1
Columbia University and Domestic Slavery:
Violence, Resistance, Female Slaveholders,
and the Projection of Civility and Domesticity
Keziah Anderson
Columbia University and Slavery
Final Paper
2
Introduction:
Founded in 1754, King’s College--which was later renamed Columbia College in 1784--was a
hub for elite New Yorkers, like the Jay, Philipse, and Livingston families. King’s College--and later
Columbia College--affiliates were heavily involved in elite circles in New York City, sitting on boards
for other institutions, hosting parties for elite New Yorkers, and attending events throughout the
city. Currently, there is a gap in historical inquiry into the role the labor of domestic slaves played in
facilitating events for elite New Yorkers, establishing the position of elite families in New York City
before Columbia College’s founding, and supporting Columbia College students while on campus.
This paper will examine domestic slavery in New York City, and more specifically the role of
domestic slavery in maintaining the appearance of civility and elitism in the homes of individuals
connected with King’s College and King College’s campus. This research project will also examine
the role played by female slave-owners in domestic slavery in colonial New York and will examine
the violence that domestic slaves faced while performing their labor. This paper will argue that the
labor performed by domestic slaves was central to the reinforcement of class boundaries in New
York City; to facilitating leisurely events that bonded Columbia College students and other New
York City elites; and in supporting students in completing their studies while on campus. This paper
will also argue that domestic slaves faced severe violence throughout their enslavement and used
their particular proximity to their masters in their resistance from their bondage. Further, my paper
will argue that white women played an active role in commanding the labor of domestic slaves, in
holding slaves as property, in capturing runaway slaves, and in passing their ownership of slaves to
other white women. Overall, my paper will demonstrate that the labor of domestic slaves, which
adorned, cleaned, and refined events and households of Columbia College students and the students
themselves, helped to project an image of Columbia College as a civilized and benevolent space.
3
In this paper, I will examine the central role that domestic slaves played in facilitating
leisurely events and everyday activities for New York City’s white elite class, and Columbia College
students more specifically, through analysis of two primary accounts of enslaved people’s labor. I
will consult the depiction of a candle-dip party hosted in the home of a Columbia College student in
1798 and the recounting of domestic labor as performed by George Washington’s step-sons
personal slave while he was a student on campus. I will further consult runaway slave
advertisements, advertisements selling slaves, and final wills and testaments left by male and female
slaveholders to gain a broader picture of the violence faced by domestic slaves, the labor and skills
domestic slaves performed, the ways in which domestic slaves resisted their enslavement, and the
central and active role white mistresses played in enslaving Afro-Americans in New York City.
Joe: A Domestic Slave at Columbia:
When John Parke Custis, George Washington’s step-son and King’s College student, was
enrolled in King’s College in 1773, he brought along his personal slave, Joe, with him. Joe lived in
Custis’s “parlor” with him while Custis completed his studies. According to a letter written by Custis
to Martha Washington, Joe lived with Custis in his two-bedroom suite provided by King’s College.
In the letter, Custis also outlines that Joe made him breakfast every morning immediately following
his return from service in the school chapel in the morning. Following his breakfast, Custis outlines
that he attended his classes, took walks around campus, dined with his professors, and studied every
night.
1
While a student, Custis also sent Joe to Annapolis to serve as an intermediary between
1
John Parke Custis to Mrs. Martha Washington, July 5th, 1773, in Letters to Washington and
Accompanying Papers: 1770-1774, ed. Stanislaus Murray Hamilton (New York: Houghton, Mifflin and
Company, 1898-1902), 233.
4
himself and George and Martha Washington, assisting in delivering letters and messages.
2
Although
Custis does not mention it by name, Joe most certainly assisted Custis in cleaning his suite, relaying
communications with fellow students and other affiliates on campus, arranging Custis’s affairs, and
cooking other meals for Custis. Further, Joe may have assisted Custis while in class or by walking
him to class, carrying his things and keeping him organized for the day. However, if Joe did not
accompany Custis to class throughout the day, one can only imagine how he may have made use of
his free time. Glymph notes that domestic slaves often made use of any alone time they had to
attend to their own private affairs, possibly spending time with family or friends or developing skills
they may have used to make their own money separate from their masters.
3
In the example of Joe’s time as a personal slave to John Parke Custis on King’s College’s
campus itself, it is clear that slaves also supported the everyday functioning of King’s College
students. Joe’s labor, in cooking, cleaning, doing laundry, traveling, and sending messages for Custis,
eased John Custis’s life while on campus. Thus, Joe’s labor--and the labor of other domestic
personal slaves lost from the archives--was a monumental component of students’ time on campus,
allowing students to present themselves as put together on the backs of slaves’ labor. Further, the
labor of slaves allowed for students to enjoy more time for leisure, studying, and connecting with
students and professors. In this way, the labor of Joe and of other domestic slaves aided in civilizing
Columbia College as a whole, allowing students to both present themselves as high-class and engage
in more posh and cultural activities.
2
John Parke Custis to George Washington, February 20th, 1774, in Letters to Washington and
Accompanying Papers: 1770-1774, ed. Stanislaus Murray Hamilton (New York: Houghton, Mifflin and
Company, 1898-1902), 336.
