As Route 76 travels along the James River between Williamsburg and Richmond, cyclists should be aware that they are passing through a region that had some of the oldest and largest plantations in Virginia during two centuries of enslavement. Shirley Plantation, to the east of Route 76, was awarded a royal grant in 1613, and the first slaves were acquired by the white family less than ten years later. Berkeley Plantation, just south of Route 76, was first settled by English colonizers in 1619, and more than one hundred enslaved persons worked the land and served the white family in the eighteenth century. Many other plantations in this region share a similar history of enslaved labor supporting the privileges and power of generations of white elites. Yet just fifty miles south of where Route 76 passes through these well preserved legacies of plantation slavery, in Southampton county near the North Carolina border, inconspicuous historical markers commemorate a very different moment in the history of Virginia: the uprising of enslaved people led by Nat Turner in 1831. Recognizing the history of brutal oppression inherent in the plantation system provides important perspectives on the forces that shaped, and continue to shape, the history of this region of Virginia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Welcome to episode 4 of the Virginia Bikecentennial Route 76 Podcast. This episode is connected to the region of Kimages, about 60 miles from Yorktown, the starting point for the westbound route, and nearly 500 miles from the Kentucky border, where eastbound riders enter Virginia. This podcast is a production of Virginia Tech, a public land grant university located in Blacksburg, just three miles from Route 76 in southwest Virginia. I am your host, Tom Ewing, and this podcast is produced by the digital humanities program in Virginia Tech University Libraries, under the direction of media manager Joe Forte.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Plantation slavery was established in Virginia within decades of the founding of the Jamestown colony. By the 1620s, slaves were doing forced labor on farms near the James River. As agriculture expanded and the demand for labor rose, more enslaved Africans were brought to Virginia and sold to work on these plantations. By 1860, nearly two hundred and fifty years after Jamestown was founded, Virginia\u2019s population was one-third slaves, with just over one million white people and just under 500,000 enslaved African Americans. A map produced by the US Census in 1860 shows the slave population as a number and a percentage of the whole population for every county in Virginia. Charles City County, where Kimages is located, had nearly 3000 slaves, with two enslaved people for every one white person. The map shows 20,000 enslaved people in Henrico County, 10,000 enslaved people in Louisa County, and nearly 14,000 enslaved people in Albemarle County, all along Route 76. Even in counties west of Blue Ridge, where slaves made up less than one-quarter of the population, the number of slaves was still quite high: nearly 4,000 slaves in Rockbridge county and more than 2,000 each in Montgomery, Botetourt, and Wythe counties, all along Route 76.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Enslaved people produced crops that made the slave-owning elite very wealthy. Tobacco was the most lucrative crop exported to European markets. The revenue from tobacco exports enabled plantation owners to expand cultivation, buy more enslaved labor, build luxurious mansions, and sustain a political infrastructure that advanced their interests. Household slaves did extensive work in homes, including cooking, cleaning, laundry, tending household gardens, caring for animals, and raising children.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But the intense cultivation of tobacco also depleted the soil, meaning that each passing harvest required more labor and produced a smaller crop. Some farms in central Virginia shifted to wheat or cotton production, but these crops were not as profitable as tobacco. Plantations were created in western Virginia in the late eighteenth century as owners sought new lands with productive soil. These plantations brought enslaved people into the Appalachian region, but the difficult terrain ensured that these plantations never reached the scale of those in the eastern and central part of the state.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In the decades between the revolution and the civil war, one of the most profitable sectors of the Virginia economy was the export of enslaved people to states further south, where demands for forced labor exceeded the available supply, particularly after Congress banned the international slave trade in 1808. Slaves born and raised in Virginia were sold by their masters to work on cotton and tobacco plantations in South Carolina, Georgia, and other states, where they endured brutal treatment and separation from their families. Slaves were held in confinement in cities and towns until they were sold at auctions to traders who transported them to the south. Families were often divided, as young men and women were sold to work in distant fields, leaving parents or their own children behind in Virginia. Young and strong men and women were valued the most because of their ability to work in the fields. Young women were also valued by slave traders because of their potential to have children, thus replenishing the labor force in the plantation economy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Richmond became the largest slave trade center in the United States, with hundreds of thousands of men, women, and children sold to traders during several decades. This trade in human beings reinforced the commitment of Virginia elites to slavery, as these sales brought revenue to owners and dealers. The sales also provided an incentive to pursue escaped slaves, who were then sold to work on plantations, earning profits for those who captured men and women seeking their freedom. Even in southwestern Virginia, slave trading was a lucrative business for plantation owners. An estimated one million enslaved people were sold to work on plantations across the deep south in the seventy years before the Civil War. A high percentage of these sales took place in Virginia, thus confirming the importance of sales to the history of slavery in this region.