Things I have learned about slavery by studying my American ancestry; part 3

William Womack Sr. was born in 1691 in Goochland Co., VA. William died in St. James Northern Parish, Goochland Co, VA before 16 Mar 1762; he was 71.ⁱ

In 1709 when William was 18, he married Mary C. Woodson, daughter of Joseph Woodson, in Goochland Co., VA. Born about 1690 in Goochland Co., VA. Mary C. died in Goochland Co., VA about 1758; she was 68.

They had the following children:

William   (1710-1791); Agness; Priscilla; Martha; Sarah; Mary; Judith

My grandmother Dorothy’s 5x paternal grandfather William Womack purchased a patent for 400 acres of land for 40 schillings in 1733 in Goochland County.

Born in 1710 in Henrico Co., VA. William died in Cumberland, Co., VA before 20 Sep 1791; he was 81.ⁱⁱ

In 1735 when William was 25, he married Martha. Martha died before Jan 1786; she was 68. Born about 1718.

They had the following children:

William   (1735-1819); Judith   (1738-1791); Agnes   (1742-); Charles   (1743-1811); Mary  (ca1744-); Nathan   (1746-1799); Jesse  (1749-1782); Massenello   (1751-1837)

Tithable accounts for Dorothy Womacks 4x great grandfather referred to as William Womack Sr. are as follows:

1782 tax list: 1 white - 10 black;

1784 tax list: 1 dwelling, 3 other buildings.

Tithable accounts for Massinello Womack, the brother of Dorothy Womacks 3x great grandfather William Womack Jr. are as follows:

1782 tax list: 6 white - 8 black

Tithable accounts for Nathan Womack, the brother of Dorothy Womacks 3x great grandfather William Womack Jr. are as follows:

1782 tax list: 7 white, 8 black.

1784 tax list: 1 dwelling, 5 other buildings.

Dorothy’s 4x great grandfather listed in the card file of Public Service Claims in the Virginia State Library in Richmond, Virginia as William Womack, Sr. (the Jr. in our nomenclature) furnished supplies and performed other services for the troops during the Revolutionary War and later presented claims to the state government for pay for these supplies and services.

“Tithable” Laws

Marrying, maintaining a family, and fulfilling the responsibilities of land-ownership were difficult and costly propositions for all people in colonial Virginia. For African Virginians, it was a monumental achievement. Maintaining financial solvency was one of their greatest obstacles. Tithable Laws threatened peoples’ ability to stay out of debt, influenced decisions about entering into marriage and selection of marriage partners.

What were Tithes?

Colonists who owned land and those who “worked the ground” paid tithes to the government, an early form of income tax. Tithes were paid in tobacco and corn.

Who Paid Tithes?

While slavery was not fully codified until 1705, as early as 1629, Virginians first defined “tithables” to include masters of families, all free men and people “working the ground.” A 1642 law decreed payment of tithes by “all youths of sixteen years of age upwards” and “for all negro women at age sixteen years.” This law must have needed clarification since two years later a second law was passed declaring all negro men and women from age 16 to 60 years were responsible for paying tithes.

What were the effects of the “Tithable laws?”

Tithable law helped erode African people’s access to freedom by increasing the cost of being free. Requiring a certain amount of production by “all negro men and women…” increased English controls over African labor.

The “Tithable” law presumed that African women worked the land, as in fact they did. However, the law excluded English women, although some of them worked the land as well. This had the effect of the laws promoting, and hastening social class differentiation among Virginians based upon nationality or ethnicity. Race was well on it's way to a defining distinction in people’s view of the world.

Declaration of African women as tithables also affected their marriage possibilities and choices. Masters of enslaved African women paid the tithes for the women. A free African woman had to pay her own tithes. If she was married, the expense fell on her husband making marriage between free Africans an expensive proposition.

Forced to pay extra taxes for an African wife a free man might have found it more advantageous to marry an English or American Indian wife although the nearly equal sex ratio among Chesapeake Africans would have allowed them to find an African wife. In fact, one scholar suggests five of the 13 free African men in Northampton may have been married to English or Indian wives based on the Northampton tithable lists identification of their children as “mulattos (Deal 1993).

In spite of the burden of labor imposed by tithe laws, the high value African men and women placed on family and kinship led them to enter into long term contracts to raise and share additional tobacco crops in order to pay for their family members’ freedom.

http://www.nps.gov/ethnography/aah/aaheritage/Chesapeake_furthRdg3.htm

The 4 provisions of William Womacks will called out below give us some insight into how the Womacks of Virginia viewed slave ownership.

1786, Cumberland Co., VA:

"In the name of God Amen. I William Womack … say first and principally I commend my soul into the hands of God who gave it, hoping through his mercy to have a joyful resurrection… and as for such worldly goods as I am blessed with I give and dispose of in the following manner:

… I lend unto my daughter Judith Hendrick one negroe wench named Dinah, now in her possession with what increase she now has and may ever have hereafter for during natural life of my said Daughter, and after her death I give the said negroe with all her increase to be equally divided among her children to them and their heirs forever.

… My will and desire is that my Estate goods; chattles Slaves, Effects, credits of whatever kind or quality, with the money for the land above mentioned, be equally divided among my seven children …

My will and desire is that notwithstanding the above division, my negro woman Bess shall have free liberty to choose which of my children she will live with, and he shall take her at the appraisement for so much of his part of the division….”

Born on 26 Jan 1735 in Halifax Co., VA. William died in Prince Edward Co., VA on 17 Jan 1819; he was 83.^iv

William moved to Prince Edward Co at an early date. He is said to have been a steward of John Randolph's affairs, and in 1795 was the ruling elder in the Presbyterian Church.

John Randolph (June 2, 1773 – May 24, 1833), known as John Randolph of Roanoke, was a planter, and a Congressman from Virginia, serving in the House of Representatives, the Senate, and also as Minister to Russia. After serving as President Thomas Jefferson's spokesman in the House, he broke with Jefferson in 1803 and became the leader of the "Old Republican" or "Quids", an extreme states' rights vanguard of the Democratic-Republican Party who wanted to restrict the role of the federal government.

On 17 Oct 1762 when William was 27, he married Mary Mollie Allen, daughter of James Allen Jr. (1724-1793) ; Elizabeth Sims (1725-1788), in Halifax Co., VA. Born on 15 Jun 1746 in Hanover Co., VA. Mary Mollie died in Prince Edward Co., VA on 8 Jun 1816; she was 69.

They had the following children:

Elizabeth "Betsy" (-ca1817) ; Lillius Dillon (-1863) ; Ann "Nancy" (ca1764-ca1809) ; Mary "Polly"; Allen (1766-1849) ; William (1769-1828) ; my ancestor James Tignal (1770-1827) ; Archerbald "Archer" (1777-1816); Martha "Patsey" Allen (1780-1818); James Watson (1797-1844)

1782 tax list for Dorothy Womacks 3x great grandfather referred to as William Womack Jr. shows 0 white tithables and 5 black tithables.

Dorothy’s 3x great grandfather referred to as William Womack, Jr. in the Public Service Claims in the Virginia State Library (the William III in our nomenclature); and this William’s brothers Massinello Womack, Nathan Womack
 of Cumberland County, Virginia furnished supplies or performed other services for the troops during the Revolutionary War and later presented claims to the state government for pay for these supplies and services.