3
Thavolia Glymph, Out of the House of Bondage: The Transformation of the Plantation Household
(New York: Cambridge University Press, 2008), 72-3.
5
William Rhinelander’s Candle-Dip Frolic: Examining the Centrality of Slave Labor in
Leisure Activities Among Columbia College Affiliates:
Slaves not only provided essential labor on everyday activities; they also labored at events for
Columbia College affiliates and elite New Yorkers. In a collection of family stories written in 1903,
the niece of Columbia College Class of 1798 member David Codwise describes an extravagant party
hosted on an evening in 1796 while he was a Columbia student.
4
Columbia College students and
other New York City elites gathered for a “candle-dipping frolic” in the mansion of William
Rhinelander, another member of Columbia College’s Class of 1798.
5
At the event, hosted primarily
by female Rhinelander family members and attended by thirty-two elite white couples, white
Columbia affiliates, and other elite white New Yorkers dipped candles with precise form; ate
extravagant food, including cold “fowl and game,” “cold roasts of beef and spare ribs,” hot sausages,
meat roulades, pastries, a variety of cakes, wine, and eggnog; and danced with one another to “clear”
and “rich” music played on fiddles.
6
The candle-dip party lasted over six hours, beginning at
approximately six in the evening and ending after midnight.
7
This elaborate event brought together
elite New Yorkers, including Columbia students and affiliates, and reinforced cultural norms and
class boundaries in 18th century New York City. This high-class event did not realize on its own,
however. The strenuous, unpaid, and often invisible labor of slaves facilitated the leisurely,
pleasurable, and intimate candle-dip frolic for Columbia College students.
4
“Catalogue of the Governors, Trustees, and Officers, and of the Alumni and Other
Graduates, of Columbia College (Originally King’s College), in the City of New York, from 1754 to
1882,in Catalogue of the Governors, Trustees & Officers & of the Alumni & Other Graduates, Columbia
College (Originally King’s College) in the City of New York, from 1754 to 1882, 1882, 56.
5
“Catalogue of the Governors, Trustees, and Officers, and of the Alumni and Other
Graduates, of Columbia College,” 56.
6
Helen Evertson Smith, Colonial Days & Ways as Gathered From Family Papers (New York: The
Century Co., 1900), 317-327.
7
Smith, Colonial Days & Ways as Gathered From Family Papers, 317-327.
6
Four known slaves worked the candle-dip event, described in a recounting of the event as
“black Phyllis and Chloe” and “big and jolly black Castor and Pollux.”
8
At the event, Phyllis and
Chloe, wearing “butternut homespuns with white kerchiefs over the shoulders” and “red-and-yellow
plaided turbans,” “deftly handed” four to five candle rods to guests “as soon as they were seated.”
9
The seemingly prompt and precise labor on the part of Phyllis and Chloe facilitated the main event
of the evening--candle-dipping--for the elite white guests with ease. Castor and Pollux performed
strenuous and meticulous labor in preparing the materials for the main event of the night as well. In
preparation, Castor and Pollux are described as “lift[ing] from the fire the brass kettles full of melted
tallow, and deftly pour[ing] their contents to the depth of two or three inches more than a long
candle’s length upon the water with which the similar vessels on the floor were already filled.”
10
In
pouring the wax for candle-dipping so precisely, Castor and Pollux not only strained their bodies but
teetered along lines of expectations for their labor--pouring their materials for the guests in precise
and exact ways. Further, Castor and Pollux were the only sources of music for the entire night. The
played their fiddles for hours for guests, playing beautiful songs for the couples to dance along to. In
playing the music for this extravagant party, one can only imagine the pressures that Castor and
Pollux felt to please the guests, having to adapt music to the hours-long dancing festivities
throughout the evening. Throughout the evening, Castor and Pollux had to balance both their
creativity and knowledge of music with the recommendations and expectations of guests and their
masters who hosted the party to promote an atmosphere that allowed for couples to drink, dance,
and socialize with one another.
Although no direct descriptions are given of slaves serving food and drinks, cleaning, or
speaking to and entertaining guests, one can imagine that the lavish and large selection of food and
8
Smith, Colonial Days & Ways as Gathered from Family Papers, 319-320.
9
Smith, Colonial Days & Ways as Gathered from Family Papers, 320.
10
Smith, Colonial Days & Ways as Gathered from Family Papers, 319.
