Volume 14 , Issue 36

Pendleton County, (West) Virginia - Slavery In Pendleton

To get started again with more genealogy and history of Pendleton county, West Virginia, we continue with chapter thirteen, of the History of Pendleton County, West Virginia, by Oren Frederick Morton, concerning "Slavery In Pendleton."

But . . . Before we begin, here is some news clips for those searching for Raerton and Probst ancestry from Pendleton county, Virginia, concerning information we found in The Evening bulletin, dated Thursday, November 29, 1888, published in Maysville, Kentucky -- "A novel wedding occurred a day or two ago on the Pendleton county, West Virginia, and Virginia line. The parties were Mr. John Raerton, of Highland county, Virginia, and Mrs. Martha Probst, of Pendleton county, West Virginia. The Rev. G. Collins, the minister in the case, not having license in Pendleton, stood on the line of the two counties, while high-contracting parties stood in Pendleton county and were made man and wife in the presence of a large crowd of people."

We find through historical books that the Appalachian highland was seldom adapted to large farming operations. In early times the access to an outside market was far more inconvenient than in the lowland South.The Scotch-Irish and the German settlers of this mountain land were not in a class favorable to slavery. Most of the religious sects among the Germans were decidedly opposed to it. West of the Blue Ridge, slavery never had the foothold it possessed east of the mountains.

In 1756 there were 40 black tithables in Augusta,indicating a slave population of not more than 1/20th of the whole. Runaways appeared to have been of frequent occurrence. yet slavery grew more rapidly than the general increase. In 1779 Rockingham had 165 colored tithables, 1/9th of the inhabitants being negroes. The capitation list for Pendleton in 1790 mentioned only three colored tithables, these being the property of Francis Evick.

In 1834 there were 280 slaves. In 1850 there were 322 slaves and 31 free colored, a total of 353. This was considered 6% of the entire population. The same date nearly or quite coincides wight he high water mark of the negro race in Pendleton.

If this county were destitute of river bottom and of large and smooth areas of fertile upland, the number of slaves would have been exceedingly small. But the river bottoms with their adaptability to large and profitable farming gave a conspicuous advantage to those fortunate persons who owned these lands. The geographic condition quickly created a class of prosperous river-valley farmers, who under the industrial ideas of a former day were not slow to resort to slave labor. Yet very few became slaveholders on anything like a large scale, and few of the hill farmers followed their example.

This geographic condition helped greatly to accustom the people of the county to the mode of social and political thought which was prevalent east of the Blue Ridge. This had an important bearing on the attitude of Pendleton during the crisis of the civil war.

The old laws relative to negro lawbreakers were severe, yet not without reason. The slave had not the forethought, the initiative, nor the self-restraint which the white man had acquired through centuries of effort. He was a savage by instinct and heredity. Force was the one argument he could comprehend, and he expected it to be applied swiftly and vigorously. Lemency led only to a loss of respect toward those in authority over him. We find that the negro who stole a horse or a hog was hanged. In 1779 a slave of Rockingham who killed a man was ordered hanged and his head set on a pole.

The early records of Pendleton contain considerable mention of negro crime. In 1810 a negro felon was branded in the hand and returned to his master. In 1811 negro Stevens was tried for plotting to kill, but was discharged. In 1812 negro Daniel was branded in the hand for stealing a calico habit and a piece of muslin. In 1823 negro Lucy was sold for the amount of jail fees, of which she was the occasion.

In the same year a negro named Ben stabbed John Davis. He was ordered burnt in the hand, given ten lashes on the bare bace well laid on, and remanded to jail subject to the order of his master. The most serious crime was in 1843, when a girl named Maria, the slave of William McCoy, fatally stabbed a negro youth belonging to John McClure. The tragedy occurred in Franklin near the house recently torn down by John McCoy. Her trial took place in December. She was reprieved and sent South.

Sometimes the salve was the occasion of lawbreaking on the part of the white man. In 1811 two men in the southwest of the county were tried for stealing a wench, but were discharged. In 1859 a resident of the North Fork was jailed for giving a pass to a negro, though not convicted. In the same year another man committed a felony by helping three negroes to get away.

The colonial records of Augusta tell us the age of a slave child was passed upon by the county court and ordered certified in the records. The whereabouts and the doings of the slave were kept under scrutiny, and his liberty of movement was very much restricted. If a slave left his master's premises without a pass, any person might bring him before justice, who at his option might order a whipping; or for every such offense he might be given ten lashes by the landowner upon whom he had trespassed. He might not carry a gun except by the permit of a justice. If he gave false testimony, each ear might by turn be nailed to the pillory and afterwards cut off, in addition to his receiving 39 lashes at the whipping post. The law of 1851 forbade the sale of poisons to negroes. For any slave or free negro to prepare, exhibit, or administer any medicine whatsoever, was a felony punishable by death, unless there were no ill intent or result. He might not give medicine even in his own family without the consent of his master.

It was before 1776 the slave was real estate in the eye of the law. After that date he was regarded as personal property. The person with at least 1/4th of negro blood, there was a large and increasing number of such, was counted as a mulatto.

Toward the period of the civil war, there were few whippings in Pendleton in consequence of the disfavor with which the institution was generally regarded. The non-slaveholder found his chief grievance against slavery to lie in the too great petting which he thought the slave received, and which he found to make him impudent. The dates of slave births were recorded in the family bible, though on the fly-leaves. With the master's consent the slave might be baptized. When the estate was settled up, the slaves were divided among the heirs, a single salve being sometimes held in plural ownership. The small amount of slaveholding thus became much diffused. Perhaps the largest holder in the earlier years of the county was Daniel Capito. On the settling of his estate in 1828, the 12 slaves were sold at auction for $2511.50. The capitation tax on a slave was 44 cents in 1800, and $1.20 in 1860.

Sometimes the freeing of a slave at a certain age was mentioned in a will. Nichola Harper provided that his slave Lydia be set free when she was 30, if she behaved herself, and that her child Polly be free at the age of 21. Sometimes there was a proviso that a slave be freed at a certain age, "should the law permit." More emancipating would have been done, but for the embarrassing status of the freed negro. So long as slavery remained in force it was not desirable that such persons be numerous. They continued in a certain degree to be the wards of their former owners who were thus in a measure responsible for their conduct. If the negro were under 21, or over 45, or of unsound mind, he was supported by the estate of the former owner.

The constitution of 1851 required the registering of the freedmen every five years. In the registry were mentioned age, color, and identifying marks. A copy of the paper was given to the freedman. A county court might then grant him permission to live within its jurisdiction during good behavior. Sometimes the application was refused. Such a refusal was put up against Elizabeth Dice in 1850.

In 1845 the petition of the negro Randall was overruled, but two years later it was accepted. The freedman might not carry a gun without a license, and if he worked in another county, his certificate had to be registered there. He could not himself hold salves except by descent. If over 21 and a male, or under 18 and a female, there ws permission to choose a master. Removal front he state forfeited a certificate, andy he free negro of another state was forbidden entrance into Virginia.

The behavior of a negro, whether salve or free, was naturally the measure of the tolerant feeling extended toward him. It is said of a free negro named Hayes, who in the early years of the nineteenth century lived on a mountain northeast of Ruddle, that his boys and girls were by general consent allied to attend the same school with the white children. The war of 1861 overthrew the institution which Henry A. Wise denounced as a blight on the economic development of the South, that repressed inventive talent, paralyzed Saxon energy, and left hidden the South's commercial resources. The slaves and freedmen of 1860 were to be found in most neighborhoods of the county. Soon after the close of the war they had mostly disappeared. In the valleys of the South Fork and the North Fork there were none at all, with perhaps a solitary exception in Circleville district.

The continuance of a desire for black labor on the part of some of the residents of the county seat led to the rise of a settlement of colored people a mile south of Franklin. The settlement was known locally as "Africa." I contained about 70 persons, a number of whom were immigrants from other counties. The only other group of colored people was composed of a few families on the west side of the Blackthorn valley, and was known as Moatstown. These people were never slaves. The negro element in Pendleton,e specially that of Moatstown, who'd a large admixture of white blood.   |  View or Add Comments (0 Comments)   |   Receive updates ( subscribers)  |   Unsubscribe

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