Enslaved - Colonial Williamsburg Foundation

Enslaved
A Teacher’s Guide with
Historical Background and
Lesson Plans
3
Contents
Historical Background .................................................................................................................. 5
Glossary ......................................................................................................................................... 9
Time Line of Events .................................................................................................................... 10
Lesson One: The Economics of Slavery ..................................................................................... 12
Introduction ......................................................................................................................... 12
Objectives ............................................................................................................................ 12
Standards of Learning ......................................................................................................... 12
Materials .............................................................................................................................. 12
Strategy ................................................................................................................................ 12
The Fry-Jefferson Map Cartouche .................................................................................... 14
Graphic Organizer A ........................................................................................................... 16
Lesson Two: Debating Slavery ................................................................................................... 17
Introduction ......................................................................................................................... 17
Objectives ............................................................................................................................ 17
Standards of Learning ......................................................................................................... 17
Materials .............................................................................................................................. 17
Strategy ................................................................................................................................ 17
Slavery Debate Cards.......................................................................................................... 18
Lesson Three: The Development of a Legal Definition of Slavery .......................................... 20
Introduction ......................................................................................................................... 20
Objectives ............................................................................................................................ 20
Standards of Learning ......................................................................................................... 21
Materials .............................................................................................................................. 21
Strategy ................................................................................................................................ 21
Task for Set One Groups .................................................................................................... 21
Task for Set Two Groups .................................................................................................... 21
Evaluation ............................................................................................................................ 21
Set One—A Brief Summary of the Legal Codes ............................................................... 22
Graphic Organizer B ........................................................................................................... 23
Teacher Key for Set One ..................................................................................................... 24
Set Two—Court Cases ........................................................................................................ 25
Graphic Organizer C ........................................................................................................... 26
Final Evaluation Activity ............................................................................................................ 27
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Enslaved
Historical Background1
When the American Revolution began in 1775, slavery was a strongly entrenched economic and legal institution in all thirteen American colonies. Yet this system of hereditary bondage
had developed relatively gradually in the decades following the arrival of the first Africans at
Jamestown in 1619. How the institution developed and why is the subject of this essay.
AN ECONOMIC SYSTEM DEPENDENT ON CHEAP LABOR
The first British colonists to arrive in Virginia were white men, sent by the Virginia Company of London with the expectation that they would become financially successful. Within a
few years, tobacco became the export upon which Virginia’s economy depended, and profitable
tobacco cultivation needed cheap labor.
White indentured servants filled the role of cheap labor for most of the seventeenth century. Indentured servants sold their labor for a fixed term. These men and women were primarily poor Irish and English immigrants seeking a way to better their lives. Their masters paid
for transporting them to America, maintained them throughout the contract, and provided them
with tools, clothing, and similar items at the end of the contract. The servants were obliged to
work for a set number of years, usually four to seven, after which time they could begin their
own lives, if they survived. Many did not.
The first Africans to arrive in Virginia in 1619 may have been indentured servants. No
laws at the time codified lifetime servitude, and no evidence exists that Africans and AfricanAmericans faced sharply different treatment from the white indentured servants. In fact, in the
seventeenth century, when the numbers of African-Americans remained small,2 black and white
laborers usually worked side by side in the fields, ate and socialized together, shared living
quarters, and, in some cases, formed mixed-race families. Whether slave, servant, or free, African-Americans in the first half of the seventeenth century enjoyed rights that would later be
denied them.
After 1680, economic conditions improved in England and Ireland, leading to a sharp decline in the supply of English and Irish servants willing to work in the tobacco fields. Simultaneously, planters reconsidered their dependence on indentured servants. Bacon’s Rebellion, a
1676 revolt of former indentured servants, frightened large established planters. Economic factors also influenced planters. As Virginia’s mortality rates declined, it became more economical
to spend the additional money needed to purchase slaves, because they were now likely to live
long enough to make the investment worthwhile. Increasingly, the need for labor was filled by
African slaves, and by the 1730s, white servants were a distinct minority among bound laborers.
Most English slaveowners were interested in Africans with skills that matched the masters’ needs. They tended to seek out farming peoples and those with metal- and woodworking
skills. Slavery soon fueled the agricultural economies of the South by providing large numbers
of field workers and some of the skilled craftsmen. In the northern colonies, where the economic “need” for slavery was far less pronounced, slaves were skilled laborers working in maritime trades, in various crafts, and as domestic servants.
1
This essay is adapted primarily from the Colonial Williamsburg publication Becoming Americans: Our Struggle to be Free
and Equal.