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The brutal work done by slaves, the harsh living conditions, the threat of violence at the hands of slave owners, and the dread of sales that would destroy family bonds produced the conditions for a remarkable event in Virginia history, the slave revolt led by Nat Turner in 1831. Born in 1800, Nat Turner grew up on a plantation in Southampton County close to the North Carolina border. He learned to read and write, and developed a strong religious conviction which included a belief that \u201cthe time was fast approaching when the first should be last and the last should be first.\u201d Turner coordinated with four other enslaved men to prepare secret plans to attack and kill white slave-owners, with the goal of inspiring a broad uprising by enslaved people. On August 21, 1831, Turner and several men attacked the family of Joseph Travis, who owned Turner and others. Over the next several hours, three more homes were attacked and the families of white slave owners were killed. The rebels tried to recruit slaves of the killed owners to join the rebellion. While some followed Turners, many others refused, fearing the retaliation that was expected to follow.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
On August 22, the second day of the revolt, about a dozen men attacked more farms, killing men, women, and children indiscriminately. The rebels continued to have limited success recruiting more followers, eventually reaching a maximum size of forty men. More than fifty whites were killed in two days of attacks. Even as the rebels expanded in number, armed white vigilantes began pursuing the rebels aggressively. By August 23, the third day, the remaining rebels had been defeated, killed, or captured. Nat Turner escaped and went into hiding.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
After the rebellion was suppressed, at least 36 enslaved African Americans were murdered by white people as retaliation for the uprising. Within a few days, the leader of the local militia appealed for an end to vigilante killing in order to pursue penalties through the legal system. Nineteen accused rebels were executed for their role in the uprising, and others had death sentences commuted. Nat Turner remained in hiding for two months, until he was found, captured, put on trial, and executed on November 11, 1831.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The revolt had implications for the history of slavery in Virginia and in the United States. In the immediate vicinity of the uprising, slave owners afraid of further rebellions retaliated in brutal fashion against their slaves, seeking to intimidate them into submission. At the same time, a minority of white Virginians urged the state legislature to take steps toward the eventual abolition of slavery with the goal of preventing future uprisings. These reform efforts failed, and Virginia lawmakers would not debate the future of slavery again in the decades leading to the Civil War. Instead of taking steps to end slavery, the Virginia legislature passed laws further restricting the rights of enslaved people. Northern Abolitionists cited the Nat Turner revolt in their arguments for the need to end the evil institution of slavery.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The history of Nat Turner\u2019s revolt is connected with the history of the Bikecentennial because this revolt occurred in a span of time called the Age of Revolutions, beginning with the American and French revolutions in the 1770s and 1780s and ending with popular uprisings across Europe and the Americas in the 1830s. Some of these revolts began with inspiring proclamations, such as the Declaration of Independence in 1776 or the Declaration of Rights of Man and Citizen in 1789. Other revolts, such as that led by Nat Turner, emerged from brutal conditions of oppression and found expression in acts of violence. Yet an underlying connection across these revolts was the aspiration to freedom and the right to self-determination. Even revolts that ended with acts of brutal repression and failed to end systematic oppression remained in collective memories as a source of potential future action.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Nat Turner has always been a controversial figure. In his autobiography, the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., wrote that \u201cthe courageous efforts of our insurrectionist brothers,\u201d including Nat Turner, demonstrated that \u201cviolent rebellion is doomed from the start\u201d when \u201ca minority population\u201d is forced to confront \u201ca well-armed, wealthy majority with a fanatical right wing that would delight in exterminating thousands of black men, women, and children.