Slavery at Tuckahoe plantation

Main article: Tuckahoe (plantation)

"Residence, cabin, on James River, Tuckahoe Plantation, Goochland County, Virginia," black and white photograph, by the American photographer Frances Benjamin Johnston, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C. In the background are some of the buildings that were slave quarters. The schoolhouse for the Jefferson and Randolph children is in the forefront of the picture.

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Slavery at Tuckahoe plantation is about the life of enslaved workers at the Tuckahoe, a plantation in Tuckahoe, Virginia. Tuckahoe was a large tobacco plantation that also grew wheat and raised livestock. The work on the farm was performed by indentured servants and bondspeople during the 18th and 19th centuries. Plantation Street on Tuckahoe had work buildings and housing that give an idea of the type of worked that was performed there and that allowed the farm to be relatively self-sufficient. There were buildings for storing, chilling, processing, and cooking food. Fabric was woven at Tuckahoe. A metalsmith worked on the plantation, and there was a tool house. Randolph and Jefferson children learned at the one-room schoolhouse.

Thomas Jefferson formulated some of their opinions about the societal influences and impacts of slavery at Tuckahoe. After the Emancipation Proclamation, some of the freed people were employed by Tuckahoe into the early years of the 20th century.

Background

Main articles: History of slavery in Virginia and Slavery in the colonial history of the United States

The Tuckahoe plantation, built by members of the Randolph family of Virginia between 1730 and 1740, is one of the "great plantations" of 18th-century Virginia and the "sprawling Randolph clan boasted some of the best-educated, wealthiest, and most influential men in the colony." Thomas Randolph established Tuckahoe as a home plantation beginning in 1714. When Tuckahoe was established by Thomas Randolph, he brought with him enslaved people, sufficient enough in number to be called a workforce, that he inherited from his father William Randolph's estate.

Thomas' son William Randolph built the mansion, a National Historic Landmark. After William died in 1745, his friend Peter Jefferson (Thomas Jefferson's father) moved his family to Tuckahoe in 1746 and raised William and Maria Judith's children there until 1752, when William's son Thomas Mann Randolph came of age. Tuckahoe was 25,000 acres at its height. There were three mills on the property and Tuckahoe grew wheat and tobacco and raised livestock. The main crop was tobacco, which was sent to London in barrels.

Thomas Jefferson, who spent seven years of his childhood at Tuckahoe, came to formulate his moral viewpoint of slavery there:

The whole commerce between master and slave is a perpetual exercise of the most boisterous passions, the most unremitting despotism on the one part, and degrading submissions on the other. Our children see this, and learn to imitate it…

— Thomas Jefferson, Notes on the State of Virginia 

Lefevre James Cranstone, Slave Auction, Virginia

In Goochland County, most of the residents were black bondspeople, owned by the largest plantations, by 1789. In 1790, there were 4,656 enslaved people and 257 free black people and 4,140 whites. Over time, there was an increase in the percentage of enslaved people, while the population of whites diminished. There were 5,845 slave and 644 free blacks—while the number of whites went down to 3,865 by 1850. By 1850, there were 644 free blacks in Virginia. Those who were freed during the antebellum period built modest homes, similar to those of white people with low income.

Slavery continued until the passage of the 13th Amendment that abolished slavery in 1865. There were laws enacted and other practices that limited African Americans rights and opportunities after the Emancipation Proclamation.

Plantation life

Household and farm work

Household and farm work was performed by indentured servants and enslaved men, women, and children. Indentured servants, generally brought from England, served as unpaid workers for a specific period of time. Enslaved people were held for their lives, and children of an enslaved woman were also enslaved at birth under partus sequitur ventrem. Enslaved blacks were treated much more harshly than white servants. Whipping, for instance, was a common practice against black people.

A collection of outbuildings were located on Plantation Street of Tuckahoe. The buildings are arranged west of the mansion in a quadrangle. Food management and processing were performed in a storehouse, a smokehouse, and a brick kitchen, which had a swinging crane and a dutch oven. Slave quarters, an office, a toolhouse, and a barn are there. There used to be an ice house and weaving room. There were around 100 domestic workers, field hands, and skilled craftsmen who worked at Tuckahoe in the late 1740s. In 1779, there was a stable built specifically for one horse named Shakespeare who was well-fed and pampered. A niche for a bed was constructed so that a black boy could sleep there through the night and ensure the health and comfort of the horse.

In 1859, there were 62 bondspeople. A few worked in the house as domestic workers or cooks. One individual was a metalsmith. Most of the people worked in the fields. From the records of that time, children began working in the fields by age 11. Relying on labor from enslaved people meant that planters and their families lived wealthy and comfortable lives.

