Aspects of Slavery and Freedom Seeking in North Carolina
Introduction-Part II.
Slavery was/is a social institution; one grounded in economic organization, labor control, and sustainability. The institution of slavery must, fundamentally, be viewed as a human institution. Slavery is the product of the human mind and desire. It was made and sustained by cooperation and maintained through thoughtful decisions and deliberate actions. There is a need to continue to overturn the idea of slavery in historical writing and historical memory. As W. E. B. Dubious wrote, “Our histories tend to discuss American slavery so impartially, that in the end, nobody seems to have done wrong and everybody was right. Slavery appears to have been thrust upon the unwilling helpless American, while the South was blameless in becoming its center.”Things to consider when studying slavery and why to study slavery in North Carolina
If you think of the institution beyond the economic and social relations, you are bound to miss the simplicity of the institution. Profit was slavery’s purpose. Although slavery tended to be blamed on the African/Americans (Africans or African Americans) because of their supposed backwardness and the need for European religious order, this justification sought to remove blame and suggest that those who enslaved and continued to enslave were simply people of their times. This excuse, although it has some merit, ignores moments when Americans could have become a different people; it drowns out the voices of those calling and fighting for change, and worse of all, it covers the history in perpetual incompleteness.
Starting with local sources is one of the best ways to study slavery and the history of the enslaved. Go to the nearest library or archive, or find the local historian(s) or researcher(s) and begin to ask questions and read. Learning local dynamics will place slavery in a familiar space, help to frame a historical perspective, and supply a true geographic location. One would be surprised to understand how the history of a town, city or country is shaped by slavery. This holds even for places where slavery was not dominant.
Another thing to keep in mind when studying slavery is to recognize whites as a collective and in the abstract were a problem for enslaved people. However, several white individuals deserve praise and need to be lifted in black history. Because of the dangers of assisting blacks, many of these persons will never be remembered and honored, but those that are known, such as Levi Coffin, should be held in high regard.
North Carolina and Slavery
The story of slavery in North Carolina, as Dr. Arwin Smallwood illustrated, starts in the east [northeast] and moves toward the west. Regardless of the specific location, the goal of slavery remained the same—earn profits and protect the institution of slavery [the wealth machine].
Enslaved people in North Carolina did everything ranging from construction, agriculture, mining, to crafting. The story of slavery in North Carolina is rich and unique. Slavery, despite North Carolina's awkward economy, increasingly grew in North Carolina until the Civil War.
Students studying slavery and the history of enslaved people in North Carolina can observe inter- and intra-regional differences and similarities. For instance, when thinking about agriculture, one county will have a focus on cultivating “Indian” corn and wheat growing, and another county nearby may have a focus on producing iron ore, sweet potatoes, or beeswax. Also significant in the shaping of slavery are the different Euro-Americans groups and cultural heritages that occupied different spaces in North Carolina.
For the enslaved people, the pattern is a little more predictable regarding their condition and situation. Nonetheless, it is important to understand and know where and how things deviated from the pattern or completely upended the pattern. In truth, no two situations are ever alike; it can be observed that one slave-holding estate could be very different from another just a mile down the road. The enslaved people’s experience in North Carolina differs from others due to North Carolina’s landscape and vegetation. Moreover, time factor also caused variation of situations and circumstances for humans, enslaved or slaveholders. Enslaved people usually did a phenomenal job at adjusting and surviving, and in some cases, they thrived.
Why Study Slavery in North Carolina?
North Carolina is among the least studied states in the history of slavery in the United States. This is changing as more scholars have come to appreciate North Carolina’s history and the increased availability of reference material.
North Carolina has generally been overlooked because, in terms of the extent of the practice of slavery, it has no resemblance to other greater slaveholding states such as Virginia or South Carolina.
Many have begun to study and write on the diverse nature of slavery in North Carolina. North Carolina was not a one or two cash crop dominant state, as was the case of Virginia and South Carolina. The regional diversity of industry and farming of North Carolina is incredible. The diversity of products indicates the range of tasks given to the slaves. Enslaved people in many places in North Carolina had to learn a number of jobs and tasks. For instance, in Onslow County, “regarding slave labor, the 1820 federal census provided some interesting statistics which shed some light on the use of slave labor in Onslow. Out of a total of 3604 slaves listed for the year, 2,217 were engaged in agriculture, 22 were engaged in commerce, and 1,365 were engaged in manufacture. About 40 percent of slaves there, were engaged in non-agricultural pursuits.”
Studying the distribution of enslaved people in North Carolina helps understand the east-to-west dynamics in the growth of slavery. Moreover, it also shows how the east region, which was initially the most dominant one, became less so by the end of the antebellum (before the war) period.
Donnie Bellamy observed:
“In the colonial period the eastern counties had most of the slaves, but throughout the period of statehood, the West acquired continually more of them. It never had as many as the East, but along the upland rivers, and wherever in the West there was fertile land, there the large slave-tended farm was found.”