2
Approximately 7 percent of the population were African-Americans at the end of the seventeenth century. By 1740,
that figure had risen to 40 percent.
6
RACIAL ATTITUDES AND THE PRECEDENCE OF SLAVERY
The need for cheap labor alone does not explain the development of slavery. It evolved in
the context of a culture in which the English settlers firmly believed in their superiority. From
the beginning, English settlers in Virginia pursued two primary goals: to make the colony a
financial success and to convert Indians to Christianity. The English regarded their possession
of North America to be justified and righteous. That attitude may seem arrogant and immoral
today, but Englishmen believed they could make better use of the land and its resources than
the Indians they dispossessed.
For the first few years after arriving at Jamestown, the English settlers formed an alliance with
the Algonquian peoples of Tidewater Virginia. But this alliance crumbled in the face of the settlers’
insatiable desire for lands, their attempts to convert Native Americans to Christianity, and their
efforts to enslave the Algonquians. This pattern was repeated in other colonies. Frequent attempts to enslave, subdue, and convert the Native American population fostered racial hatred.
When the British began enslaving Africans in large numbers in the following decades, Native Americans were forced to choose between assisting blacks by harboring runaways and aiding the English
by helping to enforce the slave laws.
Slavery was not unfamiliar to most Africans. Ancient African civilizations relied heavily
on slave labor throughout history, and the practice continued into the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. In northern and sub-Saharan Africa, Arab and Muslim societies traded for
slaves; their religious beliefs sanctioned slavery as a strategy to convert “pagans” to the true
religion. Slavery was also a fairly common practice in the kinship-based societies of West and
Central Africa. Owning people was a source and a symbol of wealth in societies where the
community, rather than individuals, held all rights to land. There, slaves were usually war captives, criminals, debtors (or their designates), or sometimes foreigners. Some were purchased
for lifelong servitude, but others could eventually earn their freedom.
At first, Europeans simply established trading partnerships and alliances to tap into existing supplies of enslaved men and women, but soon, entrepreneurs organized raiding parties to
kidnap Africans to meet the growing demand. The New World market gradually transformed
traditional forms of African slavery into a capitalist enterprise, and a far more brutal system
developed than had existed previously. The demand for ever-larger numbers of slaves led to the
forced transatlantic migration of roughly 11.5 million Africans in the three centuries between
1500 and 1800.3 Of those Africans forcibly brought to the New World, approximately 600,000
were brought into British North America between 1619 and 1775.
As the institution of slavery grew and developed, English arrogance found ways to rationalize the racist treatment of Native Americans and the enslavement of Africans. Englishmen
frequently invoked scriptural authority. Although themselves divided by wealth, social class,
and ethnic heritage, European-Americans forged a common bond in their domination over blacks
and Indians. White indentured servants began to distance themselves from African-American
laborers, demanding privileges that recognized their European ancestry. Slaveholders measured
their social status from the numbers of slaves they owned or hired from other masters. All whites,
whether free or indentured, rich or poor, enjoyed the elevated status that came with the color of
their skin.
3
Some estimates place the number as high as 40 million to 100 million to account for smuggling, poor record keeping,
and higher mortality rates en route to the New World than conventional estimates project.
7
RACIAL SLAVERY CODIFIED4
As slave labor became more important to the colonial economy, the legal system molded its
contours, both through legislation and judicial decisions. When the first Africans arrived in
Jamestown in 1619, slavery had no legal foundation, either in England or in the colonies. But,
in 1640, a black indentured servant, John Punch, ran away with two white indentured servants. When caught, the white men were required to spend additional time in servitude, but the
black man was sentenced to a lifetime of servitude. This was the first documented instance of
lifetime servitude in the colonies, and it marked the legal beginnings of slavery.
Between 1640 and 1662, slaveowners quickly interpreted customary law and enacted formal legislation making lifelong servitude the common condition for all newly arrived Africans.
Beginning in the early 1660s, statutes also assigned the legal status of children born in Virginia
according to the condition of the mother. In other words, children born to slave mothers were
born into slavery, even if their fathers were free white men.
The law became increasingly restrictive in the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries. When the planters realized that the slaves did not have the same incentive to behave and
perform well that the indentured servants had (the fear of having years added to the indenture), they responded with a system of rigid social control. Slaves were denied legal marriage,
freedom of movement, and even the right to defend themselves against life-threatening physical
abuse. Other laws responded to the growing fear of slave uprisings. Severe sentences could be
handed out to slaves who stole white people’s property, traveled without authorization, ran
away, or resisted whippings and other punishments.
