Ebony and Ivy (56 page)

23
. Bill for Jonathan Dickinson's purchase of Genny, “a Negro Girl,” 9 June 1733, in Anson Phelps Stokes,
Memorials of Eminent Yale Men: A Biographical Study of Student Life and University Influences During the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries
(New Haven: Yale University Press, 1914), I:196; bill for Aaron Burr's purchase of Caesar, a black man, 2 September 1756, in Milton Meltzer,
Slavery: A World History
(Boston: Da Capo, 1993), 142; Samuel Davies,
Letters from the Rev. Samuel Davies, &c. Shewing the State of Religion in Virginia, Particularly among the Negroes
… (London, 1757), esp. 28–31; Samuel Davies,
The Duty of Christians to Propagate Their Religion among Heathens, Earnestly Recommended to the Masters of Negroe Slaves in Virginia. A Sermon Preached in Hanover, January 8, 1757
(London: J. Oliver, 1758); notice for Finley estate auction, 31 July 1766, in Francis Bazley Lee, ed.,
Genealogical and Personal Memorial of Mercer County, New Jersey
(New York: Lewis, 1907), I:27; Kenneth P. Minkema, “Jonathan Edwards's Defense of Slavery,”
Massachusetts Historical Review
IV (2002): 23–30; Morgan,
Gentle Puritan
, 125; County Tax Ratables, Somerset County, Western Precinct, 1780–1786, reel 18, New Jersey State Archives; Samuel Stanhope Smith,
Essay on the Causes of the Variety of Complexion and Figure in the Human Species. To Which are Added Strictures on Lord Kaims' Discourse, on the Original Diversity of Mankind
(Edinburgh: C. Elliot, 1788), 182; Constance K. Escher, “She Calls Herself Betsey
Stockton,”
Princeton History
, 1991, 98–102. Jennifer Epstein produced a full study of slaveholding patterns at the college and in the larger community in Princeton. See Jennifer Epstein, “Slaves and Slavery at Princeton,” thesis, Princeton University, 2008.

24
. County Tax Ratables, Somerset County, Eastern Precinct, 1793–1795, reel 18, New Jersey State Archives.

25
. Bills of sale from William Clark, 7 February 1757 (#757157), Timothy Kimball, 22 April 1760 (#761477), and Peter Spencer, 26 April 1760 (#760276), Dartmouth College Archives, Rauner Library.

26
. Bills of sale from Ann Morrison to Eleazar Wheelock, 13 May 1762 (#762313), Eleazar Wheelock to Gideon Buckingham, 23 December 1770 (#775673), and Gideon Buckingham to Eleazar Wheelock, 17 February 1772 (#772167), Dartmouth College Archives.

27
. Eleazar Wheelock to Capt. Moses Little, 6 May 1773 (#773306), and Eleazar Wheelock to Asa Foot, 28 January 1776 (#776128), Dartmouth College Archives.

28
. See the letter announcing John H. Livingston's acceptance of the call to the Dutch Reformed Church of New York, 10 May 1770, in
Ecclesiastical Records, State of New York
(Albany, NY: James B. Lyon, 1905), VI:4184; William R. Davie, agreement for the sale of “a negroe girl slave called Dinah,” 9 August 1793, William R. Davie Papers, Folder 13, Manuscripts Department, Wilson Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

29
. Eleazar Wheelock to John Wheelock, student at Yale College, 24 August 1769 (#769474.2), and last will and testament of Eleazar Wheelock, 4 June 1779 (#779252.6), Dartmouth College Archives.

30
. “Benjamin Wadsworth's Journal Concerning the Five Nations Commission, 1694,” 51–53, Benjamin Wadsworth Diary, 1692–1737, Massachusetts Historical Society.

31
. Frederick Lewis Weis,
The Colonial Clergy of Virginia, North Carolina, and South Carolina
(Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing, 1976), 22; John Fiske,
Old Virginia and Her Neighbours
(Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1897–1902), II:227; Philip Alexander Bruce,
Institutional History of Virginia in the Seventeenth Century: An Inquiry into the Religious, Moral, Educational, Legal, Military, and Political Condition of the People
(New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1910), I:213; Rev. John Moncure, “Christ Church, Middlesex, County, Virginia,” in
Colonial Churches in the Original Colony of Virginia
(Richmond: Southern Churchman Company, 1908), 246; Herbert Aptheker,
American Negro Slave Revolts
(1943; New York: International Publishers, 1987), 134; Wilford Kale, “Educating a Colony: The First Trustees of the College of William and Mary in Virginia,”
Colonial Williamsburg
, Autumn 2000, 25–27.

32
. Benjamin Wadsworth,
The Well-Ordered Family: Or, Relative Duties. Being the Substance of Several Sermons, About Family Prayer, Duties of
Husbands & Wives, Duties of Parents & Children, Duties of Masters & Servants
(Boston: B. Green, 1712), 103–21. The reference is to Proverbs 29:19.

33
. “The Case of Maria in the Court of Assistants in 1681,”
Transactions: Publications of the Colonial Society of Massachusetts, 1899, 1900
(Boston: By the Society, 1904), VI:330.