\u201d In October 1976, just months after the nation celebrated the Bicentennial, the Congressional Black Caucus issued a manifesto linking liberation struggle in the United States to those in South Africa. This document also connected a number of revolutionary predecessors, including Nat Turner, Martin Luther King, and Malcolm X, to \u201cthe truth of the Revolution of 1776.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A single historical marker in Virginia, located near Boykins, about fifty miles south of Route 76, commemorates the Nat Turner revolt as an important moment in the history of slavery. The text of this historical marker, established in 1991, notes that the insurrection began with the killing of about 60 whites and ended with 30 African Americans killed or expelled from Virginia. A historical marker placed in 1930 at Buckhorn Quarters marks the estate of Major Thomas Riley, where, according to the marker, \u201cfaithful slaves\u201d protected the lives of \u201cfugitive whites.\u201d A new historical marker, placed in 2021, marks the location where the severed head of a slave was displayed on a post to terrorize other slaves and deter future rebellion. The marker indicates that the beheaded man was Alfred, an enslaved blacksmith who was not implicated in any rebellious activities yet was murdered by white militia forces. For almost two centuries, the road was known as \u201cBlackhead Signpost Road,\u201d until it was changed to Signpost Road in 2021.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
As indicated by the establishment of this new marker, the history of slavery is increasingly visible in other historical markers and exhibits across Virginia, including several sites along Route 76. In downtown Richmond, just about ten miles from Route 76, the Slave Trail links several sites central to this tragic history: Manchester Docks, where slaves from Africa were brought by ship into the city; Lumkin\u2019s Jail, where enslaved men and women were held until the auction; and First African Baptist Church, a center for the African American community before the Civil War. In southwestern Virginia, a historical sign in Christiansburg, just blocks from Route 76, identifies the town auction site near the courthouse where young men and women from the region were sold to traders who transported them through North Carolina, usually along rivers, until they were sold again to work on plantations across the south. In Charlottesville, a historical marker has been approved to recognize the slave auctions that took place in several city locations, including one auction in 1829 with 22 enslaved people from Jefferson\u2019s Monticello.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
While these historical markers are important reminders of the tragic and brutal history of slavery in Virginia, it is also important to remember that enslaved people were widely present across Virginia for more than two centuries. Even in the absence of historical markers, the fields, roads, and buildings encountered by cyclists, citizens, and visitors across Virginia are inseparably connected with the work, the lives, and the deaths of enslaved people.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
You have been listening to episode 4 of the Virginia Bikecentennial Route 76 Podcast. This episode is connected to the region of Kimages, about 60 miles from Yorktown, the starting point for the westbound route, and nearly 500 miles from the Kentucky border, where eastbound riders enter Virginia. This podcast is a production of Virginia Tech, a public land grant university located in Blacksburg, just three miles from Route 76 in southwest Virginia. I am your host, Tom Ewing, and this podcast is produced by the digital humanities program in Virginia Tech University Libraries, under the direction of media manager Joe Forte. To learn more about the stories in this episode, visit our website or follow us on social media, all accessible from the homepage for this podcast.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
As Route 76 travels along the James River between Williamsburg and Richmond, cyclists should be aware that they are passing through a region that had some of the oldest and largest plantations in Virginia during two centuries of enslavement. Shirley Plantation, to the east of Route 76, was awarded a royal grant in 1613, and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":120,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-203","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bike76-va.vt.domains\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/203","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bike76-va.vt.domains\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bike76-va.vt.domains\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bike76-va.vt.domains\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bike76-va.vt.domains\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=203"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/bike76-va.vt.domains\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/203\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":204,"href":"https:\/\/bike76-va.vt.domains\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/203\/revisions\/204"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bike76-va.vt.domains\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/120"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bike76-va.vt.domains\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=203"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}