Aspects of Slavery and Freedom Seeking in North Carolina
Wind-Slavery and the Law
Between 1715 and 1763, the North Carolina General Assembly revised earlier laws that fixated the status of civil rights between servants and slaves. In 1723, laws were passed that required free African Americans to leave the state within six months.By way of law, "blacks are always at the mercy of the whites - a position which no uncolored person, I am sure, would be willing to occupy."
Thereafter, those who returned to the area would be sold into slavery for seven years. In the aftermath of the 1793 Stono Rebellion in nearby South Carolina, in 1741, Governor Gabriel Johnston passed the North Carolina General Assembly modeled after similar laws set in Virginia and South Carolina, which firmly established a comprehensive slaveholding code.
As a clause in the Fundamental Constitutions, “An Act Concerning Servants and Slaves” conveyed, “Every freeman shall have absolute power and authority over negro slaves in opinion and religion so ever.” Slaves were recognized as “chattel to be bought, bred, worked, neglected, marked or treated in any respect as a horse or a cow.”
Alarmed by the increasing numbers of free African Americans, the Assembly began inserting laws to restrict their rights. In addition, the Assembly enacted strict penalties and regulations to keep enslaved Africans from running away, engaging in uprisings, and rebelling. Section 2 of the 1741 Slave Code stated, “Any Christian servant who ran away from his master should on being captured be compelled to serve above his regular period of servitude double the time he was away, and in addition, such longer time as the court should deem sufficient to repay the master for whatever damage he may have sustained.”
The ordinance further stated, if any person or persons directly or indirectly tempted or persuaded a slave to leave, plotted to carry a slave away, and conspired to harbor or conceal a slave, then he or she would be lawfully convicted by the court and made to pay the slave master or mistress 25 pounds or the equivalent value thereof for each slave. Runaway servants or slaves were brought before the court and received no more than 39 lashes across their bare backs. Section 47 declared that if more than three slaves were suspected of plotting insurrection, murder, or any type of rebellion, then they would be charged as felons and sentenced to death. With restrictive measures placed on every aspect of their lives, slaves were only allowed to travel off the plantation at night with a written pass from their master or mistress. The “Pattie Rollers” were hired to patrol the roads, given the authority to whip anyone without a written pass, and mounted on horseback armed with guns and whips and with dogs at their sides.
Any person caught helping a runaway for more than one night had to pay the master 10 shillings for a 24-hour period and the cost for other damages. Owners who failed to provide passes for their slaves to travel outside the plantation were fined five shillings, and the slaves were arrested. As penalties for helping runaways increased, failure to pay meant the person could be sold to the court until the debt was resolved.
Slave masters completely controlled slaves’ bodies, determined their relationships, and denied their personal right to freely express themselves. Fearful of actual and rumored slave insurrections, African American gatherings were perceived with suspicion. Separate or independent Black churches were not permitted, and it was illegal for slaves to worship without the presence of a white person.
Denied their own space, slaves attended church services with whites, which they outnumbered in the galleries and pews on any given Sunday. Some slaveholders hired a visiting clergyman to preach on their plantations for those who could not participate in religious services regularly. In contrast, others read to their slaves from prayer books, printed sermons, or Bible lessons. As learning to read and write was restricted by law or social custom, slaves learned the Bible by hearing it being preached. As their spirituality emerged, the memorialized Biblical stories became folktales, and they creatively synthesized music into distinctive chants and songs.
Although Christianity did not completely satisfy their desires for safety and security, at the very least, religion granted them the agency to worship as they saw fit. Beginning in 1739, the dramatic preaching of Methodist and Baptist ministers fostered emotionally charged religious revivals that spread throughout southern colonies. Recognizing spirituality regardless of wealth, status, or education, all classes of colonial society were drawn to the open-air camp meetings, including enslaved Africans.
Unlike more formal church services, the emotionally charged revivals provided food and fellowship and allowed blacks and whites to worship, cry, and pray together. Although slaves experience brief moments of freedom, whites closely monitored the behavior of slaves as they sat on the church balcony. The intensity of such stirred emotions converted far more Africans to Christianity than earlier efforts, which had failed. More importantly, the camp meetings’ circus-like atmosphere made it possible for people to slip away unnoticed by the masters’ watchful eyes.
Some slave owners were compelled to hire Black preachers who delivered uplifting and inspirational Gospel messages but did not mention freedom or equality. As a result, slaves developed an extensive religious life that thrived outside of the traditional boundaries of the church. As no more than three enslaved persons were allowed to hold independent worship services at night, they secretly held their religious meetings in cabins, woods, thickets, and hollows, where they interpreted Christianity and the Bible in accordance with their lives. Strengthened by the belief that salvation lay in obeying God’s law rather than man’s, some slaves risked great peril while attending forbidden prayer meetings so they could worship God outside of the control and supervision of slave owners and overseers. Nevertheless, beatings did not stop slaves from offering prayers for providing emotional and physical resistance to slavery.