Student Research

Lessons of a Lifetime: Working with the Enslaved Persons Database
--Annette Fournier

Freedom Bound: Black Loyalists
--Julie Hilvers

Delving into Accessible Archives
--Christopher Miller

 

Lessons of a Lifetime: Working with the Enslaved Persons Database
Annette Fournier, B.A., International Studies, NKU

In December 2000, I started working with the Institute for Freedom Studies’ Runaway Enslaved Person’s Database (REPD) project. My primary job has been working with Director Prince Brown, Jr. to develop a manual that will explain the 37 categories and 100+ variables included in the main database. Writing, refining and maintaining this definitive manual has been by far the most challenging job I have had.

When I began working at the Institute for Freedom Studies (IFS), Dr. Brown and Brooke Gillette, another student, had already developed a project outline. Since that time, the number of categories and variables as well as the amount and type of information used have all grown significantly. It is very important to Dr. Brown that we allow the source material, itself, to dictate what is significant and, therefore, should be recorded. For instance, as we read very early cases of people taken from Africa, we found that many already spoke multiple African and European languages. Because we agreed with Dr. Brown that the information was too significant to ignore, we added a new category to the REPD in which to record language fluency.

With the REPD, Dr. Brown wants to unearth stories of the Underground Railroad from as many different vantage points and perspectives as possible. For this reason, we have used a wide array of source material. For me, the sheer variety of source material has been the biggest challenge in developing definitions for the coding system. Some sources are mostly Habeas Corpus trials or accounts of free people who were kidnapped, and are told from a legal point of view. Others are strictly advertisements by owners, trying to reclaim people whom they viewed as their property. One book consists of records kept by the Philadelphia Abolitionist Society, while another contains interviews of formerly enslaved people who escaped to Canada. Still another text is a collection of passenger logs for ships full of Black Loyalists being ushered to Nova Scotia (See Julie Hilver’s article below). The amount, type, and slant of the information in these sources varies drastically.

As expected, the views offered by escapees differ greatly from those provided by their owners. Additionally, the cases range from 1659 to the year of emancipation, 1865, and they include people escaping from throughout the southern states to destinations far too numerous to name. As well, the language varies greatly and, depending on the time period, often includes archaic terms, different spellings, and colloquialisms. The student coders all puzzled over the meaning of such terms as “battle-hamm’d,” “clog,” “ear lubs,” “General Birch’s Certificate,” “saltwater Negro,” “country marks,” and “glassier.” Furthermore, many individual cases are so unique and complex that it is nearly impossible to fit them all into a tidy, compartmentalized system. Moreover, the wording or general tone of the source information is often confusing and/or ambiguous. Thus, we have struggled to make the coding system both flexible enough to reflect the more bizarre cases yet consistent and clear for those who will consult the REPD once it’s published.

While refining the REPD has been a huge challenge for me, working on this project has not only enlightened me about some of the more obscure aspects of enslavement, the Underground Railroad, and the black struggle for liberation but it has also helped me to creatively approach challenges, maintain flexibility, and use clear, concise language to explain highly technical information to a diverse audience. I know that these and many other lessons learned at IFS will help me in my future pursuits.

Freedom Bound: Black Loyalists
Julie Hilvers, B.A., Sociology, NKU

The involvement of enslaved and freed blacks in the American Revolution was grounded in their own struggle for freedom. Both the British and Revolutionary forces promised freedom to individual blacks who joined their line. Thus, whether fighting on behalf of the British crown or for American independence, their objective was liberation from slavery.

It is estimated that 100,000 blacks played key roles during the revolutionary period, from 1775-1783. Thomas Jefferson claimed that in 1778, alone, more than 30,000 enslaved persons escaped from the state of Virginia; throughout the revolutionary period, 25,000 people escaped from South Carolina as did 75% of enslaved Georgians. Of these, it is asserted that 5,000 black men served in the Revolutionary Army, while as many as 30,000 enslaved persons escaped to British lines.

