Notorious in the Neighborhood sex and families across the color line in virginia, 1787–1861 Joshua D. Rothman The University of North Carolina Press Chapel Hill & London Notorious in the Neighborhood ∫ 2003 The University of North Carolina Press All rights reserved Set in New Baskerville and Snell Roundhand by Keystone Typesetting, Inc. Manufactured in the United States of America The paper in this book meets the guidelines for permanence and durability of the Committee on Production Guidelines for Book Longevity of the Council on Library Resources. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Rothman, Joshua D. Notorious in the neighborhood : sex and families across the color line in Virginia, 1787–1861 / by Joshua D. Rothman. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. isbn 0-8078-2768-1 (cloth: alk. paper) isbn 0-8078-5440-9 (pbk.: alk. paper) 1. Interracial marriage—Virginia—History. 2. Miscegenation—Social aspects— Virginia—History. 3. Racially mixed people—Virginia—History. 4. Miscegenation— Law and legislation—Virginia—History. 5. Virginia—Race relations—History. I. Title. hq1031 .r695 2003 306.84%6%09755—dc21 2002007568 Portions of this work have appeared previously, in somewhat different form, as ‘‘James Callender and Social Knowledge of Interracial Sex in Antebellum Virginia,’’ in Sally Hemings and Thomas Jefferson: History, Memory, and Civic Culture, ed. Jan Lewis and Peter S. Onuf, 87–113 (Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia, 1999); ‘‘ ‘Notorious in the Neighborhood’: An Interracial Family in Early National and Antebellum Virginia,’’ Journal of Southern History 67, no. 1 (February 2001): 73–114; and ‘‘ ‘to be freed from thate curs and let at liberty’: Interracial Adultery and Divorce in Antebellum Virginia,’’ Virginia Magazine of History and Biography 106, no. 4 (Autumn 1998): 443–81. They are reprinted here with permission. cloth 07 06 05 04 03 54321 paper 07 06 05 04 03 54321 frontispiece Virginian Luxuries (artist unknown), ca. 1815 (Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Folk Art Museum, Colonial Williamsburg Foundation, Williamsburg, Va.) for my parents, whose love of knowledge is an inspiration Contents Acknowledgments xi Introduction 1 interlude: Stories Told about Monticello 12 Chapter 1. Thomas Jefferson, Sally Hemings, James Callender, and Sex across the Color Line under Slavery 14 interlude: The Community of Mary Hemings 53 Chapter 2. Notorious in the Neighborhood: An Interracial Family in Early National and Antebellum Virginia 57 interlude: The Funeral of David Isaacs 88 Chapter 3. The Church and the Brothel Are Only Separated by a Pane of Glass: Sex and Race on the Streets of Richmond 92 interlude: The Context for Lawmaking 130 Chapter 4. The Strongest Passion That Can Possibly Aggitate the Human Mind: Sexual Violence, Slave Crime, Law, and the White Community 133 interlude: The Fate of Lucy Bowman 164 Chapter 5. To Be Freed from Thate Curs and Let at Liberty: Interracial Adultery and Divorce 169 interlude: The Mysteries of William Carlton 199 Chapter 6. Let There Be but Two Races among Us: Mixed Bloods in Early National and Antebellum Law and Society 204 interlude: Toward a New Racial Order 235 Epilogue 239 Notes 245 Bibliography 307 Index 331 Illustrations Map 1. Albemarle County, 1780–1800 33 Figure 1. Genealogy of the West-Isaacs-Hemings-Fossett Families 54 Map 2. The Town of Charlottesville, 1818 64 Map 3. Richmond, 1835 106 Map 4. Richmond, 1856 114 Acknowledgments Every historian ought to recognize the inestimable value of help- ful and knowledgeable archivists and librarians. I have been blessed on this project to have found many such people. Much thanks to those at the Library of Virginia, the Valentine Museum, and the University of Virginia Library’s Department of Special Collections. Particular debts are owed to Teresa Roane at the Valentine, who put me onto sources that I might never otherwise have found, and to Brent Tarter, Gregg Kimball, and John Kneebone at the LOV, with whom I shared enriching discus- sions at many a lunch. Thomas Jefferson would surely be proud of the intellectual commu- nity cultivated at and near his beloved Monticello. I am grateful to the Thomas Jefferson Foundation for providing me both with a year-long dissertation fellowship and with a space to work at Kenwood, the home of the International Center for Jefferson Studies and surely one of the most aesthetically pleasant environments in the United States for reading, writing, and contemplation. James Horn, the Saunders Direc- tor of the ICJS, is both a fine scholar and a primary reason for the collegiality evident at Kenwood. I am also extremely grateful to Cinder Stanton, Shannon Senior Research Historian of the ICJS, and to Dianne Swann-Wright, the center’s Director of African-American and Special Programs, both of whom I am fortunate to have as friends and whose work has added immeasurably to my understanding of the Hemings family specifically and of slavery at Monticello generally. Both