George Wythe and Slavery

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Thomas Jefferson stated that George Wythe was "unequivocal" on the issue of slavery,[1] implying that Wythe left no doubt about his opposition to slavery. A honest look into Wythe's life, however, requires context to support this "unequivocal" view. For a majority of his life, Wythe owned slaves. Indeed, he was in his early 60s when he finally began to put beliefs into practice and remove all slavery connections from his life. Publicly, Wythe benefited from the institution of slavery; but strong evidence reveals that Wythe opposed slavery, publicly and privately. Unlike any other Virginian of his time, Wythe appeared to believe in the inherent equality between the Negro race and the white race. As Chancellor, Wythe frequently decided cases that applied property law to slaves. Yet, when given the chance to decide on issues of freedom and equality, Wythe put his private beliefs into practice. These beliefs also influenced many of his students to oppose the institution of slavery.

Slavery and Wythe's Heritage

Some authors have argued that Wythe's anti-slavery viewpoint traces back to his maternal great-grandfather, George Keith, through the education Wythe received from his mother.[2] Keith initially began his religious career as a Quaker minister and used his influence in the Quaker community to oppose slavery.[3] In 1693, Keith published An Exhortation & Caution to Friends Concerning Buying or Keeping of Negroes, the first Quaker tract to urge the manumission of blacks.[4] Keith later converted to the Church of England, but he retained his blatant abolitionist views.[5] George Keith died before Wythe was born, but his influence on the family likely trickled down through his daughter, Anne Walker (Wythe's grandmother) and granddaughter, Margaret Walker Wythe (Wythe's mother). Although never a Quaker himself, Wythe's maternal religious lineage did seem to have influence on his life.[6] Wythe's parents, however, owned slaves at their Chesterville home, so Margaret may not have shared her grandfather's anti-slavery worldview.[7] Regardless, Wythe's views correspond well with those of the great-grandfather who composed the first Quaker abolitionist manifesto.[8]

Wythe's Slaves

Despite being considered a foe of slavery, George Wythe did own slaves. Records from 1748 document Wythe's sale a Negro slave girl to one of his relatives.[9] In 1776 one of Wythe's slaves, a man named Charles, was placed in the Williamsburg jail for an unknown charge and later sentenced to work in the lead mines in western Virginia.[10] For some authors, Wythe's involvement in slavery, both owning and selling them, supports the conclusion that Wythe's revulsion against slavery did not dominate his mind until later in life.[11] However, prior to the passage of the first manumission law in 1782, Virginia law prohibited slave owners from freeing slaves without the government's permission.[12] Under the Manumission Act, Wythe freed most of his slaves in 1787.[13]

At any given time, Wythe likely had around ten to twenty slaves at his home in Williamsburg. The 1783 Williamsburg Personal Property Tax recorded that Wythe had fourteen slaves, but by 1788, that number had dwindled to three.[14] Upon the death of Wythe's wife, Elizabeth Taliaferro Wythe in 1787, Wythe gifted at least nine of his slaves to his brother-in-law, Richard Taliaferro for his children.[15] It is likely that those slaves were originally a part of Elizabeth's inheritance from her father.[16] The law may have required Wythe to return "property" that belonged to Elizabeth back to her father, because the couple were childless and Elizabeth died without an heir.[17] Wythe did free the last three slaves that he owned in 1788.[18] Lydia Broadnax - Wythe's cook for years in Williamsburg and in Richmond - was among those three slaves. There is some dispute about the number of slaves that Wythe freed or transferred at this time, but most sources conclude that after Elizabeth's death, Wythe rid himself of all of his personal slaves through one means or another.[19]

Along with the slaves in Williamsburg, Wythe also owned slaves at the Chesterville family plantation, in what is now Hampton, Virginia.[20] In his will, Wythe's older brother, Thomas, bequeathed his slaves equally between his wife, Frances Wythe, and his niece, Euphan Sweeney Claiborne.[21] According to a 1793 complaint filed with the Norfolk County court, George Wythe "purchased of his Brothers widow all her right to the said slaves."[22] The plantation along with Frances Wythe's slaves transferred to the ownership of George Wythe. As for the slaves bequeathed to his niece, Wythe, "by desire of his mother, without receiving any consideration," gave at least ten slaves to his niece and her husband Thomas Claiborne. It is unclear how many slaves were left at the Chesterville plantation after this transfer. Wythe possibly gave half of the slaves to his niece in accordance with Thomas's will. If so, Wythe should have had ten slaves at Chesterville. Wythe spent little time at the plantation, instead hiring a manager to watch over the land and the slaves.[23]

Near the end of the American Revolution, Wythe's Chesterville manager deserted the plantation.[24] In December of 1781, Wythe wrote to Jefferson that he would come to Monticello if "[his] presence at Chesterville were not indispensably necessary to adjust my affairs left there in some confusion by the manager who hath lately eloped."[25] During this time, one of Wythe's Chesterville slaves, a man named Neptune, was caught as a runaway and sent back to Wythe after being imprisoned.[26] Many of the other Chesterville slaves may have run away or escaped to fight for the British and the promise of freedom.[27] When Wythe returned to Chesterville to settle his affairs, he may have had only two or three elderly slaves remaining.[28]

Wythe proceeded to try and sell Chesterville, further decreasing his reliance on slave labor. In 1792, Wythe extended this task to Daniel L. Hylton.[29] A 1795 advertisement indicates that at least some slaves were included in the first attempt to sell the plantation.[30] It described the plantation's advantages as including "the land, the orchard, the livestock and negroes, and the following buildings…"[31]

