Occupations of Free Black Appalachians Aged 15-59, 1860

Table 41

______

Economic Sector % Employed

______

Agriculture45.0

Commerce and Trade 7.6

Transportation 6.1

Clergy and Teachers 0.4

Household Servants 7.8

Manufacturing and Milling 17.1

Extractive Industry 5.0

Informal Economy 11.0

______

Source: Derived from analysis of a sample of free black households from the 1860 Census of Population manuscripts (n = 1,200). Town commerce includes free blacks who worked for white-owned retail enterprises or who owned their own shops. The informal economy includes nonwage sources of income, such as: peddlers, washwomen, prostitutes, woodchoppers, fishermen, seamstresses.

This is a copyrighted document from the electronic archive for Wilma A. Dunaway, Southern Laboring Women: The Gendered Boundaries of Race, Ethnicity, and Class in Antebellum Appalachia, 1700-1860, Virginia Tech Library.

Table 42

Adjusted Estimates of Slave Nonagricultural Occupations

______

% All Slaves Aged 15-59

Employed

Occupation by Owners Hired Total

______

Drivers 5.9 5.9

Full-time Domestic Service 13.4 1.8 15.2

Manufacturing Artisans and Laborers

Full-time 7.1 7.1

Part-time 8.7 8.7

Extractive Laborers 1.6 5.0 6.6

Commerce and Trade 3.0 2.7 5.7

Transportation Artisans and Laborers 3.3 5.1 8.4

Total 35.9 21.7 57.6

______

Source: Derived from analysis of Appalachian slave narratives.

Table 43

Elite Nonagricultural Slave Occupations on Plantations

______

Occupations U.S. Appalachia

______

ELITE SLAVE MANAGERS

Drivers 1.8 5.9

Full-time Domestics 9.9 13.4

ELITE SKILLED ARTISANS

Blacksmith 2.1

Carpenter/Joiner 1.8

Cabinetmaker 1.9

Millwright or Miller 0.6

Wheelwright 0.6

Distiller 0.6

Cooper 0.7

Manufacturing Laborers 0.4

Extractive Laborers 1.6

COMMERCIAL MANAGERS AND LABORERS

Toll Collectors 0.3

Livestock Drovers/Specialists 1.7

Transportation Specialists 3.1

Store and Shop Laborers 1.2

Total Elite Managers 11.7 19.6

Total Skilled Artisans 12.9 16.3

Total Elite Occupations 24.6 35.9

______

Source: U.S. estimates were calculated from Olson, "Occupational Structure," p. 139. Appalachian estimates were derived from analysis of Appalachian slave narratives. Extractive laborers mined, timbered, or processed mineral ores. Manufacturing laborers worked in mills, tanneries, blacksmith shops, distilleries, cotton gins, tobacco manufactories, or textiles shops on plantations. Some slaves collected tolls for ferries, roads, or bridges owned by their masters. Transportation specialists drove wagons and stages or piloted boats for their plantations.

Table 44

Slave and Free Black Population in Selected Appalachian Towns, 1860

______

% Total Population

Town that Was Black

______

Talladega, Alabama52

Rome, Georgia48

Richmond, Kentucky35

Hagerstown, Maryland27

Franklin, North Carolina31

Knoxville, Tennessee30

Lexington, Virginia21

Winchester, Virginia40

Martinsburg, West Virginia32

______

Source: Calculated from analysis of Census of Population enumerator manuscripts and manuscript Slave Schedules

Table 45

Free Black Families as Represented in Registers of Free Blacks

______

Black or

Family CompositionMulattoBrown Mixed Total

No. %No. %No. %No. %

______

Husband & Wife Only 40 4.1 20 2.1 60 6.2

Husband, Wife & Offspring12112.5 81 8.4 202 20.8

Mother & Offspring16316.8 41 4.2 81 8.4 285 29.4

Father & Offspring 40 4.1 20 2.1 60 6.2

Extended with matriarch

or patriarch18218.8 20 2.1 19 1.9 221 22.8

Siblings only 61 6.3 40 4.1 40 4.1 141 14.6

Total60762.6 222 23.0 140 14.4 969

______

Source: Analysis of 1,690 entries in Registers of Free Blacks for Virginia Counties of Augusta and Washington and the West Virginia County of Kanawha. The term Amixed@ refers to households in which there are both dark and light-skinned members. The other 721 entries were for individuals not connected to families.

Table 46

Slave Household Composition

______

Percentage Slave Households

Household Residential Pattern Louisiana Appalachia

______

Solitaire18.4 6.2

Non-nuclear 1.2 3.3

Extended Family 1.8 4.7

Simple Family73.1 85.8

Married Couple 8.1 8.5

Married Couple with Children48.7 20.0

Single Female with Children14.5 55.4

Single Male with Children 1.8 1.9

______

Sources: Louisiana slave household composition from Malone, Sweet Chariot, p. 15. Appalachian household composition derived from analysis of 217 slave narratives and of slave lists in the manuscript collections of 52 Appalachian slaveholders.

Table 47

Family Structure Experienced by Appalachian Slaves

______

Family Structure %

______

2 Parent Families

2 parents living together 28.5

2 parents but father owned by another master 16.1

2 parents until separated by master's sale,

hireout, or migration 25.1

2 parents until one spouse died 1.9

1 Parent Families/ Headed by Mothers

Absent slave or free black father 4.3

Absent White father 9.9

Children or Single Adults Living outside Families

With slave kin4.3

With White masters9.9

______

Source: Derived from analysis of 280 Appalachian slave narratives. The only male-headed households were two in which the wife had died.

Table 48

Slave Family Disruptions Caused by Forced Labor Migration Strategies

______

Forced Labor Migration Strategy % Incidents

______

Sale of family members by masters59.1

Out-of-state migration by masters 4.1

Family members given to masters' children 3.5

Family members owned by neighboring masters14.6

Family members hired out by masters15.8

Family members assigned to different

farms owned by the same master 2.9

______

Source: Derived from content analysis of 171 incidents in the Appalachian slave narratives. Some slaves reported more than one family disruption.

Table 49

Appalachian Slave Marriages

Part A. How Was the Marriage Formalized?

______

Method to Recognize Marriage %

______

Religious ceremony 9.9

Stepping over broomstick 77.7

No ritual except master's permission 12.4

______

Part B. Who Selected the Slave's Spouse?

______

Decision-makers %

______

The slave spouses alone58.1

Masters alone 7.7

Slave spouses and Masters jointly 15.3

Masters jointly with family members

of slave spouses 14.0

Overseers 4.9

______

Sources: Part A derived from analysis of 121 Appalachian slave narratives; Part B derived from analysis of 105 Appalachian slave narratives.

Table 50

Percentage of 1790 White Population that Were Females

______

Region % Females

______

United States48.2

Appalachian

Counties of:

Kentucky47.0

Maryland46.3

North Carolina47.5

South Carolina48.0

Tennessee47.9

Virginia47.3

West Virginia46.7

Region47.3

______

Source: Analysis of national and county totals in U.S. Census Office, First Census.