The World They Made Together

The World They Made Together: Black and White Values in Eighteenth-Century Virginia - Mechal Sobel

So fascinating! A handful of years ago my friend and boss recommended this book along with Trabelin' On, also by Sobel. I read Trabelin' On - which studies the development of African-American Christianity, mostly Baptist - soon thereafter and was floored. Why didn't I just read this one too? Who knows. As you can see I took a lot of notes.

1. Intro
1. interpenetration of values; whites usually unaware
2. Byrd II feared VA would become "New Guinea"
3. blacks and most whites both from preindustrial, agrarian cultures
4. over 60,000 Africans brought directly to VA, most before 1740
1. mostly west African: Bight of Biafra, Gold Coast, Angola
2. variety of ethnic groups, including Igbo, Tiv, Kongo, Fante, Asante, Ibibio, Fon
5. Africans of every class enslaved: rulers, priests, artisans, traders, farmers, slaves
6. after mid 18thcentury, most slaves in VA born in VA
7. social order in VA encouraged spreading out (as opposed to NE village pattern)
8. expansion into piedmont - slaveholding more widespread but usually smaller-scale
2. Attitudes toward time and work
1. transition of world view occuring in 17thc england - but mostly in upper classes or puritan circles
2. poor and young in england mostly outside church life
3. medieval, catholic, and pagan rituals and beliefs continued for marriage, death, farming, magic, holy days and places
4. circular time vs linear time
5. varied cultures from Africa, but shared veneration of ancestors, importance of past
6. time in 17thc england - mostly tied to function, activities, sun, agricultural process, prayers, church bells; similar in African cultures; upper english classes beginning to view time as independent, method of measuring
7. ill-omened days "Egyptian" in english folklore
8. Puritan approach to time and work different: strict, "redeem the time," called by God to work your assigned task
9. overseers and masters in england complained about "laziness" of workers in much the same way they complained about "laziness" of enslaved africans
10. Tiv saying: "In your patience is your soul"
11. Freedom from work and leisure time important goals for most african cultures: generally more power/status meant less work
12. slaves in african cultures: usually by 2nd generation, there is hope for upward mobility or enmeshment in new culture; 1st generation slaves in precarious position, could be sold or traded easily; slavery norms may have transferred to america
13. most southern blacks didn't see their forced work as redemptive or sanctifying, but punishment or evil or bad luck or injustice
14. white term for nighttime, "nigger day-time," at night enslaved blacks could socialize or visit
15. exact birthdays for africans often not observed, instead usually associated with season, event or other cultural marker; "generations" often grouped together and go through aging rituals together
16. exact birthdays for enslaved africans in america sometimes recorded by whites for own purposes; Fr. Douglas noted white possession of calendar as power ploy; control
17. crop cycle as time cycle
18. elderly slaves more often seen as "human" or "fellow creatures" by whites
19. in VA about 10% of slaves and maybe 7% of servants joined Bacon's rebellion
20. after rebellion, crime for black to "lift a hand against a christian"
21. through 18thc most white owners oversaw their own enslaved people
22. Robert "King" Carter, largest slave-owner, in 1730's had 26 skilled workmen - 15white and 11 black
23. independent white artisans also had enslaved "apprentices" or assistants
24. Africans came with skills from Africa, also learned from other blacks and whites in Am.
25. widely practiced legal and illegal trade b/w enslaved blacks and poor whites (farm produce for goods or alcohol)
26. 1784 law said ship crew could only be 1/3 black
27. "Phillips gang" during revolutionary war; hideout in dismal swamp - interracial group
28. harvest festivals familiar to both african and english; often in both cultures the rich or rulers would host
29. many VA upperclass leaders obsessed with classical past - Greece and Rome; look to those sources for inspiration; how tied to elites concern with time?
30. from Byrd II diary: put bits in mouths of runaways, tied up those who "pretended" to be sick, made a man drink urine for soiling his bed, sexual advances on his slaves, whipped black and white
31. washington and jefferson - want their plantations to run like "clock work"
32. well established stereotype of indolent white virginian, both rich and poor
33. Byrd II, writing about a "lazy" white family in piedmont, "twas almost worth while to be as poor as this man was, to be as perfectly contented"
34. many claim that slavery making white southerners "lazy"
35. analysis of birth patterns in middlesex county: white births higher in late winter early spring; black births higher in late spring early summer
36. christmas became joint period of celebration; a real break for slaves
