http://www.november.org/razorwire/rzold/14/1415.html
As the institution of slavery matured in colonial Virginia, slaveholders saw the small number of free blacks in the colony as a “great inconvenience” suspected of everything from receiving stolen goods and encouraging slaves to run away to fomenting rebellion. Moreover, “being grown old [they bring] a charge upon the country”—that is, aged free blacks who were unable to work, in principle at least, became eligible for support from the parishes in which they lived. Although the General Assembly never considered reenslavement of the existing free black population, it took measures to prevent slaveholders of “ill directed” generosity from adding to the numbers by setting slaves free.
In 1691, the General Assembly passed a law aimed at making masters think twice before freeing any of their slaves. While manumission by deed or will was legal under this law, it required a newly freed slave to leave the colony within six months and the former master to pay for the trip. Although legislation likely had a dampening effect on the urge to manumit, it is not clear how many slaves were freed and forced to leave Virginia during the thirty-two years it was in effect.
Manumission became much more difficult in 1723. Paragraph 17 of the 1723 Act Directing the Trial of Slaves, Committing Capital Crimes; and for the More Effectual Punishing Conspiracies and Insurrection of Them; and for the Better Government of Negros, Mulattos, and Indians, Bond or Free stated that “No negro, mullatto, or Indian slaves, shall be set free, upon any pretence whatsoever, except for some meritorious services, to be adjudged and allowed by the governor and council, for the time being.”
Passed in response to rumored slave insurrections, this act permitted manumission only upon approval of the governor and Council and then only as a reward for public service. Should a slave be set free in any other manner (by will or deed, for example), the act required churchwardens to return the person so freed to slavery by sale at public outcry.
Historians have said that the “meritorious service” in which Virginians were most interested was for slaves to alert authorities to slave conspiracies and insurrections, but records of the governor’s Council show that no slaves gained their freedom on those grounds after 1723. Instead, meritorious service came to include such qualities as exemplary character and faithfulness. In spite of the 1723 law, a few slave owners left instructions in their wills to free a slave. It was then up their executors or administrators to petition the governor and Council.
When arrangements prior to petitioning the governor and Council included agreement between a white slaveholder and a slave or free black, the process was fraught with pitfalls. A slave owner might die before a slave or free black was able to fulfill the purchase agreement. It is also not hard to imagine that, after receiving the agreed upon purchase price for a slave, a master might not honor the agreement, perhaps by simply failing to go to the trouble and expense of taking that extra but critical step of submitting a petition to the Council. The following examples and the chart below may help explain why there are only about twenty petitions for freedom to be found among the journals of the Council between 1723 and 1773.
From the Executive Journalsof the CouncilApril 29, 1729
Whereas upon consideration of the many extraordinary Cures perform’d by Papaw a Negro Slave belonging to M[istress] Frances Littlepage of the County of New Kent, it was resolved that means should be used to obtain from him a discovery of the secret whereby he performs the said cures; and the said Papaw having upon promise of his freedom now made an ample discovery of the several medicines made use of by him for that purpose to the satisfaction of the Governor and the Gentlemen appointed by him to inspect the application and operation of the said medicines, It is the opinion of this board and accordingly ordered that as a reward for useful a discovery, which may be of great benefit to mankind, and more particularly to the preservation of the lives of great numbers of Slaves belonging to the Inhabitants of this Country frequently infected with the Yaws, and other venereal distempers, the said Papaw be set free; and that the sum of £50 current money be paid to the said M[istress} Frances Littlepage out of his Majesty’s Revenue of 2 shillings per hogshead, for his freedom; but that he remain still under the direction of the Government until he made a discovery of some other secrets he has for expelling poison, and the cure of other diseases.
Council Journal, June 13, 1746
Ordered that the said Abram be manumitted and set free according to the Will of the said Elizabeth and the Prayer of the Petitioner.
Council Journal, March 21, 1772
On consideration whereof, it was the opinion of the Board and ordered accordingly that the said Edward Cartmill, or any other Person who would be intitled to the Service of the said Slave, if the said Will had never been made, be permitted to Manumit and set Free the aforesaid Margaret.
Council Journal, May 7, 1773
The Petition of Elizabeth Jolliffe, Executrix of William Jolliffe decd. For Leave to manumit Jane, a Negro girl according to her Husband’s will, was rejected for want of proof of meritorious Service as the Law requires.
http://www.history.org/history/teaching/enewsletter/volume3/february05/manumission.cfm
A National Public Policy on Black People
By Claud Anderson: A chapter from his book "Black Labor White Wealth"
The totality of black peoples' existence and condition in America stems directly form a national public designed by white society to control and use black labor to build a new a new nation. The public policy on the use of blacks developed incrementally until it became like an onion with many layers. It began taking shape in 1619 and evolved into a systematic, mandated social arrangement that dictated the behavior of both blacks and whites. The policy's core principle stipulated that blacks were to be used as a well-disciplined, uncompensated, subordinated, noncompetitive, permanent labor class that existed on the margins of society.
The national public policy determined black peoples' human worth and status as well as their educational and political opportunities and their cultural and family values. The dominant white society's national public policy explicitly and implicitly defined how blacks were to be treated and used.
Public policy is important for blacks to study because it gives clear insight into the process and methods that the dominant society used to establish absolute control over millions of blacks as a laboring class. But equally important, it shows blacks who are seeking to gain power through community organizing the way whites constructed a national black policy and plan. Understanding that plan is essential to the shaping of a new public policy for blacks.
Meritorious Manumission was the legal act of freeing a slave for a good deeds as defined by the national public policy. Meritorious Manumission could be granted to a slave who distinguished himself by saving the life of a white master, inventing a new medicine or snitching on fellow slaves. This was a destructive weapon in the slave holder's arsenal, and a powerful component of the public policy. The importance that whites placed on black informants is emphatically demonstrated by a rare monument that the town of Harper's Ferry erected to honor Hayward Sheppard, a black man, who was killed by a totally committed abolitionist John Brown and his raiding partly shortly before the beginning of the Civil War.
The public policy was formulated from racial dogmas and doctrines that justified the policy. The doctrine of racial superiority legitimized the exclusion and segregation of blacks from mainstream white society. The doctrine of noninterference dissuaded governments and social institutions from using their resources and power to stop the abuse of black people. And the doctrine of expendability promoted the belief that black life was non-sacred and that there was nothing wrong with using blacks for the betterment and protection of white life. These policy doctrine and dogmas continue to determine the quality of life for whites and blacks in America today.
copyright 1994 by Claud Anderson, Ed.D.
http://afrocentricnews.net/html/public_policy.html
(A MUST read !!!)
My Question:
What kind of 'Meritorious' Service did the 'Law' require?
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