CHICAGO FORMAT

Early Proslavery Petitions in Virginia Author(s): Fredrika Teute Schmidt and Barbara Ripel Wilhelm Source: The William and Mary Quarterly, Vol. 30, No. 1, Chesapeake Society (Jan., 1973), pp. 133-146 Published by: Omohundro Institute of Early American History and Culture Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/1923706 Accessed: 27-04-2020 01:55 UTC

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Early Proslavery Petitions in Virginia

Fredrika Teute Schmidt and Barbara Ripel Wilhelm*

With the recent emphasis on the history of the black man in America, historians of the Revolutionary and early national period have given greater attention to the national antislavery movement in that era. Although the South did not match the North's success in realizing the Revolutionary rhetoric by emancipating its slaves, it has been generally assumed that southern opinion, especially in Virginia, found slavery, at least in theory, repugnant to the ideals of the Revolution. Southern leaders like Jefferson and Madison were optimistic that with time the South would be able to free itself from the recognized evil. Historians have accepted the opinion that in practice most southerners simply acquiesced in the existing labor system. For example, Winthrop Jordan, Gerald Mullin, and Robert McColley state that in the post-Revolutionary era Virginians neither attacked nor defended slavery.'

According to Jordan, "No one in the South stood up in public to endorse Negro slavery" during the Revolutionary period.2 The petitions presented below, submitted to the October I784 and I785 sessions of the Virginia legislature, contradict the view that all Virginians refrained from defending slavery. Jordan does provide examples of northern endorsements, but when they are compared with the Virginia petitions, they show that the Virginians did not in this instance borrow from the North. The northerners asserted the inferiority of Negroes; their argu- ment revolved around the problems of inherent nature versus environ- mentalism. Virginians only implied Negro inferiority; their petitions exhibit an extensive scriptural defense that received only slight attention from the northerners who dwelt on Enlightenment reasoning in their attempt to provide a "scientific" rationalization for the existence of slavery.8

*Ms. Schmidt is an associate editor of The Papers of James Madison, and Ms. Wilhelm, a former associate editor, lives in Riverhead, New York.

'Winthrop D. Jordan, White Over Black: American Attitudes Toward the Negro, 1550-1812 (Chapel Hill, I968); Robert McColley, Slavery and leflersonian Virginia (Urbana, Ill., i964); Gerald W. Mullin, Flight and Rebellion: Slave Re- sistance in Eighteenth-Century Virginia (New York, I972).

2Jordan, White Over Black, 304. 3ibid., 304-308.

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134 WILLIAM AND MARY QUARTERLY

Mullin asserts that the last quarter of the eighteenth century was one of the most tolerant and relaxed eras for race relations in Vir- ginia before emancipation. "Virginians," he states, "who never again demonstrated a receptiveness to freedmen as on this occasion [the decade following the I782 private manumission act], also made significant at- tempts to ameliorate the slaves' condition."4 These Virginia petitioners, however, expressed a profound fear of free Negroes and felt their society physically and morally threatened by them. Their petitions sup- port Jordan's statement that "the evident source of Virginia's mounting determination to bring a halt to individual acts of emancipation was fear of increase in the free Negro population. More correctly, it was Lcar of Negroes as such."' Although it is true that Virginians seem to have felt no necessity to assert the inferiority of Negroes,6 there was an implicit assumption in the petitions that blacks were incapable of caring for themselves or functioning as free members of society.

McColley depicts Virginians of public prominence as denouncing slavery in principle while setting forth a series of propositions which excused Virginia from taking any action toward a general emancipa- tion.7 The majority of Virginians did not feel the necessity of embracing even these defensive arguments but merely accepted slavery "as a normal feature of life."8 This author cites Jefferson's opinion in I785 that the greater part of the people favored emancipation in theory but lacked the courage to relinquish their property even though it worried their con- sciences.9 The proslavery petitions of 1784 and I785 do not entirely conform to these assumptions. In the petitions not only Virginia states- men but ordinary slaveholders throughout the state were responding to fears evoked by the private manumission act of I782 and by the Methodist petitions calling for a general emancipation that were circulated in the summer and fall of I785 and submitted to the I785 General Assembly.

The antislavery sentiment and agitation extant in Virginia at the time clearly stimulated the proslavery petitioners. Religious groups-in par- ticular Quakers, Methodists, and to some extent Baptists-were zealous in their endeavors against slavery in the I78os.10 Methodist ministers

Mullin, Flight and Rebellion, I27. 5 Jordan, White Over Black, 577* 6 Ibid., 456. 7McColley, Slavery and Jeffersonian Virginia, ii6. 8 Ibid., I i 8. 9 Ibid., I W9.

?See Jordan, White over Black, 2.93; McColley, Slavery and jeffersonian Vir.

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PROSLAVERY PETMONS 135

rode on circuit through out Virginia, preaching against the institution and urging individuals to free their slaves.1" Among the most notable were Thomas Coke and Francis Asbury, who initiated circulation of the I785 petition for a general emancipation. The petition was unani- mously rejected by the legislature, "but not without an avowed pa- tronage of its principle by sundry respectable members. A motion was made to throw it under the table which was treated with as much indignation on one side, as the petition itself was on the other," wrote James Madison, a member of the House of Delegates at the time.'2 The proslavery petitions received a more favorable hearing in the House; nevertheless a bill drawn up to repeal the I782 private manumission act was defeated 52 to 35.13 While the actions of the Virginia legislature in I785 indicated that there was some sympathy for the principle of emancipation, none of the delegates was willing to go beyond allowing private manumission and a sizable number agreed with the proslavery petitions presented to the House wishing to prohibit even private manumission.

The liberalizing trend in Virginia set off by the Revolution appears, then, to have been short-lived. Methodist abolitionist enthusiasm reached its peak at the I784 Methodist conference in Virginia, when the delegates condemned slavery and decided that wherever manumission was legal, Methodists should free their slaves. In the following year the emanci- pation rule was suspended as a consequence of the threat of a wholesale withdrawal by southern members.14 The Virginia Baptist General Com- mittee passed strong resolutions in I785 and I790 condemning the practice of owning slaves but received almost no response from the congrega-

ginia, I48-i62; and W. Harrison Daniel, "Virginia Baptists and the Negro in the Early Republic," Virginia Magazine of History and Biography, LXXX (i972), 60-62, 65-66.

11 McColley, Slavery and Jeffersonian Virginia, 148-152. See also Albert Matthews, "Notes on the Proposed Abolition of Slavery in Virginia in I785," Colonial Society of Massachusetts, Publications, VI (1904), 370-380; and Richard K. MacMaster, "Liberty or Prosperity? The Methodists Petition for Emancipation in Virginia, I785," Methodist History, X (1971), 44-55.

12 ames Madison to George Washington, Nov. II, I785, George Washington Papers, CCXXXIV, 4I, Library of Congress; Journal of the House of Delegates of the Commonwealth of Virginia; Begun and Held in the Town of Richmond. In the County of Henrico, on Monday, the seventeenth day of October, in the year of our Lord one thousand seven hundred and eighty-five (Richmond, i828), 3r.

13 House of Delegates Journal, im0. 14 McColley, Slavery and Jeflersonian Virginia, 152. See also Jordan, White

Over Black, 293.

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136 WILLIAM AND MARY QUARTERLY

tions; in 1793 the General Committee voted to dismiss the subject as more properly a matter for the legislature. The Quakers, however, maintained their opposition to slavery throughout the period.1" Although the number of free Negroes in Virginia doubled in the two years following the 1782 private manumission act,17 manumission continued to be exceptional.' If religious and Revolutionary idealism contributed to a more benevolent attitude toward slaves on the part of some Virginians, it also influenced the minds of those Virginians who spoke in defense of slavery.

Indeed, the rhetoric of the Revolution seems to have had a particular impact in fortifying the proslavery defense. The tone of the petitions is not one of guilt and defensiveness. They contain a fierce assertion of property rights and liberty at the same time they deny the slaves' humanity and their right to enjoy freedom to participate in society. In the petitioners' eyes, religious justification gave added weight to the validity of their society, recently liberated from British oppression but based on a more profound form of oppression to which they were blind.

