Erik Visits an American Grave, Part 2,137

The big monument there marks the grave of Robert Carter III, but this is as close as I could ge.t

Born in 1728 in Corotman, Virginia, Carter grew up in the true plantation elite. His grandfather Robert “King” Carter was one of the first truly rich planters. His grandfather was still alive then and died in 1732. Unfortunately, his father died the same year. His mother remarried, but his inheritance was secure. He was sent to the College of William and Mary, starting its prep classes at the age of 9, and then received his inheritance in 1749. He then went to London to study the law, came back to Virginia, married, fathered 17 children, of which 12 survived to adulthood, and remained one of the richest men in the colonies. Of course all of this was predicated on black slave labor and Carter had more than his fair share of slaves. In fact, his grandfather King had gifted the young boy a slave when he was only 3 months old. What more precious gift could one give than the gift of human property? But this story ends a bit differently than you are now expecting.

Carter spent his middle age as a leader in Virginia, a top lawyer and someone appointed to many royal governance positions. He got to know all the other leading political figures of Virginia, all of whom owned slaves like he did. He was reticent to support the colonial cause at first. In 1772, three of his children died. He was unsurprisingly deeply depressed by this. He gave up his public offices, went back to his plantation, and just ran the business side of this. He began to express some support for the colonists, but privately. He would refuse to take a public stand toward the crown or the colonies during the American Revolution, even though his friends knew that after 1776, he stood pretty solidly for the new United States and urged him to take public office to show it. But he did sell a lot of munitions to the revolutionaries. And of course all of that was made by enslaved black labor.

But Carter never really had a lot of comfort with slavery. He did sell some slaves in 1758 when he had debts. But he refused to buy any new slaves. He opposed the whipping of slaves and it is said–though believe this at your peril–that he whipped his own children more often than he did his slaves. Maybe, it’s not impossible I guess. Now, Carter was hardly alone in the Revolutionary War era Virginia elite at thinking that maybe slavery wasn’t a great thing. George Washington believed that, but he didn’t manumit any slaves until he died and it was in his will. Thomas Jefferson believed that, but the only slaves he ever freed were the ones who were his mistress and children. James Madison at least claimed to believe it, but he was a slaver all the way and would freely have them sold when he needed a little extra cash. All of these men were various levels of complete scumbag hypocrites.

Carter went further than any of these men. Some of this is that he became a spiritual seeker. He joined a mixed-race Baptist church in 1778, which was a legitimately radical move at this time, both that it was Baptist and that the congregation intermingled. It’s worth noting here that at this time, the idea that we have today of the Baptist church being particularly right-wing and awful was not the case. That’s of course a product of slavery, particularly the development of the Southern Baptists after the church split before the Civil War and which remained a force of revanchist politics ever since. But for a rich southern white man to become a Baptist at this time was legitimately a big deal, to the point that a few other rich people who had done this had been murdered by the Anglican upper class.

When Carter’s church later tried to segregate, he left to join a church that included slaves and signed a document with them about this. He also realized that his personal aversion to slavery was not enough to do anything about it. His son was a ne’er do well who sold slaves and was a gambling drunkard and he knew that if he didn’t move toward freeing slaves, they would all be sold when he died. Carter was nervous about all this–what would his life be if he didn’t have slavery? That question almost always scared slaveowners who knew slavery was bad. What he hoped is that Virginia would adopt a gradual emancipation plan like New York, which still had slaves into the 1830s, a fact few know. A plan was introduced into the Virginia legislature, but that pro-slavery extremist James Madison made sure it went nowhere.

So Carter started freeing his slaves. His family was horrified. His son-in-law tried to stop it. After all, these people were his future capital. He tried to create his own gradual manumission plan. He hoped that a reasonable, slow process would gain support from his neighbors. He was way too optimistic about Virginia whites. They were sickened. He started paying his former slaves, several of whom were officially free in 1793.

All of this led to real threats of violence against Carter, to the point that he fled Virginia in May 1793, probably because of legitimate threats that he would be tarred and feathered. Shortly after, arsonists burned down the mixed-race church he attended. At this point, Carter spent the rest of his life helping slaves get free. He freed the rest of his slaves in various forms against a very hostile legal system. He wrote letters of support to freed slaves who had their manumission papers stolen, which of course meant they could be stolen themselves. He also became a senior figure in Baltimore, where he now lived, including helping to build its City Hall. He helped people escaping the Haitian Revolution as well.

Carter died in 1804, at the age of 76. The day of his burial, his son used the remaining money in the estate to buy a bunch of slaves and start working them on the plantation. But the legal orders of Carter’s gradual emancipation plans continued to be upheld, despite great hostility, and the last of his slaves were released in 1826, which were children reaching a specific age.

Robert Carter is buried in Nomini Hall Cemetery, Hague, Virginia.

If you would like this series to visit other southern whites who turned against slavery, you can donate to cover the required expenses here. Cassius Clay is in Richmond, Kentucky and Charles Osborn is in Jackson, Indiana. Previous posts in this series are archived here and here.