"A Perilous and Grievous Burden"

Notes

1. Robert L. Dabney, A Defence of Virginia, [and through Her, of the South,] In Recent and Pending Contests Against the Sectional Party, (New York: E. J. Hale & Son, 1867), 244; Jan Lewis, The Pursuit of Happiness: Family and Values in Jefferson's Virginia, (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1983), 36.

2. Cocke was of that "second generation" of men described by Daniel P. Jordan as born too late to participate in the Revolution but "close enough to it to feel the immediate inspiration of its leaders and ideals and to grow up craving to understand and emulate both." They stressed continuity, not change, and were motivated for public service by prestige or inherited tradition. Political Leadership in Jefferson's Virginia, (Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, 1983), 220–21, 87.

3. Mary Stoughton Locke, Anti-Slavery in America from the Introduction of African Slaves to the Prohibition of the Slave Trade (1619–1808), (Gloucester, Mass.: Peter Smith, 1965; reprint of 1901), pp. 2–7, 37, 47, 65.

4. Robert McColley, Slavery in Jeffersonian Virginia, (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1964), pp. 48, 141–57.

5. Carl N. Degler, The Other South: Southern Dissenters in the Nineteenth Century, (New York: Harper & Row, Publishers, 1974), 16, 26, 76, 90–96.

6. David Brion Davis, "The Emergence of Immediatism in British and American Antislavery Thought," Ante-Bellum Reform, (New York: Harper & Row, Publishers, 1967), 142–44; The Problem of Slavery in the Age of Revolution, 1770–1823, (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press), 257–63, 312.

7. John Hartwell Cocke, Slavery Article, 1863, Cocke Papers (Charlottesville: University of Virginia, Alderman Library). [All notes which follow are from the Cocke Papers unless otherwise noted. John Hartwell Cocke, and his correspondents, once named, are afterward represented in notes by initials.]

8. Martin Boyd, Coyner, Jr., "John Hartwell Cocke of Bremo: Agriculture and Slavery in the Ante-Bellum South" (University of Virginia Ph.D. thesis, 1961), i; Clement Eaton, The Freedom-of-Thought Struggle in the Old South, (Durham, N.C.: Duke University Press, 1940), 258; Armistead C. Gordon, Jr., "John Hartwell Cocke," in the Dictionary of American Biography, 4, 254.

9. This fact was not unnoticed by Ruffin, who when initiating his experiments, wrote that Cocke "alone" was "also well acquainted with the soil, climate and practice of this district." He declared that Cocke could help him more than any farmer in America. Edmund Ruffin to JHC, Dec. 2, 1820. Thomas Jefferson wrote to one friend, "I have heard with great pleasure that you have had some conversation with Genl. Cocke of the county adjoining this on the subject of his undertaking a vineyard under your direction. there is no person in the U.S. in whose success I should have so much confidence. he is rich, liberal, patriotic, judicious & persevering." Jefferson to John David, Jan. 13, 1816, Jefferson Papers (Washington: Library of Congress [DLC]).

10. JHC, Blair Lecture Notes, 1798, 15–16. Some of Cocke's notes are clearly from the Lectures of Hugh Blair (1718–1800); however, the ones mentioned above seem to be from a discussion adapted from William Paley's Principles of Moral and Political Philosophy, Book 3, Chapters 1–5. Blair edited the works of Shakspeare, and a 44 volume set of British poetry. He argued that an emotional appeal must supplement the rational process. "Look abroad in the world, and observe how few act upon deliberate and rational views of their true interests. The bulk of mankind are impelled by their feelings." See The Rhetoric of Blair, Campbell, and Whately, James L. Golden and Edward P. J. Corbett, (New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, Inc. 1968), 9–25.

11. JHC, College notes, 1798–1801. William Paley (1743–1805) was Archdeacon of Carlisle and a lecturer at Cambridge. He was best known for his logical presentation of the teleological argument and was revered for his defense of Christianity. The best treatment of Paley is D. L. LeMahieu, The Mind of William Paley: A Philosopher and His Age, (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1976). LeMahieu argues that "Paley's works formed a unified corpus of thought that embodied many of the most treasured assumption of the Enlightenment in England" and that his Moral and Political Philosophy "exercised a powerful intellectual hegemony over a substantial portion of England's educated elite." Paley created a unity and synthesis that had an enormous impact on the first third of the nineteenth century. 153–56.

