Page 127 - 1619 Project Curriculum

14 S SUNDAY, AUGUST 18 18, 2019
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UNDAY, AUGUST

Carte de visite silver gelatin portrait of Sgt. Jacob Johns.
Liberation

Theology

IN 1831, Nat Turner, along with
about 70 enslaved and free
black people, led a revolt in
Southampton County, Va., that

shook the nation. Turner, a
preacher who had frequent,
powerful visions, planned his
uprising for months, putting
it into effect following a solar
eclipse, which he interpreted
as a sign from God. He and his
recruits freed enslaved people
and killed white men, women

and children, sparing only a
number of poor white people.
They killed nearly 60 people
over two days, before being
overtaken by the state militia.
Turner went into hiding, but he
was found and hanged a few
months later. It was one of the
deadliest revolts during slavery,
a powerful act of resistance
that left enslavers scared —
both for their lives and for the
loss of their ‘‘property.’’ The
Virginia resident Eleanor Weaver
reflected on the events, stating
in a letter to family members:
‘‘We hope our government will

take some steps to put down
Negro preaching. It is
those
large assemblies of Negroes
causes the mischief.’’ More
stringent laws went into effect
that controlled the lives of
black people, free or enslaved,
limiting their ability to read,
write or move about.

The Slave

Patrols

IN 1846, Col. Henry W. Adams,
of the 168th Regiment, Virginia
Militia, started a slave patrol
in Pittsylvania County, Va., that
would ‘‘visit all Negro quarters
and other places suspected
of entertaining unlawful
assemblies of slaves . . as
.
aforesaid, unlawfully assembled,
orany others strolling from one
plantation to another, without
a pass from his or her master or
mistress or overseer, and take The Emancipation Proclamation
them before the next justice f in pamphlet form, published by John
o
the peace, who if he shall see Murray Forbes, 1862.
cause, is hereby required to order

every such slave . . . aforesaid to
receive any number of lashes,
not exceeding 20 on his or her
back.’’ Slave patrols throughout
the nation were created by
white people who were fearful
of rebellion and were seeking to
protect their human property.
While overseers were employed
on plantation sites as a means
of control, slave patrols — which
patrolled plantations, streets,
woods and public areas — were
thought to serve the larger
community. While slave patrols
tried to enforce laws that limited
the movement of the enslaved
community, black people
still found ways around them.

Freedom Begins
Growing Enlisting in a Moral Fight
National ON SEPT. 22, 1862, Abraham
Lincoln issued the preliminary

Tension IT IS UNCLEAR whether Jacob Johns was enslaved, recently freed or a free man when he enlisted in the Union Army as a Emancipation Proclamation,
stating that if the Confederacy did
sergeant in the 19th United States Colored Troops Infantry, Company B. His unit fought in 11 battles, and 293 of its men were
killed or died of disease, including Johns. When the war began in 1861, enslaved African-Americans seized their opportunity not end its rebellion by Jan. 1, 1863,
IN 1850, Congress passed a for freedom by crossing the Union Army lines in droves. The Confederate states tried to reclaim their human ‘‘property’’ but ‘‘all persons held as slaves’’ in the
new Fugitive Slave Act, which were denied by the Union, which cleverly declared the formerly enslaved community as contraband of war — captured enemy states that had seceded would
required that all citizens aid in property. President Abraham Lincoln initially would not let black men join the military, anxious about how the public would be free. The Confederacy did not
the capturing of fugitive enslaved receive integrated efforts. But as casualties increased and manpower thinned, Congress passed the Second Confiscation comply, and the proclamation went
into effect. But the Emancipation

black people. Lack of compliance and Militia Act in 1862, allowing Lincoln to ‘‘employ as many persons of African descent’’ as he needed, and thousands Proclamation freed only those
was considered breaking the enlisted in the United States Colored Troops. Jacobs was one of nearly 180,000 black soldiers who served in the U.S.C.T. enslaved in the rebelling states,
law. The previous act, from 1793, during the Civil War, a group that made up nearly one-tenth of all soldiers, fighting for the cause of freedom. approximately 3.5 million people.
enabled enslavers to pursue It did not apply to half a million
runaway enslaved persons, but enslaved people in slaveholding
it was difficult to enforce. The states that weren’t part of
1850 act — which created a the Confederacy — Kentucky,
legal obligation for Americans, Maryland, Missouri, Delaware
regardless of their moral views One Family’s and what would become West
on slavery, to support and Virginia — or to those people in
parts of the Confederacy that were
enforce the institution — divided Ledger already under Northern control.
the nation and undergirded the They remained enslaved until
path to the Civil War. Black SLAVEHOLDING families kept Gen. Robert E. Lee surrendered
people could not testify on their meticulous records of their at Appomattox in April 1865.
own behalf, so if a white person business transactions: buying, The freedom promised by the
incorrectly challenged the status selling and trading people. proclamation — and the official
of a free black person, the A record of the Rouzee family’s legal end of slavery — did not
person was unable to act in his taxable property includes occur until the ratification of the
or her own defense and could five horses, 497 acres of land 13th Amendment on Dec. 6, 1865.
be enslaved. In 1857, Dred Scott, and 28 enslaved people. Records Only then was the tyranny of
slavery truly over. Nevertheless,
who was enslaved, went to show the family enterprise the Emancipation Proclamation
court to claim his freedom after including the purchase and sale was deeply meaningful to the
his enslaver transported him Joseph Trammell’s freedom papers, 1852. of African-Americans, investment community of formerly enslaved
into a free state and territory. in provisions to maintain the African-Americans and their allies.
The Supreme Court determined enslaved community and Annual emancipation celebrations
his fate when Chief Justice Always on Your Person efforts to capture an enslaved were established, including
Roger B. Taney stated that no man who ran toward freedom. Juneteenth; across the country,
black person, free or enslaved, A FREE BLACK man living in Loudoun County, Va., Joseph Trammell created this From one century to the next, the African-American gathering spots
could petition the court because small metal tin to protect his certificate of freedom — proof that he was family profited from enslaved were named Emancipation Park;
they were not ‘‘citizens within not enslaved. During slavery, freedom was tenuous for free black people: It people, their wealth passing and the words of the proclamation

were read aloud as a reminder
the meaning of the Constitution.’’ could be challenged at any moment by any white person, and without proof of from generation to generation. that African-Americans, enslaved

By statute and interpretation their status they could be placed into the slave trade. Trammell, under Virginia As enslaved families were torn and free, collectively fought for
of the law, black people in law, had to register his freedom every few years with the county court. apart, white people — from the freedom for all and changed an

America were dehumanized and But even for free black people, laws were still in place that limited their liberty elite planter class to individuals entire nation.
commodifiedin order to maintain — in many areas in the North and the South, they could not own firearms, invested in one enslaved person
the economic and political power testify in court or read and write — and in the free state of Ohio, at least two — were building capital, a
supported by slavery. race riots occurred before 1865. legacy that continues today.

Photograph by Erica Deeman for The New York Times. Objects from the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture.