LANDSCAPE OF SLAVERY
Explore the dwelling of the enslaved
While many visitors associate the institution of slavery with the Southern States in 18th century America, prior to 1780 slavery was legal in Pennsylvania. In addition to being home to John and Presley Neville, the Woodville and Bower Hill properties were also home to over 80 enslaved men, women and children who built, maintained, and lived on this farm. These individuals were the largest contiguous community of African Americans, living west of the Allegheny Mountains in the United States prior to 1810. While these enslaved people lead a life of hardship and oppression, this was also a community of highly skilled individuals including joiners, blacksmiths, weavers, cooks, distillers and many other highly skilled trades that made this farm a self-sufficient community.
The inventory that was made of the Bower Hill property, following its destruction at the outset of the Whiskey Rebellion in 1794, lists several buildings that served as "home" for the enslaved. "A large square log kitchen, with shingle roof and stone chimney, two rooms on a floor", presumably served as a residence for the "fourteen negroes" whose "bedding and clothing" were listed as well. Also listed was "A small frame house where lived a family of negroes” valued at $26- the same amount as the poultry house for the farm. Many of the enslaved individuals lived in similar cabins, measuring less than 200 square feet and sleeping on "pallets" on the floor, with as many as eight to ten people sharing a single room structure. These cabins were the "mobile homes" of the period and could be disassembled and moved to allow the enslaved to be closer to the areas of the property where they worked.
1684
Enslaved People Arrived in Philadelphia
As the city developed, approximately 150 enslaved individuals were primarily used in building trades. By 1705, one in fifteen families owned at least one enslaved person. The peak years for the importation of enslaved individuals occurred between 1762 and 1766, with over 1,000 people brought into the city. By 1767, the enslaved population reached approximately 1,400, making up 8% of the city’s total population of 16,000. After that year, the number of enslaved individuals brought into the city declined significantly, with fewer than 30 arriving annually. In 1767, there were 521 recorded slaveholders, 83% of whom owned two or fewer enslaved individuals. The largest slaveholder in the city was John Philips, who owned a ropewalk for making rigging for ships and employed 13 enslaved individuals.
1767-1803 The Enslaved at Bower Hill and Woodville
What do these names tell us?
By the 1780s, enslaved people at Woodville were likely allowed to name their own children. Many babies were named after their mothers or fathers, helping to preserve family identity even as relatives faced the possibility of temporary or permanent separation.
Many of the African ancestors of Woodville’s enslaved people had their native names taken from them. Slave traders and owners assigned captives names that reinforced their enslaved status, often using shortened English names like Jack or Doll or drawing from Greek and Roman mythology, such as Pompey. Despite this, some captives privately held onto their African names as an act of resistance and a way to maintain their cultural heritage.
1767
1. Harvey (M) 19 years old
2. Joe (M)
3. Jack (M) 23 years old
1773
4. Cato (M) 20 years old
5. Farltex (F)
6. Jesse (M) 18 years old
1780
7. Jerry (M) 25 years old
8. Peg (F) 24 years old
9. James (M) 24 years old
10. Doll (F) 23 years old
11. Villet (F) 22 years old
12. Jacob (M) 19 years old
1780
13. Will (M) 7 years old
14. Sall (F) 6 years old
15. Putnam (M) 4 years old
16. Liz (F) 3 years old
17. Beck (F) 2 yeasrs old
18. Lemon (M) 3 months
19. Jack (M) 1 month
20. Anthony (M) 18 days
21. Nan (F) 48 years old
22. Esther (F) 45 years old
23. Lennon (M) 32 years old
24. Harry (M) 32 years old
1780
25. Pompey (M) 13 years old
26. Daniel (M) 9 years old
27. Dick (M) 7 years old
28. Jerry (M) 4 years old
29. Joe (M) 1 year old
30. Molly (F) 30 years old
31. Flavia (F) 11 years old
32. Letitia (F) 3 years old
1782-1803
Children of enslaved (J. Neville) 36-63
1789-1803
Children of enslaved (P. Neville) 64-79
TOTAL = 77 Enslaved Individuals
Pad = 78 known enslaved individuals
1789 and 1803
Emancipation of Henry Holt
The most recently discovered of Neville's enslaved people was Henry Holt. Holt, who served Presley Neville as a waiter and house servant, was granted his emancipation by Presley Nevillie in 1807, and was likely one of the 15 individuals owned by him and registered as born to enslaved parents between 1789 and 1803:
I Presley Nevill of the Borough of Pittsburgh in the State of Pennsylvania do here-by certify that Henry Holt, the bearer hereof was born in my family of free parents, that he himself is a free man & intitled to the same privileges with others in that Situation that he has a right to travel wethersoever he pleases and return at his discretion, he ~ behaving himself. I further certify that the said Henry Holt has always hitherto deported himself with honesty, Regularity and Temperance, as a good Waiter, a handy & useful servant, great confidence has frequently been reposed in him which he has never deceived or disappointed. In order that no improper use may be made of this certificate, and that the said Henry Holt may have the advantage intended him I further say that he is nineteen or twenty years of age, strong and well made five feet five or six inches high, full faced, and his complexion Black, considering his Mother was in part White. he has been well educated, reads & writes well, did understand figures and plays well on the Violin, either by note or otherwise.
Given under my Hand at Pittsburgh the 25th Day of June 1807
Presley Nevill
Recorded 25th June 1807~
1780
Pennsylvania Act for the Gradual Abolition of Slavery 1780
The act contained fourteen sections in total, some of which outlined the rules and regulations to gradually abolish slavery in Pennsylvania.
The first two sections of the act praised God for delivering Americans from the “tyranny of Great Britain.” It urged citizens of the fledgling United States to extend God’s merciful hand towards “negro or mulatto slaves.”
Section two compared the brutalization of human slavery to British oppression of its colonial subjects.
Sections four through eleven of the act outlined the regulations that would govern abolition and the restrictions placed on slaveholders. Section Four stated that every “negro or mulatto child” born of enslaved mothers after the bill’s passage would be considered “servants” to their masters until they turned 28 when they would receive their freedom.