34
. Abner Cheney Goodell Jr.,
The Trial and Execution, for Petit Treason, of Mark and Phillis, Slaves of Capt. John Codman, Who Murdered Their Master at Charlestown, Mass., in 1755; for Which the Man Was Hanged and Gibbeted, and the Woman Was Burned to Death. Including, also, Some Account of Other Punishments by Burning in Massachusetts
(Cambridge, MA: John Wilson and Son, 1883), 4–30; Elise Lemire,
Black Walden: Slavery and Its Aftermath in Concord, Massachusetts
(Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2009), 42–69;
Sibley's Harvard Graduates
, XIII:99, 230; John Winthrop, 1755 Almanac, entry for 18 September 1755, Almanacs of Professor John Winthrop, Papers of John and Hannah Winthrop, Box 4, Vol. 14, Harvard University Archives; “Portrait of Professor John Winthrop,”
Publications of the Colonial Society of Massachusetts: Transactions, 1900–1902
(Boston: By the Society, 1905), VII:325–27; entries for 12 April 1754, 18 September 1755, in “Rev. Edward Brooks Journal, 1753–1762,” 9, 27, Massachusetts Historical Society; entry for 10 April 1754, “The Diary of Ebenezer Parkman, 1754–1755,” ed. Francis G. Walett, in
Proceedings of the American Antiquarian Society at the Semi-annual Meeting Held in Boston, April 20, 1966
(Worcester, MA: American Antiquarian Society, 1966), 76:95–96;
Boston Weekly News-Letter
, 14 March 1754, 11 April 1754.

35
.
New-York Mercury
, 16 April 1764; Thomas Bradbury Chandler, D.D.,
The Life of Samuel Johnson, D.D., the First President of King's College, in New-York
(New York: T. and F. Swords, 1805), 106–8.

36
. Entries for 9 February 1763 and 16 November 1769, College of William and Mary, “Faculty Minutes, 1729–1784”; Terry L. Meyers, “A First Look at the Worst: Slavery and Race Relations at the College of William and Mary,”
William & Mary Bill of Rights Journal
, April 2008, 1144–45;
Records of the Town of Hanover, New Hampshire, 1761–1818
, 6–8; Lord,
History of the Town of Hanover
, 148–49.

37
. Entry for 19 February 1759, Augustus Van Horne, “Account Book,” New-York Historical Society;
New-York Mercury
, 22 January 1759; Elizabeth Donnan, ed.,
Documents Illustrative of the History of the Slave Trade to America
(Washington, DC: Carnegie Institution, 1931–), III:463–87; Cynthia A. Kierner,
Traders and Gentlefolk: The Livingstons of New York, 1675–1790
(Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1992), 254, 259.

38
. John Watts to Isaac Young-Husband, 27 November 1762, and John Watts to John Riddell, 27 November 1762, 21 February 1763, 13 July 1763,
The Letter Book of John Watts: Merchant and Councillor of New York, January 1, 1762–December 22, 1765
, vol. LXI of
The Collections of the New-York Historical
Society for the Year 1928
(New York: Printed for the Society, 1928), 97–98, 126, 154.

39
. In 1812 the New Jersey trustees decided to reduce the faculty and reemphasize theology. Maclean had turned down an offer from South Carolina College several years earlier and now found himself in need of a position, which he found at the College of William and Mary. Professor Maclean died in 1814, just a couple of years before his son graduated from New Jersey.

The New York merchant John Delafield, closely tied to Columbia, sold a number of black children, often into black households, with the condition that they be freed by age twenty-one or twenty-five. Bill of sale between John Maclean and William Gulick, 1 January 1809, Gulick Family Papers, Box 1, Folder 65, C0436, Firestone Library, Princeton University; Edwin L. Green,
A History of the University of South Carolina
(Columbia: State Company, 1916), 22–23; William D. Carrell, “Biographical List of American College Professors to 1800,”
History of Education Quarterly
, Autumn 1968, 365; John Delafield's bills of sale and indenture, dated 14 May 1798, 21 May 1798, 10 June 1805, and 25 November 1807, Delafield Family Papers, Box 102, Folder 10, C0391, Firestone Library, Princeton University.

40
. George P. Fisher,
Life of Benjamin Silliman, M.D., LL.D., Late Professor of Chemistry, Mineralogy, and Geology in Yale College, Chiefly from His Manuscript Reminiscences, Diaries, and Correspondence
(New York: Charles Scribner, 1866), I:21–23, 87–107; Benjamin Silliman,
An Introductory Lecture, Delivered in the Laboratory of Yale College, October, 1828
(New Haven: Hezekiah Howe, 1828).

41
. Fisher,
Life of Benjamin Silliman
, 22–23; Chandos Michael Brown,
Benjamin Silliman: A Life in the Young Republic
(Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1989), 3–61.

42
. Barbara S. Lindemann, “‘To Ravish and Carnally Know': Rape in Eighteenth-Century Massachusetts,”
Signs
, Autumn 1984, 79–82; Catherine Adams and Elizabeth H. Pleck,
Love of Freedom: Black Women in Colonial and Revolutionary New England
(New York: Oxford University Press, 2010), ch. 1.

