From: jsanders@phys.ksu.edu (Justin M. Sanders)
Newsgroups: alt.war.civil.usa
Subject: Re: Slavery nearly abolished in Virginia?
Date: 26 Sep 1992 13:59:28 GMT
Organization: Department of Physics, Kansas State University, Manhattan KS, USA
NNTP-Posting-Host: bohr.phys.ksu.edu

In article <1992Sep25.073816.1@ssrl01.slac.stanford.edu> 
cowan@ssrl01.slac.stanford.edu (P.L. Cowan) writes:

>Another quick question:  I remember hearing (possibly in History
>class) that at one point (possibly in the 1830's or earlier) the
>Legislature of the Virginia Commonwealth defeated by a *single* vote a
>bill to abolish slavery in that commonwealth. 
  [alternative history musings deleted]
>However, in all my reading about that era over the
>last several years, I have never seen this "factoid" confirmed. 
>Anybody know anything about it?
>
>(P.S. - I have read that Thomas Jefferson was very disappointed when a
>bill to abolish slavery in the territory ceded to the Federal Union by
>the  State of Georgia [most of the present states of Alabama and
>Mississippi] was defeated in congress by 3 votes.)

On 16 Jan 1832, Thos. Jefferson's grandson, Thomas Jefferson Randolph
proposed an emancipation plan in the VA legislature (this following
Nat Turner's Rebellion in 1831).  His was the usual gradual emancipation
plan: slaves born on or after 4 July 1840 would be freed when
they became adults-- females at 18, males at 21 (this was similar to
what New York had done).  William Henry Broadnax thought Randolph's
plan was too slow-- he wanted the immediate deportation of free blacks
and early emancipation (followed of course by deportation).  Due to this
split, neither plan could muster strenth to win by itself.  So a compromise
resolution saying that legislative action against slavery was "expedient"
was proposed.  This was eventually defeated by a vote of 58 for, 73 against.
It is said that if the VA legislature had been proportioned according to
free population, the measure probably would have won.

Jefferson wrote (but had someone else sponsor) an amendment to the
Va Constitution in 1784 which would have freed slaves born after 1800 (at
age 21), and watched in horror as his surrogate was
lambasted in the legislature as a traitor.  

Jefferson did publicly sponsor the
proposed Ordinance of 1784 which would have outlawed slavery in the
Southwest Territory (Alabama and Mississippi) as well as what would
become Illinois and Indiana AFTER 1800.  This ordinance was not passed
by the Confederation Congress though; and my source implies that it
lost by 1 vote.

All this is from William W. Freehling's "The Road to Disunion:
Secessionists at Bay 1776-1854" (Oxford U. Pr, 1990).  This is a very
good book.  It gives a nice overview of the development of secessionist
thought in the South as well as treating the history of emancipation.
My two complaints with it are: 1) a very breezy writing style that at times
I found annoying(*), and 2) (a consequence of (1)) occasional lapses
into stereotypes (even in a book which has as one of its themes that
there is no stereotypical single-minded, one-voiced antebellum South).

(*) on the topic of annoying writing styles, I have always found
the use of the "historical present" to be very grating.  Example: "By March
1865, Lee's army is exhausted, and he knows it will be just a matter
of time before Grant breaks his thin lines."  Sets my teeth on edge.


--
Justin M. Sanders    "The science of mathematics has no more 
Dept. of Physics       bowels of mercy than has a cast-iron dog." 
Kansas State Univ.      --Rep. John A. Anderson of Kansas, 1882