7
drinks served at the party were prepared and served by slaves; that enslaved people cleaned and
decorated the mansion before, during, and after the party; and that slaves served guests of the party
throughout the night. The lack of description of the labor performed at the party highlight the ways
in which enslaved people’s labor at leisurely and lavish events was erased. It is highly likely that more
than just four slaves tended the event, with more slaves preparing and serving food, pouring drinks,
and cleaning up after and entertaining guests. It is even possible that other guests may have brought
a slave or two of their own to the event to tend to their own needs. Tracking the ways in which the
labor of domestic slaves is silenced even in the narrative of the candle-dip party, which includes
descriptions of “jolly” and attentive slaves, is vital as it may indicate the ways in which the
households of Columbia affiliates were framed as both lavish and spaces of benevolent slave
ownership with compliant slaves. These silences of certain forms of domestic labor at the event--and
particularly the erasure of the labor associated with domestic tasks that weren’t central to the most
engaging activities of the night, dancing and candle-dipping--illustrate the ways in which the labor
performed by domestic slaves on a daily basis, like cooking, tending to masters, cleaning, and ironing
clothes, were ignored and erased at the event. In Out of the House of Bondage, historian Thavolia
Glymph notes that domestic labor performed by slaves was often shrouded and framed as having
been completed by the white mistresses who commanded their labor in order to uphold
presentations of civility within slaveholding households.
11
Notably, in the description of the slave’s behavior at the party, David Codwise’s niece
describes Phyllis, Chole, Castor, and Pollux as jubilant, prompt, and diligent in their work. Her
characterizations of the slaves neglected any negative descriptions of their behavior or the quality of
their work. Through these descriptors, two trends can be recognized. First, the slaves of William
Rhinelander may have presented themselves as happy and performed their labor with an outwardly
11
Glymph, Out of the House of Bondage, 22.
8
positive attitude to avoid punishment from their owners. Secondly, such depictions of the outward
attitudes of slaves may also be indicative of the ways in which the attitudes of slaves were selectively
presented in order to stage slaveholding households as benevolent and private spaces free from the
abuses associated with commanding the labor of slaves for production.
12
Surely the four slaves
mentioned, along with other unnamed slaves, continued to labor after the event, cleaning up after
guests and attending to the needs of their masters--who may have been drunk and belligerent after
drinking and dancing all night.
These slaves likely witnessed and were tasked with beautifying the consequences of the
drinking, partying, fighting, and candle-dipping of guests. They may have cleaned up vomit from
drunk guests, plates, silverware, cups, broken glasses, and spilled wax, under the command of their
masters and mistresses in order to maintain the appearance of domesticity within their master’s
household.
13
From the short descriptions of enslaved peoples’ role in the recounting of the candle-
dip party, it is clear that the slaves of a Columbia College student provided essential, demanding, and
strenuous labor that facilitated an event to reinforce the social norms among Columbia College
students and other New York City elites. The perception of the slaves as “jolly” and performing
their labor promptly and exactly was also integral to the function of the event--underscoring not
only the vital nature of the physical labor of slaves but also the ways in which white guests
interpreted their behavior while serving at the event. In other words, presenting slaves as content
and thorough was an integral part of uniting Columbia College affiliates and other elite New Yorkers
around an image of civility and ease, an image that could be easily destroyed if the violence faced by
slaves was acknowledged. Thus, in couching the labor of domestic slaves in the language of
benevolence and submission and in partaking in activities supported by the labor of these slaves,
12
Glymph, Out of the House of Bondage, 3.
13
Glymph, Out of the House of Bondage, 65.
9
Columbia College affiliates were able to project an image of civility for the college as a whole.
Despite the presentation of William Rhinelander’s slaves as cheerful, his slaves and other slaves of
Columbia College affiliates resisted their enslavement.
Only six years prior to the grand candle-dip frolic, on July 14, 1790, an eleven-year-old Afro-
American girl ran away from William Rhinelander’s “sugar house” on King George Street. In a
runaway slave advertisement submitted by William Rhinelander one day after her escape, Kate is
described as “handsome.” The day Kate ran away, she was wearing a red petticoat, a “dark striped
cotton frock,” and “a straw hat bound with black ribbon.”
14
In her eleven year-old hands, she carried
“another striped frock, green cloth cloak, and several checked aprons” as she escaped from
bondage.
15
After placing the first advertisement encouraging Kate’s capture, William Rhinelander
continued to advertise for her capture on two other print dates within the same week.
16
At the time
Kate ran away, it was highly unusual for female slaves, let alone female enslaved children, to escape
from bondage in New York.
17
Most runaway slaves were young adult men, and if children did run
away from slavery, they often fled with their mothers or other adults.
18
In fact, from 1786-1795, of
the 251 runaway slaves in New York and New Jersey, only 33 known runaway slaves were below the
age of 15 and solely 19.5% of all runaway slaves in New York and New Jersey were female.
19
14
William Rhinelander, “A Negro Girl Run Away,” Advertisement, The Daily Advertiser, July
15, 1790, 3. America’s Historical Newspapers Database.
15
William Rhinelander, “A Negro Girl Run Away,” Advertisement, The Daily Advertiser, July
15, 1790, 3. America’s Historical Newspapers Database.
16
William Rhinelander, “A Negro Girl Run Away,” Advertisement, The Daily Advertiser, July
15, 1790, 3. America’s Historical Newspapers Database.;
William Rhinelander, “A Negro Girl Run Away,” Advertisement, The Daily Advertiser, July 16,
1790, 3. America’s Historical Newspapers Database.;
William Rhinelander, “A Negro Girl Run Away,” Advertisement, The Daily Advertiser, July 19,
1790, 3. America’s Historical Newspapers Database.