The Virginians who publicly stood up to defend slavery were certain of the basis for their argument. Calling on the Lockean theme of pro- perty rights, these proudly independent Americans claimed that they had "risked their Lives and Fortunes, and Waded through Seas of Blood" in order to preserve the right to their property. They expressed alarm at the attempts fomented by "the enemies of our Country [andl Tools of the British Administration," to deprive them of their hard-earned victory. In positive, not defensive, terms they declared that "Scripture and Sound Policy" supported their pleas for laws to protect their rights.

Besides implicating foreign nations in the plot to destroy the rights of Virginia citizens, the petitions adumbrated the positive defense of slavery formulated in the 1830s. Freed Negroes would increase crime rates and shatter the peace, causing ruin to those who held a stake in society. In describing the damage that general emancipation would cause, the petitions held blacks to be remorseless and revengeful and of consequently causing the destruction of free citizens, the state, and the nation. Blacks, however, had only negative sensitivities, and the petitioners were certain that emancipation would serve "no one's civil, religious, or national purpose." Free blacks, unpropertied-and therefore

15 Daniel, "Virginia Baptists and the Negro," VMHB, LXXX (x972), 65-67. "I McColley, Slavery and jeffersonian Virginia, I53-154. 17 Jord-,n, White Over Black, 347. 18 McColley, Slavery and Jeflersonian Virginia, I41.

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PROSLAVERY PETITIONS 137

unprincipled and irresponsible-existed on the fringes of organized society and were a constant threat to its survival.

The 1,244 signatures on the petitions of I784 and i785 testified to a firm belief that emancipation, or even manumission, was not only in- appropriate but inequitable and destructive to the welfare of society. The arguments of these petitioners were neither as coherently presented nor as psychologically indispensible as those developed in the I830s, but the conviction of the rightness and necessity was clearly present.

The petitions came from counties in central and southern Virginia; most were from the southside and southwestern piedmont, which were the only areas of extensive tobacco production after the war.'9 By I787 slaves accounted for slightly more than 50 percent of the population in some of the counties (Hanover, Henrico, Amelia, and Brunswick), which places them among those with the heaviest concentration of slaves in the state.20 The other counties were contiguous to this "black belt" region and were probably experiencing an increase in the number of slaves and an expansion in tobacco production. To some extent, then, the prospect of economic growth may have suggested a need for more slave labor. At the same time, social and economic dislocation and reorientation, according to Mullin, contributed toward an unsettled, insecure society in Virginia in the last quarter of the eighteenth century.2' The presence of large numbers of slaves, the fear of an increasing number of freemen, and the severe postwar depression may have deepened their anxiety and influenced these Virginians to petition against abolition and for repeal of the 1782 act. The signers of the petitions were already acutely aware of the effects of what Mullin calls the "permissive, confused, and disordered state of slavery" at the end of the eighteenth century that culminated in the Gabriel Insurrection.22 As other Virginians did after the discovery of the plot fifteen years later, they attributed the restlessness of their slaves to the activities of freemen.

The petitions are all located in the Legislative Petitions, 1784-1785, Virginia State Library, Richmond. They were submitted by eight coun- ties: Hanover, Henrico, Amelia, Lunenburg, Brunswick, Mecklenburg, Halifax, and Pittsylvania. There are five separate texts, two of which were submitted from more than one county. The general similarity in form and content of all five, as well as the multiple submission of

"9Mullin, Flight and Rebellion, i26-I27. 20Ibid., i26. 21 Ibid., I24-126. 22 Ibid., 14I.

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138 WILLIAM AND MARY QUARTERLY

identical copies of two, suggests that the petitions must have been copied, with some variation, and passed from county to adjacent county. One copy of each of the five texts is reprinted below, and the number of signers, the date, and any duplicate submissions are indicated in editorial notes.

