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CHAPTER I.
pp. 9 - 15
NUMBER AND DISTRIBUTION OF
THE FREE NEGROES IN VIRGINIA
At the
beginning of the Civil War there were in Virginia nearly
sixty thousand free negroes.1 This
umber was far in excess of the number of free colored
persons in any other of the great slave States, being
about double the number in North Carolina, the State
which, south of Virginia, had the largest free colored
population. It was in excess of the free negro
population in any State, slave or free, with the
exception of Maryland. In 1860 the entire number
of negroes in New York and New England combined was but
little greater than the number of free negroes in
Virginia. According to every Federal enumeration
from 1790, the aggregate negro population of the State
of Pennsylvania was smaller than the free colored
population of Virginia, and from 1830 to 1860 the same
may be said of New York. At the beginning of the
nineteenth century the sum of the free negro populations
in New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania was only about
a thousand more than the number of free negroes in
Virginia.2 Of the free negro population
of the United States, Virginia had about one eighth.3
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1 Except where
specific reference is made in footnotes to the sources,
the statistical facts in this chapter are based on the
United States decennial censuses, 1790-1860.
2 St. G. Tucker, A Dissertation on
Slavery, p. 70 n.
3 It must be kept in mind that free
mulattoes and all other free persons having negro blood
are included in the use of the word census reports under
the caption, "all other [than white] free persons except
Indians not taxed." In 1771 the general court
ruled that negro or mulatto servants and apprentices
were to be considered free negroes. It is in this
broadened sense that the word is used in this work when
used without qualifying words (Howell v.
Netherland, Jefferson's Reports, 90).
[Pg. 10]
The condition which made
the free negro question in Virginia unique and
peculiarly interesting was that in that State only was
there so large a free colored population living in a
society so vitally connected with and dependent upon
slavery. It requires but little imagination to see
why a free negro population, numbering from twenty to
sixty thousand between 1800 and 1860 and living among a
slave population almost as numerous as the dominant
white element, created social problems more perplexing
than those of New England, where the negroes, few in
number, were almost all free, and race problems
different from those of other great slave Sates where he
free negroes were too few to constitute a conspicuous
factor in the social order. With society in a
large area of Virginia composed of about an equal number
of masters and slaves, an additional element of free
negroes in the proportion of one to about eight slaves
acted in no sense as an aid to facilitating the
association of the two races.
Prior to a law of 1782 which removed the restrictions
upon the right to manumit slaves by will, the number of
free negroes relative to the number of slaves or white
persons was very much smaller than in any decade after
the passage of that act. From 1619 to the end of
the century, when custom and the law were fixing the
status of the Virginia negro, no satisfactory
statistical estimate can be made of the number of free
negroes in the colony. In 1670 Governor Berkeley
estimated the total number of "black slaves" in the
colony at two thousand.4 Although he
made no reference to any free negroes, there is ample
evidence to show that there were some in the colony at
this time. In 1691 and 1723 laws were enacted
which limited the increase of the free negro class to
natural means and to manumissions by special legislative
acts.5 These limitations upon
manumission remained in force till 1782, when, according
to the reliable statement of a contemporary, the free
negro class numbered about twenty-eight hundred.
Supporting the
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4 W. W. Hening,
Statutes at Large of Virginia, vol. ii, p. 515.
5 Ibid., vol. iii, pp. 87, 88; vol.
iv, p. 132. [Pg. 12]
date back to 1662, bear witness to the existence of a
free negro element in the congregations, although it is
difficult to ascertain from this source the numerical
strength of the free negro population.11 The
register of the old Bruton parish shows that
thirty-seven out of eleven hundred and twenty-two
colored persons baptized between 1746 and 1797 were
free;12 but the ratio of 37 to 1122, or 1 to 30, is no
doubt much too large to show the relative number of free
negroes to the slaves in any large section of the State.
From about 1762 to 1782 some seventy free colored
persons are mentioned in the records of baptisms - a
number larger than could have been found in most areas
of the same size included in a single parish. 13
After 1782 the relative numbers of the three classes of
Virginia population are pretty well known. A state
census made in 1782,14 although not
classifying free negroes separately, bears out the
estate made by Professor Tucker that twenty-eight
hundred 15 would represent fairly
accurately the number of free negroes in Virginia at
that date. The unparalleled increase of this
class, which followed the removal in 182 of the
restrictions on manumission, and also the relative
numbers of free colored persons, slaves, and whites in
Virginia from 1790 to 1860 will be seen from
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11 By the courtesy of
the librarian of the Episcopal Theological Seminary at
Alexandria, Virginia, the writer was permitted to
examine the manuscript parish records, which contain
valuable information not only as to the number of free
negroes, but also as to their social position.
12 Manuscript copy, Williamsburg, Virginia,
pp. 24-57. See also W. A. R. Goodwin,
Historical Search of Bruton Church, p. 153.
13 The record for a single year reads, with
reference to free negroes, as follows: "John, son
of Thos. & Sally Pow, a free mulatto was baptized
Apr. ye 4, 1762." "Elizabeth, Daughter of
Eliza Wallace (a free negro) baptiz'd June ye 6,
17962.: "Joseph, Son of Anne Freeman,
a free Mulatto, bapt'z'd July ye 4, 1762."