Wythe's first attempt to sell Chesterville was unsuccessful; Hylton did not manage to restore and sell the land, so Wythe forced a sheriff's sale and reacquired the deed.[32] Wythe finally sold Chesterville to Holder Hudgins in 1801 without making a large profit.[33] Some authors suggest, considering that Wythe freed his personal slaves earlier, that Wythe's lack of profit in the sale supports the argument that he also freed those slaves left at the Chesterville plantation.[34] The lack of profit, however, could also be explained by the sale including only a few elderly slaves. Unfortunately, the relevant Elizabeth County property records were destroyed during the Civil War making it impossible to form a concrete conclusion.[35]

Lydia Broadnax, continued to work as Wythe's cook, as a free woman, until his death.[36] When Wythe moved to Richmond, Lydia followed. There has been some speculation that an interracial relationship existed between Broadnax and Wythe.[37] This speculation suggests that Michael Brown - a mulatto boy who also lived with Wythe - was the son of Broadnax and Wythe.[38] However, both theories have been largely debunked.[39] Wythe and Broadnax's age provide the strongest argument against this allegation. Broadnax would have been in her fifties and Wythe in his late sixties at the time of Brown's birth.[40] Even by modern standards, having a child at that age is highly unlikely.[41] Further, the allegation first appears in a document known as the Dove memo, a statement by Dr. John Dove of his memories surrounding Wythe's death. The Dove memo has been regarded as an untrustworthy source due to the circumstances surrounding its creation.[42] Most authors conclude that the allegation of impermissible relations between Broadnax and Wythe was likely fabricated.[43] It is more likely that Lydia was married to Ben, another freed slave who worked for Wythe.[44]

Wythe's treatment of his freed slaves suggest that he regarded them to be the same as white persons. Wythe not only paid Lydia for her cooking services, but also provided her housing apart from his residence.[45] Additionally, Wythe made sure that other people paid Lydia when she worked in her capacity as a paid servant.[46] As for Michael Brown, there is no clear consensus as to where he came from, but Wythe took it upon himself to educate the boy.[47] Wythe continued to educate Brown as he would any other student - teaching him Latin and Greek.[48] In his will, Wythe devised the estate so that Lydia, Ben, and Michael each received a portion.[49] Wythe also requested that Jefferson teach Brown after Wythe's death, furthering his belief that the boy should be educated like his white counterparts.[50] However, this never came to pass because Brown died at the same time as Wythe.[51] Broadnax was the only freed servant that survived Wythe's death.[52]

Wythe's Views on Slavery

Private Beliefs

During his lifetime, those closest to Wythe knew him to be avidly opposed to slavery. In 1785, Jefferson wrote that Wythe's, "sentiments on the subject of slavery are unequivocal."[53] This "unequivocal" view did not necessarily mean that Wythe was radically attempting to dismantle the institution of slavery. During the Revolution, Wythe and Jefferson corresponded on the issue of runaway slaves.[54] Wythe was aware of several negroes in the area suspected to be slaves.[55] Based on that information, Wythe requested that Jefferson send him a description of the servants Jefferson expects are missing.[56] The request likely indicates that if found, Wythe planned to return the runaways to Jefferson. Nevertheless, Wythe does seem to truly hold the view that slavery was an evil that needed to be eradicated.[57] Other Virginians at the time theoretically opposed slavery while practically enjoying the its benefits.[58] Arguably, Wythe should be included in that group, but he differed significantly on one point: the equality of the Negro race.[59]

Cameo of "Slave in Chains" by Wedgwood from Erasmus Darwin's The Botanic Garden. New-York: Printed by T. & J. Swords, 1798, p.54.

Wythe personally thought that the Negro race held the full attributes of humanity; therefore, they could be educated just like people of the white race.[60] Because Wythe's view was a novel one,[61] he sought to prove equality through experiments in education.[62] Specifically, Wythe tested, "the theory that there was no natural inferiority of intellect in the negro, compared with the white man."[63] For this reason, Wythe taught slaves to read and write in the same manner as his white students.[64] The Chancellor also taught Michael Brown Greek, Latin, and natural science until the time of their deaths.[65] Wythe's opinion that the Negro race was equal also effected how he viewed abolition. Benjamin Watkins Leigh wrote in 1832 that "Mr. Wythe, to the day of his death, was for simple abolition."[66] Simple abolition requires the freedom of slaves without any method of deportation or removal.[67]

In Virginia, Wythe largely held this view on his own because it was contrary to the normal views of abolition in the south.[68] For example, Jefferson stood for abolition that required the transfer of the slaves to another location once they were free.[69] Wythe opposed this type of plan because he believed that it was an "objection to color as founded in prejudice."[70] Wythe may not have been the only person in Virginia opposed to slavery at the time nor the only person who understood the full humanity of the Negro race; but, he was the only Virginian known to attempt to prove the absence of inferiority between the races.[71]

Public Actions

Prior to George Wythe's time as chancellor, the issue of slavery came up frequently in his professional life. Even if Wythe's personal anti-slavery position stayed consistent, he played a role in perpetuating the institution of slavery in Virginia. For example, in 1770, Wythe represented a slave owner who wanted to keep his mulatto servants as slaves.[72] Jefferson, the attorney for the other side, argued that the law should be on the side of freeing the slaves - the same argument that Wythe would later use himself in his slavery opinions as Chancellor.[73] Howell v. Netherland, cannot truly speak to Wythe's public views because the court ruled in favor of the defendant without giving Wythe the opportunity to speak.[74] However, the case does demonstrate that Wythe did not allow his personal views to prevent him from representing slave owners.