To the Honourable the General Assembly

The Petition of divers Freeholders and inhabitants of Hanover County Humbly Represents, that many Evils have Arisen from A Partial eman- cipation of Slaves under the Act intitualed an Act Authorizing the man- umission Of Slaves, that your Petitioners are well Convinced many of the said Free Negroes are Agents, Factors, and Carriers to the neighbouring Towns, For Slaves of Property by them Stolen From their masters and Others, that your Petitioners have room to believe A Great number of slaves taken by The British army are now passing in this Country as Freemen therefore to Remedy the Above Evils and prevent their becoming more General as Well as to Guard Against fraud of the owners of Slaves who may be indebted, as much as their worth are, your petitioners Humbly pray the Above Recited Act may be repealed, and that no free negroe or mulatto shall Be permited to pass as a Freeman Unless he shall produce from under The hand of the Clerk of the Court of some County within this state Testifying his right to freedom and that some mode may be Adopted which The wisdome of the Honourable the Assembly may sug- gest to prevent free Negroes or mulattoes trading with or For slaves; and your petitioners as in Duty Bound shall Ever pray & etc.

[Hanover County, November s6, 1784, two identical petitions with 92 and 59 signatures. Also submitted by Henrico County, November i6, 1784, with io6 signatures.]

II

To the honourable the General Assembly of Virginia, the Remonstrance and Petition of the Free Inhabitants of Amelia County.

Gentlemen, When the British Parliament usurped a Right to dispose of our Property

without our Consent, we dissolved the Union with our Parent Country,

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PROSLAVERY PETITIONS 139

and established a Constitution and Form of Government of our own, that our Property might be secure, in Future. In Order to effect this we risked our Lives and Fortunes, and waded through Seas of Blood. By the favourable Interposition of Providence our Attempt was crowned with Success. We were put in the Possession of our Rights of Liberty and Property: And these Rights as well secured, as they can be by any human Constitution or Form of Government. But notwithstanding this, we understand a very subtle and daring Attempt is made to dispossess us of a very important Part of our Property. An Attempt set on Foot, we are informed, by the Enemies of our Country, Tools of the British Administration, and sup- ported by certain Men among us of considerable Weight, To WREST FROM US OUR SLAVES, by an Act of the Legislature for a general Emancipation of them. An Attempt unsupported by Scripture or sound Policy.

It is unsupported by Scripture. For we find that under the Old Testa- ment Dispensation, Slavery was permitted by the Deity himself. Thus, Leviticus Ch. 25. Ver. 44, 45, 46. "Both thy Bond Men and Bond Maids, which thou shalt have, shall be of the Heathen that are round about you; of them shall ye buy Bond Men and Bond Maids. Moreover, of the Children of the Strangers that do sojourn among you, of them shall ye buy, and of their Families that are with you, which they beget in your Land, and they shall be your Possession, and ye shall take them as an Inheritance, for your Children after you, to inherit them for a Possession; they shall be your Bond-men forever." This Permission to buy and inherit Bond-men and Bond-maids, we have Reason to conclude, continued through all the Revolutions of the Jewish Government, down to the Advent of our Lord. And we do not find, that either he or his Apostles abridged it. The Freedom promised to his Followers, is a Freedom from the Bondage of Sin and Satan, and from the Dominion of Mens Lusts and Passions; but as to their Outward Condition, whatever that was before they embraced the Religion of Jesus, whether Bond or Free, it remained the same afterwards. This St. Paul expressly asserts i Cor. Chap. 7. Ver. 20. where he is speaking directly to this very Point, 'Let every Man abide in the same Calling, wherein he is called'; and Ver. 24. 'Let every Man wherein he is called, therein abide with God.' Thus it is evident the said Attempt is unsupported by Scripture.

It is also exceedingly impolitic. For it involves in it, and is productive of Want, Poverty, Distress, and Ruin to the Free Citizen; Neglect, Famine and Death to the black Infant and superannuated Parent; The Horrors of all the Rapes, Murders, and Outrages, which a vast Multitude of unprincipled, unpropertied, revengeful, and remorseless Banditti are capable of per- petrating; inevitable Bankruptcy to the Revenue, and consequently Breach

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140 WILLIAM AND MARY QUARTERLY

of public Faith, and Loss of Credit with foreign Nations; and, lastly, sure and final Ruin to this now flourishing free and happy Country.