17
Leslie M. Harris, In the Shadow of Slavery: African-Americans in New York City, 1626-1863
(Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2003), 47.
18
Harris, In the Shadow of Slavery, 62.
19
Shane White, Somewhat More Independent: The End of Slavery in New York City, 1770-1810
(Athens, GA: University of Georgia Press, 1991), 143.
10
Further, Kate fled from bondage at a rare time in New York, as less than 25 known slaves ran away
from their masters in New York and New Jersey in 1790.
20
As a young child running for her life and
her freedom on her own, Kate may have used her youth to her advantage, using the gullibility of
whites and her young appearance to escape from Rhinelander.
21
Because of the nature of the advertisement, which was written by Kate’s master in an
attempt to reclaim her as his property, it is difficult to know why she ran away from bondage.
Perhaps she was physically or sexually abused by William Rhinelander or other white New Yorkers
and felt that escape was her only path to safety. Perhaps an eleven-year-old Kate sought to reunite
with her parents after being separated from them at auction. Perhaps Kate ran away with hopes of
reuniting with family and friends for weeks or months, or maybe she had hopes of running away to
permanent freedom. In New York and New Jersey, many slaveholders would indicate why they
thought their slaves ran away, underscoring that they may have run away to visit family members
and other slaves, to pass as free, or to avoid punishment.
22
However, as noted by Shane White, some
masters provided no reasoning for why their slaves ran away and saw the actions of their runaways
“utterly perplexing,” feeling that their slaves “recognized their good intentions and reciprocated with
feelings of affection.”
23
What is clear is that Kate, as an eleven year-old girl--an extreme rarity among
runaway slaves in New York City in 1790--was desperate to be free from her master and from
bondage for a reason, despite her master’s confusion around her motivation for running. As a small
child, she risked her life in her pursuit of freedom from Columbia College student William
Rhinelander and managed to avoid capture for at least four days. She risked severe punishment if
caught, including possibly being separated from her friends and family, violent punishment, and
20
White, Somewhat More Independent, 141.
21
White, Somewhat More Independent, 123.
22
White, Somewhat More Independent, 126-7.
23
White, Somewhat More Independent, 126.
11
being sold to harsher owners.
24
As a child running away on her own, she certainly felt anxious,
scared, and confused, cognizant that her identity as a slave could be discovered at any moment.
Despite the attempts by Columbia College affiliates and other elite New Yorkers to present
the household and domestic slavery as benevolent and gentle, domestic slaves constantly resisted
their enslavement. The runaway slave advertisement of Kate, a young female slave of the host of the
event, only a few years prior to the candle-dip party indicates that domestic slaves themselves were
not content with their enslavement and rippled the presentation of domestic slavery as a domestic
institution through their resistance. The event held in the Rhinelander mansion and Kate’s running
away from bondage only provide a small glimpse into the role domestic slaves played in upholding
Columbia College, Columbia College affiliates, and elite New Yorkers more broadly and of the ways
in which domestic slaves resisted the abuses in which they were subjected.
Runaway Slave Advertisements: Tracing Resistance of and Violence Faced By Domestic
Slaves:
Although there are very few sources created in the 1700s by slaves themselves to express
their feelings about slavery or indicate their resistance, runaway slave advertisements give some
indication of the ways in which slaves resisted bondage. In order to trace a larger picture of the lives
of domestic slaves--including the labor they performed, who commanded their labor, and the ways
in which they both suffered and were subjected to violence--runaway slave advertisements will be
essential. Runaway slave advertisements will provide foundational knowledge of the ways in which
domestic slaves resisted their enslavement and suffered violence at the hands of their masters. This
paper will rely heavily on Jordan Brewington’s prior research into runaway slave advertisements of
slaves of Columbia College affiliates and runaway slave advertisements of slaves in New York more
24
White, Somewhat More Independent, 139.
12
broadly. The runaway slave advertisements, found in New York newspapers, often include
descriptions of slaves’ appearance (including identifiable marks that could indicate violence or abuse
at the hands of masters), if slaves had any children, and if masters had any ideas for why their slaves
ran away. Runaway slave advertisements often highlight more negative traits of slaves, like if they
drink alcohol or talk back, and underscore skills that would be valuable when running away, such as
language skills or skills like welding that could provide them with sources of income while on the
run. Because of the nature of runaway slave advertisements, it is often difficult to confirm that a
slave would work within the household or in domestic spheres, as owners often did not recognize
cooking, cleaning, sewing, or child-rearing skills as important in identifying slaves. Thus, for the
purpose of this paper, I will examine runaway slave advertisements of Columbia College affiliates
and New York City more broadly for indications of violence, abuse, and resistance.
As noted in Jordan Brewington’s original research, among the 44 known runaway slave
advertisements placed by Columbia College affiliates, roughly half mention physical deformities of
slaves.
25
Some of the deformities mentioned in runaway slave advertisements of Columbia College
affiliates certainly not only caused enslaved people pain, but affected their ability to perform their
labor as well. In runaway slave advertisements placed by Columbia affiliates, slaves are described as
having pain in their feet that is so severe that they have trouble walking, missing teeth, red in their
eyes, and “toes so tender in the front that he has to split his shoes.”
26
One Columbia College Class
of 1789 member, Henry Izard, had even admitted to branding a runaway slave on the cheek. It is
25
Jordan Brewington, “‘Run-away from the Subscriber’: Resistance Against King’s College
and Columbia Slave-owning Students and Affiliates from the Class of 1760 to 1805,” Columbia
University and Slavery, https://columbiaandslavery.columbia.edu/student-research/run-away-
subscriber-resistance-against-kings-college-and-columbia-slave-owning-students-and#/_ftn58.
26
Charles Doughty, “Run-away from Charles Doughty,New York Mercury, May 12, 1766.;
Elbert Herring, “Run away from the Subscriber,” New York Gazette, August 22, 1763.;
Robert G. Livingston, “Twenty Dollars Reward,” County Journal, August 2, 1786.;
Henry Izard, “Twenty Dollars Reward,” New York Morning Post, June 27, 1785.
13
clear, then, that the slaves of Columbia College affiliates experienced injury throughout their lives
and that slave-owning Columbia College affiliates asserted physical violence over their slaves.
In New York more broadly, known domestic slaves are also described as experiencing
horrendous deformities and injuries. For example, in a runaway slave advertisement for a slave
named Philis placed in January of 1773, the female slave is described as running away on December
25th, Christmas day. A cook, she is described as wearing a “light colored calamanco gown, “a
checked apron, a black silk coat, and a black peelong bonnet.” In the advertisement, placed by a
white woman named Mary Exceen, Philis is described as being “marked on the forehead with a
diamond” and as having “lost several of her fingers on each hand, and also some of her toes.”
27
This
runaway slave advertisement exemplifies the severe violence to which enslaved female domestic
slaves were subjected. For Philis, her injuries not only served as daily reminders of her bondage but
also hindered her ability to complete her work as a domestic slave. One can only imagine the ways in
which Philis had to adjust to her multiple missing appendages when cooking for her owners. Her
advertisement indicates the ways in which white women not only participated in commanding the
labor of domestic slaves, but in exerting power and violence over them as well, as the advertisement
for the runaway slave was placed by her female owner. In this way, white women in New York were
not merely inactive participants in slavery or victims to white men, but exerted their power as
mistresses over their Afro-American female domestic slaves, subjecting them to violence and
actively participating in their capture after they ran away. This underscores an observation made by
Glymph about white mistresses in the antebellum South: that white mistresses could be just as, if
27
Mary Exceen, “RUNAWAY from the Subscriber, on the 25th of December last,” The
New-York Gazette, January 4, 1773, in “Pretends to be Free”: Runaway Slave Advertisements from Colonial and
Revolutionary New York and New Jersey, ed. By Graham Russell Hodges and Alan Edward Brown (New
York: Garland Publishing, Inc., 1994), 166.
14
not more, violent than male slaveholders and that they wielded their power as slave-owners to
violently and brutally command the labor of female slaves.
28
Further, runaway slave advertisements exemplify how female domestic slaves may have
utilized their proximity and intimacy with their owners when running away. For example, in an
advertisement placed by the father of Columbia College Class of 1795 student, Elbert Herring, a
female slave named Vilet is described as possibly having taken with her men’s clothes, including a
pair of boots and a blue coat, in an attempt to pass for a man in her escape from bondage. In the
advertisement, Vilet, who squints with one eye, is described as having shaved her hair, perhaps in an
attempt to further pass as a man while running away.
29
This strategy proved useful for Vilet, as
Herring continued to search for her in January, three months after her initial escape in November.
Although Herring does not directly indicate if Vilet specialized in any domestic skills, her runaway
slave advertisement may provide a glimpse into the possible ways in which female domestic slaves
wielded their proximity to their masters in their escape. In Vilet’s case, access to male clothing seems
to have made a difference in her escape, allowing her to not have been caught for three months. For
a runaway slave, closeness to their masters’ clothing--and possibly even creating their clothing
themselves--could have provided unique access to escape methods involving bending normative
gender constructions. Thus, runaway slave advertisements indicate that domestic slaves may have
used their intimate contact with their masters in their escape, ultimately resisting their enslavement
by using the particular forms of labor they were forced to perform to their own benefit.
Eleven-year-old Kate also seems to have weaponized her proximity to clothing as a slave,
perhaps indicating that she was a domestic slave as well. In her advertisement, Rhinelander does not
describe her personality but instead focuses intently on the precise clothing she wore, down to the
28
Glymph, Out of the House of Bondage, 4-5.
29
Elbert Herring, “Run Away in November Last,” New York Gazette, January 17, 1763.
15
color of the ribbon in her straw hat, the color of her petticoat, and the pattern on her dress. Further,
Rhinelander underscores that she took with her several other articles of clothing, including multiple
aprons and another striped dress.
30
In New York City more broadly, domestic slaves were able to
plot their escape around their access to clothing. In a slave advertisement from a slaveholder in New
York unaffiliated with Columbia, a “tall slim” female domestic slave named Pegg is described as
having runaway wearing a red cloak, white hat, and pair of men’s shoes. Further, her owner, John
Leversage, describes Pegg as taking with her “her callico gown and a variety of clothes.”
