breeding of slaves in America. The following passage from Josselyn's Account of Two Voyages to New England, published at London in 1664, will explain itself:

  The Second of October [16391, about 9 of the clock in the morning Mr. Mavericks Negro woman came to my chamber window, and in her own Countrey language and time sang very loud and shrill, going out to her, she used a great deal of respect towards me, and willingly would have expressed her grief in English; but I apprehended it by her countenance and deportment, whereupon I repaired to my host, to learn of him the cause, and resolved to intreat him in her behalf, for that I understood before, that she had been a Queen in her own Country, and observed a very humble and dutiful garb used towards her by another Negro who was her maid. Mr. Maverick was desirous to have a breed of Negroes, and therefore seeing she would not yield by persuasions to company with a Negro young man he had in his house; he commanded him will'd she nill'd she to go to bed to her, which was no sooner done but she kickt him out again, this she took in high disdain beyond her slavery, and this was the cause of her grief.56

  This first recorded attempt at slave breeding in America was as unsuccessful in the North as any like attempt in the South. In their classic work on slavery in the Old South, Robert W. Fogel and Stanley L. Engerman call the idea of slave breeding in the Old South a "myth." The very idea that the normal sexual habits of a people could be harnessed by a "master" class in order to "breed" humans is not only repugnant but ridiculous. These Nobel Prizewinning economists assert that the myth of slave breeding is supported only by the most meager of evidence. They then proceed to evidence to show that the is a total fallacy.57 Southerners are not unaccustomed to being ridiculed because of the supposed slave-breeding habits of their ancestors. As previously pointed out, New England holds the record for the first attempt at this activity, and noted scientists have challenged the notion of slave breeding in the Old South.

  Nothing provokes more rage against the South in general, and Southern slaveholders in particular, than the thought of the use of a whip on slaves. From Uncle Tom's Cabin to the latest Hollywood Civil War miniseries, the theme of Southerners whipping slaves guarantees the proper response from the audience. But why just the South? In Massachusetts and throughout the North, the whip was liberally employed. As early as 1705, the legislative body of Massachusetts was passing laws that instituted whipping as a means of punishment for both free and slave. Moore gives the following account of such an early law:

  The Law of 1705, Chapter 6, "for the better preventing of a Spurious and Mixt Issue, &c.;" punishes Negroes and Molattoes for improper intercourse with whites, by selling them out of the Province. It also punishes any Negro or Molatto for striking a Christian, by whipping at the discretion of the justices before whom he may be convicted. It also prohibits marriage of Christians with Negroes or Molattoes-and imposes a penalty of Fifty Pounds upon the persons joining them in marriage.58

  Although this is the first account of the legislature of Massachusetts passing a law for the whipping of Negroes, it should be pointed out that the practice of whipping was not confined to black people. Moore records that as early as 1658, the inhabitants of Massachusetts were imposing whipping and slavery as a punishment for white people. Having been caught attending a meeting of Quakers, the family of Lawrence Southwich was ordered to pay a fine. Refusing to pay the fine or work as payment of their fine, the general court took action. Moore relates:

  This they did, after due deliberation, by resolution empowering the County Treasurers to sell the said persons to any of the English nation at Virginia or Barbadoes [white slavery]-in accordance with the law for the sale of poor and delinquent debtors.... Provided Southwick [daughter of Lawrence Southwich] was subsequently in the same year, in the company of several other Quaker ladies, "whipt with term stripes," and afterwards "committed to prison to be proceeded with as the law directs."

  The indignant Quaker historian, in recounting these things, says, "After such a manner ye have done to the Servants of the Lord, and for speaking to one another, . .. and for meeting together, ransacking their Estates, breaking open their Land; and when ye have left them nothing, fell them for this which ye call Debt. Search the Records of former Ages, go through the Histories of Generations that are past; read the Monuments of the Antients, and see if ever there were such a thing as this since the Earth was laid, and the Foundations thereof in the Water, and out of the Water ... O ye Rulers of Boston, ye Inhabitants of the Massachusetts! What shall I say unto your Indeed, I am at a stand, I have no Nation with you to compare, I have no people with you to parallel, I am at a loss with you in this point.59

  Many apologists for New England will argue that although the system of slavery and whippings was common during the early period of the area, it surely had changed by the time of the War for American Independence. Nevertheless, one year after the signing of the Declaration of Independence, in 1777, the following bill of sale was issued for a slave from Middletown, Connecticut:

  Know all men by these Presents that I Joseph Stocking of Middletown in the County of Hartford and State of Connecticut for the Consideration of Thirty Pounds lawful Money received to my full satisfaction of George Wyllys Esquire of Hartford in the County aforesaid do give grant Bargain sell & convey and deliver to the said George Wyllys Esqr his Heirs and Assigns a certain Negro woman slave name Silvia of the Age of twenty three years. To have & to hold the said Negro slave to him the said George Wyllys Esq. his Heirs & Assigns for and during the Term of her Natural Life to his & their Use benefit & behoof.''°'

  Even after the end of the American War for Independence and twenty years after Massachusetts's judicial form of emancipation was in place, Massachusetts nevertheless maintained a hostile attitude toward free people of color in the state. The following notice was published in the Massachusetts Mercury, in Boston, on September 16, 1800:

  Notice To Blacks

  The Officers of Police having made return to the Subscriber of the names of the following persons, who are Africans or Negroes, not subjects of the Emperor of Morocco nor citizens of the United States, the same are hereby warned and directed to depart out of this Commonwealth before the 10th day of October next, as they would avoid the pains and penalties of the law in that case provided, which was passed by the Legislature, March 26,

  Following the notice were the names of several Africans or Negroes who were commanded to leave the state of Massachusetts or suffer the "pains and penalties of the law." After a list of names, the ad continued:

  List of INDIANS and MULATTOES

  The following persons from several of the United States,
being people of color, commonly called Mulattoes, are presumed to come within the intention of the same law; and are accordingly warned and directed to depart out of the Commonwealth before the 10th day of October next.62

  Moore explains the rationale for this and similar notices that ran throughout the North at that time:

  This notice must have been generally published in Boston, and was copied in other cities without the list of names. We have met with it in Commercial Advertiser of the 20th September, 1800, and the Daily Advertiser, 22rd September, 1800, both in New York. Also in the Gazette of the United States and Daily Advertiser of 23rd September, 1800, in Philadelphia....

  In the year 1800, the whole country was excited by the discovery of an alleged plot for a general insurrection of negroes at the South....

  But the alarm was not confined to Virginia. Even in Boston, fears were expressed and measures of prevention adopted... . The Gazette of the United States and Daily Advertiser .. . Philadelphia, September 23, 1800, copies the "Notice" with these remarks:

  "The following notice has been published in the Boston papers: It seems probable, from the nature of the notice, that suspicions of the design of the negroes are entertained, and we regret to say there is too much cause."