12. JHC, Blair Lecture Notes, 15–16. Paley wrote, "He who has not felt the weakness of his nature . . . has reflected little upon the subject of religion."

13. JHC, Notes on Paley's Philosophy, 1798, 12–14, 17. See Paley's Moral and Political Philosophy, Book 1, Chapter 6, "Human Happiness, and Chapter 7, "Virtue."

14. JHC, Notes on Paley's Philosophy, 15, 1, 3. E. Brooks Holifield argues that moral philosophy was a form of natural theology founded on and legitimated by the Biblical revelation but actually dependent on the "language and logic of the Scottish tradition" of philosophy. See The Gentlemen Theologians: American Theology in Southern Culture, 1795–1860, (Durham, N.C.: Duke University Press, 1978), 127–36.

15. JHC, Notes on Paley's Philosophy, 15, 1, 3.

16. "Speech on the Abolition of the Slave Trade, Delivered at a meeting of the inhabitants of Carisle, on Thursday, Feb. 9th, 1792," Appendix in The Works of William Paley, D.D. In Five Volumes, (Boston: Joshua Belcher, 1812), 492–500. (Copy at Bremo.) Cocke's fascination with Paley extended long after his William & Mary years. He had several versions of Paley's Works and used scraps of paper as markers in the volume cited above. See also Paley's Moral and Political Philosophy, Book 3, Part 1, Chapters 1–7.

17. Holifield, Gentlemen Theologians, 127–28; 130–32; 135–36.

18. Tucker, born in Bermuda in 1752, married Frances Bland, the widow of John Randolph in 1777, thus becoming the step-father of the eccentric John Randolph of Roanoke. After her death he married George Carter's widow, the mother of Polly Cabell, Cocke's first wife's best friend. Tucker, a poet of some renown, who also has been credited with popularizing "Yankee Doodle" during the American Revolution, became very prominent in Virginia in jurisprudence, as did his two sons, Henry St. George and Nathaniel Beverly.

19. JHC, Slavery Article, Aug. 16, 1863; St. George Tucker, A Dissertation on Slavery, (Philadelphia: 1796), 90–96.

20. Tucker, A Dissertation on Slavery, 88; 86; 79.

21. Ibid, preface. "I presume it is possible," wrote Tucker, "that an effectual remedy for the evils of slavery may at length be discovered. Whenever that happens, the golden age of our country will begin."

22. McColley, 88.

23. For an insightful perspective on Gabriel's rebellion see Philip J. Schwarz, "Gabriel's Challenge: Slaves and Crime in Late Eighteenth-Century Virginia," The Virginia Magazine of History and Biography, 90, (July 1982), 283–309.

24. JHC, Slavery Article, 1863.

25. Richard Cocke, John's uncle, died in January 1801, a few months before Cocke reached majority. His sister Sally's husband, Nicholas Faulcon, then became the legal administrator, but Cocke actually took control of the plantations. His uncle freed his slaves upon his death and this greatly impressed Cocke, but he had already fixed his mind against his earlier declaration to free his own slaves upon majority.

26. Nicholas Faulcon to JHC, Jan. 8, 180l.

27. JHC, William & Mary Oration, July 4, 1801.

28. Joseph S. Watson to JHC, May 6, 1801.

29. I agree with Armistead Gordon, Jr.'s, assertion that Ann's letters reveal she was genuinely wholesome, natural, sweet, gentle, generous, responsive, self-effacing, friendly, dutiful, devoted, devout, unspoiled, unselfish, and loyal. Or, in a word, an angel. Armistead Gordon, Jr., Unfinished Biography, Chapter 2.

30. See Melinda Anne Snell, "'Never Clash One With the Other,' Love, Friendship, and Marriage in Virginia Families, 1800–1825," (unpublished M.A. thesis, University of Virginia, 1987). Snell discusses the Cockes in her argument that same-sex spheres were not completely separate and allowed "intimate ties between numbers of the same gender, and in turn, fostered the development of similar bonds between husband and wife."

