Impact of the Atlantic Slave Trade (Atlas of Early American History, ed. by Lester Cappon.)

Rocky Ridge (Manchester), July 15, 1766

Rocky Ridge, October 12, 1769

Rocky Ridge, November 22, 1769

Rocky Ridge, February 1, 1776

Late 1760s Va. Gazette ads

Richmond Slave Sales, February 1770 and July 1777

Non-Importation• Virginia, August 1774: “We will neither ourselves import

nor purchase any slave or slaves, imported by any person, after the first day of November [1774] next, either from Africa, the West Indies, or any other place.” Hezekiah Niles, ed., Principles and Acts of the Revolution in America (Baltimore, 1822).

• Continental Congress, 1774:•

• “In Congress, Philadelphia, October 20, 1774,” Journals of the Continental Congress 1774-1779, edited by Worthington Chauncey Ford (Washington, D.C., 1905), I, 77.

Virginia outlawed African importation, 1778. Why?

• October 1778 "I. For preventing the farther importation of slaves into this commonwealth Be it enacted by the General Assembly, That from and after the passing of this act, no slave or slaves shall hereafter be imported into this Commonwealth by sea or land, nor shall any slaves so imported be bought or sold by any person whatsoever. II. Every person hereafter importing slaves into this Commonwealth contrary to this act, shall forfeit and pay the sum of one thousand pounds for every slave so imported, and every person selling or buying any such slaves, shall in like manner forfeit and pay the sum of five hundred pounds for every slave so bought or sold, one moiety of which forfeitures shall be to the use of the Commonwealth, and the other moiety to him or them that will sue for the same, to be recovered by action of debt or information in any court of record. III. And be it further enacted, That every slave imported into this Commonwealth, contrary to the true intent and meaning of this act, shall, upon such importation, become free." Hening, Statutes, IX, 471.

From importation to exportation Gen. C. C. Pinckney (S.C.), Constitutional Convention, 1787: Virginia “will gain by stopping the importations. Her slaves will rise in value, & she has more than she wants.”

1787-1807: Organized interregional slave trade began.

1792: Virginia Governor learned a major reason for eastern Virginia slave rebelliousness: the “practice of severing husband,

wife and children in sales.”

January 1, 1808: Importation of Africans became illegal throughout the U.S., leading Deep South to go to Virginia and

other markets.

1840 to Civil War: Richmond dominated exportation of enslaved people from the Old Dominion.

The interstate slave trade began after the Revolutionary War ended

• One early advertisement reflects an interstate slave trader’s attitudes, both economic and social: – December 22, 1787: “One Hundred Negroes, from 20

to 30 years old, for which a good price will be given. They are to be sent out of the state, therefore we shall not be particular respecting the character of any of them—Hearty and well made is all that is necessary.”

• Virginia Gazette and Independent Chronicle, December 22, 1787, quoted in McColley, Slavery and Jeffersonian Virginia, 164-5, and in Tadman, Speculators and Slaves, 15.

Total for ALL of Virginia, 1790-1863: 515,075. One half = ca. 257,500.

Other scholars believe 300,000 were sold away from Virginia.

Copyright Phillip Troutman, 1998

http://fisher.lib.virginia.edu/collections/stats/slavetrade/migrmaps.html

• Origins• The Middle Passage: the Human cost• 1619 in art• 1619 in fact• West African origins• 17th-century importation• Numbers• Richmond• Advertising• Impact on Virginia• Ending• “Second Middle Passage”

Why did Virginia still have the largest number of (U.S.) slaves in 1860?

Comparative Population of Selected Western Hemisphere Locations, 1630-1860St.

Virginia South Carolina Georgia Brazil Cuba Jamaica Dominguewhites enslaved whites enslaved whites enslaved enslaved enslaved enslaved enslaved

1630 2,450 50 0 0 0 0 ca.40,000 ? 550 ? 1660 26,070- 783- 0 0 0 0 ? ? 1,400 ?