In further illustration of the evidence contained in
parish records of the existence of free negro died Sept.
3, 1741" (MS. Register of Christ's Church, Middlesex
County, p. 310).
14 "State Enumeration of Va., 1782-1785-
Heads of Families," published with the first census of
the United States, 1790.
15 St. G. Tucker, A Dissertation on Slavery,
ed. 1803, p. 66.
[Pg. 13]
the following table prepared from the Federal decennial
ceenses: -
| |
1790 |
1820 |
1840 |
1860 |
|
Free colored |
12,866 |
36,875 |
49,841 |
58,042 |
|
Slave |
292,627 |
425,148 |
448,988 |
490,865 |
|
White |
442,117 |
603,381 |
740,968 |
1,047,299 |
|
Total |
747,610 |
1,065,404 |
1,239, 797 |
1,596,206 |
From these
figures one fails to get a correct conception of the
significance of the presence of the free colored
population in Virginia unless the question of
distribution is also taken into consideration. Had
the free blacks been equally distributed throughout the
white population of the State, the effect would have
been different. In the mountainous half of the
State, which after 1830 contained half of the white
population, free negroes were so scarce as to be an
almost negligible social factor. The 58,042 free
negroes, together with the slave population, were
confined largely to the eastern half of the State, where
in 1860 the white population numbered about 600,000.
The State of Virginia was divided north and south on
the basis of the elevation of land into four sections:
Tide water, Piedmont, the Valley, and Trans-Alleghany.
Of the 12,866 free negroes in Virginia in 1790 only 75
resided in Trans-Alleghany, or what is now West Virginia
with several counties of the southwestern part of
Virginia. In the Valley district there were 815;
in the Piedmont region, 3640, leaving 8330, or about two
thirds of the entire number, in Tidewater. In that
section the first census recorded free negro to 18
slaves and to 18 white persons. In Trans-Alleghany
the figures showed 1 free negro to 30 slaves to 517
white persons.
From the census of 1860 it appeared that the free
negroes of Tidewater were between one sixth and one
seventh of the colored and about one fourteenth of the
entire population of that section. Tidewater
contained 32,841 free ne-
[Pg. 14]
groes, over one half of the entire free colored
population, while the region beyond the Alleghanies now
had 2513, which was about one eleventh of the blacks of
that section and 1 to every 160 persons living there.
It appears that Tidewater always had from one half to
two thirds of the entire free negro class, although
after 1830 that section contained less than one fourth
of the white people of the
State. In 1860 Trans-Alleghany had more than one
third of the white population of Virginia and about one
twenty-fifth of the free negroes. The two sections
west of the Blue Ridge, sometimes called the western
half of the State, had in 1860 over one half of the
white and but one seventh of the entire free colored
class. A few of the lower counties in the Valley
contained a large part .of the 8354 free colored persons
who lived in the western half. Thus it is apparent
that an important aspect of the free negro problem in
Virginia was the fact that the free negro population was
largely concentrated in the eastern half of the State
and came in contact with only about one half of the
white population.
With respect to the relative numbers of free negroes in
smaller localities some interesting observations may be
made. As between rural and urban communities the
latter had the larger share of free negroes. In
1790, when the average ratio of free negroes to slaves
and to whites in the Tidewater section was 1 to 18, in
Petersburg the free negroes constituted one fourth of
the colored population of the town, and were to the
whites as 1 to 4½.
In this town of 3000 people there were 310 free negroes.
In Richmond, out of a population of 3700 there were 265
free negroes. In Portsmouth, where 1702 persons
lived, there were 47 free blacks.
The increase of free negroes in the town populations is
best seen by considering the figures of some of the
later censuses. Petersburg in 1830 had 2032 free
negroes, 2850 slaves, and 3440 white persons. In
1860 this town was the home of 3164 free negroes, 5680
slaves, and a number of
[Pg. 15]
white persons about equal to the total black population.
In 1860 Winchester, a town of 3000 white inhabitants,
had 675 free negroes, only nineteen less than half of
the blacks of the. town. In 1850, 10,450 free negroes
out of a total of 54,333, that is, nearly one fifth,
lived in towns, while only about one tenth of the white
population lived in cities and towns. In 1860
between a fourth and a third of the whole free colored
population lived in towns and cities.16
In some counties a large proportion of the black
inhabitants were free. In Accomac County 3392 of
the 8000 black inhabitants were free. In James City
County 926 out of 2764 blacks were free. In
Nansemond County there were 2470 free negroes and 581
slaves. Other counties in Tidewater in which from
one sixth to one half of the colored population was free
were Charles City, Fairfax, Henrico, Isle of Wight,
James City, Norfolk, Northampton, Prince William,
Richmond, Southampton, Warwick, and Westmoreland. The
counties in Piedmont which had the largest free colored
population relative to the slave class were Loudoun and
Goochland. In the former, one sixth of the negroes
were free, in the latter, one ninth.
Occasion may arise for calling attention to other facts
relative to the numbers and the distribution of the free
negroes in Virginia, but the facts given above will be
sufficient for a general conception of the numerical
importance of that class at different times and in
different places.
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16 Census of 1860,
Population, p. 516. |