31. Ann Barraud Cocke to JHC, March 8, 1804; JHC to ABC, Feb. 9, 1806. Ann Barraud, also called Nancy, was born December 25, 1784, to Dr. and Mrs. Phillip Barraud of Norfolk. Barraud, who studied in Edinburgh, was a surgeon in the Revolution, served on the board of William & Mary College and Eastern State Hospital and cared for the patients in the insane asylum in Williamsburg, before moving to Norfolk where he directed the Marine Hospital and practiced medicine until his death in 1830. Ann Blaws Hansford Barraud was a talented musician. Three volumes of printed music in her hand by such master composers as Handel, Haydn, and Schroeter have recently been discovered, Williamsburg's oldest music collection that has survived intact. See "A Gentlewoman's Pursuit," (The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation). Ann called Cocke "a wonderful husband and more," an "affectionate" and "attentitive" man who made her "happy as a wife." ABC to JHC, June 1808.

32. ABC to Mrs. Barraud, September 7, 1807.

33. That slave masters made good commanders is a thesis yet to be confirmed. Cocke's case is ambiguous. I tend to agree with Coyner about Cocke, "The discipline and the effective use of human beings were among his prime talents. His rapid advance in the militia had been in great part the result of these skills, productive of healthy and effective troopers." Coyner, 118. Still, general discontentment and performance in battle must be taken into account in assessing a military career. Cocke's command in camp and training, which depended on his plantation management skills, was hampered by his lack of knowledge of military strategy and tactics.

34. John Hartwell Cocke, Jr. to JHC, March 6, 1816; JHC to JHC, Jr., March 24, 1816. See also, Herbert Aptheker, American Negro Slave Revolts, (New York: Columbia University Press, 1943), 255–58.

35. ABC to JHC, October 22, 1814.

36. Cocke's parents died five months apart in 1791 when he was 10 years old. He met Ann in 1800 when she was sent by her parents from Williamsburg to Norfolk to escape a yellow fever epidemic.

37. NF to JHC, Jan. 27, 1815; ABC to JHC, Feb. 4, 1815; NF to JHC, Mar. 17, 1815; NF to JHC, Nov. 28, 1815.

38. Louisiana B. Cocke to JHC, Jr., Aug. 18, 1816; LBC & JHC to JHC, Jr., Sep. 8, 9, 1816.

39. Mary W. Cabell to Joseph C. Cabell, Dec. 29, 1816, Cabell Papers (Alderman Library, University of Virginia).

40. Ibid. Gordon argued that from Ann's death on Cocke appeared reserved, soldierly, dignified, cold, grim, and forbidding, In short, he buried his youth when he buried Ann. Unfinished Biography, Chapter 6.

41. "I learned from him orally that he became a Christian soon after the death of his first wife. 'I had,' said he, in an interview in regard to his conversion, 'seen an end of all perfection. I had had my share of wealth and worldly honors, but when God took from me the early companion of my bosom I realized that all such things were vanity and vexation of spirit. When the crushing blow came, I repined under the chastening hand of God. I was, however, soon taught by grace the rebellion and wickedness of my heart, and then, I trust, I was led by repentance and faith to Christ.'" Extract from Cocke's Funeral Sermon, preached at Bremo Chapel by C. Tyree, Religious Herald, (Richmond, 1866).

42. Drew Gilpin Faust, "Evangelicalism and the Meaning of the Proslavery Argument: The Reverend Thornton Stringfellow of Virginia," The Virginia Magazine of History and Biography, 85 (January 1977), 3.

43. James Brewer Stewart, "Evangelicalism and the Radical Strain in Southern Antislavery Thought During the 1820s," The Journal of Southern History, 39 (August 1973), 388.