During the revolution, Wythe's public duties also intersected with the issue of slavery. The number of slaves fleeing to fight for the British army in exchange for freedom concerned General George Washington.[75] As a member of the Continental Congress, Wythe served on the committed addressing this issue and charged with solving America's problem.[76] After the war, Wythe, Jefferson, and Edmund Pendleton worked to restructure Virginia's constitution and laws.[77] In the original draft, the three included a provision providing for the gradual manumission of slaves.[78] But, the provision was never presented to any legislative body.[79] The provision is only documented in Jefferson's Notes on the State of Virginia.[80] As Jefferson noted, "[t]he public mind would not yet bear the proposition."[81] Wythe and Jefferson did use this opportunity to reduce some of the more heinous Virginia laws against slaves, such as eliminating cruel punishments and banning the further importation of slaves.[82]

Yet, they did not attempt to seriously dismantle the institution.[83] It is likely that even if they tried, any such suggestion would have been unanimously rejected.[84] At this time the citizenry of Virginia, including Wythe and Jefferson, largely profited from the institution of slavery and no moral argument could change their mind.[85] By 1795 there was a slight shift in Virginia on the issue of slavery.[86] In November of that year, Wythe was one of many petitioners who sent the House of Delegates a draft requesting an anti-slavery act that would free slaves born after its passing.[87] The petition also asserted that members of the Negro race where not inferior, but created by God just like members of the white race.[88] Although unsuccessful, it demonstrates that Wythe contributed to some public anti-slavery sentiment.[89] In his private life, Wythe may have acted on his "unequivocal" position on the institution of slavery; but, it was not until Wythe was Chancellor that his public position truly displayed the same fervor.

Wythe's Views as Chancellor: Judicial Decisions Concerning Slavery

As Chancellor, Wythe often decided cases that dealt with slaves being transferred as property, upon the death of their owner.[90] In property cases, Wythe applied the law as written and treated slaves as property.[91] Wythe adhered to his duty to apply the law even when it conflicted with his personal views.[92] Some authors suggest that Wythe's treatment of slaves in property cases supports the argument that Wythe often chose to use the "mask of the law" to avoid having to test the veracity of his private views.[93] However, Wythe did put his beliefs into practice as Chancellor. In the rare instances where Wythe was faced with a slave's freedom, the Chancellor went beyond the existing law and legally argued for a fundamental right to freedom.[94] In Pleasants v. Pleasants and Hudgins v. Wrights, Wythe made legal arguments that provided freedom for the slaves in question.[95] In both cases, the Court of Appeals affirmed Wythe's conclusions while explicitly disregarding Wythe's legal and ethical challenges to the institution of slavery.[96]

First page of Hudgins v. Wrights from Hening and Munford, Reports of Cases Argued and Determined in the Supreme Court of Appeals of Virginia, (Philadelphia, PA: Smith & Maxwell, 1808) 1:134.

The issue in Pleasants was whether John Pleasant's will - requiring that all of his slaves be set free when private manumission was possible - could be upheld in court.[97] The legal administrators under the will opposed manumission and wanted that portion struck down as unenforceable.[98] Using well-crafted legal tools, Wythe concluded that the will could be enforceable thereby freeing over eight hundred slaves.[99] This case was one of the first cases to explore the legal foundations of the Virginia Manumission Act.[100] Wythe concluded that the Manumission Act could apply retroactively because it restored the slave's natural right to freedom.[101] Wythe viewed the request for freedom as a "restitution of a right, of which they … could not have been deprived without violation of equitable constitutional principles."[102] Because Wythe argued that manumission was grounded in natural law and slavery was not, Pleasants could legally stipulate this kind of contingency in his will.[103] Further, Wythe refused to interpret Pleasants' allocation of freedom as a conditional gift because transfer of property laws have little applicability in cases where, "human liberty is challenged." Thus, Wythe's decision in Pleasants centered on his belief that human rights triumph property rights when freedom is challenged.[104] Along with enforcing the slave's legal right to freedom, Wythe also mandated that the slaves be paid for their period of wrongful enslavement.[105] Wythe's decision was a shock to those of the time, particularly because it freed hundreds of slaves and required the owners to provide back pay.[106] The Court of Appeals upheld Wythe's judicial conclusion to enforce the will, but reversed his order of back pay.[107]

Although Wythe insinuated that freedom was a fundamental right for all races in Pleasants, he explicitly stated that conclusion a few years later in Hudgins v. Wright.[108] Unfortunately, the original Chancery opinion of this case has not been preserved; however, Wythe's arguments can be gleaned from the Court of Appeals decision.[109] In Hudgins, Wythe was faced with slaves who were claiming freedom based on their Indian heritage.[110] By law, people of Indian decent were presumed free in the court of law.[111] Based on his observations, Wythe did conclude that the Wrights were of Indian decent and he could have decided the case on this narrow ground.[112] Instead, Wythe took this opportunity to declare that under Virginia law, all people were presumed free because freedom came from a natural right.[113] Wythe concluded that when an enslaved person requests freedom the burden is on the slave owner to prove that the person should be enslaved.[114] Wythe based this conclusion "on the ground that freedom is the birthright of every human being, which sentiment is strongly inculcated by the first article of our 'political catechism,' the bill of rights." [115]

