Africans in America; 103; Brotherly Love; Interview with Margaret Washington, Associate Professor of History, Cornell University. 3 of 4

those are in philadelphia and seventy nine east becomes the center for blacks in the north that has a large black population and the people were whites in philadelphia many of whom are quakers are more receptive to african americans at least in this period the quaker religion has a lot to do with the idea of it slavery was wrong was was a new idea for the quakers and new id intent of them beginning to accept it and beginning to insist that members of the quaker meeting act on that so philadelphia the city of brotherly love was for african americans in the seventy nine he's kind of america coming out of bondage coming out of the american revolution looking for a place to be free

african americans who had been in bondage came to philadelphia and this was sort of the beginning of the institutional development of freedom in the north were they the guardian writes the message liberty and republicanism so important in the american revolution was certainly something that african americans were aware of and weren't biting and were trying to act out in places where they could and there are many places in the north where they could not silva side a lot of them wanting to leave the south the upper south states of maryland and virginia and delaware they also wanted to go where the

ideology of liberty and equality might really mean something so philadelphia was a good place to try that out and when they come well cause some of them are they are in very important ways and that sort of planted the seed the fact that that quakers especially among the philadelphians believed in education for the people who they held in bondage and allowed them a certain amount of flexibility meant that you had an emerging middle class the african americans in other places would want to come to philadelphia they would come from delaware maryland the northeast certainly places like new york where slavery was still very much affect of life and

new jersey soul all the northeastern states the mid atlantic states like new york and new jersey the southern states the upper seven states in virginia and maryland delaware some people from the northeast we're beginning to converge in philadelphia because they had a sense that this was a place that equality and republicanism might really mean something he actually early what raises african americans would want to go to philadelphia was because their whole many mission movement even though philadelphia had in many mission process that was gradual it was early was relieved of the earliest of the northern states to engage in many mission so that's the first clue for african americans that this

is a place that they want to be in full freedom for people of african descent is taken seriously so and even before philadelphia pennsylvania had in many mission law quakers in philadelphia where freeing the slaves and and not just freeing them the train them finding apprenticeships for them trying to find an educational situation for themselves it was a way in which african americans could hopefully find freedom you know most of the african americans who work in domestic capacity and domestic not in the sense that we tend to think of domestic work such as cleaning houses but

at that time domestic workers make all kinds of things you could be a groomer as well as someone who cleaned homes you could down with outside doing landscape it really represented work around a dwelling so a lot of african americans did that philadelphia was one of the few cities where african americans could actually become carter's out which was a very important occupations are if you were fortunate enough to have a horse and it was steady work so in new york for instance african americans could not become carter's was a highly regimented occupation so that was another occupation wagner's are working on the wars artis says because some of the whites in philadelphia have trained their former slaves for unskilled occupations so

labor was needed and african americans could find employment in philadelphia but richard allen fore probably the majority of african americans coming into philadelphia was a very important figure himself having been a slave and understanding that experience made them very close to him his religious orientation also his evangelism is met that ism ah was very important because nepotism became a very significant religious orientation in philadelphia so allen was one of them he was prosperous but at the same time setting not on the upper class and there were african americans who were upper class but he was a former slave he was someone

who it was essentially unskilled but able to do a lot and he was the carter he hired people hire african americans to work for him so he was a major figure a leader good speaker home so he was someone who didn't and they could look really he went i think when he delivered that i would say matt that is but i don't as bad as bill richard alan had been a slave and delaware moving to philadelphia as a young man he probably decided that he wanted to be in a place where there was no slavery or leases on the road to extinction and probably was as

part of a large migration of people who are moving toward places where freedoms seem to be the wave of the future on delaware was essentially a slave state so the move north was part of a process for african americans is really really is a historical process of moving from the place where you were enslaved to a different situation that does not remind you of their bondage so allen was part of that movement and there was employment in philadelphia so as african americans were moving and they're moving toward a freedom site then he was undoubtedly caught up in that that's it for one thing they are not in the system where

freedom is an anomaly the problem with being a free person in the south is that it's not the natural order the natural order to slavery so there's a thin line between slavery and freedom and the self and free blacks who don't have strong family ties and the south and i'm not proscribe from leaving the south because of the various black holes and others other states would naturally want to leave alone because the southerners don't make much of a distinction between slavery and freedom and also because in some cases there are looking for ways to re enslave you can do the