44. Faust, 5. These words characterizing evangelicals in general can be very descriptively applied to Cocke.

45. Stewart, 388.

46. Faust, 17.

47. E. B. Kennon to JHC, March 26, 1817.

48. Gordon noted that Cocke's religious concerns preceded his formal religious involvement. The religious duties which "crystalized into habit and launched his lifetime of Christian philanthropy and unselfish service that characterized the next fifty years" began on March 23, 1816, when Bishop Moore arrived to preach Ann's funeral service and christen little Sally. Before then Cocke had never been a faithful sabbath observer. Unfinished Biography, Chapter 4.

49. John Faulcon to JHC, April 16, 1817.

50. Will of JHC, Sept. 4, 1817.

51. Merit M. Robinson to JHC, Dec. 4, 18, 1817; Jan. 12, 1818; March 23, 1818. Robinson had been married to Cocke's late sister, Ann. In truth, Cocke and Robinson were miles apart in their treatment of slaves. Whereas the former was a strict disciplinarian, the other left his slaves on their own for up to three years at a time. Robinson's disposition gave him neither the desire nor the stomach to make a successful slaveholder.

52. Early Lee Fox, The American Colonization Society, 1817–1840, (Baltimore: The John Hopkins Press, 1919), 82; Charles Fenton Mercer to JHC, April 19, 1818. See also John D. Paxton, Letters on Slavery; Address to the Cumberland Congregation, Virginia, (Lexington, KY: Abraham T. Skillman, 1833), 4. Paxton and other contemporary Virginians viewed colonization as a way to let out "pent up" "public feeling" and a step in the right direction although not a solution to the problem of slavery.

53. CFM to JHC, April 19, 1818; Valerie Jean Conner, "The Failure of the American Colonization Society," (unpublished M.A. thesis, University of Virginia, 1969), 8; JHC Journal, Dec. 30–31. See also P. J. Staudenraus, The African Colonization Movement 1816–1865, (New York: Columbia University Press, 1961). According to Staudenraus, the ACS was of the many "benevolent" societies that sprang up after the War of 1812, the first of the "great, nation-wide movements that affected thousands of people and handled hundreds of thousands of dollars." He declared its doctrine of benevolence that arose out of its evangelical zeal to promote the "public good" or "general welfare" the "ideological ancestor of a later 'Social Gospel'," 12–14; 98–99.

54. Archibald Alexander, D.D., A History of Colonization on the Western Coast of Africa., (Philadelphia: William S. Martin, 1846), 359.

55. Ibid., 12–15; The Fifteenth Annual Report of the American Society for Colonizing the Free People of Colour of the United States., (Washington, 1832), xvii, xxi. Such rhetoric appealed to Cocke, who was familiar with ancient history and its languages. One friend flattered Cocke as "the best classical scholar whom I know in Virginia." Robert Saunders to JHC, April 29, 1819.

56. This was in spite of the fact that "by far the most spectaclar growth of African colonization sentiment occurred in Virginia. The foremost men of the day accepted principal offices in local societies." Staudenraus, African Colonization, 106–7. Cocke was president of the Fluvanna and Albemarle Societies.

57. Jefferson, Madison, Monroe and Marshall favored gradual emancipation and removal. Madison felt that the burden should not fall on the individual since it was a national concern and in 1819 revived Elbridge Gerry's idea of gradual, compensated emancipation financed by income from public lands. Monroe and Marshall agreed, but wanted power to remain with the states. By 1824, Jefferson also was willing to use public lands to defuse the slavery issue. On the other hand, William Branch Giles of Amelia said that even if federal aid could be had it "surely would not be desirable," and John Randoph of Roanoke wanted no compromise with the national government. Charles Fenton Mercer was forced to withdraw a memorial he introduced in favor of national support for colonization. See Betty L. Fladeland, "Compensated Emancipation: A Rejected Alternative," The Journal of Southern History, 42 (May 1976), 173–81.

58. Although some opposed colonization for the same reasons as Charles C. Pinckney of Charleston, who considered it "an insidious attack on the tranquility of the South" led by a "nest egg of abolitionists" that was "murderous in its principles." Staudenraus, African Colonization, 75.