26,337 9701680 40,596- 2,138- 1,000 200 0 0 ? ? 9,500 2,000

41,278 3,0001700 42,650- 5,630- 3,260- 2,444- 0 0 ? ? 45,000 10,000

52,930 16,000 3,800 3,0001740 120,440 60,000 15,000- 30,000- 2,021 0 ? ? 99,200 117,400

20,000 39,1551775 259,016 188,000 66,033 86,089- 23,955 15,278 ? 44,333 190,000 240,000

96,0001790 442,117 292,627 140,178 107,094 52,886 29,264 1,442,800 84,590 250,000 452,0001810 514,280 392,516 214,196 196,365 145,414 105,218 1,790,800 167,070 324,000 01830 694,300 469,757 257,863 315,401 296,806 217,531 ? 286,942 322,421 01860 1,047,299 490,865 291,300 402,406 591,550 462,198 1,715,000 370,553 0 0

Enslaved population percentages, 1860Enslaved Total % total

South Carolina 402,406 703,708 57.2%Mississippi 436,631 791,305 55.2%Louisiana 331,726 708,002 46.9%Alabama 435,080 964,201 45.1%Florida 61,745 140,424 44.0%Georgia 462,198 1,057,286 43.7%North Carolina 331,059 992,622 33.4%Virginia 490,865 1,596,318 30.7%Texas 182,566 604,215 30.2%Arkansas 111,115 435,450 25.5%Tennessee 275,719 1,109,801 24.8%Kentucky 225,483 1,155,684 19.5%Maryland 87,189 687,049 12.7%Missouri 114,931 1,182,012 9.7%Delaware 1,798 112,216 1.6%

Enslaved population ranked by size 1860Enslaved Total % total

Virginia 490,865 1,596,318 30.7%Georgia 462,198 1,057,286 43.7%Mississippi 436,631 791,305 55.2%Alabama 435,080 964,201 45.1%South Carolina 402,406 703,708 57.2%Louisiana 331,726 708,002 46.9%North Carolina 331,059 992,622 33.4%Tennessee 275,719 1,109,801 24.8%Kentucky 225,483 1,155,684 19.5%Texas 182,566 604,215 30.2%Missouri 114,931 1,182,012 9.7%Arkansas 111,115 435,450 25.5%Maryland 87,189 687,049 12.7%Florida 61,745 140,424 44.0%Delaware 1,798 112,216 1.6%

Liverpool Slave Trading Ships and Africans They Landed in Virginia Ports York Rappahan. So. Potomac Upper James Lower James Dist. Unknwn Total

Ships Slaves Ships Slaves Ships Slaves Ships Slaves Ships Slaves Ships Slaves Ships Slaves1698-1703 0 - 1 1 - - - - - - - - 1 1 1704-1718 5 248 4 111 - - - - 2 42 - - 11 401 1719-1730 2 13 5 594 - - - - - - - - 7 607 1731-1745 6 812 8 1,113 8 1,019 6 850 2 41 2 122 32 3,957 1746-1760 8 1,549 5 692 - - 2 433 3 97 5 479 23 3,250 1761-1774 1 154 12 1,954 1 30 11 2,110 3 64 3 393 31 4,705

Total 22 2,776 35 4,465 9 1,049 19 3,393 10 244 10 994 105 12,921 Source: Lorena S. Walsh, "The Chesapeake Slave Trade: Regional Patterns, African Origins, and Some Implications."William and Mary Quarterly , 3d Ser., 58 (January 2001), 168-69.

