![]() ![]() įarming in West Virginia produced about twice as much grain and livestock than was needed for subsistence, with one in ten farm workers being a slave. Occupations īy 1860 the use of slave labor in West Virginia was about 48% in agriculture, 16% in commerce, 21% in industry and 15% in mixed occupations. Although slave owners were a minority in West Virginia, they owned a higher proportion of land and wealth and often held public office in the county and state, where they could adapt public policy to their interests. One male slave sold for $1200, a woman and four children for $1950, the modern equivalent of $30,000 and $49,000 respectively. In 1835 a large auction was held in Charlestown, Jefferson County. When enslaved people were part of an estate, auctions were usually held at the county courthouse. Weekly slave auctions were held there and also in Charleston. Wheeling became a major regional hub for hiring or selling enslaved people to the local salt industry and to markets in the lower south. Wheeling's Market House and Town Hall, where weekly slave auctions were held. Wheeling's most noted writer of the period, Rebecca Harding Davis, explained Wheeling's unusual position-"We occupied the place of Hawthorne's unfortunate man who saw both sides." After his acquisition of the paper Campbell printed moderate attacks on slavery, keeping just short of breaking Virginia's laws restricting abolition propaganda. The Wheeling Daily Intelligencer, until purchased by Republican Archibald Campbell in 1856, routinely printed articles defending slavery and attacking abolitionism. The Wheeling newspapers criticized the activities of Ohio humane societies and their support for runaway slaves. In her visit to the United States in 1829, Frances Trollope found in Wheeling "all that sedulous attention which in this country distinguishes a slave state.". One of West Virginia's northernmost plantations was Shepherd Hall, a Federal house built in 1798 by Moses Shepherd, which had slave quarters, its own mill and tannery. The number of enslaved people in the northern panhandle was comparatively small, reaching 247 in the 4 counties by 1850. Wheeling was the largest city in western Virginia and the fourth largest city in Virginia, poised northward between Ohio and Pennsylvania. On the other side neat cottages and comfortable cabins were to be seen at every little remove along the river. On the Virginia side, there were some good houses at remote distances from each other but accompanied by the negro quarters. In 1814 Zadok Cramer wrote of his travels on the Ohio River in the Western Gleaner-"There is a plain contrast between the different sides of the river, arising from slavery being forbid on one, and tolerated on the other. Similar structures and accompanying slaves soon spread along the Ohio River up to the northern panhandle. ![]() In 1800 Harman Blennerhassett built a large Palladian home on Belpre Island, now called Blennerhassett Island, on the Ohio River near Parkersburg. ![]() In the early 19th century new settlers on their way to the Missouri territory would pass through the Kanawha Valley to the Ohio River and often remained there, attracted by the low cost of land and money made by leasing the people they enslaved to the local saltmakers. New settlers also moved into these areas from eastern Virginia and North Carolina. Large clearing of lands began after 1790. They would sometimes purchase enslaved people in Maryland and northern Virginia on their way to the Kanawha and Ohio River valleys. News of Ebenezer Zane's settlement near present-day Wheeling and the prospect of cheap and fertile land drew new settlers from as far away as New England. "Blakeley", Jefferson County, home of John Augustine Washington II, built 1820 In 1836 David Gibson began construction of Sycamore Dale in Romney, Hampshire County, with the aid of 100 enslaved people. Fairfax and his family, became the slave quarters. The old log homes on the estate, formerly the residences of Col. John Fairfax of Preston County began the construction of his mansion, Fairfax Manor, with the aid of his sons and 30 enslaved people. Many prominent families, such as the Washingtons, Fairfaxes, and Lees, had properties here. The counties of the eastern panhandle, especially Jefferson and Berkeley, were the most reminiscent of eastern Virginia. 5.1 History of emigration to Liberia from West VirginiaĮarly settlers of property tended to recreate the familiar structures of eastern Virginia, building Georgian and Federal homes on large estates. ![]()
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