it really was born free but like many african american children she was indentured this was sort of a common practice because for one thing the family needed money for another it was important for children to learn some kind of occupation so for her it meant leaving her family and probably being the

only person in the household who was working either that or she might have been working with someone much older who was training her butt in these kinds of situations that was often little form of community so it's sort of an isolating life children were often allowed to visit the parents on occasion or the parents were permitted to visit them but the situation was one in which you really had no immediate bondi situations sell forgery know it was probably a learning experience probably part of them motivation she later had in the sense of independence that she later had that she was taken away from her parents so early and kind of in a shelter situation but at the same time pretty much on her own her

company the disparity in the narrative is part of the narrative tradition is part of what individuals men and women in the african american experience go through in their religious conversion jury know the george white cop all of these individuals who basically write spiritual narratives about this spiritual journey have a period it could last for months could last for years in which they are an utter despair very unsatisfied with themselves as individuals and wavering in terms of their identity the question that they asked is who am i and what is my reason for being and if they have no answer and if they're really it's strange especially motivated the way

people it really is they can't find an answer then they come up with their own answer and that is i must be nobody and i think thats what created her despair is that she cannot reconcile with herself who she was what her identity was so she's she goes through this period where she's just in despair see explains it as her like a spiritual direction was very important to african americans and probably more important for her because she is isolated and she she should've reaches maturity in an isolated situation without the bonding without parental bonding and probably without a communal body soul in a way it's just her and so she has to come to terms with who she is what she is spiritually is probably more important to

her than anything else so i think that's probably what causes for despair and this there's talk of suicide thank you well she would be working in a home she would be probably trained by someone either an older servant or the mistress of the house this kind of work and housework is the kind of work that you do alone arm or with white servants so she is during labor in the kitchen to in labor in the parlor probably serving food probably involved in waiting on people in social situations but not getting anything out of these kinds of situations for self self her work is

not gratification and it's interesting because people spend so much time with labour and some african americans are in situations where they're working communally collectively whether it's been working on the warrens or women working and on the same mansion where there are four five servants work is what creates a kind of collectively and i think that tells a surreal jury didn't have that sell one housewares how awful it is what we can imagine her is probably very quiet calm probably a introspective and

in that maj gen kelly it's kind of hard to imagine what kind of a person says arena league was she went through a transformation of spiritual transformation in her early twenties what was she like before that she could have been someone who was very quiet very introspective not very sure of herself not really knowing how to deal with people on the social situations and citizens apprenticeship and not really having much connectedness and her transformation has built a transformation could have very easily opened her up socially could have given her the sense of confidence that she may not have had before on the other hand she might have been a person who before her conversion

was social was outgoing and the conversion and they're preaching with she become so heavily engaged in the anti slavery attitudes are already there and they became specially motivated once she was converted so in a way of course she could have either personality she could have been a woman who was very quiet and subdued and changed men were forced into the woman she became after her spiritual awakening or she could have been like other spiritual women another preaching women like sojourner truth who work vibrant and outgoing before and once they made a special transformation transpose that vibrancy into their religiosity the same time that angry

and new clothes and you know i don't play anything fb conversion for his arena was probably a freedom every kind of freedom from someone who was in bondage a spiritual freedom that helped her define her personhood part of her despair before her conversion was because she did know who she was and the conversion as she put it we called her and not that she was m cold in the first place but she felt that way she felt insufficient ansel the process of conversion was a chain to stretch a change

that essentially transpose itself into a material change so that she was changed from the heart but at the same time she could feel that she was even materially changed new clothes could've been even now a new kind of hair everything about her was new and it's very reminiscent of conversion experiences with which african americans go through at that time in terms of something happening that is totally different and sets them apart and it's not the physical freedom it's a spiritual freedom so she's she has physical freedom she does not have this spiritual organic wholeness and and that's what she gets when she has this incredible awakening well her special conversion changes her entire life had she not had

this with such intensity and energy than we would never know that that was originally but it gives her an assertion on to the point where she feels perfectly competent standing up in church in the middle of the sermon and interrupting the minister it's hard to believe that that kind of assertiveness came after her conversion one almost wants to think that she must have been a pretty spunky young woman before the conversion but on the other hand perhaps there was that much of a transformation for her there was that much of a sense of what spirituality met and it made her fearless so to complete so she develops as a result of her conversion copy of his fearlessness that makes her willing to confront the church

