American Experience

Virginia Slave Laws

 

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Context: When the colony of Virginia began, most labor on the tobacco plantations that drove its economy was done by English or Irish indentured servants. These servants sold themselves for periods of time, usually seven years, in exchange for debt relief or passage to the New World. However, with the poor conditions in the newly-settled areas, life expectancy for servants was very short—often two or three years. So even after the arrival of the first enslaved Africans in 1619, few Virginian planters were willing to pay the higher price for their “lifetime” of labor. Slaves and servants, therefore, most often received equal treatment, sharing the same harsh punishments (such as whipping for running away), but also opportunity for eventual freedom. Conversion to Christianity could mean the emancipation of a slave, there was frequent social interaction between the two groups, including intermarriage, and a general sense of shared status. But as conditions improved by the 1650s and life expectancies grew, investment in African laborers enslaved for life became more valued. As a result, the Virginia House of Burgesses (the colony’s government body) began to differentiate the status of European and African laborers by law.

 

December 1662 Whereas some doubts have arisen whether children got by any Englishman upon a Negro woman should be slave or free, be it therefore enacted and declared by this present Grand Assembly, that all children born in this country shall be held bond or free only according to the condition of the mother; and that if any Christian shall commit fornication with a Negro man or woman, he or she so offending shall pay double the fines imposed by the former act.

 

September 1667 Whereas some doubts have risen whether children that are slaves by birth, and by the charity and piety of their owners made partakers of the blessed sacrament of baptism, should by virtue of their baptism be made free, it is enacted and declared by this Grand Assembly, and the authority thereof, that the conferring of baptism does not alter the condition of the person as to his bondage or freedom; that diverse masters, freed from this doubt may more carefully endeavor the propagation of Christianity by permitting children, through slaves, or those of greater growth if capable, to be admitted to that sacrament.

 

September 1668 Whereas it has been questioned whether servants running away may be punished with corporal punishment by their master or magistrate, since the act already made gives the master satisfaction by prolonging their time by service, it is declared and enacted by this Assembly that moderate corporal punishment inflicted by master or magistrate upon a runaway servant shall not deprivate the master of the satisfaction allowed by the law, the one being as necessary to reclaim them from persisting in that idle course as the other is just to repair the damages sustained by the master.

 

October 1669 Whereas the only law in force for the punishment of refractory servants resisting their master, mistress, or overseer cannot be inflicted upon Negroes [the extension of time of service], nor the obstinacy of many of them be suppressed by other than violent means, be it enacted and declared by this Grand Assembly if any slave resists his master (or other by his master's order correcting him) and by the extremity of the correction should chance to die, that his death shall not be accounted a felony, but the master (or that other person appointed by the master to punish him) be acquitted from molestation, since it cannot be presumed that premeditated malice (which alone makes murder a felony) should induce any man to destroy his own estate.

 

Edited by: Prof. Stephen Duncan

 

Primary Source Material: William Waller Hening, Statues at Large; Being a Collection of All of the Laws of Virginia (Richmond, Va.: Samuel Pleasnats, 1809-23), Vol. II, pp. 170, 260, 266, 270.

 

"Virginia Slave Laws" is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license by Prof. Stephen Duncan at Bronx Community College.

An Indian Slave Woman Confesses to Witchcraft Digital History ID 67

Author:   Salem Village Date:1691

Annotation:

In 1691, a group of girls in Salem, Massachusetts, accused an Indian slave named Tituba of witchcraft. Tituba's confession ignited a witchcraft scare which left 19 men and women hanged, one man pressed to death, and over 150 more people in prison awaiting trial.

For two decades, New England had been in the grip of severe social stresses. A 1675 conflict with the Indians known as King Philip's War had resulted in more deaths relative to the size of the population than any other war in American history. A decade later, in 1685, King James II's government revoked the Massachusetts charter. A new governor, Sir Edmund Andros, sought to unite New England, New York, and New Jersey into a single Dominion of New England. He also tried to abolish elected colonial assemblies, restrict town meetings, and impose direct control over militia appointments, and permitted the first public celebration of Christmas in Massachusetts. After William III replaced James II as King of England in 1689, Andros's government was overthrown, but Massachusetts was required to eliminate religious qualifications for voting and to extend religious toleration to sects such as the Quakers. The late seventeenth century also marked a sudden increase in the number of black slaves in New England.

The 1637 Pequot War produced New England's first known slaves. While many Indian men were transported into slavery in the West Indies, many Indian women and children were used as household slaves in New England. The 1641 Massachusetts Body of Liberties recognized perpetual and hereditary servitude (although in 1643, a Massachusetts court sent back to Africa some slaves who had been kidnapped by New England sailors and brought to America). Tituba was one of the growing number of slaves imported from the West Indies.

Probably an Arawak born in northeastern South America, Tituba had been enslaved in Barbados before being brought to Massachusetts in 1680. Her master, Samuel Parris, had been a credit agent for sugar planters in Barbados before becoming a minister in Salem, Massachusetts. In late 1691, two girls in Parris's household and two girls from nearby households began to exhibit strange physical symptoms including convulsions and choking. To counteract these symptoms, Tituba made a "witchcake" out of rye meal and urine. This attempt at counter-magic led to Tituba's arrest for witchcraft. She and two other women--Sarah Good and Sarah Osborne--were accused of bewitching the girls. Tituba confessed, but the other two women protested their innocence. Good was executed; Osborne died in prison.