Suspicion that, for blacks, true liberty was unattainable under an American government combined with several declarations by the Royal Army to convince thousands of blacks to join the British. In November of 1775, the Royal Governor of Virginia Lord Dunmore issued a proclamation stating, “I hereby further declare all indented servants, Negroes, or others (appertaining to Rebels) free, that are able and willing to bear arms, they joining His Majesty’s Troops?.” The Philipsburg Proclamation, issued by Sir Henry Clinton, the British Commander-in-chief at New York, promised not only freedom but also land to all enslaved persons who abandoned the rebel cause. A similar proclamation by General William Howe also inspired numerous enslaved and free blacks to defect to Loyalist lines.

Black Loyalists contributed significantly to Britain’s battles during the war. Performing both fighting and supportive roles, Loyalists built fortifications, cooked, mended uniforms, tended livestock, and served as messengers, spies, and guides. Two noteworthy military units of Loyalists were the Black Pioneers and the Black Brigade. While not a fighting unit, the Pioneers served as scouts, raiders, and military engineers. These soldiers performed such supportive duties as digging fortifications, building huts, and clearing land. The Black Brigade was a guerrilla regiment of Loyalist soldiers. These fighters were an elite group that seriously incapacitated the Colonists’ military efforts in New York and New Jersey. The Brigade is recognized for such achievements as raiding Patriot forces for food, cattle and fuel as well as successfully freeing the enslaved and capturing Patriot soldiers.

Despite the valiant contributions of Black Loyalists, American independence from Great Britain was formally achieved with the signing of the Treaty of Paris on September 3, 1783. As a result, Americans began demanding the return of property lost during the war, including formerly enslaved persons. To prevent this, the British offered to compensate former slave-holders for lost “property,” while granting Certificates of Freedom to secure the runaways’ independence. One such Certificate stated: "This is to certify to whomever it may concern that the bearer hereof, a negro, resorted to the British lines, in consequence of the Proclamations of Sir William Howe, and Sir Henry Clinton... the said negro has hereby his Excellency Sir Guy Carleton’s permission to go to Nova Scotia, or wherever else he may think proper."

At the end of the war 80,000 to 100,000 blacks evacuated with the British, with most settling in Jamaica, Nova Scotia, and Sierra Leone, a new country on the west coast of Africa for formerly enslaved Americans.

In Nova Scotia, Black Loyalists were subjected to further racism, inequality, servitude and exploitation by the British. Ultimately, they were either returned to their former owners or re-enslaved in Florida and the Caribbean. Thus, the Black American struggle for full liberation would continue for nearly another century, until America’s civil war culminated in the emancipation proclamation of 1865.

Further Reading:

Franklin, John Hope. From Slavery to Freedom: A History of Negro Americans.
New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1968.

Frey, Sylvia. Water from the Rock: Black Resistance in a Revolutionary Age.

Lanning, Lt. Col. Michael Lee. Defenders of Liberty: African Americans in the
Revolutionary War. New York: Citadel Press, 2000.120.

Quarles, Benjamin. The Negro in the American Revolution.

Walker, James W. St. G. The Black Loyalists: The Search for a Promised Land in Nova
Scotia and Sierra Leone 1783-1780. New York: Danhousie University, 1976.

Delving into Accessible Archives
Christopher Miller, B.A., English, NKU

I’ve enjoyed the great privilege of serving as a research assistant at the Institute for Freedom Studies (IFS). One of the highlights of my work occurred in the spring semester of 2004 when I undertook research using Accessible Archives, an electronic database that is newly-linked with Northern Kentucky University’s Steely Library. The database provides direct access to seven anti-slavery newspapers of the nineteenth century: The National Era, Freedom’s Journal, The Colored American, The North Star, Frederick Douglass’ Paper, Provincial Freeman, and The Christian Recorder.

In this research project, my aim was to expose the significant history of enslavement and resistance towards enslavement in the central Ohio River Valley region, southern Ohio and northern Kentucky. While each publication condemns the institution of slavery from a distinct perspective, I collected and analyzed articles that reflect the conflicting political views and societal attitudes of these regions from 1840 to 1860.

With enslavement being, arguably, the most significant factor in the development of America, I discovered that the local history of this region embodies the very conflicts that, on a national level, divided us then and divides us now. I explored these very themes in the two final outcomes of my research project: a term paper and a presentation at IFS’s Borderlands III Conference. Moreover, my research was very rewarding with regard to uncovering the despotism of slavery, the multi-faceted plight of the enslaved, and the human agency that fosters resistance.

Visit the Accessible Archives.

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