37. shared spiritual awakenings in 18th c affected both black and white
3. Attitudes toward space and natural world
1. Igbo "omenala" - conduct sanctioned by land, more important than "Iwu" - rules made by man
2. west african houses - usually approx 12ft in length or diameter; compounds of small houses; much living done outside
3. many africans brought to american tradition of small rectangular cabins with gable roofs, lightly built
4. most english cottages about 16 by 16, originally hole in the roof, in 16th and 17th cent more and more chimneys
5. most african and english still believed in ritual powers, magic, holy or dangerous places, etc
6. not as much fear/hatred of witches in VA as in NE; Grace Sherwood a famous VA case in Prince Anne County; subjected to float test
7. ships consulted with witches for fair winds
8. signs of witchhood - "a teat or place on the body where the devil sucketh them;" and the float test
9. 3 persons hanged as witches on ships coming to chesapeake, one recorded as confessing to witchcraft
10. va promoted as garden of eden, what about "garden of chattel"
11. most wealthy virginians grew up "surrounded by Negros"
12. Byrd II translating song of songs, includes "white" lover with "black" concubine
13. Byrd II compared himself to patriarches with flocks and herds, "bondmen and bondwomen"
14. notice indian figures and names disappearing from maps of VA
15. few to none African place names, only derrogatory or nicknames, or local names for freeblack communities
16. African attachment to place without strict private "ownership"
17. as blacks became Christian; heaven becomes home for all ancestors
18. west african pattern of decorating trees with shiny objects - afri-american bottle tree
19. folklore about snakes - coming from africa not england
20. Lt Gov Gooch pressured enslaved man "Pawpaw" to reveal roots and bark used to cure yaws; as payment Gooch bought Pawpaw's freedom from owner Francis Littlepage, but insisted that Pawpaw remain in contact and reveal more medical-spiritual knowledge
21. in 1730 - vast majority of whites and blacks in VA live in one or two room houses with lofts, wooden chimneys, earthen or wooden floors
22. development of "big house" for owners 
23. middle class or "middling sort" in late 18th cen more likely to have larger house than blacks
24. "virginia house" - very african in character - very light construction, earth fast, grouped in clusters, mud insullated
25. slave houses - often have "root cellars," often woodlined, near the chimney
26. dog-trot house; basically two cabins with a small hall inbetween
27. africans generally had separate houses for cooking and storing food
28. John Michael Vlach: careful study of "shotgun" houses in Louisiana, Haiti, and among Yoruba in Nigeria
29. generally speaking - african house space thought of one room units - added onto if needed; english space thought of as one house divisible into rooms
30. "the mark of success all over the south, and later in the mid-west, became the two story house, the I house, clearly set off from the slave and poor white cabin"
31. life in the "Big house" of slave owners - very much influenced by african values through constant presence of enslaved africans
32. "all the great houses were built by slaves and needed slaves to run them"
33. tradition of black "mammy" and nurses, even wetnurses; white and black children playing together
34. book by Eugene Vail, french visitor to monticello, publishes book with chapter on black literature (reminiscences of martha randolph and her slaves)
35. Byrd whipped white and black servants; sexually advanced on white and black women
36. "cases of illegitimate mulatto children, born to white women, appear in virtually all the church and county court records, although their number declines in the eighteenth century. only rarely was a case of violence recorded"
37. "whites who wanted to leave Big House homes for mulattoes or blacks were often unsuccessful"
38. "the Big House, symbol of white supremacy, was home from a black and white family"
39. english and african rituals of naming and baptism; both had traditions of naming after grandparents
40. many africans had more than one name, or different names for different contexts or stages
41. "it was usual on slave ships to give the names of Adam and Eve to the first man and woman brought on board" (James Arnold 1787, surgeon on the slaver Ruby)
42. white names for blacks:
1. same as whites but in "nickname" form or diminuative form
2. place names from old country
3. classical names, often demeaning
4. african names
43. runaway ads often say that slaves had their own names, or aliases, or went by other names
44. most whites did not acknowledge black surnames, but many blacks took surnames anyway
45. in england, servants not allowed to marry without masters approval
46. 1691 law - if white marries black or indian, must leave state within 3 months
47. slave marriages not "legal," but later recognized by churches