hierarchy if you're willing to approach richard allen and ask for permission to preach and this may seem like a small thing but it really isn't because women following the st pauli and doctrine are not supposed to speak in public they can pray and private homes and exhort and private homes but they're not supposed to speak in public so for serena two challenge this is incredibly bold for that period of time we're talking early national period so women are very tyson and then they stay in a place this is especially true of african american women so her spirituality liberates her later liberated woman essentially end and she is willing to confront allen and the city at that point gets nowhere but later on because of her tenacity and probably because it's a reputation spreads see a successful as a preacher

it's both we're going to take over serena went among the african american slaves to preach probably the first woman preacher they had ever heard preaching about christianity not the first african spiritual man because the african tradition is one in which women were a very important spiritual it so slave so they were familiar with female spirituality but to have a woman come among them end actually stand up and preach christianity very boldly must have had a tremendous effect on them one can't help but wonder you know what they got whether they're american cultural purview

where women dont speak in public or the african cultural purview where women didn't have that kind of a role really took hold but the fact that she was there at the fact that she was bringing christianity to them must have had a tremendous effect on them thank you or african americans were always very anxious to hear one of their own arm anyone who was willing to go among them if they were allowed to and oftentimes they would not if they were allowed to hear one of their own if they had a choice between hearing a white speaker and one of their own than the choice was going to be with the black speaker and missionaries and militias commented on this constantly so it must've been a great deal for them now wasn't the message was that the

messenger was of the novelty of it whatever it was there was something very moving about serena that made them want to go and hear what's even more interesting is that she was allowed to do it that tells us something about her as well slave holders the authorities this is a period when many people many white have not accepted christianity as something that african american slave people should hear it's also a period when they feel that christianity maybe the top in such a way as to encourage liberation sell the fact that she's even able to go among them out this is very unusual it's unusual for a woman

miss unusual for a man to fulfill and it's quite extraordinary your name ok no thomas jefferson's very important is thomas jefferson's very important to african american history and all of it is positive certainly jefferson gave us the declaration of independence even though at the time the document was written it did not apply to people of african descent but it came to apply to them

so he's important in that sense it's also important because he was one of the major architects of american republicanism and even though that concept was not meant to apply to people of african descent they understood that it did and they acted on that but i think we also owe jefferson modern racism because jefferson is really one of the first people and certainly the most important person to discuss in riding like inferiority he's the first person to discuss and writing the idea that blacks and whites cannot live together as equals and he is one of the first people to put him riding attitudes about black sexuality negative attitudes about like sexuality and of

course jefferson use his executive powers to obtain louisiana and they're entrenched bondage in american society until eighteen sixty one so jefferson's heritages was african american history is concerned is some bold positive and to make it in america monticello to me represents black plague or black steel because clearly the way momma cello was set up a self sufficient the state with blacksmith shop a carpentry all the things one needed to create the kind of state that mona chalabi came all that was produced by slave labor jefferson's copy juice shop was run by james

hemmings who had as his apprentices various people in the hemmings family they produced much of the furniture some of the very creative furniture and now i'm on a cello such as the revolving bookcase a beautiful chairs the dumb later on that was very ingenious for the time of bringing food up for the kitchen so when i look at monticello i think of mulberry role and the slave quarters and the buildings which are no longer standing that represented all of the artists and the work that went on in la that society and that was done by black leaders right away

jefferson was probably interested in cotton gin as an inventor home wondered if it was really going to work he would certainly be interested in it as a platter obviously because so much labor went into cotton and extracting the seeds the old way so certainly he would have to be interested in and as a planter he would also have to be interested in it s an individual who looked for the future of the nation he was an agrarian and he saw the future of the nation in agrarian terms unfortunately agrarian terms meant slave labor so the cotton gin couldn't help but mean for jefferson expansion of ca his

battalion progress has different meanings for different people and people of african descent the cotton gin was not progress it was a further entrenched amount of enslavement and for african americans the industrial revolution those technological advances in the textile industry did not been progress it meant slavery so we have to understand that during this period what was progress for white people was enslavement and for the degradation for african americans saw the cotton gin was important probably the most important invention an american history up to the civil war but it carried a great price it carried a price for black people and also carried a