Wythe's conclusion, that people of the Negro race have a natural right to freedom, was so radical that it caused great disruption.[116] Naturally, this shock led to the case being automatically appealed.[117] The Court of Appeals affirmed Wythe's decision, but only on the narrow ground that the Wrights were of Indian decent.[118] The appeal judges unanimously rejected Wythe's reasoning that all races had an intrinsic right to freedom.[119] Instead, they reaffirmed that people of the Negro race have the burden of proving a right to freedom.[120] Wythe was likely aware that this attempt to undermine the institution of slavery in Virginia would be futile, but it is possible that as he neared the end of his life putting his principles into practice mattered more than being reversed.[121]

Wythe's Death & Slavery

The circumstances surrounding Wythe's death also reveal insight into Wythe's views on slavery. Most historians agree that Wythe died as a result of arsenic poisoning by his heir and great nephew, George Wythe Sweeney. At the time of his death, Wythe had completely eliminated all ties to the institution of slavery from his personal life.[122] He also had incorporated into practice his philosophical teachings about the equality of blacks.[123] The choices Wythe made concerning his estate and his free black servants may have influenced the circumstances surrounding the Chancellor's poisoning. In early 1806, Wythe changed his will to provide for a greater portion of the estate to go to Michael Brown, his freed student.[124] Wythe also left parts of his estate to Lydia Broadnax and Benjamin.[125] Specifically, Wythe requested that money from his estate be used to, "support [his] freed woman Lydia Broadnax, and [his] freed man Benjamin, and [his] freed boy Michael Brown."[126] In the event that Lydia and Benjamin died, their portion would go completely to Michael Brown.[127] This inevitably took some of the inheritance away from Wythe's other heir, Sweeney.[128] There have been many reasons offered as to why Sweeney poisoned George Wythe and the members of his household.[129] Some authors suggest that it resulted from Wythe's choice to publicly display his belief that freed persons of color should be treated equally to white persons.[130] At the time of his death, Wythe had been one of the only southern antebellum founders to believe in the full humanity of the Negro race and the only judge to attempt to judicially undermine slavery.[131]

Wythe as Teacher: The Influence of His Anti-Slavery Views

Marble bust of George Wythe by wikipedia:Felix de Weldon, 1954. At William & Mary Law School.

Wythe's views on slavery also influenced his students who recognized his morality and wished to learn from it.[132] While being taught by Wythe, Peter Carr wrote to Jefferson that Wythe "adds advice and lessons of morality, which are not pleasing and instructive now, but will be (I hope) of real utility in the future."[133]These lessons of morality likely included the topic of slavery.[134] Thomas Jefferson's most quoted statement about Wythe being "unequivocal" on the issue of slavery, was written in the context of Wythe's teaching influence.[135] In 1785, Jefferson wrote Richard Price that because of Wythe's influence, "the future decision on this important question would be great, perhaps decisive."[136] The men who studied under Wythe likely emerged from his tutelage with at least a theoretical opposition to slavery.[137] Even Jefferson, who may have not have practiced his beliefs, asserted that the system of slavery was inconsistent with the American experiment.[138] Jefferson, undoubtedly through Wythe's influence, fought for emancipation during his early time in the legislature.[139]

Other student examples demonstrate that Wythe's teaching can be credited for the foundation of anti-slavery views. One of Wythe's pupils, John Minor III, entered two bills into the Virginia legislature providing for gradual emancipation and freedom for slaves.[140] John Marshall argued Pleasants v. Pleasants in front of the Virginia Court of Appeals successfully freeing hundreds of slaves.[141] St. George Tucker became very outspoken on the issue of slavery as expressed in his 1796 pamphlet, A Dissertation on Slavery with a Proposal for the Gradual Abolition of it, in the State of Virginia, and in his commentaries on Blackstone.[142] Tucker considered slavery both morally and logically inconsistent with Virginia's Declaration of Rights.[143]

Perhaps Wythe influenced Richard Randolph, (St. George Tucker's stepson) another of Wythe's students, most on the issue of slavery.[144] In his will, Randolph freed all of his slaves at his death.[145] Along with their freedom, Randolph provided that his slaves would also be given land.[146] Randolph made Wythe the executor of his will and stated that Wythe was "the most virtuous and incorruptible of mankind and his greatest benefactor."[147] Randolph explicitly declared that the provisions of his will concerning the slaves were drafted "to make retribution."[148] Unfortunately, due to legal issues with the will, Randolph's wishes for his slaves did not come to fruition until much later.[149]

Demonstrating the influence that Wythe had over his students does not support an argument that Wythe was creating passionate abolitionists.[150] Only a few students went as far as Wythe in practice to free their slaves or fight to end slavery. Other students such as Jefferson, Henry Clay, and St. George Tucker, continued to profit under the system of slavery.[151] Jefferson, despite his attempts and eloquent statements opposing slavery, never truly tried to dismantle or rid the country of the institution.[152] Clay, though perhaps influenced by Wythe's anti-slavery beliefs, never truly followed Wythe's example in his public career.[153] Tucker's view that slavery was morally and logically inconsistent with Virginia's Declaration of Rights did not provoke him to agree with Wythe's assertion that all men were created equal in Hudgins v. Wright.[154] Additionally, both Tucker and Jefferson strayed from the idea of complete abolition, unlike Wythe.[155] For Tucker and Jefferson, free slaves equaled migrated slaves.[156] But, even those who criticize Wythe's influence as shallow or minimal still recognize that he had some influence on his student's beliefs about slavery.[157] Thus, the fact that Wythe's students did not completely put their anti-slavery views in practice, does not take away from the influence - at least intellectually - that Wythe had on his students concerning slavery.