31
As a forty-
year-old “sensible,” “cunning and artful” slave that could “wash iron and cook,” Pegg was certainly
able to plan her escape around her access to clothing in the domestic realm.
The runaway slave advertisement calling for Pegg’s capture indicates how access to the
clothing of slave-owners, by washing and ironing them as a part of commanded labor, allowed for
female domestic slaves in New York City to plan their escapes around access to both an abundance
of clothing and particular articles of clothing. Like with Vilet, Kate’s and Pegg’s ability to not only
take with them outfits on their bodies, but also unusual accessories--like Kate’s ribbon-bound straw
hat--and several extra changes of clothes may signal how domestic slaves used their particular
position to resist against their masters. The closeness domestic slaves experienced to practical
supplies, like clothing, gave domestic slaves access to supplies that could be used by long-term
runaway slaves. Kate was even able to take with her a straw hat--a valuable item for a runaway slave
on the run in the July sun. Domestic slaves resisted their enslavement by using their closeness to
30
William Rhinelander, “A Negro Girl Run Away,” Advertisement, The Daily Advertiser, July
15, 1790, 3.
31
John Leversage, “Run away, last night the 12th instant,” The New-York Gazette, December
13, 1764, in Pretends to be Free”: Runaway Slave Advertisements from Colonial and Revolutionary New York
and New Jersey, ed. By Graham Russell Hodges and Alan Edward Brown (New York: Garland
Publishing, Inc., 1994), 166.
16
their masters and their involvement in domestic labor, like sewing, cleaning, and ironing clothes in
planning and executing their escapes.
Selling Domestic Slaves: Gendered Punishment and Tracing the Value of Domestic Labor:
This paper will also rely on advertisements selling domestic slaves. These sources present the
appearance, skills, and personalities of enslaved people. Unlike runaway slave advertisements,
advertisements selling slaves do not tend to present negative personality traits or physical
deformities of slaves. With an advertisement selling slaves, one would expect a master to neglect any
traits that may degrade the value of the slave property they hope to sell. Thus, one would expect an
owner to neglect any mention that a slave might talk back, be a frequent runaway, or have a limp or
other disability. Instead, one would expect an owner selling a slave to underscore positive traits of
slaves, such as special skills, disease immunities, and positive personality traits.
In an advertisement selling a female domestic slave in 1734, twenty years before the
founding of King’s College, John McLennan publicized putting a twenty-year-old “Negro Woman”
up for sale. In the advertisement, McLennan, an individual unaffiliated with King’s College, states
that the slave could cook boiled or roasted food “pretty well;” calls her a “good dairy woman;” says
she was skilled in soap-making; highlights her ability to wash, iron, and starch clothing; and states
that she could card and spin wool, twine, and cotton. McLennan also indicates that the unnamed
slave was quiet, healthy, strong, and did not smoke or drink alcohol. The advertisement reveals that
the enslaved woman lived on the “upper End of Beaver Street, near the Royal Bowling Green” with
her owner.
32
This slave advertisement presents some of the labor performed by enslaved women
within households in New York City in the colonial period. The advertisement demonstrates that
32
John McLennan, “To be sold, a young Negro Woman,” The New York Weekly Journal,
September 30, 1734, 4.
17
slaveholding households relied on the labor of domestic slaves to maintain their households, in
terms of managing and providing their households with food and clothing, keeping the homes of
slaveholders presentable, and even providing their owners with the necessary means for bathing.
Further, the mere fact that this young enslaved woman was up for sale--and that her skills as
a domestic laborer were highlighted in the advertisement--demonstrates that the special skills that
female domestic slaves acquired were valuable on the market even before King’s College was
founded. In the colonial period, the labor of domestic slaves like McLennon’s would have played
prominent roles in maintaining the households of the New York City elite and later founders of
King’s College, like Philip Livingston and the Philipse family. The labor of enslaved domestic
laborers, like the one sold by McLennon, thus, were integral to beautifying and cleaning the homes
of white families in New York City. Not only did these enslaved domestic laborers keep homes
presentable, however. They were also foundational to ensuring that their owners themselves could
present themselves in particular ways in public, making, cleaning, and ironing clothes for their
owners, and even producing soap for their owners to maintain their cleanliness. In the colonial
period, this labor by slaves would have, thus, helped to establish the boundaries of societal norms
and class distinctions.
In an advertisement placed in 1735, a white female slaveholder named Mary Kippin placed
an unnamed female slave who is around 30 years old up for sale. She underscores that the slave has
good English skills, has been trained in household duties, and is a "fine" cook. Further, the
advertisement notes that the enslaved woman “has now a Young Child.”
33
In a 1747 advertisement,
an unnamed slaveholder placed a "healthy" and "strong" female slave that can do all manner of
domestic work up for sale in New York City. The advertisement, like the one placed by Mary Kippin
33
Mary Kippin, “"To be sold, a very likely Negro Woman, about 30 Years of Age,” The New
York Weekly Journal, April 28, 1735.
