GO TO LIST OF PEOPLE INVOLVED IN HARPERS FERRY FREDDY BAILEY, THE SLAVE FREDERICK DOUGLASS BORN 1819 1820 1821 1822 1823 1824 1825 1826 1827 1828 1829 1830 1831 1832 1833 1834 1835 1836 1837 1838 1839 1840 1841 1842 1843 1844 1845 1846 1847 1848 1849 1850 1851 1852 1853 1854 1855 1856 1857 1858 1859 1860 1861 1862 1863 1864 1865 1866 1867 1868 1869 1870 1871 1872 1873 1874 1875 1876 1877 1878 1879 1880 1881 1882 1883 1884 1885 1886 1887 1888 1889 1890 1891 1892 1893 1894 DIED HDT WHAT? INDEX RACE WAR, NOT CIVIL WAR 1701 Bailey, presumed to be a great-great-grandfather of Frederick Douglass, was born. HDT WHAT? INDEX RACE WAR, NOT CIVIL WAR 1716 It as at about this point that New Bedford, a Quaker whaling town, began its formal opposition to the institution of slavery, and thus began its career as a sanctuary for runaway slaves. This would be the city of origin for Friend Daniel Ricketson, and would be the city of refuge for Frederick Douglass. HDT WHAT? INDEX RACE WAR, NOT CIVIL WAR Here is an American bill of sale for a human being, dating to July 16th of this year: In this year New York enacted a rather mysterious “5 oz. and 10 oz. plate Duty Act,” rather mysterious because HDT WHAT? INDEX RACE WAR, NOT CIVIL WAR we have only the title and none of the text. According to the title it had something to do with a Duty laid on Negroes, and other Slaves, imported into this Colony: “An Act to Oblige all Vessels Trading into this Colony (except such as are therein excepted) to pay a certain Duty; and for the further Explanation and rendring more Effectual certain Clauses in an Act of General Assembly of this Colony, Intituled, An Act by which a Duty is laid on Negroes, and other Slaves, imported into this Colony.” The act referred to is not to be found. ACTS 1 OF ASSEMBLY, 1691-1718, p. 224. INTERNATIONAL SLAVE TRADE SLAVERY 1. The following is a summary of the legislation of the colony of New York; details will be found in W.E. Burghardt Du Bois: — 1709, Duty Act: £3 on Negroes not direct from Africa (Continued by the Acts of 1710, 1711). 1711, Bill to lay further duty, lost in Council. 1716, Duty Act: 5 oz. plate on Africans in colony ships. 10 oz. plate on Africans in other ships. 1728, Duty Act: 40s. on Africans, £4 on colonial Negroes. 1732, Duty Act: 40s. on Africans, £4 on colonial Negroes. 1734, Duty Act: (?) 1753, Duty Act: 40s. on Africans, £4 on colonial Negroes. (This act was annually continued.) [1777, Vermont Constitution does not recognize slavery.] 1785, Sale of slaves in State prohibited. [1786, Sale of slaves in Vermont prohibited.] 1788, Sale of slaves in State prohibited. HDT WHAT? INDEX RACE WAR, NOT CIVIL WAR 1745 December: Jenny, a great-grandmother of Frederick Douglass, was born on Skinner Plantation. On St. Helena, to resolve an argument between the two of them, Governor Dunbar had a Mr Dixon locked up (one year later the East India Company’s Court of Directors would oblige Dunbar to resign in favor of Charles Hutchinson). HDT WHAT? INDEX RACE WAR, NOT CIVIL WAR 1771 The white writer Louis-Sébastien Mercier announced, in L’AN 2440, a utopian novel of anticipation, the eventual arrival of a black avenger of the New World. The message was: we are to mend our ways, we fellow white planters, or else we are to face retribution. Nature has at last created this stunning man, this HAITI immortal man, who must deliver a world from the most atrocious, the longest, the most insulting tyranny. He has shattered the irons of his compatriots. So many oppressed slaves under the most odious slavery seemed to wait only for his signal to make such a hero. This heroic avenger has set an example that sooner or later cruelty will be punished, and that Providence holds in store these strong souls, which she releases upon earth to reestablish the equilibrium which the inequity of ferocious ambition knew how to destroy. (It is not known whether this passage was ever brought to the attention of Toussaint Louverture, but it may well have been perused by Waldo Emerson prior to his delivery of an equivalently provocative message to HDT WHAT? INDEX RACE WAR, NOT CIVIL WAR Frederick Douglass.) “The grandeur of a country is to assume all its history. With its glorious pages but also its more shady parts.” — President Jacques Chirac of France SLAVEHOLDING HDT WHAT? INDEX RACE WAR, NOT CIVIL WAR 1774 May: Betsey, a grandmother of Frederick Douglass, was born at Skinner Plantation. Betsey was a slave and would never be granted much of a chance to demand of anyone, that they give her liberty or give her death. Patrick Henry, one of America’s more famous slavemasters, had been a member of the Virginia Committee of Correspondence since the previous year. A message from the Massachusetts Committee of Correspondence informed them of the closing of the port of Boston. The House of Burgesses set aside June 1, 1774, as a day of “Fasting, Humiliation, and Prayer” in support of Boston. When Governor Dunmore then dissolved the assembly, 89 of the Burgesses gathered at the Raleigh Tavern and, under Henry’s leadership, proposed that all HDT WHAT? INDEX RACE WAR, NOT CIVIL WAR the colonies meet in a Continental Congress. Henry would himself be serving as a delegate to this Congress. CONTINETAL CONGRESS There is in existence a Chart of Massachusetts Bay bearing this date, prepared from surveys taken by Samuel Holland, Esq. and his assistants, who had been employed on that service as early as 1764. MAPS OF BOSTON (But this isn’t it, although this also was prepared in 1774.)