price for white people because well the country to advanced economically because of this technology it created a system that they were going to have to deal with later on because of the price for african americans invention of the cotton gin can be measured in terms of the separation of families because the chan developed the territory which jefferson i was able to obtain the louisiana territory expanded cotton expanded the land of the united states and cotton was able to be produced on a massive scale african americans were the individuals who were moved into this frontier region and

they usually took man and left the women and children behind so one aspect of the cotton gin was that african american families are separated as the cotton kingdom spread and as say the sons of younger planters took man out into places like alabama and set up new cutler states so that was one major aspect of it the other aspect of it that represent just the antithesis of progress for african americans was that it created an expansive domestic slave system so on the one hand you have men who are taken away from their families and they're forced to go to the territories and work and often times forced to marry new women and create new families on the other hand

you have a situation of say a place like virginia which no longer has a mano crop but has a gigantic slave population and many of the individuals who settle in the louisiana territory by the air and slave people from virginia and these individuals are taken into this new frontier region you know why is important for a caliphate in nigeria right arm system the second part of what i was saying about the antithesis of progress the cotton gin representative african americans the antithesis of progress because it increased the domestic slave trade it created a

massive domestic slave trade virginia for example which was a state that no longer had a one crop economy tobacco but had a massive slave population more slaves in virginia than any other state and yet they didn't have the economy to support this population so they became the place that supplied the territories with slaves and this was such a situation of despair for african americans because individuals were sold and oftentimes they did sell people's individuals although sometimes they would say that they preferred to sell them and families but that was not necessarily so individuals would be separated and the families would go in various different ways how should i presume that

people imprisoning the atlantic slave it is officially banned in the united states are meeting a wait so legally no slaves from africa can come into the united states now the reality of that is far different they do come in become man and south carolina they come in in florida they come in and all kinds of places they come into the spanish areas but legally they're not supposed to be there so the system has to rely on the individuals who are in the united states and we would talk about it it's bleak officially the atlantic slave trade and eighteen wait for getting a one to eighteen await in anticipation

of the closing of the atlantic trade thirty nine thousand africans are brought into united states most of them through south carolina duke was legally after at new eight because the cotton gin has revolutionized cotton production the illegal slave trade it's still very much a factor and even though the domestic slave trade is creating a situation where africans are being pushed into the frontier they're not enough and americans link at the trade and africans continue to come in so even though the trade is abolished there is still this constant not a fool but certainly a trickle of africans and this continues only up to the civil war

it depends smuggling was supposedly illegal but it was a situation in which people really didn't receive any penalty for this and the africans once they were in the country were simply and slate so the law in many ways was not enforceable on the other hand some individuals some states especially had already stopped importing so that was a problem but for those states that had continued to import and then also as the trade

as much aid as the cotton gin made expansion possible than individuals who had not engaged in it began the process of an appointment it's been is a very large artist population in richmond virginia where gabriel's conspiracy is ain't and the africans he's african american artisans who are skilled who have some mama come of autonomy and who are familiar with the rhetoric of republicanism who are familiar with the ideology of revolution the american revolution and are familiar with events that took place in haiti began to agitate for their own

freedom and they converge around the leadership of gabriel himself an artist and take an all of them rhetoric above the age republicanism the enlightenment the idea of and artists and kind of equality evangelism these ideas that are part of american culture become part of the purview of these artisans sutton will be giving one of the reasons the rebellion was able to be planned so carefully and to involve so many people over such a wide geographical range was the fact

that that conspiratorial at the leadership level were artists and so they had a certain amount of freedom some of them were hired out so was not unusual to see them coming and going some of them had occupations that might take him outside of richmond so it was that element of flexibility within the system itself that gave them the avenues they needed to recruit african americans and the united states knew about haiti i think they knew about the rebellion about the black leadership certainly where if the french emigres coming into the port cities of the united states sometimes bringing the africans with them

and the interaction of black on black there was no way they couldn't know about what was happening to him a disagreement and injured you never really know what gabriel schools were whether they were as some people think an effort to form a coalition between white and black artisans and to make republicanism a reality in a way that it wasn't at that point in history whether he was going to try and get to haiti how with his recruits but neither one of those possibilities seem