References

  1. ↑ "Thomas Jefferson to Richard Price, 7 August 1785," in The Papers of Thomas Jefferson, vol. 8, 25 February-31 October 1785, ed. Julian P. Boyd (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1953), 356–357.
  2. ↑ Joyce Blackburn, George Wythe of Williamsburg (New York: Harper & Row, 1975), 74; Alonzo Thomas Dill, George Wythe, Teacher of Liberty, ed. Edward M. Riley (Williamsburg: Virginia Independence Bicentennial Commission, 1979), 4-5, Thomas Hunter, "The Teaching of George Wythe," in The History of Legal Education in the United States, ed. Steve Sheppard (Pasadena: Salem, Press, Inc., 1999), 1:140.
  3. ↑ Blackburn, George Wythe of Williamsburg, 74; Dill, George Wythe, Teacher of Liberty, 4-5.
  4. ↑ Dill, George Wythe, Teacher of Liberty, 5.
  5. ↑ Ibid.
  6. ↑ William Clarkin, Serene Patriot (Albany: Alan Publications, 1970), 3; Hunter, "The Teaching of George Wythe," 1:140.
  7. ↑ John Bailey, Jefferson's Second Father (Sydney: Momentum Pan Macmillan Australia Pty Ltd, 2013), 5.
  8. ↑ Dill, George Wythe, Teacher of Liberty, 5.
  9. ↑ Clarkin, Serene Patriot, 9.
  10. ↑ H.R. McIlwaine, ed., Journals of the Council of the State of Virginia (Richmond, Va: The Virginia State Library, 1931), 1:70-71. It is unclear why Charles was put in jail or how long he worked in the lead mines. However, it is possible that Charles was the same slave freed by Wythe in 1788. Mary A. Stephenson, George Wythe House Historical Report, Block 21 (Williamsburg: Colonial Williamsburg Foundation Library, 1952).
  11. ↑ Clarkin, Serene Patriot, 9.
  12. ↑ "An act to authorize the manumission of slaves." 11 Henning Statute's at Large 39 (May 1782). Private manumission laws were necessary for any future abolition in the South. Winthrop D. Jordan, White Over Black: American Attitudes Toward the Negro (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1968), 347. Prior to this law, private manumission was forbidden in Virginia. Robert M. Cover, Justice Accused: Antislavery and the Judicial Process, (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1975) 67.
  13. ↑ Stephenson, George Wythe House Historical Report.
  14. ↑ Ibid.
  15. ↑ The number of slaves transferred to Richard Taliaferro may have been more than nine. However, Wythe explicitly names nine slaves in the text of the gift deed. Lyon G. Tyler, "George Wythe's Gift," William and Mary College Quarterly Historical Magazine 12, no. 2 (October 1902), 125-126.
  16. ↑ Lyon G. Tyler, "Will of Richard Taliaferro," William and Mary Quarterly Historical Magazine 12, no. 2 (October 1903), 124-125; Robert B. Kirtland, George Wythe: Lawyer, Revolutionary, Judge (New York: Garland, 1986), 140.
  17. ↑ Tyler, "Will of Richard Taliaferro," 124-125.
  18. ↑ Stephenson, George Wythe House Historical Report (citing the 1787-1788 York County records).
  19. ↑ Kirtland, George Wythe, 141; Holt, Wythe, "George Wythe: Early Modern Judge," Alabama Law Review 58, no. 5 (2007): 1026 (stating that Wythe had seventeen slaves total in 1784 and that he transferred thirteen of those slaves after his wife's death); Bailey, Jefferson's Second Father, 195 (stating that the total number of transferred slaves was sixteen).
  20. ↑ John Nierson, Complaint Regarding the Estate of Frances Wythe c. 1793. Norfolk County Court Records. Library of Virginia.
  21. ↑ Ibid.
  22. ↑ Ibid.
  23. ↑ Blackburn, George Wythe of Williamsburg, 85.
  24. ↑ George Wythe to Thomas Jefferson, 31 December 1781, in The Papers of Thomas Jefferson, ed. Julian P. Boyd (Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 1952), 6: 144-145.
  25. ↑ Ibid.
  26. ↑ The Proceedings of the Convention of Delegates (Richmond, Va: Richie, Trueheart and Du-Val, 1816), 99-100. Others have cited that Neptune was imprisoned because of service to Lord Dunmore, but there is no record of him being in jail for that reason. Clarkin, Serene Patriot, 105; Blackburn, George Wythe of Williamsburg, 93; Bailey, Jefferson's Second Father, 127. Instead, the record states that Neptune was imprisoned for being a runaway, and as such, he was returned to Wythe - likely back to Chesterville.
  27. ↑ Charles A. Goodrich, Lives of the Signers to the Declaration of Independence (New York: William Reed, 1829) 369; Clarkin, Serene Patriot, 105.
  28. ↑ Bailey, Jefferson's Second Father, 172, 174.
  29. ↑ Kirtland, George Wythe, 303 (citing Elizabeth City County, Deeds and Wills Book).
  30. ↑ Blackburn, George Wythe of Williamsburg, 123; Kirtland, George Wythe, 304.
  31. ↑ Kirtland, George Wythe, 304.