We therefore, your Petitioners and Remonstrants, do solemnly adjure and humbly pray you that you will discountenance and utterly reject every Motion and Proposal for emancipating our Slaves; that as the Act lately made, empowering the Owners of Slaves to liberate them, hath produced, and is still productive of, very bad Effects, you will immediately and totally repeal it; and that as many of the Slaves, liberated by that Act, have been guilty of Thefts and Outrages, Insolences and Violences, destructive to the Peace, Safety, and Happiness of Society, you will make effectual Provision for the due Government of them.

And your Petitioners shall ever pray, etc. etc.

[Amelia County, November IO, 1785, with 22 signatures. Also submitted by Mecklenberg County, November 8, 1785, with 223 signatures, and by Pittsylvania County, November IO, I785, with 54 signatures.]

III

To the Honorable the General Assembly of Virginia, The Remonstrance and Petition of the free Inhabitants of the County of Lunenberg,

Gentlemen, When the british Parliament usurp'd a right to Dispose of our Property,

it was not the Matter, but the Manner adopted for that purpose, that alarm'd us; as it tended to establish a principle which might one day prove fatal to our rights of Property: In order therefore to fix a Tenure in our property on a Basis of Security not to be shaken in future, we dissolved our union with our parent Country, and by a selferected power bravely and wisely establish'd a Constitution and form of Government, grounded on a full and clear Declaration of such rights as naturally pertain to Men born free and determined to be respectfully and absolutely so as human Institutions can make them: This we effected by our representatives, to whom we delegated our power, in General Convention; Whose Wisdom, Integrity, Fortitude, and patriotic Zeal will ever reflect Glory on them and honor on their Constituents. In support of this happy Establishment, with its at- tendant Blessings we have chearfully sacrificed our Ease, Lives and fortunes, and waded thro' Deluges of civil Blood to that unequivocal Liberty, which alone characterises the free independent Citizen, and distinguishes him from the subjugated Vassal of despotic Rule.

Thus happily possess'd of all the rational rights of freedom, this Country

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PROSLAVERY PETITIONS 141

might have stood the Envy of admiring Nations, to the end of the Time, had the same Wisdom fidelity and patriotic Zeal, which gave Being to this Glorious Work, continued to guide the public Councils of the State: But how far this has, or had not, been our happy Lot, let past Violations of our sacred rights of property, and the recent Invasions of them from such Examples, testify to the World. And here we could wish not to call to Mind, particulars: Suffice it therefore only to Mention the Act for funding our Paper Money, which not only involved Thousands of our most valuable Citizens in irretriev'ble ruin, but stabb'd the very Vitals of public Faith. But it was said to be expedient; And we acquiesced in it; But never did, nor ever will, admit it as a ruling Precedent [in] the Wanton Disposal of our property, of any kind, whenever the chimerical Flights of a fanatic Spirit, or the venal Views of a corrupted heart shall prompt to the rash attempt-No! we have seald with our Blood, a Title to the full, free, and absolute Enjoyment of every species of our Property, whensoever, or howsoever legally acquired; a Purchase of too great Value to be sacrificed to the Caprice, or Interest of any rank or Description of Men, however dignified, or distinguished, either by the confidential Suffrages of their fellow- Citizens, or otherwise.

