Volume 14 , Issue 21

Highland County Virginia - Negroes In Highland

This week we mention a bit about slavery in Highland, values of slaves, slavery regulations, slaveholders in 1800, Manumission, and free negroes.

The negro appeared in Highland within ten years from the settlement, if one or more members of the race did not come with the first pioneers on the Bullpasture. The first known individual was a girl or young woman who was purchased for Ann Jane Usher by her guardian before the Indian War. It was very possible that she was the one whom Mrs. Loftus Pullin (nee Usher) set free by her Will in 1805.

In 1801, Loftus Pullin owned nine slaves. In 1802, John Peebles also had nine, while his neighbors, Robert and James Carlile, had seven and three, respectively. The Bensons, the Lockridges, and the Wilsons on Bolar Run were also considerable slave owners. The better agricultural lands of Highland which had been reduced to tillage were mainly the fertile river bottoms. These were held in tracts of considerable size, and thus caused the plantation system to gain a foothold. Consequently the slaves were held almost exclusively by the well-to-do river farmers.

The slave population was not evenly distributed. Pendleton never owned slaves in anything like the same degree as Bath, and the number in Highland North of the central divide seems always to have been much less than to he southward. Here again, the laws of physical geography come into play. The northern half of Highland was a much smaller proportion of river bottom than the southern. Furthermore, the people of that section were largely of German origin, and this element was never inclined to make much us of slavery.

The limestone belt which runs the whole length of the Bluegrass Valley was a fine substitute for river bottom, yet it was esteemed better suited to grazing than tillage, and slavery was never much in vogue where field agriculture was not largely followed. Accordingly it had a small representation in their valley. It was on the Bullpasture and on the lower courses of Jackson's River and the Cowpasture in Highland that the most slaves were to be found.

The slave had but one name, which was often borrowed front he celebrities of old Rome or from its mythology. Thus Lancelot Graham had a slave named Neptune. The woman whom Mrs. Pullin freed was Daphne. The field hands were lodged in small log cabins. But few indeed are the visible relics of slavery in Highland at this date, and while here and there a slave cabin still existed, it was never, perhaps, as a dwelling, but only as a truck room, hardly suggestive of its former use.

In the earlier days of our local history, slaves were less valuable than in in the period before the great war. The ten slaves of David Gwin in 1822 were valued at $250 to $400 each. The fourteen of George Benson in 1816 were rated at $2,895. The nine of Loftus Pullin in 1801 were worth $2,070. An infant would be worth but $50, while an old man or woman had scarcely any value at all. At the William Sitlington sale in 1825, the boys and girls from three to thirteen years old sold tat $100 to $300 each, according to age. A man of twenty-four sold at $450, while another of fifty-five brought but $150. A woman of forty years was still reed at $200, but the value of one of fifty a had significantly dropped to $100. A woman of seventy and a demented man of thirty found no bidders.

In 1840 slaves were worth $250 to $600, and in the decade of the 50's they became still more valuable. It was this enhancement of value which made the South so tenacious in its support of the institution. Slavery was not voluntarily abandoned so long as slaves rise in value. Had the tendency been the other way in America the emancipation bill which came before the Virginia Legislature of 1832 would probably have carried. But it was lost by only one vote. Had it become a law, the border slave states would have followed the example of Virginia, and the war of 1861 might not have occurred.

While slavery continued, repressive laws and regulations were found necessary. If a slave gave a poisonous drug with intent to oil, the penalty was death without benefit of clergy. It was a misdemeanor with a penalty of not more than thirty-nine lashes for a slave to prepare to administer any medicines, unless by permission of the master.

Slave districts were regularly patrolled. Highland was divided into patrol districts, each with a captain and his party of five to seven men. It was the duty of such patrol party to visit all negro quarters at stated intervals, usually weekly or bi-weekly, and all other places which might fall under suspicion of unlawful assembly. Negroes were whipped by the patrol when found string away without permission.

Although, under slavery repressive rules toward the black people were unavoidable, the institution was not the pitiless tyrant it was represented to be by uninformed Northern Abolitionists. An occasional master was harsh toward his slaves, but in the main the relations between master and slave was kindly. When a man was hired out, as was often done, he was permitted to be at home from Saturday noon till Monday morning. A master on the Bullpasture required a man slave to perform work on Sunday, which the latter objected to doing, he as well as his master being a member of church. The master had his man "churched" for disobedient behavior, yet the latter was acquitted by a jury of slaveholders.

While the Southern men were at the front during the war of 1861, it was in the power of the negroes to work immense harm both positive and negative. A general uprising on their part would at once have disbanded the Southern armies, yet nothing of the sort occurred. Free labor being much more general in Highland than slave labor, there was a division of sentiment with respect to the latter. Salves were every now and then set free by their owners, especially by will. The widow of Alexander Hamilton freed forty slaves. Barbara Wilson freed a number, and the following paper appears to relate to still another, an infant which did not come within the provisions of her will.

Barbara Wilson's Will of 1822:

"Know all men by these presents that I, Barbara Wilson, of the County of Bath and Commonwealth of Virginia, being upon principle opposed to holding any person in slavery, and for other good causes me thereunto moving, have liberated, emancipated, and forever quit claim, and by these presents liberate, emancipate, and forever quit claim to and discharge from my service my white child slave named Sarah Jane, aged about five months, and I do hereby bind myself, my heirs, executors, and administrators forever, to release and discharge from my own or their service the said white child slave, Sarah Jane and her future increase. In testimony whereof I have hereunto subscribed my name and affixed my seal the fifth day of January in the Year of our Lord 1822. ~ Barbara Wilson."

The free negro's presence was not very welcome in communities where there were slaves, and he was very likely to lead an idle, worthless existence. If he became unable to work, the estate of the former master became responsible for his support. His sojourn in a given county of the state was dependent on the will of the county court. He had to be registered by the county clerk, a certificate there being given him for preservation. An objectionable freedman might be prohibited from entering a county, and a misbehaving freedman already in might be ordered out. If he were delinquent in his taxes he could be hired out by the county until the shortage was thus made good. The last mention of ante-bellum freedmen on the records of Highland was when, in the summer of 1864, Madison Douglas was allowed to remain.

During the war the small slave population of Highland became demoralized and scattered. some of the slaves were enticed away by Federal soldiers. At the close of the struggle the white people went to work without much reference to the help formerly derived from the colored race. Under freedom, the negro population of Highland was smaller than under slavery. In the Bluegrass District there was only one family. In Monterey District the representation was very slight in number and was wholly at the county. Stonewall District contains by far the largest share, the most of it being massed in the vicinity of McDowell, where, along the pike near the battlefield, there was a settlement called Stringtown.

For the year 1800, the following slaveholders were recorded in the Pendleton section of Highland:

1. Armstrong, Mary
2. Benson, Mathias
3. Bodkin, John
4. Chew Exekiel
5. Curry, James, Sr.
6. Devericks, John
7. Devericks, Thomas
8. Ervine, George
9. Ervine, William
10. Fleisher, CAtharine
11. Fleisher, William
12. Gum, Isaac
13. Hull, Adam, Jr.
14. Hull, Peter
15. Hull, Samuel B.
16. Malcomb, Robert
17. Rymer, George
18. Seybert, Jacob
19. Sims, Silas
20. Sitlington, John

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