48. blacks more likely to be living in "community," with mixed and extended families in same house or area; also with whites, but whites more likely to be "isolated" in frontier or plantation
4. Causality and Purpose
1. africans widely believed that humans originally immortal; most popular myth involved God sending two messengers, one fast with message of life, one slow with message of death, fast animal is waylaid or careless and slow animal gets there first
2. also another myth that God had forbid certain egg or fruit, humans eat and then death comes
3. africans believed that every death had a cause involving human beings, and that every death should be explained; early deaths or dishonorable deaths could rule you out of participation in next realm
4. most of english executions for witchcraft took place between 1550-1675
5. established anglican church in va run by the elite for the elite
6. after 1750, spiritual revival widespread in va, 1st baptist, then methodist, then baptist again
7. most revival meetings took place outside or in small buildings
8. "virtually all 18th c. baptist and methodist churches were mixed churches, in which blacks sometimes preached to whites and in which whites and blacks witnessed together, shouted together, and shared ecstatic experiences...
9. 1760 James Gordon attended "a pretty large company of the common people and negroes, but very few gentlemen. the gentlemen that even incline to come are afriad of being laughed at."
10. got so crowded that "mr whitefield was obliged to make the negroes go out to make room for the white people"
11. 1750's Separate Baptist or "new light" movement started by Shubal Sterns - who was inspired by Whitefield, he came from congregationalist background in NE, preached in va and nc; Sandy Creek NC (Guilford Co; now Liberty NC in Randolph Co)
12. where was the Dan River church started circa 1760 by William Murphey and Philip Mulkey
13. wide recognized that black spiritual sensibility helped the whites to "come through"
14. practiced believers baptism, love feasts, foot washing, kiss of peace and right hand of fellowship, investigated disputes and behavior of both blacks and whites; against dancing, gambling, and drinking to excess
15. excommunication usually punishment; could "repent" and become reinstated
16. baptists and methodists begin to condemn slavery, then reverse course by 19th century
17. blacks regarded this God as a "time God," that is, God came in is own time, on-time at the right time
18. black visions involved dying and rebirth, new fictive kin - the patriarches, Moses, Jesus, etc
19. in african societies usually only certain people serve as media for spirits, shaman or priests or prophets; in new movement everyone expected to share in the spiritual "possession"
20. the baptist church of the 1750s-70s had been church of dispossesed, by late 1780's many white baptists had moved up in social class, many of "middling sort" now joined, and even a few of the elite joined; towards end of 18th c., races more likely to meet separately
21. 1789 - Baptist General Committee in va against slavery; by 1793 it says decision lies with legislature
22. at least two black men official preachers to "white" congregations
23. "Uncle Jack" well-known preacher in Nottaway Co, born in africa circa 1758, brought to va 7 yrs later
24. many blacks got sick before conversion, "sin-sick"
25. hell was danger for unconverted, but visited during conversion vision travel
26. funeral services big deal; a second funeral service was still held, an important african practice at which leavetaking from the soul was properly celebrated
27. african influeces observed on white burial grounds in upland south va to texas (D.G. Jeane) - mounded graves, scraped clean, decorated, sea-shells, etc
28. Isaac Watt's hymns very popular with whites and blacks; along with Bibles, Watts hymnals were among the first books given to blacks
29. whites appear more concerned with backsliding into sin, or falling away
5. Coda
1. by the end of 18th c., whites and blacks shared family, clan, and even folk histories that could not be separated one from the other
2. the "accidental" fact that slavery became a va institution reinforced "educated elites" identification with rome
3. white va culture also developed "in opposition" to blacks, or reactionary developments
4. John Woolman vision experience - spiritually identified with suffering of enslaved blacks - as described similar to black vision experiences
5. the "little me" or "little man" or "inner soul" capable of journeying to hell and heaven
6. surveying southern culture in the 20th c., henry glassie asks why the children of white farmers in the lowland south are often given carefully homemade negro dolls with which to play

rough estimate of black and white population in va

1650 - 400b, 18,000w
1680 - 3,000b, 40,000w
1700 - 15,000, 45,000
1710 - 19,000, 55,000
1730 - 36,500, 84,000
1750 - 107,000, 130,000
1760 - 140,500, 200,000
1770 - 187,500, 260,000
1778 - foreign slave trade to va legally closed
1780 - 223,500, 317,000
1790 - 305,000, 432,000