Virginia rulers also sought to curb the growth of the free black population, because the
presence of free blacks challenged the legitimacy of the slave system. Legal grounds for manumission (the granting of freedom to slaves) were narrowly defined until after the Revolution.
Free blacks increasingly discovered that they were denied many of the rights accorded to free
whites. They were not allowed to own guns, to hold indentured servants, to intermarry with
whites, to bear witness against whites in court, or to hold offices of any kind. At the same time,
they were obliged to pay higher taxes than comparable white families.
The courts’ administration of the law further defined the terms of slavery. Justices of the
peace applied a separate criminal code to cases involving blacks, used different trial procedures,
and handed down harsher punishments. Nevertheless, African-Americans could seek mediation in disputes between master and slave and present petitions on a variety of issues. In fact, in
Virginia, slaves and free blacks filed one-third of the petitions brought before the Governor’s
Council between 1723 and 1775.
The legal status of whites also had a profound effect on the lives of the slaves. The only
effective restraint on an owner’s total power over his or her human property was the master’s
self-interest. Courts never punished owners who maimed their slaves or arbitrarily revoked
longstanding privileges, and they rarely punished owners who killed slaves in a fit of passion or
intoxication. Masters could break up slave families at any time through gift, sale, or hiring out.
Families were also at risk of being parceled out among the owner’s heirs and creditors whenever a slaveowner died or got into financial trouble. Slaves had no legal protection against such
tragic occurrences, and, as a result, they were forced to live in agonizing uncertainty.
4
See the time line in this teacher’s guide for a list of the slave laws that were enacted between 1640 and 1710.
8
CRACKS IN THE SYSTEM
Despite the harsh restrictions and the brutality of slavery, individual slaves often found
ways to control aspects of their lives. For example, despite the restrictions against legal marriage and the constant threat of separation, African-Americans succeeded in establishing families, extending kin connections, and making friends with slaves at other plantations. Kinship
networks and informal business relationships also included free blacks. The world blacks made
for themselves borrowed from both African and European traditions and helped ease the isolation, loneliness, and degradation of slavery. Slaves observed customs that whites could neither
control nor entirely understand, which afforded slaves some small measure of power over their
lives and nurtured their solidarity.
Little by little, slaves’ likes and dislikes worked significant changes in plantation routines,
work assignments, and the operation of local exchange networks. By the early eighteenth century, many slaves and masters had reached a general understanding about the minimum amounts
of food, clothing, and shelter that owners were obliged to provide. In some cases, slaves persuaded owners to adopt “reasonable” hours of labor and levels of output. Slaves responded to
arbitrary, unfavorable changes in plantation work rules with slowdowns and sabotage. Sometimes they feigned sickness or ran away. In the face of such resistance, masters were often forced
to modify their actions.
By the 1770s, slaves and free blacks living in and around Williamsburg were active and
knowledgeable participants in a local cash-based trading economy. Though only chattels themselves, slaves gradually earned from grudging masters the “privilege” of keeping some profits
from the produce they raised in their free time. They quickly transformed those limited privileges into more widely shared rights. By the end of the Revolutionary War, many masters had
come to accept their slaves’ independent participation in local trading networks. They had also
come to admit that allowing slaves to possess their own property created a positive incentive
for hard work.
Religious institutions also provided solace to African-Americans. Before 1667 blacks who
had been baptized could seek freedom on that basis. But Christian religions continued to attract slaves long after that route to freedom was lost. Nearly one thousand slaves were baptized
at Bruton Parish Church in Williamsburg between 1746 and 1768.
Evangelical churches drew large numbers of slaves into their folds in the second half of
the eighteenth century by offering hope of deliverance from persecution. Many evangelicals
and their followers openly denounced slavery. Some took their beliefs a step further by actively
seeking its abolition. About the same time, black preachers began to form their own congregations and deliver openly antislavery messages, encouraging slaves to believe that freedom was
possible in their lifetimes.
CONCLUSION
Slavery developed into a harsh and brutal institution during the colonial era. Both blacks
and whites were negatively affected by the institution, although blacks bore the burden of
slavery’s terrible severity. Despite this harsh reality, slaves influenced small aspects of their
lives, and blacks and whites profoundly affected one another’s lives and culture. As the American Revolution loomed in 1775 and the colonists sought “liberty” and “freedom” from a tyrannical English government, the irony was apparent both to the slaves and many of the ruling
elite. Unfortunately, it took another century and much bloodshed to destroy the institution of
slavery. More than 130 years after the Civil War, Americans continue the struggle to achieve
the twin ideals of freedom and equality.