as real to me as gabriel really not knowing what he wanted to do as a goal what he wanted as a goal except that he did want to foment a rebellion and two game liberty for black people i think that he saw a rebellion in richmond along the lines of what happened in haiti that they could get enough of a movement going so that they could actually bargain for their liberty and i think that his concerns were more for african americans than von ditch them for forming a coalition with light our distance and how you pronounce it it's because big recruitment to place for the rebellion and pawn shops that

were biracial with them blacks and whites getting together and drinking sometimes three women ogled bases there took place on farms took place in shops where blacks worked sometimes independently to places to place and into advantage which africans lived people who were not part of the ap the audition group and probably took place is that some of the religious gatherings that gabriel's fall was reprinted so you know there were a number of avenues for artisans to pursue the idea of rebellion dr jonathan was an outcry game as rebellion has been

seems mainly an artist and rebellion certainly artisans who again had a kind of quietly freedom would want more than what one total freedom so that would motivate an individual being have free not been able to control your wages been hired out being highly skilled and having to give your wages to someone else knowing how much you were worth and and not being able to keep any of your labor other people might want to rebel because they were so oppressed that they saw nothing else that if this was living then there had to be a better way and that got away was worth dying for others might join because they were familiar with the tenets of christianity and egalitarian elements in that christianity and then of course there were

reportedly some whites who were involved in the conspiracy and these individuals as far as we know work very involved in the ideals of french republicanism that they talked about among the enslaved people so certainly the ideology of republicanism would be something that africans and african americans could identify with people were declined out of fear because there was a history of uprisings not really been successful and it was a great chance to take and the price of freedom is often get so people would be afraid to do that people would also not want to own some african americans were as

some african americans were very close to their masters and mistresses and of course we know that because many of the rebellions that occurred were divulged by blacks themselves so some blacks were close enough to white society in their own minds that they not only would not want to rebel but they would tell about rising mm hmm african americans would be involved and gabriel's rebellion for a number of reasons the artists and to which the april was one where individuals were highly skilled and knew their value and yet received none of the proceeds of their labor other artisans were hired out and

actually had to bring the money to their owner and so they could actually hold this money that they were work in their hands and not be able to keep any of it and be able to come and go as they chose back and forth from the person who they work for back to the masters so on the one hand you're taking away everything that person earns on the other hand you're allowing him to go freely back and forth so a dualism was something that was very difficult for our distance to live with other people might join the rebellion because of the evangelists evangelistic aspects of christianity a spiritual deleterious and that they believed in and gabriel course would go to these gatherings and talk to them so within christianity that was an egalitarian spirit as well also there was the republican ideology which again the artisans

were aware of this was something that had been talked about since before the revolution and was talked about even more after the revolution especially in places like virginia so they were aware of this ideology and then of course there were individuals from the north who frequently the grog shops biracial grog shops where some of the hardest since went to drink and to talk and they spoke often of fence republicanism and down the fact that africans ought to be free and finally of course you have to take in the consideration the haitian rebellion and the message that that sent to people in the united states who want their freedom as well that if the haitians could rise why couldn't they and people would be kind of fear

fear of what would happen to them fear of what would happen to their families because once the rebellion occurred there was always a tremendous wave of repression people who were completely innocent were killed or vanished or tortured soul the fear was real and people would simply not want to expose themselves to this another reason is that there were some african americans who were genuinely tied to whites and did not want to see them hurt they felt that their interests were close enough so the term they did not want anything to happen in these requests for the kinds of african american to divulge conspiracies blacks would say that gabriel's rebellion didn't

happen because of a stroke of bad luck whites would say that it was god smiling and the rains came washed out the bridges and to richmond and individuals who had gathered to create this rebellion could not get into the city so whether it was divine interference or what the realtor billion didn't happen we can imagine what it was like on that day in august in eighteen hundred with scores of african americans gathering on a sunday to create this rebellion with picks an ax and knives and

clubs because they hadn't yet gotten to the arsenal which was in virginia waiting for the time for this to come and in the rains coming and the rains never ceasing and what it must've been like for them prepared to strike and yet i'm able to strike and what it must've been like as the bridge washed away and their hopes were dampened and then finally their hopes were gone that this rebellion is going actually take place and what must have happened at that point because the white society had been alerted that something was going to happen and in a way it was prepared but in a way didn't really believe it so here they were ready to strike and they couldn't get to the arsenal they couldn't get into richmond and

