Rearing Wolves to Our Own Destruction: Slavery in Richmond Virginia, 1782–1865 (48 page)

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Authors: Midori Takagi

Tags: #Social Science, #Ethnic Studies, #African American Studies, #test

BOOK: Rearing Wolves to Our Own Destruction: Slavery in Richmond Virginia, 1782–1865
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week went by without some tragic incident involving soldiers and civilians.
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John S. Roane, a white tailor, was practically disemboweled by a soldier when he tried to break up a fight among the militia. According to the newspapers, Roane saw a group of soldiers fighting, "drew near and requested them to desist." In response one of them plunged a knife into Roane and slit his stomach.
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Some residents did not even have to venture near the soldiers to become a target. Frequently soldiers full of rum would shoot their pistols in the streets trying to hit signs, lampposts, or even each other. And alarmingly often these stray bullets would hit civilians in the street or even in their own homes.
Although all city residents were vulnerable to this disgraceful behavior, slave and free black Richmonders were particularly at risk. Belief in white superiority and black inferiority emboldened many Confederate soldiers to take out their frustrations on black workers and brutalize them. Stories of black hack drivers being shot or servant girls cut up by drunk soldiers frequently made the newspapers. Slave resident Henry Cooper nearly lost his life one evening when he picked up a soldier in his hack. Because soldiers were notorious for not paying for goods or services, Cooper demanded the fare up front. The soldier responded by drawing his pistol and shooting the driver. Luckily one of the buttons on Cooper's coat deflected the bullet, probably saving his life.
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Life during the war for slave and free black Richmonders was brutal. No doubt the harsh working conditions, food shortages, restrictive laws, severe penalties, and random violence made black Richmonders feel extremely vulnerable. Slave residents faced the additional hardship of severe reductions in the working and living privileges that earlier had brought some relief and comfort. Even their ability to move through the streets unmolested one of the hallmarks of urban slave life had been eliminated. Slaves needed passes signed by owners for safe passage throughout the city. Although passes were required in the prewar era, such laws were never strictly enforced. Now, failure to get such documentation could result in immediate impressment for public defense work.
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Because of the dangers of traveling or working without a pass, slave laborers were forced to seek out their owners to obtain the proper papers. For slaves who worked and lived with their owners, such contact was not unusual. For hired slaves, however, who saw their owners only sporadically except for the times they handed over their cash payments, this was a marked change. Suddenly slave workers had to inform their owners of their activities and whereabouts, a major departure for those used to working and living apart.
Slave owners, at the same time, sought to reestablish relationships
 
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with their slaves in order to comply with local laws, monitor slaves' activities, and prevent them from escaping, being impressed, or encountering bad treatment when working for the Confederacy. Some owners may have genuinely cared about the welfare of their slaves; but most viewed a closer relationship with hired bond men and women as a good way to protect their property. The loss of a hired slave and the cash income they brought during the war years would have been devastating to most slave owners' households. As a result, owners felt it was financially beneficial to keep close tabs on workers.
Together the new restrictions, martial law, and wartime conditions appeared to do what state and local government efforts could not: suspend the eroding effect of urban industrialization and market relations on the slave system and gain greater discipline and control over the slave population. By constraining slave working and living conditions, forcing slaves and owners to establish relationships, and disrupting the slave community through impressment and strict regulations, the Confederate government seemed to have strengthened the slave system, if only temporarily. There was plenty of evidence supporting such a belief: the number of slaves arrested for "going at large" had significantly increased, slaves convicted of crimes were being punished harshly and promptly, and the overwhelming number of notes and passes found on slaves arrested on the suspicion of self-hiring indicated a high level of contact between slave and owner. Furthermore, wartime restrictions helped to eliminate the twilight zone between slavery and freedom that urban slave working and living conditions had created an issue that had greatly concerned many elite Richmonders years before the war. During the 1850s white city residents had expressed fears that the benefits gave slaves too much control over their lives, which they believed encouraged slaves to think and act more like free people. The wartime regulations did much to demonstrate the wide division between slavery for black Richmonders and freedom for white Richmonders by impressing free black residents into war service, hiring them out when they failed to pay their taxes, and reducing them to slavery in the courts.
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Through these draconian measures, free black residents Lemmuel Bower, James Carter, James Harris, and Samuel Yancy, among others, were treated like slave workers and auctioned for hire in front of the courthouse.
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The Confederate government made it abundantly clear that freedom did not exist for black Richmonders.
While wartime regulations certainly made slave and free black life bleak, there is some doubt as to whether the system was as well under control as the government agencies liked to believe. The very fact that eighty-five slaves were caught "going at large" or self-hiring suggests that
 