To this free, and we trust, inoffensive, as well as necessary Communica- tion of our Sentiments, on the most important Subject that ever arrested the attention of a free People, we are enforced by a daring attempt now on foot in several Counties in this State by Petitions warmly advocated by some Men of considerable weight to wreste from us, by an Act of the Legislature, the most valuable and indispensable Article of our Property, our Slaves, by a general Emancipation of them: An Attempt that involves in it not only a flagrant Contempt of the constituent Powers of the Commonwealth, in which it's Majesty resides and which we are sorry to have occasion to observe seem to be forgotten by too many, and a daring attack on that sacred Constitution thereby establishd; but also, Want, Poverty, Distress and ruin to the free Citizen; the Horrors of all the rapes, Robberies, Murders, and Outrages, which an innumerable Host of unprincipled, unpropertied, vindictive, and remorseless Banditti are capable of perpetrating; Neglect, famine and Death to the abandoned black Infant, and superannuated Parent; inevitable Bankruptcy to the revenue; Desparation and revolt to the disappointed, oppressed Citizen; and sure and final ruin to this once happy, free, and flourishing Country: And all this [illeg.] to answer no one civil, religious, or national Purpose, whatever. Such a Scheme indeed consists very well with the principles and Designs of a Bute, or a North, whose Finger is sufficiently visible in it; nor should we have wonder'd to see the despicable Cabal of an expiring Faction rearing

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I42 WILLIAM AND MARY QUARTERLY

its batterd Front on any occasion that might minister to the Disturbance of Governmente: But when we see those very Men who have been honor'd with the fullest Confidence of their fellow Citizens inviting Great Brit- ain, by their Apostasy, to effect that Tyranny over us which we have taught her to feel is not in her Arms to compass; when we see such Men, If such there are, prostituting their [views] by uniting them with a pro- scribed Coke an imperious Asb[ur]y and other contemptible Emissaries and Hirelings of Britain in promoting and advocating a Measure which they know must involve their fellow Citizens in Distress and Desparation, not to be described, or thought of, without Horror; and their Country in inevitable ruin. No Language can express our Indignation, Contempt and Detestation of the apostate Wretches: For tho' we admit it to be the indisputable right of the Citizen to apply to the Legislature by Petition on any or otherwise Subject within the Cognizance of their constitutional Powers; yet we positively deny a right in any Man or Description of Men, even to move the Legislature in any Manner, to violate the smallest Article of our Constitution, as it is not only a contempt of that, but strongly implies a Want of Wisdom, Integrity, or Spirit in our representatives, to discharge the high Trust [so] found in them, want of either of which would render them very unfit Objects of the Confidence of their Con- stituents, and of course, dangerous and contemptible. It therefore cannot be admitted that any Man has a right, to petition or otherwise press the Legisla- ture to divest us of our known rights of Property, which are so clearly defined; so fully acknowledged; and so solemnly ratified and con- firmd, by our Bill of rights, as not to admit of an equivocal Construction, nor of the smallest Alteration or Diminution, by any Power, but that which originally authorised its Establishment. To an unequivocal Construction therefore of this Bill of rights we now appeal, and claim the utmost Benefits of it; not doubting the hearty Concurrence of our faithful re- presentatives in what ever may tend to promote our mutual Interests; preserve our rights inviolate; secure to us all the Blessings of a free, un- disturbd, independent Government; and So, an indiscriminate Diffusion of Peace, Wealth, and happiness among the free Citizens of this Com- monwealth. And as the lasting Welfare of our Country, and the happiness of its Citizens depend [illeg.] invariable Adherence to our Constitution, we most solemnly adjure, and humbly pray, that you, Gentlemen, to whom we have committed the Guardianship of our rights of Property, will in no Instance, permit them to be calld in Question; Particularly, that you will discountenance, and utterly reject every Motion and Proposal for emancipa- ting our Slaves; That you will immediately, and totally repeal the Act for permitting Owners of Slaves to emancipate them; That you will provide

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PROSLAVERY PETITIONS 143

effectually for the good Government, and due restraint of those already set free, whose disorderly Conduct, and thefts and outrages, are so generally the just Subject of Complaint; but particularly whose Insolences, and Viol- ences so freequently of late committed to and on our respectable Maids and Matrons, which are a Disgrace to Government. And We shall ever Pray/etc etc etc etc

[Lunenberg County, November 29, 1785, with i6i signatures.]

IV

To the General Assembly of Virginia

The Petition of sundry of the Inhabitants of Brunswick County, humbly sheweth. That Whereas, We are credibly informed, That Petitions are secretly handed about for subscription, by Persons We may reasonably sup- pose disaffected to our State and Government; who not being satisfied with the Act, already made, "To authorize the Manumission of Slaves ["]; make bold to Petition your August Assembly for a general Emancipation of them: pretending to be moved by Religious Principles and taking for their motive universal Charity. But We your Petitioners, who are of opinion, That it was ordained by the Great and wise Disposer of all Things, That some Nations should serve others; and that all Nations have not been equally free: Which may be supported by the following Texts of Scripture. Genesis Chap: 9. Verses 25. 26. and 27th. "And he said cursed be Canaan; a Servant of Servants shall he be unto his Brethren. And he said, blessed be the Lord God of Shem; and Canaan shall be his Servant. God shall enlarge Jepheth, and he shall dwell in the Tents of Shem; and Canaan shall be his Servant." Genesis Chap: 21. Verses 9. IO. II. i2. and 13th. "And Sarah saw the Son of Hagar the Egyptian, which She had born unto Abraham, mocking. Wherefore She said unto Abraham, Cast out this Bond-Woman, and her Son: for the Son of this Bond-Woman shall not be Heir with my Son, even with Isaac. And the thing was very grievous in Abraham's Sight, because of his Son. And God said unto Abraham, let it not be grievous in thy sight, because of the Lad, and because of thy Bond-Woman; in all that Sarah hath said unto thee, hearken unto her voice: for in Isaac shall thy seed be called. And also of the Son of the Bond-Woman will I make a Nation, because he is thy Seed.["] Genesis Chap: 27th. verse 29th. "Let People serve thee, and Nations bow down to thee; be Lord over thy Brethren, and let thy Mother's Son bow down to thee: cursed be every one that curseth

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144 WILLIAM AND MARY QUARTERLY

thee, and blessed be he that blesseth thee."] And verses 38. 39. and 4oth. "And Esau said unto his Father, hast thou but one blessing my Father? bless me, even me also, 0 my Father. And Esau lift up his Voice and wept. And Isaac his Father answered, and said unto him, Behold, thy dwelling shall be the fatness of the Earth and of the Dew of Heaven from above, And by thy Sword shalt thou live, and shalt serve thy Brother.["] And as it appears that Abraham the Father of the Faithful, bought and kept Slaves, See Genesis Chap: 19. Verse 27th. "And all the Men of his House, born in the House, and bought with Money of the Stranger, were Circumcised with him.["] And that God speaking to Moses from Mount Sinai, Licences or Commands his People to buy and keep Slaves; See Leviticus Chap: 25. Verses 44. 45. and 46th. "Both thy Bond-men, and thy Bond-maids, which thou shalt have, shall be of the Heathen that are round about you; of them shall ye buy Bond-men and Bond-maids. Moreover, of the Children of the Strangers that do sojourn among you, of them shall ye buy; and of their Families that are with you, which they beget in your Land: and they shall be your Possession. And ye shall take them as an Inheritance for your children after you, to inherit them for a Possession; they shall be your Bond-men for- ever." And Solomon had Servants born in his House. Ecclesiastes Chap: 2d. Verse 7th.

Seeing then, That according to Scripture and observation, it hath been the practice and custom, for above 3500 Years, down to the present time, for one Nation to buy and keep Slaves of another Nation: That God so particu- larly (as above recited) Licenced or Commanded his People, to buy of other Nations and to keep them for Slaves: And that Christ and his Apostles hath in the mean time, come into the World, and past out of it again, leaving behind them the New-Testament, full of all instructions necessary to our Salvation; and hath not forbid it: But left that matter as they found it, giving exortations to Masters and Servants how to conduct themselves to each other.

We your Petitioners therefore conclude, that We have a right to retain such Slaves, as We have justly and legally in Possession. And without Pleading the inexpediency, the impolicy, and the impracticability of such a Measure; Pray that no Act may ever pass in this Assembly, for the general Emancipation of Slaves, And that one Act passed May 6th. 1782. entituled, An Act to authorize the Manumission of Slaves; as already productive of a very great and growing evil; be, immediately and totally Repealed. And your Petitioners shall ever pray etc.