18
in 1735, notes that the female slave has a child with her. There are very limited details in the
advertisement, as the advertisement gives no indication of the enslaved woman's place of birth,
special skills, language skills, age, or name. The slave advertisement selling a female domestic slave in
1747 is extremely stark in that it does little to influence confidence in the purchase, as the owner
only spends one sentence describing the slave, with no description of her personality or of the
quality of her work in the domestic sphere. The advertisement, thus, indicates that the owner may
either be in a rush to sell the slave or not truly want the slave to be sold. Perhaps the owner wrote
the advertisement after feeling embarrassed because of circumstances surrounding their slave. It is
of particular note that in both the 1735 and 1747 advertisements selling female slaves, the slaves are
noted as having newly young children.
Both of these advertisements attempt to sell women with very young children. In the
advertisement placed by Mary Kippin, the new child that the slave had given birth to seems to be of
importance in her selling. As the advertisement is placed by a mistress, it raises questions about why
the slave-holding woman felt the need to sell her female slave and the slave’s young child shortly
after the child was born. In the 1747 advertisement selling a female slave, the child is also one of the
only details included about the slave. Perhaps, then, the advertisements indicate that the slave-
owners felt a need to sell their slaves because of circumstances surrounding the birth of the slaves’
children. Maybe the enslaved women sold with newly-born slave children gave birth to children
resembling their masters, leading to jealousy among mistresses.
34
Perhaps slave-owners felt that the
enslaved women were not as productive after giving birth. Regardless, it is evident that in colonial
34
Harriet Ann Jacobs, “The Jealous Mistress,” in Incidents in the Life of the Slave Girl
(Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2000).
http://xroads.virginia.edu/~HYPER/JACOBS/hjch6.htm.
In Incidents of the Life of a Slave Girl, Harriet Ann Jacobs underscores the ways in which
jealousy on the part of mistresses after sexual relations between masters and slaves could break slave
families apart and lead to the selling of female slaves.
19
New York City, having young children could greatly affect the lives of enslaved female domestic
slaves and put them at increased risk of being sold on the market.
Columbia College students also sold domestic slaves on the market. James Barclay, a King’s
College Class of 1766 member, sold a large number of slaves throughout his lifetime, including
several female slaves along with their children. For example, in April of 1785, he sold a “Negro
wenchand her six month-old son, along with non-human items like ribbons, stockings, and
blankets.
35
Strikingly, Barclay’s slave advertisement of the mother and her six month-old child lacks a
detailed and thorough description of the slave’s abilities or personality, with more space granted to
describing the non-human goods also sold at his brokerage office. In January of 1786, he put a thirty
year-old enslaved woman described as a "complete cook" who "understands all housework" up for
sale. Devastatingly, Barclay placed her on the market with her fourteen year-old daughter skilled in
housework and especially in raising children. Further, the thirty year-old woman’s five year-old and
three year-old sons are also placed for sale on the market. James Barclay, their owner and a member
of the Columbia College Class of 1766, notes that the slaves are sold "for no fault" but does not
include a request that they be purchased together as a unit, putting the woman and her children up
for risk of being sold separately.
36
The advertisements placed by James Barclay demonstrate the direct ties between Columbia
College affiliates and the psychological abuse of and separating of families of domestic slaves. In
directly selling these slaves, and particularly mothers with their young children, Barclay was certainly
directly exposed to the pain and trauma caused by his participation in the slave system. In these
advertisements, enslaved women are sold with young children, similar to the advertisements from
35
James Barclay, “FOR SALE, AT James Barclay's Commission and Brokerage OFFICE,”
New York Morning Post, April 21, 1785.
36
James Barclay, “TO BE SOLD, AT PRIVATE SALE A NEGRO WENCH," Independent
Journal, January 18, 1786.
20
the 1730s and 1740s explored above. These enslaved women sold with their young children were
subjected to increased psychological trauma as they were at risk of being sold away from their own
children, losing access to their children and hearing their screams and statements of worry and
concern. The advertisement selling the mother along with her 14 year-old daughter exemplifies the
ways in which young female domestic slave girls may have been used for their ability to reproduce,
as the mother in the 1786 advertisement was pregnant with her teenage daughter at around the age
of fifteen. The advertisement further demonstrates a prized skill among female domestic slaves--the
ability to rear children. These advertisements demonstrate, thus, that enslaved girls and women were
not only valued, in part, because of their ability to reproduce, but also in their ability to help raise the
children of their masters.
Wills and Testaments of Slaveholders:
There are many misconceptions about white mistresses in the United States. Past scholarship
has framed white female slaveholders as closeted abolitionists, gentle with their slaves, and
completely powerless because of their subjugation to white men. However, analysis of the last wills
and testaments of both male and female slaveholders in New York demonstrate the power white
women held over their slaves and the ways in which they chose to embrace their ultimate power of
ownership. White males slaveholders often leave their slaves to female family members. Many male
slaveholders leave portions of their slave property with their widows, for the duration of their
widowhood.
