Freed In the 17th Century

[Reprinted from Issues & Views Spring 1998]

From the earliest days of American slavery, men and women were set free for numerous reasons. Sometimes an owner died and the heirs did not want slaves, or a slave was freed as reward for his good service, or he worked his way out of slavery by paying for his freedom. The following data is from Paul Heinegg’s book, Free African Americans of North Carolina and Virginia, a collection of genealogies of black families who lived in the 17th through 19th centuries. Heinegg shows how the social status of many landowning black families changed so much over the years that "by the 20th century they had no idea their ancestors had been free."

Most of the free African Americans of Virginia and North Carolina originated in Virginia where they became free in the 17th and 18th century before chattel slavery and racism fully developed in the United States.

When they arrived in Virginia, Africans joined a society which was divided between master and white servant . . . . They joined the same households with white servants—working, eating, sleeping, getting drunk, and running away together.

Among the first African slaves to be freed: John Geaween (Gowen) "a negro servant" was free in March 1641 according to the Virginia Council and General Court Records; Emanuell Cambow (Cumbo), Negro, was granted 50 acres in James City County on 18 April 1667; John Harris "negro" was free in 1668 when he purchased 50 acres in York County; the Nickens and Weaver families came from Lancaster County where Richard Nickens, his wife Chris, and their children were freed by the 1690 will of John Carter.

Many were free on the Eastern Shore. There were at least 40 taxable African Americans in Northampton County in the 1670s who were free or later became free, representing one third of the taxable African Americans in the county.

Families like Gowen, Cumbo, and Driggers who were free in the mid-17th century had several hundred members before the end of the colonial period. They were descended from slaves who were freed before the 1723 Virginia Law which required legislative approval for manumissions. Very few families descended from white slave owners who had children by their slaves, perhaps as low as 1% of the total. Many free African American families in colonial North Carolina and Virginia were landowners.

The replacement of white servants with African slaves, begun in earnest in 1660, continued for more than a century. African slaves had still not completely replaced white servants by 17 October 1773 when the jailer in Prince William County advertised in the Virginia Gazette that he had caught a runaway white servant man: "Committed to Prince William gaol a certain William Rawlings, who says he is the property of Francis Smith of Chesterfield. The owner is desired to pay charges, and take him away."

And he advertised in the same edition that he had jailed a runaway white servant woman: "Committed to the gaol of Prince William a servant woman about 26 years of age, named Mary Richardson; has on a short printed cotton gown, and striped Virginia cloth petticoat."

Like the newly freed white servants, the first free African Americans moved to the frontier which was then the southside counties of Virginia, the county of New Kent, and the northeastern part of North Carolina, where land was available to anyone who could pay the taxes and was willing to brave frontier conditions.

By 1790 free African Americans were concentrated in these areas, representing about 10% of the free population of the Eastern Shore, 6% of New Kent, 8% percent of the free population of twelve southside Virginia counties, and 17% of the free population of York County. The total "other free" population in Southampton County alone exceeded the total "other free" population in 22 other Virginia counties.

Many originated in or moved to Surry County, Virginia, where their deeds, marriage bonds, and wills were recorded in the 17th and 18th century. They were the Banks, Blizzard, Byrd, Charity, Chavis, Cornish, Debrix, Jeffreys, Kersey, Peters, Scott, Sweat, Tann, Valentine, Walden, and Wilson families.

Many baptized their children in Bruton and Middleton Parishes, James City and Charles City Counties between 1744 and 1767. They were the Allways, Armfield, Ashby, Banks, Bartley, Chavis, Cooper, Flowers, Freeman, Gillett, Grimes, Jameson, Jones, Lewis, Maclin, Peters, Redcross, Roberts, Rosarios, Tann, Wallace, and Williams families who came from as far away as Southampton County.

Since so many free African Americans were light-skinned, many observers assume that they were the offspring of white slave owners who took advantage of their female slaves. Only one of more than 280 families in this history was proven to descend from a white slave owner.

While some North Carolina residents were complaining about the immigration of free African Americans, their white neighbors in Granville, Halifax, Hertford, and Northampton Counties welcomed them. Their neighbors may have been accustomed to living among free African Americans in Virginia; they may have moved from Virginia in company with them; or perhaps they were drawn together by the adversities of the frontier. Neighbor depended heavily upon neighbor, and whites may have been more concerned with hostile Indians and harsh living conditions than they were with their neighbors' color.

The slave population on the frontier was much lower than in the settled areas of Virginia, so the presence of free African Americans would not have posed a threat to most settlers. And several of these free African Americans owned slaves of their own. However, land ownership was more likely the social equalizer for them and their white neighbors.

Free African Americans of North Carolina and Virginia is available from the Genealogical Publishing Company, 1001 North Calvert St., Baltimore, MD 21202; (410) 837-8271.

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