He also understood how time and growth increased the distribution of slavery in the west. Bellamy noted, “Plainly enough, the West was gaining rapidly on the East in regard to the slave population. This was partly due to the extension of the area of cotton cultivation. Counties like Mecklenburg, Anson, and Union were properly under the influence of the western ideas and life in 1790; but in 1860 they were great cotton counties and largely slaveholding.”
When studying slavery in North Carolina, as well as in most places, it is critical to view the institution of slavery as a changing institution. The technology and laws of slavery in North Carolina helped to understand the changes slavery underwent. For instance, historian Alan D. Watson noted, “Following the revolution, this process changed to give enslaved people ‘greater judicial protections’: slaves in North Carolina received the right of trial by jury in cases involving life or dismemberment, the right to challenge jurors, the right to counsel, the right to a change of venue to ensure a fair trial, and the right to appeal a conviction to the state supreme court.” Also, “In 1837, the General Assembly directed that trials of slaves for offenses other than capital crimes be conducted in the county courts under the same regulations governing the trials of freemen.”
Changing and evolving laws should not give the impression that they helped the plight of the enslaved. Instead, it only shows that the feelings the slaveholders had concerning slavery changed depending on time and events.
Studying slavery, specifically, the lives of enslaved people can help the learner to learn the meaning of African Americans being barred from citizenship, how their experience is an uphill climb, and how African Americans, during the era of slavery, lived with dignity.Studying Slavery
At the very base of this study, the student can plainly see that the relationship between enslaved people and the slaveholding class was first and foremost an economic relationship.
\An example of this economic relationship can be seen in several ways. One way to illustrate this fact is to show how slaveholders insured the life of certain enslaved people. Insuring the enslaved people was not a common practice. Historian Todd Savitt found that it was a common practice to “insure the life of an enslaved person for ‘two-thirds or three-quarters of the slave valuation, not to exceed $800,” which is an example of the importance of the economic value. For more examples, browse deeds in North Carolina that discuss enslaved people.
People Not Property: Slave Deeds
The study of slavery can also enlighten readers on the development of race and the organization of race relations that directed and governed slavery, Jim Crow, and the Post-Civil Rights eras.
The study of enslaved people will allow the reader to gain a sense of the expansive details of the life and world of the enslaved people. The students can see that, despite the intimacy and close proximity of blacks and whites in the colonial and antebellum period, there is a cultural difference between the whites and blacks, enslaved and the master class. By reading newspapers, diaries or plantation records, traveler records, and most importantly, the account of the former slaves, the students can understand that enslaved people had their own sense of values, beliefs, social structure, motivators, etc.
Nonetheless, the unwillingness to educate enslaved people in ruling class values gave the enslaved more space to forge and develop, through a mixture of heritages, their own culture. It is this space of cultural autonomy that enabled the enslaved to use their imagination and creativity to develop a point of reference and carve out interpretations of their plight and worldview that would allow them to survive physically, emotionally/psychologically, and spiritually. Further, the point of reference developed by the enslaved was steadily opposite of the slaveholders’ worldview. Because of that fact, the enslaved culture, by definition, was consciously and unconsciously, a culture of resistance. It was not a culture created or based in resistance because it opposed the slaveholders’ world view as an end in and unto itself, but rather, it was resistant because their experience shaped how they thought about the government, spiritual life, and human relations; thus, their tears and cries as enslaved people called for a new arrangement of society. The desire for a new arrangement of society was opposed by the existing arrangement; thus, their culture and goals were naturally resistant to a slaveholder’s society.
Black history should not be reduced to a history of race relations. By learning about the way of life of the enslaved, it becomes easier to see the study (the history of African Americans) for its own sake. Moreover, the study of the enslaved people is an inquiry into how African Americans held concern for themselves and responded to their biological, emotional, and spiritual needs and wants.
Studying slavery will also provide a salient lesson on hypocrisy and the troubling presence of the innocent. John Blassingame wrote,
Due to slavery, the black presence in Euro-America has continued to be a litmus test of America’s ideals of fundamental freedoms—not that these ideas were meant for those considered colored, but rather, if those who are non-colored would gracefully graft African Americans into society as equals and as family-it would prove the beauty of the Euro-American experiment. Nonetheless, the signs of grafting incompatibility are, perhaps, more evident after slavery.“Although slaves contributed much to American culture, they stood as America’s accuser. As long as black people labored in chains, the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution symbolized the American's ability to lie to himself.”
African American life and history expose America’s shortcomings. Studying slavery helps one understand another perspective of American history from a different set of Americans. Each perspective holds value and each is worth investigating.
In reference to slavery, Thomas Jefferson once said,
The history of slavery suggests that self-preservation, as alluded to by Thomas Jefferson, became the guiding principle of Euro-America history. Hence:“As it is, we have the wolf [slavery] by the ear, and we can neither hold him [slavery], nor safely let him go [end slavery]. Justice is in one scale, and self-preservation in the other.”
Justice was turned back and truth stumbled in her prize cities, and well-doing had no abiding home. At least in regards to the African American denizens and citizens of the United States.