As Elaine G. Breslaw has shown, Tituba's confession that she had consorted with Satan and attended a witches' coven fueled fears of a diabolical plot to infiltrate and destroy Salem's godly community. In her testimony, Tituba drew upon Indian and African, as well as English, notions of the occult.

Tituba later recanted her confession, saying that she had given false testimony in order to save her life. She claimed "that her Master did beat her and otherways abuse her, to make her confess and accuse...her Sister-Witches."

Document:

Tituba an Indian woman brought before us by Const[able] Joseph Herrick of Salem upon Suspicion of witchcraft by her committed according to [th]e complaint of Jos[eph] Hutcheson and Thomas Putnam &c of Salem Village as appears per warrant granted Salem 29 Febr[uar]y 1691/2. Tituba upon examination and after some denial acknowledged the matter of fact according to her examination given in more fully will appear, and who also charged Sarah Good and Sara Osburne with the same....

(H) Tituba what evil spirit have you familiarity with.

(T) None.

(H) Why do you hurt these children.

(T) I do not hurt them.

(H) Who is it then.

(T) The devil for ought I know.

(H) Did you never see the devil.

(T) The devil came to me and bid me serve him.

(H) Who have you seen.

(T) Four women sometimes hurt the children.

(H) Who were they.

(T) Goode Osburn and Sarah Good and I do not know who the others were. Sarah Good and Osburne would have me hurt the children but I would not. She further saith there was a tall man of Boston that she did see.

(H) When did you see them.

(T) Last night at Boston.

(H) what did they say to you.

(T) They said hurt the children

(H) And did you hurt them

(T) No there is 4 women and one man they hurt the children and they lay upon me and they tell me if I will not hurt the children they will hurt me.

(H) But did you not hurt them

(T) Yes but I will hurt them no more.

(H) Are you not sorry you did hurt them.

(T) Yes.

(H) And why then doe you hurt them.

(T) They say hurt children or wee will doe worse to you.

(H) What have you seen.

[T] A man came to me and say serve me.

(H) What service.

(T) Hurt the children and last night there was an appearance that said kill the children and if I would not go on hurting the children they would do worse to me.

(H) What is this appearance you see.

(T) Sometimes it is like a hog and sometimes like a great dog, this appearance she saith she did see 4 times.

(H) What did it say to you?

(T) ...The black dog said serve me but I said I am afraid he said if I did not he would doe worse to me.

(H) What did you say to it.

(T) I will serve you no longer. then he said he would hurt me and then he looked like a man and threatens to hurt me, she said that this man had a yellow bird that kept with him and he told me he had more pretty things that he would give me if I would serve him.

(H) What were these pretty things.

(T) He did not show me them.

(H) What also have you seen

(T) Two rats, a red rat and a black rat.

(H) What did they say to you.

(T) They said serve me.

(H) When did you see them.

(T) Last night and they said serve me, but I said I would not

(H) What service.

(T) She said hurt the children.

(H) Did you not pinch Elizabeth Hubbard this morning

(T) The man brought her to me and made me pinch her

(H) Why did you goe to Thomas Putnams last night and hurt his child.

(T) They pull and hall me and make me goe

(H) And what would have you doe.

[T] Kill her with a knife.

Left. Fuller and others said at this time when the child saw these persons and was tormented by them that she did complain of a knife, that they would have her cut her head off with a knife.

(H) How did you go?

(T) We ride upon stickes and are there presently.

(H) Doe you goe through the trees or over them.

(T) We see nothing but are there presently.

[H] Why did you not tell your master.

[T] I was afraid they said they would cut of[f] my head if I told.

[H] Would you not have hurt others if you co[u]ld.

[T] They said they would hurt others but they could not

[H] What attendants hath Sarah Good.

[T] A yellow bird and shee would have given me one.

[H] What meate did she give it?

[T] It did suck her between her fingers.

[H] Did not you hurt Mr Currins child?

[T] Goode good and goode Osburn told that they did hurt Mr Currens child and would have had me hurt him two, but I did not

. [H] What hath Sarah Osburn?

[T] Yellow dog, she had a thing with a head like a woman with 2 legges, and wings. Abigail Williams that lives with her Uncle Parris said that she did see the same creature, and it turned into the shape of Goode Osburn.

[H] What else have you seen with Osburn?

[T] Another thing, hairy it goes upright like a man it hath only 2 legges.

[H] Did you not see Sarah Good upon Elizabeth Hubbard, last Saturday?

[T] I did see her set a wolfe upon her to afflict her, the persons with this maid did say that she did complain of a wolfe.

T. She further saith that shee saw a cat with good at another time.

[H] What cloathes doth the man go in?

[T] He goes in black clothes a tall man with white hair I thinke.

[H] How doth the woman go?

[T] In a white hood and a black hood with a top knot.

