A good short intro, I think. I mean, I haven't read any other short introductions to the Richmond slave trade, so who am I to judge. I'd like to compare some of its aggregate data to The Half Has Never Been Told, which I read a while back. I hope someone will come along and map out Richmond wealth by family history. Just a sample, of course, but heck in 1800 Richmond didn't have that many people. You could trace maybe two dozen families, white and black, and describe financial ripple effects up to present day.
Man I hope more and more folks will accept the general premise that American wealth and power was built by enslaved Black labor and stolen Indian land every bit as much as by ingenuity and hard work in the free market. that's a pretty tame statement, right? can't we accept that as a country, write it into our songs and rituals? etc? maybe that's the rub - the rituals and songs and stuff. I think most folks would accept that statement in a history class, but not on thanksgiving or the 4th of july. mourning and repentance mixed with patriotism and pride? could we combine those somehow? or should they be separate activities? we can have the history lesson, just don't mess with my america. ai yai yai
notes
- urban slavery; hiring out; self-hire; lots of movement
- development of "patrols" - formal or informal bands of armed white men
- Richmond/VA number one in "slave breeding"
- Wall Street (present 15th street) and blocks around it home to 69 or more slave dealers and auction houses
- unclear status of first Africans brought to America
- by 1670s and likely earlier first slaves in Richmond
- by 1860, more than half a million enslaved people sold in Richmond
- hiring rates were typically 10-20 percent of persons value, computed annually
- no white every sentenced to lifetime of slavery
- white vs non-white became the legal basis, rather than earlier Xian vs non-Xian
- it is difficult, historically or logically, to determine to what degree racism fueled the growth and acceptance of African slavery, or the practical need for cheap labor facilitated the acceptance of racism or both fed more or less equally off each other
- tobacco slavocracy
- 1607 - reportedly 150 Indians at the falls in dozen oblong branch covered houses; one englishman said it was a place natives left their sick to recuperate; easy access to fishing and hunting
- Byrd I's Fall Platation - b/w Hull Street and Stony Creek. Est. a trading post at Stony Creek, may have been first to bring sizable numbers of enslaved Africans to area
- built a warehouse near Shockoe circa 1678
- initially, trading of slaves took place right on the ships at anchor in the river
- 1800 - cotton 7% of of US exports; by 1869 - 60%
- infamous Richmond Black Code
- by 1850 a higher percentage of blacks had parents born in America than whites
- many slave traders and speculators refused to use their personal names
- Fredericksburg - slave-trading block at corner of Charles and Williams streets
- African slaves bought and sold in nearly all counties that would become West VA
- salt was first major industry in western VA (west va)
- early Richmond - several homes, one blacksmith, dirt street
- original native trails preserved by roads - Park Avenue, and maybe Westham Road
- slave sales peaked at Manchester in 1775-1776, then more and more on the north side of river around Wall street
- when conducted off ship, business was often advertised with red flags mounted above doorways of taverns and small businesses
- "sold south"
- VA ban on importation 1778, US ban 1808: increased business in Richmond
- other towns and cities had central slave auction location; in Richmond more diffuse across the Wall Street neighborhood
- hotels also used for slave sales
- The Odd Fellows Hall, at corner of Franklin and Mayo
- Midori Takagi: slavery adapted and grew to industrial revolution
- 1860 - about 60% of enslaved worked outside the home of their owners; usu hired for a year at a time
- Rev Jasper - eventually given authority to "marry slaves and minister to wounded Civil War soldiers"
- Van Lew mansion perhaps part of underground railroad
- people caught running away constantly being delivered to jails in richmond
- Richmond may have been place for escaped slaves to attempt to disappear into free black community
- some antislavery factions met at Powhatan House at 11th and Broad, which later became a breeding ground for the discontents who would form the breakaway section of western VA
- Dickens: ...when they [southerners] speak of freedom, mean the freedom to oppress their kind
- most often, white Virginians did not mention enslaved people at all, and when they did, they were mentioned in ledgers
- African slaves not permitted surnames, only name of their owner
- enslaved people about 1/3 of all liquid capital of south
- VA's chief export...people
- slave owners had various options for insurance against loss
- churches and other businesses also invested in slaves, even when they didn't need the labor
- on the typical southern plantation with twenty slaves, the slaves themselves were worth more than the total value of the land and implements combined
- bull market for trading enslaved people at beginning of war
- 1860 - south had 60% of america's wealthiest men and per capita income rate almost double of north
- 1860 dollars - value of enslaved people somewhere between 2-5 billion; adjusted to 2011 - 150-200 billion
- by 1862, largest employer of city enslaved workers was confederate government
- 1860 VA law- required slave traders to be licensed and registered; earlier 1840 city authorities began selling licenses
- 1860 cotton crop - 191 million; more than 60% of slave pop worked on its cultivation and harvest
- confederate money - often had vignettes of slavery on them
- provost marshal Brig. Gen. John Winder, "his company was always vigorously avoided by blacks and whites alike"
- lots of profiteering during war
- so called "divinity students" roamed streets
- black Union soldiers stopped at Lumpkin's slave jail to pay homage to suffering that had gone on there
- many former slaves in richmond area, although liberated and now technically free to act as they pleased, were in reality penniless, hungry and limited in their survival options
- Freedman's Bureau - trying to protect against attack and abuse of freed blacks
- Freedman's Bank at 10th and Broad
- Thomas Morris Chester: "nothing can exceed the rejoicings of the negroes since the occupation of this city. They declare that they cannot realize the change; though they have long prayed for it, yet it seems impossible that it has come. Old men and women weep and shout for joy, and praise God for their deliverance through the means of the Union army."
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