59. Bishop Richard Channing Moore to JHC, July 15, 1819.

60. Cocke supported Jefferson in the founding of the University of Virginia and served on the Board of Visitors for thirty-three years. Cocke was the leading administrator in the university's building efforts. See J. Holt Merchant, Jr.'s, "John Hartwell Cocke and the Founding of the University [of Virginia]," 1967, 17–18, Mayo Papers, (Alderman Library, University of Virginia).

61. Bremo Cornerstone Papers, July 8, 1818, Bremo Recess Papers, (Alderman Library, University of Virginia).

62. Thomas Jefferson to JHC, May 3, 1819, Jefferson Papers (San Marino, CA: Henry E. Huntington Library [CSmH]). Kosciusko (also Kosciuszko) was an engineer who left Poland to serve the Continental Army during the American Revolution. After his return to Poland he became the head of the government and the commander-in-chief of the army in the Insurrection of 1794, winning a place in Polish history comparable to that of George Washington in the U.S. He died Oct. 15, 1817. See Miecislaus Haiman, Kosciuszko: Leader and Exile, (New York: Polish Institute of Arts and Sciences in America, 1946); and Robert H. Wilson, Thaddeus Kosciuszko and His Home in Philadelphia, (Philadelphia: Copernicus Society of America, 1976).

63. Jefferson managed Kosciusko's American affairs for decades and knew his estate would become litigious because he died with four wills. Jefferson turned to Cocke in May 1819, calling Cocke "the most diligent, correct and worthy man in the world." Jefferson to John Armstrong, March 12, 1819, Jefferson Papers (DLC).

64. JHC to TJ, May 3, 4, 1819, Jefferson Papers (CSmH).

65. First, Benjamin Lincoln Lear of Washington, D.C., became administrator of the estate and after some time used the funds to establish the "Kusciusko School" of the African Education Society of New Jersey, which was controlled by the Presbyterian Church. Finally, however, in 1852, Kosciusko's intentions were set aside after several battles to the Supreme Court and the estate (by then worth about $50,000) was distributed to the grandchildren and great-grandchildren of two of his sisters. JHC to R. R. Gurley, Aug. 18, 1826 and RRG to JHC, Sep. 2, 1826, Jefferson Papers (CSmH).

66. Cocke's involvement with the temperance movement did not begin until the late 1820s when he took the pledge. For the relationship between religion and temperance in a framework of status conflict theory, see Joseph R. Gusfield, Symbolic Crusade: Status Politics and the American Temperance Movement, (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1963).

67. Other prominent leaders of particular societies were disinclined to commit formally to colonization. Rev. William M. Atkinson of the Virginia Bible Society, for instance, declined to set on the board of the Colonization Society though he supported it. The African Repository and Colonial Journal, 9, November 1833, 273.

68. James M. Garnett to JHC, Dec. 11, 1819; MMR to JHC, Dec. 14, 1819. See Stephen J. Knight, Jr., "Reform Sentiment in the Antebellum South as Revealed in the Political Party Newspapers of Georgia and Virginia, 1830–1848," (unpublished M.A. thesis, University of Virginia, 1973). Knight discusses the various reform debates over slavery, education, temperance, agriculture, manufacturing, internal improvements, immigration, and poverty.

69. Louisa Maxwell Holmes was the widow of Dr. Robert Holmes of Petersburg and brother of William Maxwell, a Yale law graduate, Virginia State Senator, president of Hampden-Sydney College and 1st editor of the Virginia Historical Register. Coyner praises her "intellectual interests and her literary expression" but reveals that she "quarreled frequently and bitterly" in spite of her piety. Coyner, 56, 312; Gordon, Unfinished Biography, Second Marriage.

70. Urbach, 31; 33.

71. They included the American Colonization Society, the American Tract Society, and the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions. On a local level, Louisa was involved in the Juvenile Mite Society (which supported "heathen children), the Orphan Society (which fed, clothed, and found homes for orphans), and the Dorcas Society (which ministered to the poor). For a discussion of Louisa's benelovent Christian voluntarism, see Urbach, 31–39.

