The Bill of Rights or slave rights?

Slave Narratives from Virginia

Context

I choose to research the narratives from Virginia as this state seemed to feature significantly when researching the political and social aspects of slavery in the south. The wealth generated from the stable crops of the south supported a white elite who additionally had the leisure and appetite for civic duties. Four of the first five presidents came from Virginia (Washington, Jefferson, Madison and Monroe). Virginia was the richest southern state, and arguably the richest of all the first thirteen colonies, made wealthy by strong transatlantic trade links and the demand for tobacco. Virginia was also the most populous state in the eighteenth century which entitled its representatives to have considerable sway over the shape and institutions of the new national state with Jefferson in particular a powerful broker of the constitutional amendments in the Bill of Rights – the charter for freedom, liberty and equality. We learn from his writings that Jefferson was troubled by the interestingly termed ‘American paradox’ – saying in 1820 “ we have the wolf by the ear, and we can neither hold him, nor safely let him go. Justice is in one scale, and self- preservation in the other.” I have to admit to a fairly strong personal reaction to this statement. I was therefore particularly interested to read about the realities of the slave experience in Virginia. To help put this in further context, here is a picture of  Monticello.

Monticello was the primary plantation of Thomas Jefferson, the third President of the United States, who began designing and building Monticello at age 26 after inheriting land from his father.

Slave Narrative Project, Volume 17, Virginia

From a survey of 60 items in the Virginia archive, there were numerous examples where slave experiences were the complete opposite of the principles in the Bill of Rights. The numbers below refer to actual quotes from the archive.

The Principle of Equality

 About two thirds of the narratives had references to incidents of extreme violence. This applied to men, women and children.

10. Cotton masters down south were so mean to slaves they would let them work the fields till they drop down dead with hoes in their hands.

11 Scenes at the auction house of young children beaten for refusing to be sold and any form of rebellion could incur the use of the ‘strop.’

14 Woman with 15 children was stripped naked and beaten because she refused to provide sex to an overseer and was too scared of further beatings to inform her own Master.

55. Women beaten naked and soaked in brine. Run into woods till forced out and beaten some more.

55 White woman beat slave with a broom or leather strap or anything else around.

The Principles of Liberty and Freedom

The narratives revealed lives of complete subjugation to plantation owners.

56 Ask permission of whites to get married. Ceremony was to jump across the broomstick

15 Slaves beaten if discovered holding religious gatherings – you don’t have time to serve God, we bought you to serve us.

46 Beaten if found with a book or paper or heard praising God.

The working and living conditions were extremely hard and showed no consideration for human dignity or rights. The slaves lived under constant surveillance from the overseer.

16 Made to work in the sun baked fields from break of day till dark. Beaten if asked for food to sustain work load. Children started work from young age. Too tired to crawl home, fell asleep on the ground. From pulling grass by hand a child graduated to field work with sharp tools. Following an accident, the child’s arm was dressed with soot and the subsequent neglect left the arm deformed. He was sent back to work with his free hand and his teeth. If he disobeyed he would be whipped or sent further south.

25 Lived in shanty and survived on food given out by master until he decided to give out another supply.

47 Child’s job was to pick worms off tobacco plants, and if he missed any would be forced to eat worms or be beaten.

55 Slave woman forced to knit all day till dark, then knit standing up and beaten if she fell asleep.

57 Washer women worked till midnight.

57 Runaway slaves caught and beaten near to death.

12 Gangs of white men patrolled the country catching and whipping slaves they found without a remit to be out.

After reading this archive, it becomes even more difficult to accept the term 'Jefferson's paradox' when viewed against what we would now call crimes against humanity. There were such  consistent themes of horror, cruelty and violence. This seems to have been the culture of the South. As Jefferson said - " the nature of our self preservation."