[H] Doe you see who it is that torments these children now.

[T] Yes it is Goode Good, shee hurts them in her own shape

[H] And who is it that hurts them now.

[T] I am blind now. I cannot see.

William E. Woodward, comp. Records of Salem Witchcraft (Roxbury, 1864), I, 11-48.

Source: William E. Woodward, comp., Records of Salem Witchcraft (Roxbury, Mass., Priv. print for W.E. Woodward 1864), Vol. 1, pp. 11-48.

The American Yawp Reader

Eliza Lucas Letters, 1740-1741

Eliza Lucas Letters, 1740-1741

Eliza Lucas was born into a moderately wealthy family in South Carolina. Throughout her life she shrewdly managed her money and greatly added to her family’s wealth. These two letters from an unusually intelligent financial manager offer a glimpse into the commercial revolution and social worlds of the early eighteenth century.

 

Letter to a friend in London

May 2, 1740

I flatter myself it will be a satisfaction to you to hear I like this part of the world, as my lot has fallen here—which I really do. I prefer England to it, ‘tis true, but think Carolina greatly preferable to the West Indies, as was my Papa here I should be very happy.

We have a very good acquaintance from whom we have received much friendship and civility. Charles Town, the principal one in this province, is a polite, agreeable place. The people live very gentle and very much in the English taste. The country is in general fertile and abounds with venison and wild fowl; the venison is much higher flavored than in England but ‘tis seldom fat.

My Papa and Mama’s great indulgence to me leaves it to me to choose our place of residence either in town or country, but I think it more prudent as well as agreeable to my Mama and self to be in the country during Father’s absence. We are 17 mile by land and 6 y water from Charles Town—where we have about 6 agreeable families around us with whom we live in great harmony.

I have a little library well furnished (for my papa has left me most of his books) in which I spend part of my time. My music and the garden, which I am very fond of, take up the rest of my time that is not employed in business, of which my father has left me a pretty good share—and indeed, ‘twas unavoidable as my Mama’s bad state of heath prevents her going through any fatigue.

I have the business of 3 plantations to transact, which requires much writing and more business and fatigue of other sorts than you can imagine. But least you should imagine it too burdensome to a girl at my early time of life, give me leave to answer you; I assure you I think myself happy that I can be useful to so good a father, and by rising very early I find I can go through much business. But least you should think I shall be quite moped with this way of life I am to inform you there is to worthy ladies in Charles Town, Mrs. Pickney and Mrs. Cleland, who are partial enough to me to be always pleased to have me with them, and insist upon making their houses my home when in town and press me to relax, a little much oftener than ’tis my honor to accept of their obliging entreaties. But I sometimes am with one or the other for 3 weeks or a month at a time, and enjoy all the pleasures Charles Town affords, but nothing gives me more than subscribing myself.

Yr. most affectionate and most obliged humble servt.

Eliza. Lucas

Letter to her father

June 4, 1741

Never were letters more welcome than yours of Feb. 19th and 20th and March the 15th and 21st, which came almost together. It was near 6 months since we had the pleasure of a line from you. Our fears increased apace and we dreaded some fatal accident befallen, but hearing of your recovery from a dangerous fit of illness has more than equaled, great as it was, our former anxiety. Nor shall we ever think ourselves sufficiently thankful to Almighty God for the continuance of so great a blessing.

I sympathize most sincerely with a calamity as the scarcity of provisions and the want of the necessarys of life to the poorer sort. We shall send all we can get of all sorts of provisions particularly what you write for. I write this day to Starrat for a barrel of butter.

We expect the boat dayly from Garden Hill when I shall be able to give you an account of affairs there. The cotton, guiney corn, and most of the ginger planted here was cut off by a frost. I wrote you a former letter we had a fine crop of indigo seed upon the ground, and since informed you the frost took it before it was dry. I picked out the best of it and had it planted but there is not more than a hundred bushes of it come up—which proves the more unlucky as you have sent a man to make it. I make no doubt indigo will prove a very valuable commodity in time if we could have the seed from the West Indies time enough to plant the latter end of March, that the seed might be dry enough to gather before our frost. I am sorry we lost this season. We can do nothing towards it now but make the works ready for next year. The lucern is yet dwindlering, but Mr. Hunt tells me ‘tis always so here the first year.

The death of my Grandmamma was, as you imagine, very shocking and grievous to my Mama, but I hope the considerations of the miserys that attend so advanced an age will help time to wear it off. I am very much obliged to you for the present you were so good to send me of the fifty pound bill of exchange which I duly received.

We hear Carthagene is taken.

Mr. Wallis is dead. Capt. Norberry was lately killed in a duel by Capt. Dobrusee, whose life was despaired of by the wounds he received. He is much blamed for quarreling with such a brawling man as Norberry who was disregarded by every body. Norberry has a wife and 3 or 4 children in very bad circumstances to lament his rashness.

Mama tenders her affections and Polly joins in duty with.

My Dr. Papa

Your most obedient and ever devoted daughter

E. Lucas

 

Harriott Horry Ravenel, Eliza Pinckney (New York: 1896), 5-6, 8-10.

Available through the Internet Archive