This month we added four new sets of data, totaling about 15,000 new records.
From the Maryland State Archives, we added 8,900 records of slaves sales and 5,600 records of slave inventories.
From the Library of Virginia, we added two small, but very interesting sets of data: Petitions to Stay in the Commonwealth, and Petitions for Re-Enslavement. Together just 400 records, but very interesting in what they say about the history of slavery in Virginia.
At first glance, it’s totally perplexing. Why would anyone need to apply to remain in Virginia, and why on earth would any sane person, once free, petition to again become a slave? Apparently many Virginians were distressed at the presence of freed slaves around them, and the example it showed to current slaves. From the Virginia State Library website:
In 1806, the General Assembly moved to remove the free Negro population from Virginia with a law stating that all emancipated slaves, freed after May 1, 1806, who remained in the commonwealth more than a year, would forfeit their right to freedom and be sold by the Overseers of the Poor for the benefit of the parish. Individuals wishing to stay were to petition the legislature through the local county court. Beginning in 1837, freed slaves could petition the local courts for permission to remain in the commonwealth. In 1856 another act passed by the Virginia legislature allowed free persons of color who desired to remain in Virginia to petition for re-enslavement and choose an owner.
A few examples show how difficult these decisions must have been.
In 1859, George Boush was allowed to stay in Virginia until his wife and children were free, at which time the entire family would have to leave the state. In 1863, Harriet Coleman, having been brought up in the family of Dr. Brockenborough, desired to stay in an environment she was familiar with. Her petition was granted.
Not all petitioners were so lucky. In May of 1841, ten white citizens petitioned the court to deny the application of Lucinda, Cary, and Bob to remain in the commonwealth. Worse, in 1835 in Rockbridge, 65 citizens petitioned the court not to grant any applications of freed slaves to stay in the commonwealth, saying that “such a population mixing with our Slaves is injurious and that nothing but evil can come of increasing the number.”
If a freed slave was not granted the right to stay, they were left little choice. In some cases slaves might be freed in a will that stipulated (for whatever reasons) that the freed slaves be shipped to Liberia. The cruel option available was re-enslavement. While only 42 such petitions are in the state library, they are heart-wrenching.
In 1858 in Abemarle County, free Negro John Martin petitioned to be re-enslaved with John Hucksteep, preferring the life of a slave to being forced to leave the state and his enslaved family. In his 1860 application for re-enslavement, George Kent stated “I prefer to remain in the good old Commonwealth that gave me birth to freedom in Affrica.”
The saddest of these petitions in that of free Negro Dennis Holt who, in Campbell County in 1858, petitioned to be re-enslaved by David Hoffman, distrusting his own ability to fend for himself and not wanting to be separated from his enslaved wife.
One can think of nothing so dear to a slave as the idea of freedom, but a particularly insidious aspect of slavery is that the institution often made that very freedom complex. Complex enough in some cases, that freed slaves petition to return to slavery.