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Glossary
APPRENTICE—A person, usually a teenager, who, in exchange for being taught a skill, lives
with and works for the master who is teaching him or her. At the end of the contract term,
usually around the age of twenty-one, an apprentice becomes a journeyman who works for a
daily wage.
BENEFIT OF CLERGY—A one-time exemption from a mandatory death sentence for a manslaughter conviction. Like England, Virginia limited benefit of clergy to white men who could
read. If the judges granted the motion for benefit of clergy, the accused went free, but not
before a court official burned a mark into the offender’s hand with a hot iron.
CARTOUCHE—An illustration on a map that is usually symbolic or shows some characteristic of the land or people who live in the area the map depicts.
CHATTEL—A moveable item of personal property. In eighteenth-century Virginia, slaves were
also considered to be property.
COMMON LAW—Laws or court decisions based on a long history of custom or tradition,
rather than specifically enacted statutes.
ENSLAVED—When someone is forced to be a slave.
HOGSHEAD—The term for a certain size barrel used for storing tobacco.
INDENTURED SERVANT—A person who is legally bound to work for another person for
a predetermined period of time. In the eighteenth century this period of time was often, but not
always, seven years.
MANUMISSION—The act of releasing an individual from slavery, usually by the slaveowner.
MIDDLE PASSAGE—The Atlantic crossing during which enslaved Africans endured inhumanely cramped, unsanitary conditions.
MULATTO—An eighteenth-century term describing an individual who has both African and
European ancestry.
NEGRO—A term used in the eighteenth century to describe a person of African descent.
PLANTATION—Any farm that produces a crop for sale.
ROMAN LAW—System of written and unwritten laws, based on traditional law and legislation of Ancient Rome, which serves as the basis for modern civil law.
RUNAWAY AD—A notice in a newspaper describing a slave, indentured servant, or apprentice who has run away from his or her master.
SLAVE CODES—Laws concerning slavery.
TITHABLE—A taxable member of an eighteenth-century household. All males, black or white,
and all black females aged sixteen and over were taxed. Free white females were the only people
in colonial Virginia who were not taxed because a married woman was legally considered to be
part of her husband.
VIRGINIA GAZETTE—The name used by several different eighteenth-century printers in Williamsburg, Virginia, for their newspapers.
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Time Line of Events
1607
Jamestown is settled. It is the first permanent settlement in the colony of Virginia.
The Virginia Company of London finances the settlement with the expectation of
seeing profits from harvesting Virginia’s raw resources.
1612
John Rolfe plants Caribbean tobacco seeds in the rich Virginia soil. Tobacco becomes the exported product that makes Virginia a wealthy colony.
1619
The first recorded Africans in the colony of Virginia arrive at Jamestown. Colonial
Williamsburg historians believe these Africans were indentured servants.
1639
Blacks in Virginia are not required to bear arms although white settlers must.
1640
An African servant, John Punch, and two servants of European descent are captured while attempting to run away. The European servants are required to serve
additional time as part of their punishment. John Punch is sentenced to lifetime servitude. This is the first recorded case of slavery prescribed by law in the colony of
Virginia
1642
Black women are counted as tithables—taxable property.
1661
Children born to enslaved mothers are considered slaves as well, regardless of their
fathers’ status. Children of enslaved fathers and free mothers are not considered slaves.
1667
By law, slaves baptized into the church are still considered to be slaves.
1669
Accidentally killing a slave during correction is not considered a crime.
1670
Blacks and Native Americans are not permitted to own servants of another race. All
non-Christians arriving in the colony by water are hereafter considered slaves.
1671
Black slaves are considered property in real estate appraisals.
1672
Runaway slaves resisting capture may be killed.
1680
The ages of imported black children are to be determined and documented within
three months of arrival in the colony.
Blacks are forbidden to possess any type of weapon.
Slaves must have permission before leaving their plantation of residence.
Slaves are forbidden to raise a hand against any Christian. An act punishing slave
insurrection is in force.
1682
All non-Christians coming into Virginia by any means are considered slaves, whether
or not they convert to Christianity.
11
1692
A court of oyer and terminer (a Latin term meaning “hear and decide”) is established to try all slaves accused of crimes. No jury hears the cases and there is no
right to appeal the court’s decision.
Blacks are required to give up ownership of cattle, horses, and sheep.
1705
“An Act Concerning Servants and Slaves” revises and strengthens most of the laws
regarding slavery.
1710
Slaves who turn in other slaves planning insurrections or revolts are to be set free by
law.
1732
Benefit of Clergy is extended in a limited fashion to blacks.
1769
Matthew Ashby, a free black living in Williamsburg, Virginia, obtains the freedom
(via petition and purchase) of his wife, Ann, and his two children, John and Mary.
Ashby may have been one of a group that successfully petitioned the court to eliminate the tax on free black women.
1772
In the Somerset Case, an English court
rules in favor of a slave brought into England from a British colony who claims
he is a free man.
1775
Governor Dunmore of Virginia issues an
emancipation proclamation that imposes
martial law in Virginia and offers freedom to indentured servants and slaves
willing to fight for the king.
Slave insurrection occurs in the western
part of Virginia.
1787
U. S. Congress passes the Northwest Ordinance, which provides for territorial
government and eventual statehood for
the area north of the Ohio River and east
of the Mississippi River. Slavery is prohibited in any of this new territory.
1808
U. S. Congress passes a law to end the importation of African slaves.
1863
The Emancipation Proclamation, issued by President Lincoln, frees slaves in the
seceding states.
1865
Congress passes the Thirteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution making slavery illegal and extending civil rights to former slaves.
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LESSON ONE
The Economics of Slavery
INTRODUCTION
As tobacco became the chief cash crop in Virginia’s economy, planters needed an economical and reliable source of labor. When Native Americans and white indentured servants proved
too costly and unreliable, planters turned to the example of the Caribbean sugar plantations’
reliance on African slave labor.
OBJECTIVES
As a result of this lesson, students will be able to:
1. Make observations and inferences about the role of African slaves in Virginia’s tobacco
culture.
2. Draw conclusions about the reasons for the growth and development of the institution
of slavery in eighteenth-century Virginia.
STANDARDS OF LEARNING
This lesson meets National Standards for History for historical comprehension, historical
analysis, and interpretation.
MATERIALS
Cartouche from the Fry-Jefferson map
Graphic Organizer A
STRATEGY
1a. Make an overhead transparency of the Fry-Jefferson cartouche.
1b. Explain to the students that some immigrants were forced to come to the North American
colonies. This segment of society consisted primarily of Africans.
1c. Divide the class into groups of four or five students. Give each group a copy of Graphic
Organizer A, which they will use to record their observations and inferences.
1d. Project the image of the Fry-Jefferson cartouche onto the wall, an overhead screen, or
butcher paper.
2. Explain to the students that they are making observations only. They may only describe
what can actually be seen in the cartouche. Ask the students to examine the image very closely.
Members of each group should observe, discuss, and record their observations about the cartouche on Graphic Organizer A.
3. Ask a student to choose a person from the image. Have the student describe this person and
what he seems to be doing. Have the student step to the side and wait.
4. Repeat step 3 until all the people in the image have been described.
5. Instruct all the students who described an individual in the cartouche to assume the position
of the person they described (i.e. re-create the cartouche by assuming the same positions/atti-
13
tudes). Pick one student to play the role of a modern news reporter. The reporter will interview
each person in the cartouche. An individual addressed by the reporter will become “alive” for
the interview. (The other students remain frozen.) Possible questions may include: Who are
you? What are you doing? Why are you here? How does that make you feel?
6. When all of the students re-creating the cartouche have been interviewed, have each of the
student groups discuss and record, on Graphic Organizer A, their inferences about what they
observed both in the cartouche and in the tableau interpretation.
7. Hold a class discussion
about the students’ inferences. Record their answers
on the chalkboard, butcher
paper, or an overhead transparency. If necessary, draw
the students’ attention to the
contents of the open hogshead, activities with the hogsheads of tobacco, and the ship
in the background. Guide the
discussion toward conclusions about the economic
need for labor that led to the
development of slavery in
seventeenth-century Virginia.
14
The Fry-Jefferson Map Cartouche
Map:
A Map of the most INHABITED part of VIRGINIA …
Makers: Joshua Fry and Peter Jefferson, cartographers;Charles Grignon, engraver
Date:
1768 (although dated 1751)
The Fry-Jefferson map was the best map of Virginia produced during the colonial period.
From the time of its publication throughout the rest of the eighteenth century, the map was
undisputedly the most widely referenced map for the region. The first to depict the interior
regions of the Tidewater beyond the Chesapeake Bay, it shows, for instance, some of the wagon
roads used by colonists settling in the western portions of Virginia and North Carolina.
The cartouche on the bottom right corner of the map is a scene depicting a tobacco warehouse on one of Virginia’s rivers. The great planter is seated and being served by a slave. Two
slaves are packing and rolling the tobacco hogsheads while yet another slave is waiting to take
the hogshead in a boat to the anchored ship. The other white men are concerned with making
arrangements for the tobacco to be shipped to England to be marketed. The tobacco came from
the plantations and fields scattered across the Virginia countryside.