72. Urbach, 38–39.

73. LHC to JHC, June 1, 1821

74. Armistead Gordon, Jr., Unfinished Biography, Second Marriage, 19 (my number).

75. John Patterson to JHC, May 26, 1821.

76. Gordon, Notes on Second Marriage, 5–6.

77. See, for instance, Louisa Holmes Cocke Diary, Jan. 16, 1825 and Jan. 12, 14, 17, 1828.

78. Louisa recorded in her diary over 230 trips of at least three days that Cocke took for reasons of business or health during their twenty-two years of marriage. Urbach computes that Cocke was gone roughly ten days average per trip, or approximately 105 days per year. This was in addition to numerous one and two day shorter stays involving daily business. Urbach, 171–72; 615–19.

79. For a discussion of John and Louisa Cockes' marriage, see Urbach, 132–207.

80. Gordon, Notes on Second Marriage, 5–6.

81. LHC Diary, Aug. 4, 1821; Nov. 25, 1821; Dec. 2, 23, 1821.

82. LHC Diary, Sep. 8, 1822.

83. JHC to LHC, May 28, 1821; LHC Diary, Jan. 27, 1825.

84. James Oakes argues that the ideology of paternalism was on the wane by the end of the colonial era, and an anachronism in the democratic, racist, evangelical, and economically and geographically expanding Old South. Even so, there was plenty of room for paternalists like Cocke. Anti-slavery slaveholders remains one of the unwritten chapters in James Oakes' The Ruling Race: A History of American Slaveholders, (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1982).

For a discussion of the similarity and compatibility of the Hebrew patriarchal and Hellenistic communal systems of social administration see Edwin Hatch, The Organization of the Early Christian Churches, Eight Lectures Delivered Before the University of Oxford, in the Year 1880, (London: Rivingtons, 1882), 56–82.

85. Cocke fits nicely into this characterization, which is dependent on Donald G. Mathews, "Religion and Slavery—The Case of the American South," in Christine Bolt and Seymour Drescher, Anti-Slavery, Religion, and Reform: Essays in Memory of Roger Anstey, (Hamden, Connecticut: Archer Books, 1980), 207–26. Quotes from 209; 208; 209; 218.

86. Ibid., 209; 214; 226. Mathews writes that evangelicals displayed a "fundamental distaste for the kind of class conflict necessary to overturn the slave system," 214. This was certainly true of Cocke.

87. As early as 1787 Presbyterians timidly recommended that "prudent measures" be taken to eliminate slavery, like giving slaves "such good education as to prepare them for a better enjoymnent of freedom," and giving the "worthy" slaves a chance to earn their freedom. Quotes by Baird, "A Collection of the Act, etc., of the Supreme Judicatory of the Presbyterian Church," in Mary Stoughton Locke, Anti-Slavery in America from the Introduction of African Slaves to the Prohibition of the Slave Trade (1619–1808), (Gloucester, Mass: Peter Smith, 1901, 1965).

88. JHC, Prayer, July 1824; LHC Diary, Feb. 28, 1825; LHC Diary, 1823–25, passim; CFM to JHC, March 25, 1825. In 1825 the receipts of the American Colonization Society doubled previous levels and continued to rise until they doubled the 1825 level in 1832 at $43,065.30. That was the single year in which the most blacks emigrated, 796. See Staudenraus, Appendix.

89. JHC, Standing Regulations For the Government of John H. Cocke's Overseers, Jan. 1828.

90. Circular, Anti-Jackson Committee to JHC, Feb. 15, 1828; Receipt, JHC to Anti-Jackson Committee, March 22, 1828. Although he disregarded requests to run for office, Cocke was a Justice of the Peace, which Jordan described as a self-perpetuating "kingpin in the Virginia political system." The courts were powerful, "offices were relatively limited to members of the gentry, often with favorable family ties." See Jordan, 15–16.

91. Daniel Stone, J.P. to JHC, Sept. 20, 1828; Davidson Bradfate to JHC, May 26, 1829; RRG to JHC, Jan. 29, May 1, 1830. For a discussion of Cocke's temperance crusade among his slaves, which he began after the wheat harvest of 1829, see Coyner, 334–41. Even slaves appealed to Cocke for help. One old slave to whom Cocke had spoken in Richmond wrote to ask for assistance when his master wanted to sell him. The owner paid only sixty dollars originally for the slave, who, fearing being sold away in his old age, lamented that he had made that much for him several times over. Unfortunately, Cocke's response is unknown. Ellick [Aleck] Alberry to JHC, May 15, 1829.

