I recently heard a lecture by Professor Andrew Levy in which he shared the remarkable story of one of George Washington’s contemporaries, Robert Carter III. You may not have heard of Robert Carter (l certainly hadn’t!) and yet this man did something truly profound. Professor Levy is the author of The First Emancipator, in which he reveals the unprecedented acts of a figure previously lost to history.
So, what exactly was this astonishing act? In the last decade of the 18th century, Carter freed over 500 slaves, the largest number of slaves ever freed by an American slaveholder until the Emancipation Proclamation of 1863. While George Washington may be famous as the only founding father to free his slaves, he was not the first, and he may well have been inspired to do so by Robert Carter.
Robert Carter III was the grandson of the famous King Carter, the patriarch of one of the wealthiest and most powerful families in Virginia, if not the entire Thirteen Colonies. When his father died, Robert inherited three generations of properties, including 65,000 acres of land, and over 100 slaves, all of which he increased substantially over his lifetime.
Carter became troubled, however, by the existence of slavery and began to change the status quo on his plantations. This manifested itself in several ways. Unlike common practice, he very rarely allowed his slaves to be beaten, and when there was a disagreement between his slaves and someone else, Carter always favored his slaves’ version of the events.
In 1787, when the U.S. Constitution was being drafted, the country was debating whether or not slavery should be banned in the new nation. After all, Thomas Jefferson did declare that “all men are created equal.” Yet, the prevailing popular opinion was that this was the worst possible moment to ban slavery. People disagreed about slavery’s morality and, perhaps more to the point, it was argued that abolishing slavery was simply not practical or possible without devastating economic and social consequences.
Meanwhile, Robert Carter, effectively turning a deaf ear to the national debate, was making plans for freeing his slaves through what he called his “Deed of Gift.” The Deed of Gift listed the names of Carter’s slaves, on which plantation each person worked, and the designated time when each was to receive his or her respective freedom. The instructions for emancipation within the Deed were to be executed in batches, with one group of slaves being freed after another, rather than all at one time. This process of emancipation required a great deal of planning and effort on Carter’s part. He had to go to each courthouse in the counties where his plantations were located and arrange his slaves’ legal status as free men and women.
It was an incredibly risky undertaking as well. The Deed of Gift had the potential to ruin the Carter family’s substantial livelihood, selling cash crops like tobacco (which is quite labor-intensive to harvest). Robert Carter, however, was able to emancipate his slaves and also adapt his business model to make money by renting out his land to his now-freed slaves and other tenants.
Robert Carter’s audacious Deed of Gift was not only difficult to execute but extremely unpopular among his fellow landowners. His actions made a lie of the notion that freeing slaves was a practical impossibility. Many neighboring landowners tried to fight Carter in court, and argued that freeing slaves would create a “public disturbance.” However, Carter was one of the most powerful men in Virginia, and he was determined to execute his plan on his own terms and on his own timetable. Carter wanted the Deed of Gift to be “a quiet revolution.” He tried to execute it with as little notoriety as possible. He accomplished this, but still sent shockwaves through American society with this “inconvenient truth.” His revolution was so quiet, however, that he was lost to history until Professor Levy wrote his book, The First Emancipator.
Robert Carter offers us two great legacies. First, he showed the United States that emancipation was possible at a time when popular opinion found it highly convenient to believe that it was not. Second, it is arguable that the actions of Robert Carter inspired the decision of George Washington to free his own slaves and set the great example we have all come to know.
Find out more about the book here: http://www.nytimes.com/2005/08/07/books/chapters/0807-1st-levy.html?pagewanted=all