also read and commented on parts of the manuscript on which this book is based. One of the smartest choices I have ever made was attending graduate school at the University of Virginia. The Corcoran Department of His- tory, the Center for Children, Family, and the Law, and the Carter G. Woodson Institute for Afro-American and African Studies all provided much needed financial support. Studying at Virginia also brought me into contact with friends, mentors, advisers, and colleagues who played large roles in making this book possible. Thanks especially to Reginald Butler, Jeffrey Hantman, Phyllis Leffler, Turk McCleskey, Fraser Neiman, Bob Vernon, Henry Weincek, Camille Wells, and other participants in what was then known as the Central Virginia Social History Project for their comments, criticism, and guidance. Eric Lott helped shape how I think about history and race, and also served as an outside reader on my dissertation committee. I am unashamed to say that the three members of Virginia’s history faculty who served on my committee are my professional heroes. Both individually and collectively, Ed Ayers, Joe Miller, and Peter Onuf taught me how to think, how to write, and how to teach. Each has earned a lifetime of gratitude, and I hope this book makes them proud to be associated with it. I also learned a great deal from my fellow graduate students, many of whom graciously gave me their intellectual insights and their friendship, the latter of which was especially critical to surviving what can sometimes be the disheartening experience of getting a doctoral degree. Andy Mor- ris, Amy Murrell, Steve Norris, Scott Taylor, Andy Trees, and I shared many therapeutic dinner conversations and many equally therapeutic bottles of Red Stripe beer at Monday evening meetings of our ‘‘disserta- tion support group’’ at the Blue Moon Diner. Thanks also to Watson Jennison and John Riedl, with whom I spent what was probably an in- ordinate amount of time. I doubt I ever became anything more than a mediocre basketball player by playing with them, and I know I never learned anything from the hours we spent late at night watching Jerry Springer. But I am certain that I am a better person and a better scholar for knowing them. Others who deserve to be acknowledged include Amy Feely, Scot French, Juliette Landphair, Matt Lassiter, Andy Lewis, Jeff McClurken, Anne Rubin, Philip Troutman, and Kirt von Daacke. Special thanks are due to Woody Holton for alerting me to the existence of the image that appears on the cover. Jim Baumgardner, Mary Frances Berry, Jane Dailey, Paul Gilje, Gra- ham Hodges, Linda Sturtz, and Elizabeth Varon commented on various conference papers that grew out of the research for this book. I pre- sented the earliest version of Chapter 1 in March 1999 at a conference in Charlottesville dedicated to discussing the meaning and significance of the Jefferson-Hemings DNA study, and benefited greatly from the comments of all my fellow presenters, especially Annette Gordon-Reed and Philip Morgan. Paul Apostolidis, Nelson Langford, Jan Lewis, Scott Marler, Elizabeth Shown Mills, and Juliet Williams guided articles and essays through the process of publication. Martha Hodes, George Rable, xii acknowledgments Diane Sommerville, Peter Wallenstein, and an anonymous reader from the University of North Carolina Press read the manuscript in its en- tirety. Kari Frederickson helped with drafts of the introduction. Tom Buckley offered valuable suggestions on several versions of Chapter 5 and was also generous enough to share with me some of his own research on the history of divorce in Virginia. At UNC Press, Chuck Grench and Amanda McMillan saw this book through the process of acquisition and Ron Maner served as project editor. All of these individuals saved me from analytical mishaps, factual errors, and bungled prose along the way, and I thank them for it. Whatever screw-ups remain are due to my own stubbornness and are entirely my own fault. Anyone who has ever written a book understands the loneliness inher- ent to the process. I must thank Calvin for making the solitude easier. He doesn’t speak much, and he can’t read this, but it should be noted for the record that his feline contributions are greatly appreciated. In February 1998, I went to a party in Charlottesville hosted by a friend of a friend, who turned out to be one of the strangest people I have ever met. She was also one of the most charming, outgoing, funny, talented, and beautiful people I have ever met. So I married her. I always assumed there were things in life more important than this book, but until I met Rebecca I wasn’t entirely sure what they were. Now I know. God bless the goose. I dedicate this book to my parents, Bonita and Jeffrey Rothman. Their commitment to the education of their children is boundless, their moral and financial support have never flagged even for a moment, and their intellectual curiosity and engagement with the world make them role models for living the well-examined life.