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Location: Palm Coast, FL
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 Posted: Fri 01 May 2009 22:33 Post subject: Stephen Foster's Slaves |
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In a private conversation, I mentioned that Stephen Foster's family had owned slaves in 1840s and 50s Pittsburgh. The question arose, "How could the Fosters have owned slaves in the 1840s and 50s, since slavery was abolished in Pennsylvania in 1780?"
The freeing of Pennsylvania slaves was by a law passed in February 1780 called by the public, "philanthropy at bargain prices." It decreed that any slave born before January 1, 1781 would remain a slave for life, and that all her children would also be slaves for life, no matter when they were born. But the children of a slave born after December 31, 1780, would become free upon reaching age 28.
For example, a woman born on December 31, 1780 would remain a slave until her death in 1860 (assuming she died at age 80). Her children, born in 1810 when she was age 30, would also be slaves until their deaths in 1890 (assuming that they also lived 80 years). But their children in turn (the original woman's grandchildren), born in 1840, would be slaves only until 1868 when they turned 28.
As you might expect, it was not uncommon for Pennsylvania owners of 27-year-old slaves to profit by selling them across the state border (called "the Mason-Dixon Line") to slave-owners in Maryland or Virginia.
The Pennsylvania census of 1850 showed hundreds of people held in bondage. Those born to slaves who had been born before January 1, 1781 would remain slaves for life. Those born to slaves who had been born after December 31, 1780 would remain slaves until their 28th birthdays. All remained slaves throughout the Civil War. The Emancipation Proclamation did not free them because Pennsylvania was not in rebellion. They were eventually freed by the 13th amendment to the U.S. Constitution.
Incidentally, what is taught in K-12 is that Pennsylvania's slaves were freed in 1780.
The four slaves owned by Stephen Foster's family were: Olivia Pius b.~1806, daughter of Caribbean French dance master Henry G. Pius; Tom Hunter b.~1818, son of a Pittsburgh soldier; Kitty b. 1809; and Catherine Russell birth date unknown, the family governess in 1842. |
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