92. My characterization of Whiggery is from Thomas Brown, Politics and Statesmanship: Essays on the American Whig Party, (New York: Columbia University Press, 1985) and Henry H. Simms, The Rise of the Whigs in Virginia, 1824–1840, (Richmond: The William Byrd Press, Inc., 1929). See also John Herman Schroeder, "Virginia Whig Leadership, 1834–1842," (unpublished M.A. thesis, University of Virginia, 1967).

93. LHC Diary, Jan. 16, 1825; LHC to JHC, Jan., 1830; JHC Journal, 1863–64, 66; JHC to Charles Cocke, Jan. 21, 1830. Although Cocke was not seeking equality of the races, he did not believe that blacks were biologically inferior to whites but that black inferiority was a result of slavery and the conditions it produced. "By all means I have been able to devise, I have appealed to them as rational creatures both by rewards & punishments." JHC to Rev. Henry Smith, Oct. 1, 1833. Appeals included religion, temperance and education. See Coyner, 324.

94. Thomas R. Gray, Confessions of Nat Turner, quoted in Stephen B. Oates, The Fires of Jubilee, (New York: Mentor, 1975), 141; JHC to Joseph S. Cabell, Aug. 24, 1831.

95. JHC to JSC, Oct. 7, 1831. Friends and acquaintances appealed to Cocke out of fear. For instance, one widow asked him to buy her "genteel & capable" servant so she would not have to send her to the fields. "Her won conduct led to this so I sell her without regret," she wrote. Cocke offered to take the girl and replace her with another slave, but the woman pleaded that she must rid herself of slave property so that she could have peace about her debts. An undercurrent of fear is easily regognized in several of Cocke's correspondents. Mrs. Martha W. Harrison to JHC, Sep. 29, 1831.

96. JHC, Ideas on Slavery Problems and Suggestions for Solution, Sept. 23, 1831. Turner's revolt brought long-lasting fear to many Virginia whites. One of R. R. Gurley's correspondents claimed that Cumberland, Goochland, and Prince Edward counties had been "suffering all the terror of a dreaded insurrection from the time of that in Southampton," and that men of the "highest respectability turned out on patrolle" in response to the "continual alarm." A. R. Page to RRG, Dec. 27, 1831, American Colonization Society Papers (DLC), Series 1, 36–38, 5949.

97. Cocke's slaves were pursuing skilled work as early as 1811 when he made an effort to cloth them entirely by home production. Domestics servants did weaving and knitting, tailoring and shoemaking. In the late teens, white artisans working on the mansion were assigned slave apprentices to learn the trades of carpenter, mason, blacksmith, miller and cooper. In the 1820s, this training took on new importance when joined with Cocke's evangelical orientation and colonization scheme. See Coyner's chapter on labor, 81–106.

98. A dramatic growth in the number of whites and the ratio of slaves to whites from 1790 to 1830 caused a major westward shift of the population density center (and of slave density) of Virginia. Nevertheless, the majority of slaveholders held only one or two slaves and the percentage holding ten or more remained minimal throuhout the entire forty year period. Patricia Catherine Click, "Slavery and Society in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia, 1790–1830," (unpublished M.A. thesis, University of Virginia, 1974), 15–16; 21. See also, Alison Goodyear Freehling, Drift Toward Dissolution: The Virginia Slavery Debate of 1831–1832, (Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1982), 11–35.