37
Further, many women themselves owned slaves, and thus chose their slaves’ fate at
37
Zebulon Dickenson,Last Will and Testament of Zebulon Dickenson,” dated July 29,
1751, in Abstracts of Wills on File in the Surrogate's Office: City of New York, Volume 28, 372.
Samuel Stringham, “Last Will and Testament of Samuel Stringham,” dated May 14, 1752, in
Abstracts of Wills on File in the Surrogate's Office: City of New York, Volume 28, 386-87.
Richard Seaman, “Last Will and Testament of Richard Seaman,” dated April 17, 1752, in
Abstracts of Wills on File in the Surrogate's Office: City of New York, Volume 28, 387-89.
21
their death. Despite some assumptions by earlier scholars that enslaved women were closeted
abolitionists or felt some connection to their slaves, many -- if not most -- mistresses did not free
their slaves at their death. In fact, of the volume of wills and testaments accessed for my research,
only one slave-owning woman, named Elizabeth Viellet, directly set her four slaves free at her
death.
38
On the contrary, slaveholding women passed down their slaves to other relatives and
friends, consolidating property-ownership in slaves among white New Yorkers. For example,
Susanna Tull, a female slaveholder from New York left her niece, Susanah, both a male and female
slave and gave her sister, Elsie, a female and male slave as well.
39
After being left three slaves by her
husband in his will, Phebe Tredwell left at least one of her male slaves to a friend, Jacob Smith.
40
Neeltie Pawling was left one female slave named Bess to “wait on her” in her son, Albert Pawling’s,
will in 1745.
41
Philip Livingston, one of the founders of King’s College, witnessed several wills
passing on slaves as property, demonstrating the deep connections Columbia College affiliates had
to making profit off of the trauma of enslaved people left to new owners in wills.
42
Albert Pawling’s
choice to leave his mother a specific slave to wait on her in her old age demonstrates the centrality
of domestic slaves in the lives of white female New Yorkers in the period immediately preceding the
founding of King’s College. The trends in last wills and testaments overall demonstrate that white
women in slave-holding homes were not closeted abolitionists waiting to free their slaves after their
38
Elizabeth Viellet, “Last Will and Testament of Elizabeth Viellet,” dated May 3, 1750,
proved November 12, 1750, in Abstracts of Wills on File in the Surrogate's Office: City of New York, Volume
28, 310.
39
Susanna Tull, “Last Will and Testament of Susanna Tull, dated August 26, 1750, in
Abstracts of Wills on File in the Surrogate's Office: City of New York, Volume 28, 352.
40
Phebe Tredwell, “Last Will and Testament of Phebe Tredwell,” dated August 3, 1748, in
Abstracts of Wills on File in the Surrogate's Office: City of New York, Volume 28, 196-7.
John Tredwell, “Last Will and Testament of John Tredwell,” dated July 23, 1745, in Abstracts
of Wills on File in the Surrogate's Office: City of New York, Volume 28, 150-1.
41
Albert Pawling, “Last Will and Testament of Albert Pawling,” dated August 27, 1745, in
Abstracts of Wills on File in the Surrogate's Office: City of New York, Volume 28, 63-4.
42
Barent Vroman, “Last Will and Testament of Barent Vroman,” dated April 14, 1749, in
Abstracts of Wills on File in the Surrogate's Office: City of New York, Volume 28, 213-4.
22
husbands’ deaths or their deaths. Instead, the wills demonstrate that white women wielded power
over enslaved Afro-Americans, passed slaveholding down to other white women, and relied on the
labor of slaves after the deaths of their husbands.
Conclusion:
It is clear through a thorough analysis of archival evidence from colonial New York’s history
of slaveholding that legacies of elite institutions, like Columbia University, rest on the labor of
enslaved people. Further, although white women were not able to partake in the educational
resources of Columbia University, they also benefited from the labor of slaves in elite colonial
society in New York. Further, white women were central to the violence and exploitation of
domestic slaves through the ownership of slaves, violence against slaves, and the use of their labor.
Further, domestic slaves--whose labor constructed cultural norms for the elite social class of New
York City--were subjected to violence and resisted their enslavement. Thus, although white elite
New Yorkers presented domestic slavery and the institutions upheld by the labor of domestic slaves
as benevolent and civil--in an attempt to present Columbia and New York City’s elite circles in the
same vein--domestic slavery was anything but. Slaves constantly resisted their bondage and made use
of the particular forms of proximity their labor afforded them in resisting their enslavement.
It is critical to note that because of the historical erasure of certain voices from primary
source evidence, it is impossible to fully analyze the impacts of slavery in colonial New York and at
King’s College. In particular, there is a lack of archival evidence into the lives of slaves outside of the
views of their masters. For instance, if there was more evidence from the perspective of slaves
historians might be able to understand how slaves engaged with King’s College and the education
that their owners were exposed to. For example, it could be interesting to explore if slaves engaged
23
in learning alongside their owners in classes or while they studied. Further, perhaps historians might
be able to understand how slaves interacted with one another within domestic spheres, perhaps at
parties or in educational settings.
24
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Morning Post, April 21, 1785.
Barclay, James. “TO BE SOLD, AT PRIVATE SALE A NEGRO WENCH." Independent Journal,
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