The Having of Negroes Is Become a Burden

by Crawford, Michael J.

• ISBN13: 9780813034706
• ISBN10: 0813034701
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2010-06-20
• Publisher: Univ Pr of Florida

Summary

"Adds an important sharpness to a cloudily understood aspect of American history. Crawford helps bring Quaker history into the mainstream of a larger context, providing a compelling narrative of a region, a community, and a fascinating individual."--Emma J. Lapansky-Werner, Haverford College "A thorough and often extraordinarily eloquent collection of documents from the struggle over emancipation and African-American freedom in the age of revolution."--Jon F. Sensbach, author ofRebecca's Revival Michael Crawford presents the compelling story of colonial manumission movements among North Carolina Quakers in this illuminating volume. Embedding complete primary documents within the context of his own interpretive analysis, Crawford effectively shows how the consequences of this group's antislavery activism radiated out from a few individuals to the region, the state, and, eventually, the nation. Students and scholars will be able to draw their own insights from the important documents presented inThe Having of Negroes Is Become a Burden, many of them obscure or recently discovered. Through diaries, petitions, legislative debates, and letters, well-known as well as unknown players in the struggle for manumission are allowed to tell their own stories in their own words. This approach has the effect of highlighting the personal motivation of figures both prominent and obscure in the movement.

Author Biography

Michael J. Crawford is senior historian of the Naval History and Heritage Command. He is the author of thirteen books, including Seasons of Grace: Colonial New England's Revival Tradition in Its British Context.

Table of Contents

Preface and Acknowledgments	p. xi
Chronology of Principal Events	p. xv
Introduction	p. 1
An Individual: George Walton Confronts Slavery	p. 27
1772-1773: George Walton's Accounts of Two Dreams	p. 29
1774: George Walton's Letters on Slavery, with an Account of a Dream	p. 37
1775-1777: George Walton's Journal from 2d, 6th Month, 1775, to 12th, 10th Month, 1777	p. 49
The Community: The Society of Friends in North Carolina Chooses Manumission	p. 69
1767: Thomas Nicholson Urges Gradual Emancipation	p. 73
1768-1773: Evolution of the North Carolina Yearly Meeting's Policy on Slave Trading	p. 76
1772-1773: Advice from London	p. 80
1774-1775: Evolution of the North Carolina Yearly Meeting's Policy on Slave Ownership	p. 82
Circa 1775: Thomas Nicholson Urges Immediate Emancipation	p. 84
1776: Thomas Newby's Manumission Paper	p. 87
1777: Thomas Newby's Petition to Free His Slave Hannah	p. 89
1776-1789: The Progress of Manumission	p. 916
1777-1797: List of Emancipated Blacks Who Were Re-Enslaved	p. 100
The State: North Carolina Thwarts Quaker Manumission	p. 107
1777: An Act to Prevent Domestic Insurrections	p. 111
1777: The Trial of Several Negroes Manumitted by Friends	p. 113
1777-1778: Accounts of Sales of Blacks Emancipated by Friends	p. 117
1777: Friends' Reasons for Releasing Their Negroes from a State of Slavery	p. 120
1778: The Superior Court Annuls Re-Enslavements	p. 122
1779: New State Legislation Annuls the Superior Court's Judgment	p. 126
1779: Memorial from Friends Who Manumitted Slaves to the North Carolina General Assembly	p. 128
1779: Thomas Nicholson Upbraids an Informer	p. 131
1788: Memorial from the North Carolina Yearly Meeting to the North Carolina General Assembly	p. 133
1788: An Act to Amend an Act Entitled "An Act to Prevent Domestic Insurrections"	p. 135
1797: A Bill to Thwart Quaker Manumissions	p. 137
The Nation: African-American Freedom and the Manumission Debate in Congress	p. 139
1797: Petition of Freemen	p. 143
1797: Congress Debates the Freemen's Petition	p. 149
1797: Pennsylvania Friends'Yearly Meeting Memorial to the Congress of the United States	p. 158
1797-1798: Congress Debates the Pennsylvania Friends'Memorial	p. 162
1798: The Society of Friends Reacts to the House's Rejection of Its Memorial	p. 182
Epilogue	p. 183
Notes	p. 193
Bibliography of Works Cited	p. 213
Index	p. 221
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