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wartime laws could not completely stop these practices.
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Also undermining claims of control was the outpouring of incidents of slave resistance, treason, and illegal black and white alliances all indicating that the new restrictions did not subdue urban bond men and women, nor did they dampen their desire for freedom or for the comforts that made their lives less oppressive. Regardless of the laws, it appeared, according to the Virginia attorney general John Randolph Tucker, that "the negroes [were] dangerous members of society."
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Slave residents still found ways to celebrate life, entertain, and socialize in spite of the restrictions. The hosts and guests of the "colored fancy ball," complete with elaborate gowns, a fiddler, refreshments, and even several members of the white community, appeared unworried by the curfew and "illegal assembly" laws that is until the nightwatchmen raided the party. But neither the laws nor the shocking raid of the fancy ball seemed to have a lasting impact on the slave community; only a month later a second similar party was held at the Columbia Tavern.
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Smaller, less formal activities such as cards, dice games, gambling, and drinking appear to have been unaffected as well. Men continued to gather in alleys and tenements for regular gaming and socializing.
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"Kitchen parties," held in the kitchen of an "opulent citizen" where the "host" slaves worked and lived, continued to be a popular activity among slave women and men throughout the Civil War.
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Other evidence that the war regulations fell short of their aim includes the joint effort of slaves and their owners to continue the practices of self-hiring, living apart, and even avoiding war work. While the pass system forced slaves and owners to stay in closer contact, the law did little to reform their attitudes or behavior. Owners continued to reject laws and restrictions that negatively affected their income. According to the passes many owners did not know or seem to care about their slaves' activities or whereabouts as long as they produced a cash income. The instructions on the passes continued to be vague and open-ended, thus giving slaves a great deal of latitude. Stephen, a kind of traveling salesman, had one of these passes, which allowed him to find his market and live wherever was convenient. "Permit the bearer," Stephen's note began, "to sell and buy articles and sell them to anyone for one month[,] also pass him anywhere in the city until eleven o'clock PM."
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Hannah's pass was only slightly more instructive. "Hannah," wrote owner Thomas Emett, "has permissun to rent a house and wash and do any kind of work she may chuse in the city and receive pay for the same.''
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Not everyone had so much license. Curetta and her daughter Betty, for example, shared a pass that specified where they lived, their occupation, and the hour they were supposed to reach home at night. Interestingly,
 
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the pass was written and signed not by the owner but by a slave agent.
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This, of course, raises questions about how much Mrs. Briggs, the owner, actually knew about Curetta and Betty's activities.
Slaves often gained assistance from their owners in flouting the new requirements to perform war work, particularly when it was dangerous. Owners refusing to comply with impressment laws helped slaves avoid public defense work a job notorious for its poor working conditions. In other instances, slave workers depended on their owners to shield them from the government even after being impressed. When a group of slave laborers ran away from the hospital where they were assigned to nurse victims of smallpox, few owners made them return to their jobs. A number of owners did not even wait for their slaves to escape, instead traveling to the hospitals to pull their workers from the premises. Although the chief surgeons complained, officials quickly found they could do little to prevent such actions.
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City slaves were able to circumvent wartime restrictions by continuing their relationships with free black and white store owners, landlords, and tavern keepers, among other businessmen. Slaves who continued to hire themselves out, for example, were still able to secure private lodgings apart from owner and employer, in direct violation of the law. White landlords willingly rented houses and tenements to slave workers with or without their owners' consent. Tavern keepers, cookshop proprietors, and store owners continued to sell ardent spirits, food, clothing, and any other goods that slaves desired, provided they paid in cash.
Richmond slaves developed a financial relationship with the nonbusiness community as well; the "wealthy ladies" of Richmond, white women whose contact with slaves had been limited, suddenly became trading partners with them. Because of the numerous shortages, these ladies depended on slave hawkers to sell their silk dresses for extra cash or to buy hard-to-find rationed items, even if the goods were stolen.
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Another steady business that developed between enslaved and free Richmonders was forging passes. Slaves who possessed cash and wanted to escape could find Richmonders willing to sign papers for a fee.
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One forger, William Thomas, built a rather extensive business and even employed "agents to bring slaves in want of passes" to him.
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Some slave Richmonders found that their hard-earned cash could buy more than just a pass. Slaves Peter, William, Aaron, Lucy Richards, and Emma Maxfield, among others, made their escape by hiring a wagon, supplies, and an escort of three armed white men.
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During the war slaves were not the only fugitives who were harbored for money. According to a police report, a slave resident named Daniel helped white male residents avoid conscription. In the back of his house,
 
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hidden from the street, he secretly provided room and board for as many as six men at a time. In addition to these services, he acted as a warning sentry. When the police apprehended Daniel, he was throwing pebbles at the back bedroom window to warn the men of the "approaching danger."
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One of the greatest weaknesses of wartime regulations was their inability to sap slaves' desire to resist and survive. No law could have deterred the slave residents who escaped the armed city camp or the friends and family members who helped them leave. And such actions were not reserved for just a few bold individuals. In 1862 nearly 200 slaves "escaped to the enemy" while working on the city's fortifications. That same year eighty slaves working for the Virginia Central Railroad were reportedly "carried off by the enemy," although it is more likely they escaped to federally controlled areas nearby. A random sample of runaway advertisements featured in the local paper between 1861 and 1865 indicates that hundreds of slaves followed in their footsteps throughout the war years.
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Many of the runaways disappeared alone and without a trace. Clara, for example, left her position as a domestic servant one morning, never to be heard from again. Gilbert, who had recently been removed from North Carolina to Richmond, took advantage of the Christmas holidays to make his break for freedom. Gibby, who worked at the hospital, waited until the holiday festivities were over before she took leave.
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Wartime conditions made escape highly desirable but also quite difficult. With thousands of soldiers nearby, the city and ten miles surrounding it under martial law, and patrols combing the countryside for enemy spies, a lone slave making his or her way north would have been highly suspicious. As a result, a number of slaves decided the best way to avoid detection by Confederate soldiers was to mingle with them. With increasing frequency, slave workers hired themselves to officers as personal valets or cooks and then would leave the city with them when their units pulled out. This method worked for Sam and Washington who escaped their owner by hiring themselves to a volunteer company headed for Yorktown. Henry, a barber by trade, similarly had little trouble finding a position with an officer and promptly left the city. Edmund, another successful escapee, took more precautions and told soldiers he was a free black in order to avoid arousing suspicion.
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Joining the military and leaving the city, however, was only the first step toward freedom for many of these slave workers. Once the Confederate battalions moved closer to Union lines, many would head for federal camps. This was certainly the plan Caeser, a slave valet, had plotted. For eight months Caeser patiently waited and served Captain Robert

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