The internal economy of slavery in rural piedmont Virginia

Abstract

The internal economy never received legal recognition in Virginia. Legislators believed that allowing slaves to engage in independent economic activity would undermine the master's authority and threaten the institution. The internal economy created by Piedmont slaves also illuminates aspects of master-slave relationships, resistance and accommodation to slavery, contacts beyond home plantations, and the impact of slavery on post-emancipation behaviour. The internal economy developed from the most widely acknowledged slave privileges: garden plots, hunting and foraging rights and time off on Sundays and other holidays. The internal economy also increased the range of experiences blacks had under slavery, many of which proved vital in the post-emancipation era. Revolutionary ideas and evangelical Protestantism also eroded slaverys harsh edges and nurtured an idealized domestic slavery among masters. Markets for slave goods, common in larger towns and cities, also existed in Virginias rural villages.

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