“Governor Spotswood also sensed the danger. The 1710 conspiracy demonstrated the ability of the enslaved to organize across ethnic lines–and at a time when their numbers were rapidly increasing–making them a “Most Dangerous” enemy. He chided slaveholders for their lax vigilance transgressors could not be convicted of high treason, and Drysdale sought the Council of State’s advice on how to proceed. The Council of State ordered the attorney general to get an indictment for misdemeanors and procure all evidence that could be found against the suspects.”
“Although they were charged only with misdemeanors, the application for bail was denied “upon Consideration….and the Circumstances of their Case.” Three blacks, two Sams and Will, were found guilty of “Congregating…..Communicating contriving and Conspiring among themselves and with the said other Slaves to kill murder and destroy themselves and with the said other Slaves to kill murder and destroy many” Englishmen. The two Sams were both transported to the West Indies, and Will’s fate is unknown.”
“Hoping for more information, the authorities held over other blacks until the next General Court in April 1723. Dick and five other “principal ringleaders,” Robin, Tom (alias Jack and Bambara Tom), Isaac, Jeffry, and Sancho, were acquitted, since “the Evidence against them being only of their own Condition and Complexion” combined with their secrecy and their “Threatening” witnesses from prison was insufficient for conviction. Yet, the “pregnant Circumstances of their Designs,” to wage war against whites, made it imprudent to discharge them despite the lack of legal evidence.”
“The General Assembly thus found a way not only “to free the Country of such dangerous Rogues, but [also] to prevent and to punish the like secret Conspiracies for the future.” The assembly, acting upon the presumption “That if these escape with Impunity not only they but others by their persuasion and Example will be encouraged to more daring Attempts,” exiled them to the West Indies under penalty of death if they returned. At the same time, the assembly compensated their owners. This punishment of the blacks not only prevented them from entering into new plots, but it would also “discourage others by this example,” wrote Drysdale, “for an exile from their wives and Children, is almost as terrible to them as death itself”. The want of legal evidence in 1723 does not rule out conspiracy.”
“The commissions were hindered in the prosecution by their own legal trappings. If the evidence is ambiguous whether the two groups of men tried in 1722 and 1723 were connected, between them their actions were sufficient to lead Governor Drysdale to push for a more stringent law and for the burgesses to enact one. At the same time, the great planters were using the danger of insurrection to consolidate their power, strengthening regulations and disabilities against blacks, free and enslaved. and dragooning lower-class whites into supporting a racially ordered society. The fear of rebellion was not merey paranoia; whites were apprehensive with good reason.”
“The nature of conspiracy demands clandestine and secret activity. Authorities and slave owners in the 1723 case left enough evidence in their reports and the court records to indicate what they enslaved were doing and thinking. Enslaved blacks met in secret, planning to seize the country and cut off the English. Once caught, they remained mum and threatened witnesses from prison. The reaction of the lawmakers after the event suggest that slaveholders took the threat seriously. Indeed, the conspiracy to seize the country alarmed whites throughout Virginia. In at least two counties straddling the fall line, they began agitating through their representatives for stricter enforcement of the lave code.”
“The landowners of Hanover and Prince George Counties, concerned that blacks were “going abroad Carrying Arms and Convening in great Numbers,” sent to the House of Burgesses in 1723 “several propositions” for suppression outliers and compensating owners if their enslaved were killed. In response to the propositions from those two counties and Governor Drysdale’s insistence that the laws be tightened, the General Assembly in 1723 reexamined the slave code. In the 1710 insurrection case, to convict Salvadore and Scipio of a capital crime authorities had to charge them with high treason.”
“Recognizing the difficulty of doing so, the burgessed had in the November 1710 session debated and amended a bill that would have made insurrection a felony punishable by death, but in the end, the bill was rejected. In 1723, for the first time, perhaps recognizing the absurdity of indicating a slave insurrectionist for high treason, the General Assembly made conspiracy by six or more of the enslaved a capital crime. More likely, however, it was provoked into enacting the statute because convictions might have been more easily obtained in the April trials of the six blacks. Indeed, the bar of evidence was lowered, requiring now the oath of only one witness and admitting the non Christian testimony of blacks and Indians.”
“Also in 1723, the legislators further restricted the mobility, assembly, and manumission of blacks, withdrawing the few rights they retained after 1705. The enslaved could be castrated or killed for consulting, plotting, and conspiring in a group of six or more. The same punishment could be meted out to “incorrigible runaways.” All meetings of blacks were made illegal unless specifically licensed by a master on his own quarters, and even then not at night. The assembly also revoked the franchise of free blacks, reinstated the tax on free black women, and restricted manumissions to grants by the governor and Council of State for “meritorious service.”
“The assembly, suspicious of free blacks’ empathy for the insurrectionist, restricted gun ownership and forbade non householders from serving in the militia, although his law as later amended so that they could be drafted as laborers in time of invasion. Governor William Gooch, reflecting upon the deprivation of rights, thought it was necessary for the assembly “to fix a perpetual Brand” upon free blacks, partly because of their mixed racial origin and partly because they “adhere to and favour the slaves.”
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