15
16
Graphic Organizer A
OBSERVATIONS
INFERENCES
17
LESSON TWO
Debating Slavery
INTRODUCTION
People with a wide variety of attitudes, values, and motivations debated slavery during the
1600s. For many, the perspective reflected their position in society. In this lesson students will
assume a seventeenth-century role and its corresponding view. They will then debate the various issues surrounding the development of the slave codes in the 1600s.
OBJECTIVES
As a result of this lesson, students will be able to:
1. Understand a variety of seventeenth-century perspectives regarding slavery.
2. Prepare (by choosing a specific perspective) an accurate argument regarding the slavery debate in eighteenth-century Virginia.
STANDARDS OF LEARNING
This lesson meets the National Standards for History in the areas of historical comprehension, issues-analysis, and decision-making.
MATERIALS
Slavery Debate Cards
Room set up to facilitate debate
STRATEGY
1. Make copies of the Slavery Debate Cards. Make enough copies to give each student one
card. (Note: Depending upon the size of the groups, the same character card may need to be
used by more than one student in a group. It might be helpful to copy each group’s cards on a
different color of paper to help students differentiate groupings.)
2. Present the following question to the class for debate.
Are Virginia’s tobacco planters economically justified in importing and enslaving
Africans to meet the need for a large, reliable labor force?
3. Divide the class into six groups (two GROUP ONEs, two GROUP TWOs, and two GROUP
THREEs). Assign one role card to each student. Roles are grouped according to similar opinions regarding the debate question. Students should meet with the other members of their group
to discuss the points for debate, drawing on information from the pre-visit lesson, the Field
Trip, and the description on the role cards. The teacher should circulate, prompting students to
use slave codes to develop their arguments. (See the laws regarding slavery.)
4. After a reasonable amount of time in small groups, bring the class together. Reintroduce the
question from step 2 and moderate a whole-class debate.
5. Note: The teacher may wish to conclude the lesson with a student vote, a writing exercise, or
a short discussion.
18
Slavery Debate Cards
Photocopy and cut out the cards as needed.
ANGELO
EMANUEL
An African woman living in a house owned
by Captain William Pierce in James City
in 1623.
A black servant (slave?) who escaped with
six white indentured servants.
Records show that you arrived on the ship
Treasurer in 1619, making you one of the
first Africans in Virginia. At this time, you
are most likely treated as an indentured
servant.
GROUP ONE
Because your punishment does not include
additional time in service, you may already
be a slave for life. The whites who
accompanied you were sentenced to serve
additional time. Other punishments varied
from probation to whipping, branding, and
having their legs shackled.
GROUP ONE
JOHN PUNCH
PLANTATION OWNERS
A runaway indentured servant.
Your plantation grows “Virginia Gold”
tobacco. You have a vested interest in a
reliable, economical labor force. Imported
Africans tend to be more resistant to the
Tidewater climate, are more immune to
European diseases, and come from
agrarian cultures. West Africans seem to
be economically perfect for the demands of
raising tobacco.
For running away, you are sentenced to a
whipping of thirty lashes and your period
of servitude is lengthened to “service for
life.” (This is a turning point in the
development of Virginia slave law.)
The two white servants who escaped with
you are each punished with an additional
four years of servitude and a whipping of
thirty lashes.
GROUP TWO
GROUP ONE
JAMES GREGORY
PLANTATION MISTRESS
A Scottish indentured servant to Hugh
Gwyn.
Your lifestyle depends upon successful
tobacco crops. You defer to your
husband’s decisions and wishes. You are
religious and view most Africans as
heathen and evil, since they tend to be
non-Christian.
You ran away with John Punch. As
punishment, you received a whipping of
thirty lashes and had to serve your master
for one additional year and the colony for
three years.
GROUP ONE
GROUP TWO
19
These characters are covered in the Field Trip or in Lesson Three.
SMALL LANDOWNER
You imitate the larger, wealthier
landowners and follow their examples.
Your cash crop is tobacco. Although you
do not own many slaves, you rely on
enslaved Africans for your labor force.
GROUP TWO
MEMBER OF THE HOUSE
OF BURGESSES
Many of your fellow Burgesses are large
landowners who understand and
sympathize with the need for labor. They
have a vested interest in the control of
slave labor and often rule in self-interest or
in the favor of large landowners.