99. "Several members of legislature not friendly to your Society," wrote one Richmonder, and any colonization scheme proposal would be "at least premature" and "fraught with much danger & with little prospect of a good result." That same day the Virginia Colonization Society's treasurer expressed somewhat similar views, "I think some provision will be made for the removal of the free negroes," but "this legislature I believe will take no measures for reducing the number of slaves—But if information of their number and rapid increase—and (of course) comparative decrease of the Whites could be freely circulated, there would soon be a majority of the people for reducing them—indeed it is thought by some that this majority already exists.— —It has been the policy of our leading political men to keep the people on this subject as much in the dark as possible.—" A third Richmonder, two days later, wrote, "We are hoping our Legislature will adopt some plans this session in favour of the African population among us—both the Slaves, and the free—but we regret that they take hold of this most interesting of all subjects to them, with so little energy—but I hope they begin, a little, now to see, (what they should have seen long since) that either the white population of lower Virginia will move westward—or some provisions must be made toward removing the coulored—" D. J. Burr to RRG, Jan. 3, 1832; B. Brand to RRG, Jan. 3, 1832; William Crane to RRG, Jan. 5, 1832. These quotes in ACS Papers, Series 1, 36–38, 5979; 5981; 5987.

100. So did a few other prominent Virginians: "Many circumstances at the present moment seem to concur in brightening the prospects of the Society and cherishing the hope that the time will come when the dreadful calamity which has so long afflicted our Country and filled so many with despair will be gradually removed & by means consistent with justice, peace and the general satisfaction: thus giving to our country the full enjoyment of the blessings of liberty and to the world the full benefit of its great example." James Madison to RRG, Dec. 29, 1831, ACS Papers, Series 1, 36–38, 5956.

101. As early as 1814, Cocke had written that "the rapidly increasing value of a good landed Estate in this district of County wou'd in a very few years cover the loss of 40 slaves." JHC to JSC, May 14, 1814, Cabell Papers.

102. Cocke's cautious optimism was catching, as indicated by a friend from Petersburg: "Do not expect too much, however— subjects of such mighty weight, and combined with interests so extensive, must be approached with circumspection, and moved cautiously and slowly—the institution of Slavery is of more than two centuries age, and its demolition must be the work of time! But it is sure!—Emancipation will, most probably, not be touched by any legislative act this winter—But Genl. Cocke & Genl. Brodnax and others of our best friends believe that two most important points will be gained—The Col. Socy. will receive efficient aid, the subject of emancipation will be laid open for discussion—But recollect my old maxim, Nullum unnen &c.—" W. M. Atkinson to RRG, Dec. 17, 1831, ACS Papers, Series 1, 36–38, p. 5901. See also, Freehling, 170–95.

103. Staudenraus, African Colonization, 179.

104. JHC to RRG, Oct. 17, 1831.

105. Staudenraus, African Colonization, 148–49.

106. Staudenraus, African Colonization, 221–22. Staudenraus contended that the ACS was reduced to a "federation of state auxiliaries" by 1838.  237.

107. Cocke never flagged. When William Broadnax and Thomas Gilmer pushed a bill through the Virginia legislature in 1833 that appropriated $18,000 per year for five years to fund the Society thirty dollars per head for emigrants, and which created a special colonization board that included the governor and lieutenant governor, Cocke was jubilant. He wrote that the new act gave "signal proof that Professor Dew's elaborate efforts against our Cause, have failed of their objects." JHC to RRG, March 31, 1833.

108. Staudenraus, African Colonization, 221–22; 179.

109. Skipwith's initial reaction to Liberia was only dissatisfaction. "I want you if you please to write to me by the first oppertunity and let me no on what terms I can come back for I intend coming back as Soon as I can." The Skipwith story is one of both sadness and triumph. A six year old daughter, Felicia, died in early 1834 from a combination of the African fever and a fall. Peyton lost his wife in July of 1834 and by 1835 was going blind. But by 1836, he wrote, "Thanks be to God my health and sight is recovered and that day of awful gloom is gone and I feel satisfied with my present home and desire no other." He became a successful businessman and employed several newly freed emigrants to Monrovia. Peyton Skipwith to JHC, Feb. 10, 1834; March 6, 1835; April 27, 1836; Jan. 30, 1838.

110. Coyner's dissertation includes a detailed analysis of the Alabama experiment. Skipwith is featured in Leslie Howard Owens,"The Black Slave Driver," This Species of Property: Slave Life and Culture in the Old South, (New York: Oxford University Press, 1976), 121–35.