  32. ↑ Ibid.
  33. ↑ Kirtland, George Wythe, 304; Blackburn, George Wythe of Williamsburg, 123.
  34. ↑ Blackburn, George Wythe of Williamsburg, 123.
  35. ↑ Kirtland, George Wythe, 10.
  36. ↑ Imogene E. Brown, American Aristides: A Biography of George Wythe (Rutherford: Fairleigh Dickinson University Press, 1981), 266-267.
  37. ↑ Philip D. Morgan, "Interracial Sex in the Chesapeake and the British Atlantic World, c.1700-1820," in Sally Hemings & Thomas Jefferson: History, Memory, and Civic Culture, ed. Jan Ellen Lewis and Peter S. Onuf (Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia, 1999), 55-57.
  38. ↑ Brown, 300; Morgan, "Interracial Sex on the Chesapeake," 57.
  39. ↑ Kirtland, George Wythe, 163.
  40. ↑ Henry Clay remembered Lydia as being an "old woman" during his time in the Wythe home. Henry Clay to B.B. Minor, 3 May 1851 in Decisions of Cases in Virginia, by the High Court of Chancery, with Remarks upon Decrees by the Court of Appeals, Reversing Some of Those Decision, by George Wythe, ed. B.B. Minor (Richmond, VA: J.W. Randolph, 1852), xxxvi; Brown, 299; Kirtland, George Wythe, 163 fn.13; Morgan, "Interracial Sex on the Chesapeake," 57.
  41. ↑ Kirtland, George Wythe, 163.
  42. ↑ Kirtland, George Wythe, 163, fn.12; Morgan, "Interracial Sex on the Chesapeake," 57; "Memoranda Concerning the Death of Chancellor Wythe," Wythepedia, accessed December 2, 2017.
  43. ↑ Brown, American Aristides, 299-300; Kirtland, George Wythe, 163; Morgan, "Interracial Sex on the Chesapeake," 60, 77.
  44. ↑ Kirtland, George Wythe, 164; Morgan, "Interracial Sex on the Chesapeake," 57 (citing Cathy Helier, George Wythe's Slaves in Williamsburg, (Williamsburg: Colonial Williamsburg Foundation, 1987)).
  45. ↑ Kirtland, George Wythe, 163, fn.14; Morgan, "Interracial Sex on the Chesapeake," 57.
  46. ↑ Brown, American Aristides, 299.
  47. ↑ There has been some speculation that Brown was either a free black child or an orphan sent to Wythe for teaching. Morgan, "Interracial Sex on the Chesapeake," 59.
  48. ↑ Goodrich, Lives of the Signers, 370; Holt, "George Wythe: Early Modern Judge," 1026.
  49. ↑ Brown, American Aristides, 300.
  50. ↑ "George Wythe, June 11, 1806, Last Will and Testament with Codicil," in The Thomas Jefferson Papers Series 1 General Correspondence 1651-1827, (Washington DC: Library of Congress, 1974), images 314-319; Brown, American Aristides, 300.
  51. ↑ Dill, George Wythe, Teacher of Liberty, 80.
  52. ↑ Ibid.
  53. ↑ Thomas Jefferson to Richard Price, 7 August 1785, in The Papers of Thomas Jefferson, ' ed. Julian P. Boyd (Princeton, N.J., 1950-2009), 8:357.
  54. ↑ Wythe to Jefferson, 144.
  55. ↑ Ibid.
  56. ↑ Ibid.
  57. ↑ Jefferson to Price, Page 357; Benjamin Mathews Leigh, The Letter of Appomattox to the People of Virginia (Richmond, VA: Thomas W. White, 1832), 43; Robert McColley, Slavery and Jeffersonian Virginia (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1964), 136.
  58. ↑ Bailey, Jefferson's Second Father, 42, 146.
  59. ↑ Leigh, The Letter to Appomattox, 43.
  60. ↑ Clarkin, Serene Patriot, 188-189; Holt, "George Wythe: Early Modern Judge," 1026.
  61. ↑ Blackburn, George Wythe of Williamsburg, 132.
  62. ↑ John P. Kennedy, Memoirs of the Life of William Wirt, (Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott & Co., 1860), 1:141-142.
  63. ↑ Ibid.
  64. ↑ William Munford to John Coalter, 22 July 1791, Tucker Papers (I), Special Collections Research Center, SWEM Library, College of William and Mary.
  65. ↑ Goodrich, Lives of the Signers, 370; Holt, "George Wythe: Early Modern Judge," 1026.
  66. ↑ Leigh, The Letter to Appomattox, 43.
  67. ↑ Melvin Patrick Ely, Israel on the Appomattox: A Southern Experiment in Black Freedom from 1790s through the Civil War, (New York: A. Knoph, 2004) 24.
  68. ↑ Melvin Patrick Ely, "Richard and Judith Randolph, St. George Tucker, George Wythe, Syphax Brown, and Hercules White: Racial Equality and the Snares of Prejudice," in Revolutionary Founders: Rebels, Radicals, and Reformers in the Making of the Nation, ed. Alfred F. Young, Gary B. Nash, and Ray Raphael (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2011) 328.
  69. ↑ Thomas Jefferson, Notes on the State of Virginia (Philadelphia: Mathew Carey, 1794), 199-201; Bailey, Jefferson's Second Father, 146-147.
  70. ↑ Leigh, The Letter to Appomattox, 43.
  71. ↑ Jordan, White Over Black, 456-457.
  72. ↑ Howell v. Netherland, Jefferson 90, April 1770, in Judicial Cases Concerning American Slavery and the Negro (New York: Octagon Books, Inc., 1968), 1:90.
