John H. Rapier, Sr.: A Slave and Freedman in the Ante-Bellum South

JOHN H. RAPIER, SR.: A Slave and Freedman in the Ante-Bellum South Loren Schweninger In the second decade of the nineteenth century Sally and "her mulatto son John," slaves owned by Charles S. Thomas of Albemarle County, Virginia, were transported to Nashville, Tennessee—a fastgrowing commercial town on the Cumberland River.1 With the master's permission, Sally "hired out" as a cleaning woman—a practice common among urban slaves—and during the 1820's she took the surname Thomas, bore two children (James P. and Henry K. Thomas), and established a "kind of business tending fine linen and wearing apparel for the ladies and gentlemen of Nashville." Her son John, born near Charlottesville, Virginia, in 1808, also "hired out."2 John worked for barge captain Richard Rapier, transporting the tobacco of the Tennessee Valley down the Cumberland, Ohio, and Mississippi Rivers to New Orleans, "carrying back" to Nashville, sugar, tea, coffee, raisins, molasses, rum, brandy, wines, "Shad and Macharel fish," along with indigo, cordage logwood, nails, tin, window glass and other necessities.3 In 1819, John accompanied Captain Rapier to Florence, ? Will Book, Albemarle County, Va., July 14, 1814, Book VI, p. 26; ibid., Nov. 17, 1825, Book IX, p. 260; Deed Book, Albemarle County, Va., Jan. 2, 1835, Book XXXII, p. 89; "Autobiography of James P. Thomas," Moorland-Spingam Collection , Howard University, pp. 1-3; hereafter "Thomas Autobiography." A number of recent articles have dealt with the general subject of free-blacks in the ante-bellum South. The best is "The Free People of Color in Lousiana and St. Dominque: A Comparative Portrait of Two Three-Caste Slave Societies," Journal of Social History , III (Summer, 1970); 406-430; See also: Florence R. Beatty-Brown, "Legal Status of Arkansas Negroes Before Emancipation," Arkansas Historical Quarterly, (Spring, 1969), 6-13; Roger A. Fisher, "Racial Segregation in ante-Bellum New Orleans," American Historical Review, LXXIV (Feb., 1969), 926-37; Dorothy Provine , "The Economic Position of Free Blacks in the District of Columbia, 18001860 ," Journal of Negro History, LVIII (Jan., 1973), 61-72; Robert C. Reinders, "The Free Negro in the New Orleans Economy, 1860-1860," Louisiana History, VI (Summer, 1965), 373-85; Henry S. Robinson, "Some Aspects of the Free Negro Population of Washington, D.C., 1800-1862," Maryland Historical Magazine, LXIV (Spring, 1969), 147-165; Robert Brent Toplin, "Peter Still vs the Peculiar Institution ," Civil War History, XIII (Dec, 1967), 340-349. 2 "Thomas Autobiography," pp. 4-8; James P. and Henry K. Thomas were born in Nashville, ibid., 1. 3 Richard Rapier had settled in Nashville at the turn of the 19th century. In 1800 he transported "a large quantity" of Tennessee tobacco to New Orleans. In 1807 he formed a "co-partnership" with Christopher Stump and later her formed business associations with Lemuel T. Turner and James Jackson. Records of the Davidson County Court, Nashville, Tennessee, July, 1801, Vol. C, 405; The Ten23 24CIVIL WAR HISTORY Alabama, a small town at the Muscle Shoals of the Tennessee River in Lauderdale County, and in the following years worked as a "waiter" and "poll boy"—again plying the New Orleans trade.4 John served Rapier for nearly a decade. During that time, however, he remained the property of Charles Thomas. Consequently, when the Captain wrote his last will and testament in 1824 he bequeathed: "One thousand dollars to my executors for the purpose of purchasing the freedom of the mulatto boy, John, who now waits on me, and belongs to the Estate of Thomas, as soon as his master or guardian can dispose of him."5 Five years later the Alabama General Assembly, the only legal emancipator of slaves in antebellum Alabama, passed a law concerning "the mulatto boy, John." "Be it . . . enacted, That John Simpson and Thomas Simpson, executors of the last will and testament of Richard Rapier, deceased of Lauderdale, be, and they are hereby authorized to emancipate a certain male slave by the name of John H. Rapier."6 The twenty-one year old freedman, now John H. Rapier, soon married Susan, a free black from Baltimore^ Maryland, and started a family . Between 1831 and 1841 the couple had four children: Richard, John Jr., Henry, and...