this is a terrible moment for gabriel he invested so much he had recruited so much other people had invested so much and he as the leader undoubtedly felt responsible even though clearly no one can blame him for the disaster that happened as a result of the terrain he must have felt that this was the worst moment of his life with all these people depended on him for leadership and liberation and to have nowhere to turn sell it was a situation in which the rebellion seem to be dead and just in the amount the rebellion was larger than gabriel and others attempted to continue it how our circumstances but

one innocent you pay but we think that the vc conspiracy emerged as a result of the white attitude for the formation of a black african methodist church that was probably the strother broke the camel's back so to speak clearly there were other incidents and black life in charleston and the surrounding area that would make african americans won a strike for their freedom a lot of them had a lot of those fees that had to do with the in the church and with the methodist church had to do with the fact that in spite of african americans being the great majority of the methodist church in charleston they had no control over their own money

and they had no control over burials they essentially work people were being used by the methodist church and there were thousands of them in the church so they formed their own church so that they could be independent we legislate what should the way they want to and because the institution of a listener so important to the african americans it was very much necessary in their minds for their community formation to have control over their churches the nikkei sees ideology and theology when everyone call it was probably very complex he would quote greek passages he would call the bible he certainly knew about the haitian revolution and just thought he was a class leader and in the church he was probably african

born heat felt that it was absolutely essential that they have an african savanna in the leadership as well as black methodist so it was a very complex ideology it was as though the sea was creating his own black republicanism not based on white ideology but a combination of cultures that african americans have been exposed to we think that he made it's bleak we don't know what he sees ultimate goal was once his group achieve freedom if they had achieved

some people say they wanted to sail to haiti armed but we don't know that we do know that there were very serious about freedom and they used the african methodist church to espouse an ideology of freedom within the old testament he's right risi made use of the old testament the idea of jewish nationalism the idea that he that steel at the man shall be put to death and when they were planning the conspiracy one of the things they said they were going to do was

kill all the ministers except for a few and then they were going to get those points out the various passages in the bible to the old testament say why didn't you preach this genocide so they see billy very strong old testament and you believe very strongly in the book of exodus as well as other books he that steel at the man shall be put to death and the conspirators had decided that they were going to kill all the ministers except for a few and those they were going to take and show them various passages in the bible and say i didn't she teaches this i didn't she teaches this to show the hypocrisy of the methodist church as it was practiced in south carolina and what about turnout or nat turner very much like a

pc but probably even more so because the sea used and number of ideologies including african spiritualism turner rely almost completely on the bible especially the old testament for his wrath arm in the old testament god is god of wrath in the old testament god's wrath on the egyptians knows no bounds for what they had done to his people in turner's mine the chosen people of god are african americans in the egyptians are whites so he feels are perfectly justified in carrying out his vengeance in the same way god carries out his wrath against the egyptians use of the night is because of the pain there is a sense of a providential journey

in the african american experience say for instance from that beginning of the cotton gin as a method of expanding slavery and creating havoc in black life through the separation of families who this incessant labor which seems to be able to go on in perpetuity for african americans it represents the period when their idea of providence is that this is not pleasing in the sight of god and based on the old testament they can see themselves as god's chosen people and they act is about a man very significant ways from gabriel's aspect that the religious aspect of gabriel's rebellion especially the ideology of the new books especially the ideology of the old testament

and then my pc and of course the ideology of the old testament that is embedded in that turner's rebellion so that aspect of the american experience for people of african descent is one that he speaks of the wrath of god being visited on whites it does not materialize at that point but it does not stop african americans from believing that at some point guy is going to interfere in their behalf are you pay cut christianity for african americans at this time means the antithesis of oppression and i think they understand christianity in those terms because we always have to keep in mind that in many places of itself christianity in a concerted orderly fashion was kept

away from people of african descent so they get christianity and snippets and imagery in the imagery that speaks to them olson boldly and most plainly is the image of the children of israel being led out upon that they can identify with that immediately and for many of the african americans at this time this is christianity nat turner is the book's personification of this nat turner can read and write most african americans cannot but he represents the people of african descent as they viewed christianity as an ideology of liberation that spoke to their condition as enslaved people and spoke to the idea that at some point in their history guard is going to lead them out of the house in bondage and