  73. ↑ Howell v. Netherland, 90; Bailey, Jefferson's Second Father, 81.
  74. ↑ Howell v. Netherland, 91.
  75. ↑ Blackburn, George Wythe of Williamsburg, 93.
  76. ↑ Ibid.
  77. ↑ Blackburn, George Wythe of Williamsburg, 96; Brown, American Aristides, 188-189; [insert a link to the completed revision in this footnote].
  78. ↑ Cover, Justice Accused, 52; Eva Sheppard Wolf, Race and Liberty in the New Nation: Emancipation in Virginia from the Revolution to Nat Turner's Rebellion (Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 2006), 4.
  79. ↑ Jefferson, Notes on the State of Virginia, 199
  80. ↑ Jefferson, Notes on the State of Virginia, 199; Holt, "George Wythe: Early Modern Judge," 1027.
  81. ↑ Thomas Jefferson, "Autobiography, 1743-1790," in The Writings of Thomas Jefferson, ed. Paul Leicester Ford (New York: G.P. Putnam's Sons, 1892), 1:68.
  82. ↑ Brown, American Aristides, 189; Holt, "George Wythe: Early Modern Judge," 1027.
  83. ↑ McColley, Slavery and Jeffersonian Virginia, 124; Brown, American Aristides, 189.
  84. ↑ Brown, American Aristides, 189.
  85. ↑ Blackburn, George Wythe of Williamsburg, 74.
  86. ↑ Terry L. Meyers, "Thinking About Slavery at the College of William and Mary," William & Mary Bill of Rights Journal 21, no. 4 (2013): 1254-56.
  87. ↑ "An Act to Ameliorate the Present Condition of Slaves, and Give Freedom to those Born After the Passing of the Act," Library of Virginia, Legislative Petitions microfilm, Reel 233, Box 294, Folder 5.
  88. ↑ Ibid., 1
  89. ↑ There is no record that the petition ever made it to the floor of the House of Delegates.
  90. ↑ Turpin v. Turpin (1791), in Decisions of Cases in Virginia by the High Court of Chancery with Remarks upon Decrees by the Court of Appeals, Reversing Some of Those Decisions, 2nd ed., ed. B.B. Minor (Richmond, VA: J.W. Randolph, 1852), 137 (hereafter cited as Wythe); Fowler v. Saunders (1798), Wythe, 322; John T. Noonan Jr., Persons and Masks of the Law: Cardoza, Holmes, Jefferson, and Wythe as Makers of the Masks, (New York: Farrar, Straus, and Giroux, 1976) 55-56.
  91. ↑ Turpin, Wythe at 140; Fowler, Wythe at 327.
  92. ↑ Turpin, Wythe at 140 (stating, "[a]s the law is now, and always has been, a bequest of slaves transfers the property of them in the same manner as if they were chatels").
  93. ↑ Noonan, Persons and Masks of the Law, 58.
  94. ↑ Hudgins v. Wrights, 11 Va. (1 Hen. & Mun.) 134 (1806); Holt, "George Wythe: Early Modern Judge," 1027-1028.
  95. ↑ Hudgins, 12 Va. (1 Hen & Mun.) 134 (1806); Virginia: In the High Court of Chancery, March 16, 1798, Between Robert Pleasants, son and heir of John Pleasants … and Mary Logan (Richmond, VA: 1800?); Pleasants v. Pleasants, 2 Call 319 (1799) (hereafter cited as Pleasants v. Logan).
  96. ↑ Hudgins, 12 Va. (1 Hen & Mun.) at 140; Pleasants, 2 Call at 344, 346; Cover, Justice Accused, 71; Holt, "George Wythe: Early Modern Judge," 1028; William Fernandez Hardin, "This Unpleasant Business: Slavery, Law, and the Pleasants Family in Post-Revolutionary Virginia," in Virginia Magazine of History and Biography, 2017.
  97. ↑ Pleasants, 2 Call at 334; Pleasants v. Pleasants (Chancery Opinion).
  98. ↑ Pleasants, 2 Call at 353; Pleasants v. Logan, at 1-2.
  99. ↑ Pleasants, 2 Call at 354; Pleasants v. Logan, at 2.
  100. ↑ Cover, Justice Accused, 69.
  101. ↑ Pleasants v. Logan, at 2; Hardin, "This Unfinished Business," 224.
  102. ↑ Pleasants v. Logan, at 2.
  103. ↑ Hardin, "This Unpleasant Business," 224.
  104. ↑ Holt, "George Wythe: Early Modern Judge," 1029.
  105. ↑ Pleasants v. Logan, at 3; Cover, Justice Accused, 71; Peter Charles Hoffer, The Law's Conscience: Equitable Constitutionalism in America, (Chapel Hill; The University of North Carolina Press, 1990) 113; Holt, "George Wythe: Early Modern Judge," 1031.
  106. ↑ Cover, Justice Accused, 69; Morgan. "Interracial Sex in the Chesapeake," 58; Hardin, "This Unpleasant Business," 225.
  107. ↑ Cover, Justice Accused, 71; Hardin, "This Unpleasant Business," 227-28.
  108. ↑ Holt, "George Wythe: Early Modern Judge," 1033.
  109. ↑ Cover, Justice Accused, 51.
  110. ↑ Hudgins, 11 Va. (1 Hen. & Mun.), at 134.
  111. ↑ Cover, Justice Accused, 51.
  112. ↑ Cover, 51; Holt, "George Wythe: Early Modern Judge," 1032.
  113. ↑ Hudgins, 11 Va. (1 Hen. & Mun.), at 141.
  114. ↑ Hudgins, at 141; Ely, Israel on the Appomattox, 23-24.
  115. ↑ Hudgins, 11 Va. (1 Hen & Mun), at 134; Brown, American Aristides, 191; Wolf, Race and Liberty in the New Nation, 148.