LIVERPOOL AND VIRGINIA

Estimates of enslaved Virginians' exportation to other states, 1790-1859Total Va %

Delaware Dist. Col. Kentucky Maryland N. Carolina S. Carolina Virginia South South1790-99 exp. 4523 0 0 22221 0 0 22767 49511 46%Slave Pop. 8897 0 12430 103030 100572 107094 292627 624650% state pop. 51% 0 0 22% 0 0% 8% 8%1800-09 exp. 3204 1123 0 19960 407 0 41097 65791 62%Slave Pop. 6153 3244 40343 105635 133296 146151 345796 780618% state pop. 52% 35% 0 19% 0.3% 0% 12% 8%1810-19 exp. 817 576 0 33070 13361 0 75562 123386 61%Slave Pop. 4177 5395 80561 111502 168824 196365 392516 959340% state pop. 20% 11% 0 30% 8% 0% 19% 13%1820-29 exp. 2270 1944 916 32795 20113 20517 76157 154712 49%Slave Pop. 4509 6377 126732 107397 204917 258475 425148 1133555% state pop. 50% 30% 1% 31% 10% 8% 18% 14%1830-39 exp. 1314 2575 19907 33753 52044 56683 118474 284750 42%Slave Pop. 3292 6119 165213 102994 245601 315401 469757 1308377% state pop. 40% 42% 12% 33% 21% 18% 25% 22%1840-49 exp. 912 2030 19266 21348 22481 28947 88918 183902 48%Slave Pop. 2605 4694 182258 89737 245817 327038 448987 1301136% state pop. 35% 43% 11% 24% 9% 9% 20% 14%1850-59 exp. 920 1222 31215 21777 22390 65053 82573 250728 33%Slave Pop. 2290 3687 210981 90368 288548 384984 472528 1453386% state pop. 40% 33% 15% 24% 8% 17% 17% 17%Total exported 13960 9470 71304 184924 130796 171200 505548 1112780 45%

Exportation by sea: Rocketts, by Benjamin Henry Latrobe, 1796

Who exported ca. one-half million people from Virginia?

• Owners• Traveling slave dealers• Slave Traders

– in Alexandria– in Richmond– in Norfolk– in Petersburg

Lumpkin’s Jail Archaeology proposal, 2005

Lumpkin’s Jail Mutual Assurance Society Policy renewal, 1851

Shockoe Valley, 1865

Manchester Docks (south bank) and Rocketts (north bank), 1865

Rocketts, 1865

Sold down the river?

• Many were.• But some could escape when a ship was

wrecked.• Some escaped by revolting: The Creole

Revolt, 1841 (after the Amistad case).• Traders thereafter used ships less often.

They relied more on overland “shipment”—i.e. on foot in “coffles” and on railroad cars.

The interstate slave trade cost

• Economic cost– Minimal for white Virginians. Often a gain.

• Social cost– White leaders sometimes claimed selling away

enslaved people improved Virginia.• Human “cost”

– There is no possible measurement.

Lewis Miller watercolor, 1853

Eyre Crowe painting, Richmond, 1853-4

First African Baptist Church

Gregg Kimball, American City, Southern Place, 135

1857: Richmond Enquirer estimated city slave auction receipts at $3,500,000 (2005 estimates: $71,897,935 or $102,642,411)

Another newspaper reported $4,000,000 in receipts. (2005 estimates: $82,169,069 or $$117,305,613)

Frederick Douglass on the Richmond Slave Jails

• Douglass speech, Halifax, Eng., December 7, 1859: “Slave marts and churches stood in the same market place. The groans of the slaves being sold in the shambles of Richmond were sometimes drowned by the pious shouting of their masters in the church close by.” Frederick Douglass Papers, Ser. 1, vol. 3 (1864-1880), 284.

In the early nineteenth century, there was “a basic reality of chattel slavery—that

slaveholding required slave trading.”

Adam Rothman, “The Domestication of the Slave Trade in the United States,” in The Chattel Principle: Internal Slave Trades in the Americas, ed. Walter Johnson (New Haven, Yale University Press, 2004), 33.

Remembering, Retracing, Memorializing, ReconcilingAncestors and Relatives

Ship manifests

Slave Traders’ records

Freedmen’s Bank

Narratives; Family stories

Distinctive names

Famous forced migrants

Madison Washington, Creole revolt leader

The Richmond Slave Trail

Shockoe

Reconciliation Statue