[Brunswick County, November IO, 1785, with 266 signatures.]

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PROSLAVERY PETITIONS 145

V

To the honourable the General Assembly of Virginia the Remonstrance and Petition of the Free Inhabitants of Halifax County.

Gentlemen, When the British Parliament usurped a Right to dispose of our Property

without our Consent, we dissolved the Union with our Parent Country, and established a Constitution and Form of Government of our own, that our Property might be secure in Future. In Order to effect this, we risked our Lives and Fortunes, and waded through Seas of Blood. Divine Providence smiled on our Enterprize, and crowned it with Success. And our Rights of Liberty and Property are now as well secured to us, as they can be by any human Constitution and Form of Government.

But notwithstanding this, we understand, a very subtle and daring Attempt is on Foot to deprive us of a very important Part of our Property. An Attempt carried on by the Enemies of our Country, Tools of the British Administration, and supported by a Number of deluded Men among us, to wrest from us our Slaves by an Act of the Legislature for a general Emancipation of them. They have the Address, indeed to cover their Design, with the Veil of Piety and Liberality of Sentiment. But it is un- supported by the Word of God, and will be ruinous to Individuals and to the Public.

It is unsupported by the Word of God. Under the Old Testament Dispensation, Slavery was permitted by the Deity himself. Thus it is re- corded, Levit. Chap. 25. Ver. 44, 45, 46. 'Both thy Bond-men, and Bond- maids, which thou shalt have, shall be of the Heathen that are round about you; of them shall ye buy Bond-men and Bond-maids. Moreover, of the Children of the Strangers, that do sojourn among you of them shall ye buy, and of their Families that are with you, which they beget in your Land, and they shall be your Possession, and ye shall take them, as an Inheritance for your Children after you, to inherit them for a Possession; they shall be your Bond-men forever.' This Permission to possess and inherit Bond Servants, we have Reason to conclude, was continued through all the Revolutions of the Jewish Government, down to the Advent of our Lord. And we do not find, that either he or his Apostles abridged it. On the Contrary, the Freedom which the Followers of Jesus were taught to expect, was a Freedom from the Bondage of Sin and Satan, and from the Dominion of their Lusts and Passions; but as to their outward Condition, whatever that was, whether Bond or Free, when they embraced Christianity, it was to remain the same afterwards. This Saint Paul hath expressly told us i Cor.

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i46 WILLIAM AND MARY QUARTERLY

Chap. 7. Ver. 20th. where he is speaking directly to this very Point; 'Let every Man abide in the same Calling, wherein he is called;' and at Ver. 24. 'Let every Man wherein he is called therein abide with God.' Thus it is evident the above Attempt is unsupported by the Divine Word.

It is also ruinous to Individuals and to the Public. For it involves in it, and is productive of Want, Poverty, Distress, and Ruin to the Free Citizen; Neglect, Famine, and Death to the helpless black Infant and super- annuated Parent; the Horrors of all the Rapes, Murders, and Outrages, which a vast Multitude of unprincipled, unpropertied, vindictive, and remorseless Banditti are capable of perpetrating; inevitable Bankruptcy to the Revenue, and consequently Breach of public Faith, and Loss of Credit with foreign Nations; and lastly Ruin to this now free and flourishing Country.

We therefore your Remonstrants and Petitioners do solemnly adjure and humbly pray you, that you will discountenance and utterly reject every Motion and Proposal for emancipating our Slaves; that as the Act lately made, empowering the Owners of Slaves to liberate them, has been and is still productive, in some Measure, of sundry of the above pernicious Effects, you will immediately and totally repeal it; and that as many of the Slaves, liberated by the said Act, have been guilty of Thefts and Outrages, In- solences and Violences destructive to the Peace, Safety, and Happiness of Society, you will make effectual Provision for the due Government of them.

And your Remonstrants and Petitioners shall ever pray, etc.

[Halifax County, November Io, 1785, with 26i signatures.]

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