  116. ↑ Hudgins, 11 Va. (1 Hen. & Mun.), at 139; Wolf, Race and Liberty in the New Nation, 148.
  117. ↑ Hudgins, 11 Va. (1 Hen. & Mun.), at 139; Brown, American Aristides, 191.
  118. ↑ Hudgins, 11 Va. (1 Hen. & Mun.), at 144.
  119. ↑ Hudgins, at 144.
  120. ↑ Hudgins, at 139, 141.
  121. ↑ Brown, American Aristides, 191. Some authors find Wythe's decision in Hudgins to be an outlier or a mere gesture made at the end of the Chancellor's life. Noonan, Persons and Masks of the Law, 56-57 (for the argument that the Hudgins decision did not change Wythe's views that the law determined who could be considered property); Ely, "Racial Equality and the Snares of Prejudice," 327 (for the argument that Wythe's decision in Hudgins was a mere gesture that could only happen at the end of one's life). But, these authors do not take into account that in both Pleasants and Hudgins, Wythe went further than any southern antebellum judge to attack the institution of slavery. Holt, "George Wythe: Early Modern Judge," 1033.
  122. ↑ Henry Clay acknowledges that before Wythe devised his estate, he had emancipated all his slaves. Henry Clay to B.B. Minor, Decisions of Cases in Virginia, xxxv.
  123. ↑ Julian P. Boyd, "The Murder of George Wythe," in The Murder of George Wythe: Two Essays (Williamsburg, VA: Institute of Early American History and Culture, 1955), 24.
  124. ↑ Blackburn, George Wythe of Williamsburg, 135.
  125. ↑ Wythe, Last Will and Testament.
  126. ↑ Wythe, Last Will and Testament; Goodrich, Lives of the Signers, 370.
  127. ↑ Wythe, Last Will and Testament.
  128. ↑ Wythe, Last Will and Testament.
  129. ↑ "The Murder of George Wythe," Wythepedia, accessed December 2, 2017.
  130. ↑ Ely, "Racial Equality and the Snares of Prejudice," 328; Holt, "George Wythe," 1038.
  131. ↑ Holt, "George Wythe: Early Modern Judge," 1038.
  132. ↑ Jefferson to Price, 357; Hunter, "The Teaching of George Wythe," 156.
  133. ↑ Peter Carr to Thomas Jefferson, 18 April 1787
  134. ↑ Wolf, Race and Liberty in the New Nation, 104.
  135. ↑ Jefferson to Price, 357.
  136. ↑ Ibid.
  137. ↑ Ely, Israel on the Appomattox, 23.
  138. ↑ Blackburn, George Wythe of Williamsburg, 74; McColley, Slavery and Jeffersonian Virginia, 125 (for support that Jefferson's views on slavery were influenced by his pre-revolution education with George Wythe).
  139. ↑ Blackburn, George Wythe of Williamsburg, 74.
  140. ↑ Clarkin, Serene Patriot, 157.
  141. ↑ Hardin, "This Unpleasant Business", 211.
  142. ↑ McColley, Slavery and Jeffersonian Virginia, 132; Cover, Justice Accused, 53.
  143. ↑ Cover, Justice Accused, 50; Ely, "Racial Equality and the Snares of Prejudice," 323-327 (for a complete summary of Tucker's views on slavery).
  144. ↑ Ely, Israel on the Appomattox, 22, 32-33; Ely, "Racial Equality and the Snares of Prejudice," 323, 327.
  145. ↑ Clarkin, Serene Patriot, 158, 198.
  146. ↑ Ibid.
  147. ↑ Richard Randolph's Will, Pennsylvania Society for Promoting the Abolition of Slavery, Centennial Anniversary of the Pennsylvania Society, for Promoting the Abolition of Slavery, the Relief of Free Negroes, Unlawfully Held in Bondage And for Improving the Condition of the African Race (Philadelphia: Grant, Faires & Rodgers, 1875), 79-82; Ely, Israel on the Appomattox, 24 (stating that, "Richard Randolph thus took as his hero [George Wythe] a man who carried the doctrine of human equality considerably further than Randolph's greatest benefactor, St. George Tucker").
  148. ↑ Richard Randolph's Will, 79-82; Clarkin, Serene Patriot, 198-99.
  149. ↑ Hunter, "The Teaching of George Wythe," 157.
  150. ↑ Ely, "Racial Equality and the Snares of Prejudice," 331, 336 (for the argument that those opposed to slavery, including Wythe, often profited too much from the institution to seriously consider dismantling it); Holt, "George Wythe," 1025.
  151. ↑ Noonan, Persons and Masks of Law, 60.
  152. ↑ Paul Finkelman, "Thomas Jefferson and Anti-Slavery: The Myth Goes On," The Virginia Magazine of History and Biography 102, no. 2 (1994): 211-212.
  153. ↑ Blackburn, George Wythe of Williamsburg, 125-27.
  154. ↑ Hudgins, 11 Va. (1 Hen. & Mun.), at 139-141 ; Cover, Justice Accused, 51.
  155. ↑ Wolf, Race and Liberty in the New Nation, 105.
  156. ↑ Jefferson's gradual abolition plan included measures to migrate the slaves. Blackburn, George Wythe of Williamsburg, 74; Wolf, Race and Liberty in the New Nation, 105.
  157. ↑ Noonan, Persons and Masks of Law, 60.
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