Clothing

Enslaved workers at a tobacco plantation in Virginia, 1670

Tuckahoe had a weaving room, which meant that it was possible that workers on the plantation created fabric for clothing. It is also possible that they grew flax and spun threads to weave the fabric. Garments would have been sewn by designated enslaved people from their woven linen or people may have constructed their own clothing. Some planters, like Thomas Jefferson, provided fabric so that people would sew their own clothing.

Further information: History of slavery in Virginia § Clothing

Slave quarters

Tuckahoe slave quarters, circa 1914

The slave quarters at Tuckahoe were larger than most slave quarters, which could be as small as 12 by 8 feet. They were about 16 by 20 feet, but were divided into two units, which were separated by a central chimney. Each room had an exterior door. Two later slave quarters include overhead lofts.

Residents

Mahala Boyd, an enslaved woman who worked in the Tuckahoe residence

A woman named Harriet, was among the last known African American born on Tuckahoe. She had "clear recollection" of growing up on the plantation, which she recounted in 1915. Her husband, Wesley, was a ditcher.

Levi Ellis was known to his family as a freed man from the Tuckahoe plantation. He purchased 49 acres in Goochland County, Virginia that he farmed with his wife Martha Jane Ellis. He was a founder of what was later called Ellisville, bordered by the Ellisville Bridge. He was also a founder, deacon, and Sunday School superintendent of the St. James Baptist Church. It was among the first black churches in the county and operated a school.

Interaction with other people

Bondspeople traveled among other plantations owned by the Jeffersons, Randolphs, and the Lewises, who were family members. Some slaveholders traveled with one or two enslaved people. People who had special skills, like carpentry, would sometimes work at other estates. There were a number of instances in which blacks at Tuckahoe communicated with those at Jefferson family plantations, including when Jeffersons moved to Tuckahoe and then back to Shadwell (following William Randolph's death). In 1790, the Jeffersons visited Tuckahoe with Hemings family members.

Song

At Monticello, the enslaved people had a song that mentions Tuckahoe. According to Martha Jefferson Randolph, the song refers to Thomas Mann Randolph Sr.:

While old Colonel Tom lived and prospered,

There was nothing but joy at Tuckahoe.

Now that old Colonel Tom is dead and gone,

No more joy for us at Tuckahoe.

Further information: Thomas Mann Randolph Sr. § Marriages and children, and Thomas Mann Randolph Jr. § Family discord and loss of Edge Hill

Worship

Churches were built and operated by white people. Free blacks and enslaved people may have been able to worship in these churches, in separate space for blacks, until blacks established their own churches. There was no church until 1720 when the parish of St. James was established. The Dover Church, closest to Tuckahoe, was built from 1720 to 1724. The first permanent minister in residence was Rev. William Douglass, who began preaching 1750. Dover Mines Baptist Church was established for blacks from a dormant mining building. It is now the First Baptist Church in Manakin, Virginia.

Sale

Eyre Crowe, Slaves Waiting for Sale - Richmond, Virginia, oil, 20¾ x 31½ inches

Portions of the Randolph's Tuckahoe plantation were subdivided into smaller tracts and sold. Upon completion of an anticipated sale in 1842, enslaved people were to be put up for sale.

The nearby city of Richmond was the largest seller of enslaved people in Virginia. When enslaved people were sold, it meant that communities and families were likely dispersed to different places. It was common for people to be separated from their spouses and children, perhaps for the rest of their lives. People were taken from the plantation and put into jails or slave pens of slave traders. They could have been there for weeks and may have been subject to physical inspections. When they were auctioned, it was possible that they were sold to another trader or ultimately sold to work plantations in the Deep South.

See also: Lumpkin's Jail

Runaways

Ad for runaway Wallace Smith from Tuckahoe - Richmond Enquirer, Richmond, Virginia, November 23, 1852

A carpenter named Gabriel or Gabe ran away from Tuckahoe on December 10, 1783. An advertisement by Thomas M. Randolph offered a reward of $20 for Gabriel and $5 for the horse that he took for his escape. He was formerly enslaved by Col. Charles Carter of Ludlow. Bob Christian ran away on January 5, 1836. He had a wife in New Kent County, a mother in Richmond, and other relatives in Chickahominy. Tuckahoe's plantation owner E.L. Wight offered $20 for his return. By 1851, M.W. Kemp of Gloucester County sold Wallace Smith to Joseph Allen of Tuckahoe. Smith ran away and was expected to be in Gloucester. A $200 () reward was offered for his return.

Freedom

Some of the people who were emancipated following the American Civil War lived on Tuckahoe into the turn of the 20th century. They were paid a salary and lived in the original quarters on the property.

Others, like Levi Ellis, settled into a community of black people, like New Town in the Three Square area, and, in the eastern part of the county, Ellisville and Gordonstown. Once free, blacks in Virginia competed directly with white people for work in their trades. Many freedmen had a number of customers rather than being tied to one employer, which might recommence a paternalistic relationship.

References

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