43
. Philip Alexander Bruce,
History of the University of Virginia, 1819–1919: The Lengthened Shadow of One Man
(New York: Macmillan Company, 1920), II:208–10; “Benjamin Wadsworth's Book (A. Dom. 1725) Relating to the College,” 470; Constance M. Greiff and Wanda S. Gunning, “Tusculum: The History of a House,”
Princeton History
, 1998, 37–40.

44
. Hugh Jones,
The Present State of Virginia. Giving a Particular and Short Account of the Indian, English, and Negroe Inhabitants of that Colony. Shewing Their Religion, Manners, Government, Trade, Way of Living, &c. With a Description of the Country. From Whence is Inferred a Short View of Maryland
and North Carolina. To Which are Added, Schemes and Propositions for the Better Promotion of Learning, Religion, Inventions, Manufactures, and Trade in Virginia, and the Other Plantations. For the Information of the Curious, and for the Service of Such as are Engaged in the Propagation of the Gospel and Advancement of Learning, and for the Use of All Persons Concerned in the Virginia Trade and Plantation
(London: J. Clarke, 1724), 88; Samuel K. Lothrop,
Life of Samuel Kirkland, Missionary to the Indians
(Boston: Charles C. Little and James Brown, 1848), 208.

45
. Wheelock,
Continuation of the Narrative of the Indian Charity School
, 3–5; Lord,
History of the Town of Hanover
, 301–2; see the sworn statement of Nathaniel Hovey, 12 May 1783, Papers of Richard Hovey, Box 1, Folder 6, Rauner Library, Dartmouth College.

46
. Jacob Rodriguez de Rivera to Nicholas Brown and Company, 21 March 1770, and “Rough Draft of the Rev. Mr. Smith's Authorization, 1769,” University Steering Committee on Slavery and Justice, Brown University Library; James T. Campbell et al.,
Slavery and Justice: Report of the Brown University Steering Committee on Slavery and Justice
(Providence: Brown University, October 2006), esp. 11–15.

47
. For two decades before the Civil War, the trustees of Wake Forest College (1838) in North Carolina kept a death watch over an ill widow, Rebecca Blount. In 1836 her husband died. He gave one enslaved black girl to each of his two nieces and an enslaved black boy to his nephew. Nine enslaved adults, a house and lots in Edenton, a plantation with house and furnishings outside town, and all other furnishings, carriages, and equipment went into trust to support Rebecca Blount. Upon her death, the executors were to transfer the estate to support “poor and indigent young men destined for the ministry” at a planned local Baptist college. For twenty-three years, the trustees anxiously awaited that inheritance, even hiring lawyers to protect the college's interests by challenging Rebecca Blount's financial decisions. In November 1859 she died. Wake Forest's governors immediately convened to seize the property, especially the slaves. They listed six men (Isaac, Jim, Pompie, Joseph, Thomas, and Harry), seven women (Lucy, Caroline, Emma, Nancy, Harriet, Ann, and May), and three children, an increase from the number transferred in the Blount will. Two enslaved people had died but some of the women had given birth, and the trustees claimed these children, or the “natural increase,” as part of the entitlement. Over the college's objections, Rebecca Blount had sold a few of the children, and the treasurer now negotiated for their return. The latter decision was not intended to reunite families but to maximize profits. On 7 May 1860, the board placed the women, men, and children on sale. The adults were dispersed to various buyers in North Carolina and Virginia. The youngest children were discarded with their mothers. The trustees did not get to sell Mary, a girl who, according
to a historian of Wake Forest, had run away, “probably because she feared the ordeal of the auctioneer's block.” Mary was soon captured in Norfolk. The board paid the bounty and jail fees. They then rid themselves of her at public sale, receiving less than anticipated because of her new reputation for absconding. Altogether, Wake Forest acquired about $12,000 from the sales. It was not its first transaction of this type. For instance, in 1847, Celia Wilder bequeathed roughly $600 to the college: “the sale price of two negro women, and the residue of her estate.” “With the exception of a supervisor of grounds and a single campus policeman, all the workers at Vanderbilt [University] seem to have been black,” notes Paul Conkin. “They cared for grounds, cleaned and maintained buildings, cooked food in the student messes, and worked as porters or servants in professors' homes. They remained hidden, even resented components of the campus.” Lyon Gardiner Tyler,
The College of William and Mary in Virginia: Its History and Work, 1693–1907
(Richmond: Whittet and Shepperson, 1907), 22–23, 37; “Boarding Accounts, 1743–1891,” Office of the Bursar Records, 1745–1875, Special Collections, Swem Library, College of William and Mary; William Gooch to Thomas Gooch, 1727, 1–2, Gooch Letters, James Blair Papers, Box 1, Folder 3, Special Collections, Swem Library, College of William and Mary; Paul K. Conkin,
Gone with the Ivy: A Biography of Vanderbilt University
(Knoxville: University of Tennessee Press, 1985), 82–83; George Washington Paschal,
History of Wake Forest College
(Wake Forest, NC: Wake Forest College, 1935), I:213–19, 217–18n.