GROUP FOUR
FIELD SLAVE
ANGLICAN PRIEST
You work on a tobacco plantation. You work
long hours in the fields, typically sunup to sundown. Your tasks include: planting tobacco seedlings; checking each leaf of the plant for tobacco
worms and their eggs and removing them;
hoeing and hilling the plants; cutting off flowers;
and pulling the side plants and leaves off the
stalk. During harvest you cut the plants, strip
leaves from the stalks, hang leaves to dry, pack
tobacco into the barrels, and transport the barrels
to a local tobacco warehouse for inspection.
You are very concerned about the
relationship between Christianity and
bondage, which is becoming a turning
point in the development of slavery. Until
1667, Christians could not be held in
bondage and any slaves who converted to
Christianity were given their freedom. A
new law in 1667 eliminated conversion to
Christianity as a factor in gaining freedom.
GROUP FOUR
GROUP THREE
FEMALE SLAVE
Beginning in 1642/43, you are counted as a
tithable, along with all white and black
males, who are considered income
producers. (White women are not
tithables.) Your status—or condition—as a
slave means that your children will also be
considered to be slaves.
GROUP THREE
JUSTICE OF THE
COUNTY COURT
You are responsible for administering
justice in your county. Many of your
colleagues come from the local gentry and
own a number of slaves. They have a
vested interest in slavery as a cheap,
reliable labor force, and they need to
control that labor force.
GROUP FOUR
20
LESSON THREE
The Development of a Legal Definition of Slavery
INTRODUCTION
Virginia established a slave system incrementally and in an increasingly restrictive fashion. The institution of slavery was shaped and defined by the formal processes of the General
Court and colonial legislature. The laws developed slowly from 1640 until 1705. As the supply
of white indentured servants decreased and the need for labor increased, the colonial government needed to determine who would be enslaved and how they would be controlled. English
Common Law and the laws relating to property made no provisions for the institutionalization
of slavery. As a result, the Virginia Assembly turned to the example of Roman Law.
By 1700, Virginia had become a slave society, although the slave laws were not formally
codified until 1705. In this lesson, students will examine the laws that led to the institutionalization of slavery and trace the evolution of the slave system in Virginia.
OBJECTIVES
As a result of this lesson, students will be able to:
1. Develop a chronology for the legal development of slavery in Virginia.
2. Analyze court cases dealing with the evolution of the Virginia slave system.
3. Identify and analyze the reasons for the evolution of the Virginia slave system.
STANDARDS OF LEARNING
This lesson meets National Standards for History for chronological thinking, historical
comprehension, historical analysis, and interpretation.
MATERIALS
Set One—A Brief Summary of the Legal Codes
Graphic Organizer B
Teacher Key for Set One
Set Two—Court Cases
Graphic Organizer C
STRATEGY
Divide the class into six groups. Three groups will work on Set One—Slave Codes. Three
groups will work on Set Two—Court Cases. At the end of their individual group tasks, each
group will report its findings to the class. Group findings can be placed on a chart or butcher
paper for display.
TASK FOR SET ONE GROUPS
Each group will be given Set One’s summaries of the selected legal codes concerning slavery in Virginia. The task is to place the slave codes in chronological order and to explain their
reasons for that order. Have the three groups list the ordered codes on chart paper. One person
will serve as spokesperson for each group. The students will compare their work with the actual chronology of these laws. Students will be asked to hypothesize the reasons for this evolution.
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TASK FOR SET TWO GROUPS
Provide students with Set Two materials (synopses of Elizabeth Key’s, Emanuel’s, and
John Punch’s cases). For each case identify the facts, issues, and the decision of the court.
Then distribute Graphic Organizer C. Working within the same groups, students will complete
the organizer and report to the class.
EVALUATION
When the groups finish their individual tasks, they will report their findings to the class.
As a class, the students can explore the relationships between the information presented in
each set of materials. Focus questions might include:
• Why were the laws organized the way they were?
• How did the laws reflect changing conditions in Virginia?
• How did the courts’ decisions reflect the legal codes?
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Set One—A Brief Summary of the Legal Codes
Negroes prohibited from possessing arms.
Children of Negro women to hold same
status as mother. If the mother is enslaved,
so is the child. If the mother is free, the
child is free.
Baptism does not alter the status of a slave.
This law was enacted after some baptized
slaves successfully argued that their
enslavement was illegal, because Christians
could not be enslaved.
Non-Christians entering the country by
water will serve for life.
Negroes must give up ownership of horses,
cattle, and hogs.
All previous slave laws are revised and
strengthened.
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Graphic Organizer B
Discuss the reasons why laws are made. Place the summary of each law by the year you
think the law was passed.
EVOLUTION OF THE SLAVE CODES IN VIRGINIA
1639/1640—
1661—
1667—
1670—
1692—
1705—
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Teacher Key for Set One
A BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE LEGAL CODES
1639/40
Negroes prohibited from possessing arms.
1661
Children of Negro women hold same status as mother.
1667
Baptism does not alter the status of a slave.
1670
Non-Christians entering the country by water will serve for life.
1692
Negroes must give up ownership of horses, cattle, or hogs.
1705
“An Act Concerning Servants and Slaves” revises and strengthens all previously existing slave codes.
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Set Two—Court Cases
SYNOPSIS OF THE ELIZABETH KEY CASE
Elizabeth was the bastard daughter of an unnamed slave woman and Thomas Key, who
died in 1636. Elizabeth was sold by Humphrey Higginson, to whom she had been indentured.
She became the property of John Mottrom I, who kept her as a slave. He died in 1655, and
Elizabeth sued his executors for her freedom.
Elizabeth, with the aid of an attorney, argued that she should be freed on three points:
1. Her father was English.
2. She was a baptized Christian.
3. She had been sold for a definite term of years, which had long since past.
She won her case, but the executors appealed the ruling, and it was overturned. Finally,
the Northumberland County justices freed her.
SYNOPSIS OF THE EMANUEL CASE
In 1640, Emanuel and six servants ran away with corn, powder, guns, and shot. They
seized a small boat and were sailing down the Elizabeth River when they were caught. Most of
the offenders were whipped, branded on the cheek with an R (a mark meaning Runaway), and
required to serve additional years of indenture.
The sentences were: Christopher Miller (the “Principle agent in this business”): thirty lashes,
branded on the cheek with “R,” leg shackled for one year, and an additional seven years of
servitude to the colony. Peter Wilcocke: thirty lashes, branded on the cheek with an “R,” an
additional three years servitude to Richard Cookson, and an additional 2.5 years servitude to
the colony. Richard Hill: “To remain on good behavior until the next offense.” Andrew Noxe:
Thirty lashes. John Williams (“a Dutchman and a Chirugen” [surgeon]): An additional seven
years to the colony. Emanuel: Thirty lashes, branded on the cheek with an “R,” and leg shackled for one year. He was whipped and branded, but no additional time was added as punishment.
SYNOPSIS OF THE JOHN PUNCH CASE
In 1640, the General Court pronounced sentence on three servants who had been captured after running away to Maryland. Two of them, both white, were ordered to serve their
masters for one additional year and serve the colony for three more years. The third servant,
“being a negro named John Punch shall serve his said master or his assigns for the time of his
natural life here or elsewhere.” This is the first definite indication of slavery by law in Virginia.
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Graphic Organizer C
List the similarities and differences in the court cases of Elizabeth Key, Emanuel, and John
Punch in this Venn diagram. Place the similarities in the intersecting portions of the circles.
Elizabeth Key
Emanuel
John Punch
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Final Evaluation Activity
1. Conduct a whole-class discussion regarding the importance of public opinion in the political
process. Just like politicians today, Virginia Burgesses in the eighteenth century knew that
public opinion and the media are powerful tools that can work for or against a politician or an
issue with which they are involved.
Virginia politicians and some of the people they represented read the Virginia Gazette, a
newspaper printed in Williamsburg. Concerned individuals often wrote open letters to the Virginia Gazette regarding controversial political issues.
2. Copy and distribute the role cards from Lesson Two: Debating Slavery. Give the students a
few minutes to read their character’s biographical information. Tell the students to record how
they think the character described on the role card felt about the institution of slavery.
3. Instruct the students to compose a letter to the editor of the Virginia Gazette in 1710 supporting or denouncing the institutionalization of slavery. The letter to the editor must be written
from their character’s viewpoint.
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We at Colonial Williamsburg would very much enjoy receiving copies of some of your
students’ work from any of the lesson plans in this packet. If you would care to share examples
of their work, please send them to:
Mary Stutz
Colonial Williamsburg Foundation
P.O. Box 1776
Williamsburg, VA 23187-1776
Special thanks for their help to: Kelly Curtright, social studies curriculum coordinator,
Oklahoma City, Okla.; Carol Gunner, elementary school teacher, Carlsbad, Calif.; Jeanne Lumbard, middle school teacher, Vancouver, Wash.; Susan Pingel, high school teacher, Auburn,
N. Y.; Gloria Sesso, high school teacher, Port Jefferson, N. Y.; and Laura Wilde, elementary
school teacher, Marina Del Ray, Calif.
This teacher’s guide has been underwritten by a grant from the DeWitt Wallace Fund for
Colonial Williamsburg, established by the founder of Reader’s Digest.
©1998 by The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation