Robert Carter III (1727-1804), Emancipation of the Burke Family.

Written by Henry Robert Burke with some exerpts from the research of John Barden.

In 1791 Robert Carter III began the emancipation process for 500 slaves, the largest number of slaves emancipated by an individual slave owner in the history of the United States!

Carter’s emancipation included some of my ancestors: Mary (1704-?), Mary’s son Baptist Billy (1725-?) Baptist Billy’s wife Hannah (1732-?) and their daughter Winney Burke(1760-?) along with many of their relatives.

The decision by Robert Carter III to emancipate his slaves appears to baffle many historians. They seem baffled in part because they fail to recognize that Robert Carter III owned his half brother Baptist Billy, and over the course of Carter‘s life this brought on his remarkable decision. I could go further and speculate what most historians to date have failed to recognize; slave owners and slaves alike were human beings.

While Robert Carter III was indeed rich and privileged, he was not immune to the effects of tragedies. The circumstance that his father, Robert Carter II, and his grandfather, Robert “King” Carter, both died in 1732 when Robert Carter III was only four years old must be taken into consideration. Robert Carter III had no male full siblings; he was raised by his uncles, and this must have affected his views throughout his lifetime.

From reading the notes and diaries left by Robert Carter III, it is apparent that he had feeling for his slaves beyond the ordinary concerns of keeping them healthy so they could work. It is also apparent that his feelings for Baptist Billy went beyond that of a slave owner for his loyal slave. In fact Robert Carter III referred to Baptist Billy as his “black brother”!

Several instances in his notes, Robert Carter III spoke of his “black brother” Will or his “black brother” Billy. Baptist Billy was three years older that Robert Carter III, and they surely grew up together. In documents that Robert Carter prepared pending emancipating his slaves, Carter pointedly enumerated the children, and even some of the grandchildren of Baptist Billy. It was not common for slave owners to comment, at least in writing, about the paternal lineages of slave children. Even Carter only did this on a couple of instances in his emancipation documents. Was Carter telling us something? I think he was. I think Robert Carter III recognized Baptist Billy as his brother.

After a lifelong association with Baptist Billy, perhaps Robert Carter III came to realize that keeping his “black brother Billy” enslaved was inhumane. Also Carter must have reasoned that since his “black brother Billy” was human , then so were the other slaves he owned. At least this must be considered if one is to ask the question: “Why did Robert Carter III free 500 slaves?”. It is apparent to me that the blood relationship between Robert Carter III and Baptist Billy, perhaps combined with other factors such as religion and  stress, may answer “why?” Robert Carter III emancipated 500 slaves seventy years before the Civil War.

Robert “Councillor” Carter III, b. ca. Feb 1727, Nomini, Westmoreland Co., VA, d. Mar 1804, Baltimore, MD, m. 2 Apr 1754, Frances Ann Tasker b. Apr 1738, Baltimore, MD, d. 31 Oct 1787, Nomini, Westmoreland Co., VA, (daughter of Benjamin and Ann (Bladen) Tasker, Sr.). “Prospering as banker, ship owner, manufacturer, and merchant, as well as land-rich planter, for years he owned on of the finest houses in Williamsburg. He served of the Virginia Council and was a close friend of Lieutenant-Governor Francis Fauquier, perhaps Virginia’s most cultivated royal ruler. At Nomini Hall (Nah-min-EYE), his 1,063-acre Westmoreland County manor, Carter enjoyed additional honors as colonel of the militia, vestryman, and justice of the peace. To his compatriots he was Councillor Robert Carter of Nomini Hall, Colonel Robert Carter, the Honorable Robert Carter, Esq.” “...As a loner, a private autocrat, he took remarkable action that brought him more opprobrium than honor. In 1791 he freed his more than 500 slaves. Thereafter, in wry allusion to the unfolding French Revolution- and possibly his grandfather- he styled himself ‘Citizen Robert Carter.’ “ “In freeing his slaves, Citizen Carter was motivated by pocketbook as well as heart. Like many Virginia planters in those years before the cotton gin, he regarded slavery as an economic burden. But the heavier burden was moral. For years he grappled with the ethical implications of allowing one human being to own another. His struggle with the issue was marked by cataclysmic spiritual experiences, including, he believed a visit by Jesus Christ in the flesh. In 1778, he scandalized his friends and neighbors by turning from the slave-accommodating Church of England – the established church – to the Baptist Church, then small, persecuted sect opposed to slavery. A decade later he joined the even smaller, more outspoken anti-slavery New Church of Jerusalem. The New Church, he said, embodied ‘the True Christian Religion.’ “ “Not every slave Carter intended to release actually went free. On son, John Tasker Carter, vowed to ‘overturn and frustrate’ his father’s humane intentions. He sold slaves his father had manumitted, in some instances cruelly after their release dates. Another son, George, Carter’s executor, followed the letter but not the spirit of his father’s instructions. He bought new slaves to replace those he had been ordered to set free.” Robert was a young boy of 4 years, when his father passed away, shortly before the death of Robert “King” Carter. Under Virginia law, what Robert II was left by his father’s will was destined to go not to Robert III, but to the boy’s uncles, John Carter of Shirley, Charles Carter of Cleves, and Landon Carter of Sabine Hall, but they were looking out for the young lad. Instead of taking Robert II’s share of their father’s will for themselves, they persuaded the Virginia Assembly to pass an act “to vest part of the Estate of Robert Carter, Esq., deceased, devised to Robert Carter, the younger....in Robert Carter, the Son and Heir of the said Robert Carter the younger.” He thus gained 30,000 acres of land and more than 100 slaves. “His father also had some 40,000- acres of his own, including Nomini Hall......and under English law of primogeniture, all of Robert II’s estate went to young Rob. The new owner of Nomini Hall and his sister, Elizabeth, did not grow up there. Their mother, Priscilla Churchill Carter, daughter of one wealthy Virginian, Councillor William Churchill, and widow of another, soon married a third, Colonel John Lewis of Warner Hall, a cousin of George Washington. Warner Hall in Gloucester County became Bob Carter’s home.” When Robert turned 21, he wrote, “delivered to me all my estate in the month of February A.D. 1749, I then being 21 years old.” This was the estate that his uncles had put away for him of his father’s inheritance. Robert then sailed for London where he was introduced to London society by merchants who had handled family affairs for many years. Shortly thereafter, he was admitted to the Inner Temple to study law. In 1751, at the age of 23, he returned to Virginia with the reputation of “a profligate.” Robert met and married his wife, Frances Ann Tasker, aged 16, several year after his return to Virginia. The Maryland Gazette of April 5, 1754, reported: “ On Tuesday last Mr. Robert Carter of Westmoreland in Virginia was married by the Reverend Mr. Malcolm to Miss Frances Tasker, youngest daughter of Benjamin Tasker, Esq., a fine young lady with a genteel fortune.” “Through her Carter acquired 20 percent of the Baltimore Iron Works, a great industrial enterprise of the time. By 1775 the investment brought him at least L500 a year.....In 33 years they had 17 sons and daughters, of whom 11 survived their mother and eight their father.” “While managing as many as 19 plantations plus thousand of acres on which he installed tenants, Carter found time to indulge a taste for contemplation, books and music. He read widely in history, law, science and philosophy in a library that ultimately contained more than 2,000 volumes. He practiced daily a variety of musical instruments. His collection grew to include a harpsichord, a ‘forte-piano’, violins, flutes, a custom made organ, which Thomas Jefferson attempted to buy from him, and a specialty built copy of Ben Franklin’s new-fangled glass armonica, which he played by rubbing his fingertips over finely tuned crystal bowls.” “In 1758 George II appointed Robert Carter to the Virginia Council. Three years later, reappointed by George III, Carter wrote a friend that he was leaving ‘my desert’ at Nomini Hall ‘for a well inhabited country’, Virginia’s capital, Williamsburg. For the next decade, Carter and his growing family lived next to the Governor’s Palace, facing the captalpalined Palace Green. For his spacious house he ordered wallpaper from London to ‘hang three parlors,’ yellow silk window hangings, worsted damask seat coverings, a marble hearth, Wilton carpets, mahogany tea chests, and much more, all the finest.” The Carters entertained lavishly. George Washington wrote in his diary that on one particular occasion, he dined at Carter’s home, and among the guests were the royal governors of Virginia and Maryland. “As councillor, Carter served on many committees, including one to study building a canal through Williamsburg. In 1766, he was designated to address a letter of thanks to George III for the repeal of the hated Stamp Act. In the letter he asserted that Virginians would ‘at all Times exert ourselves in the Defence of your Majesty’s sacred Person and Government, at the Risque of our Lives and Fortunes.’ Later, Carter’s attitude toward the crown grew ambiguous. While sharing his countrymen’s resentment of arbitrary British rule, he feared the economic impact of a struggle for Independence and hoped for reconciliation. As sentiment grew for what he described as ‘a new system of politicks in british north america,’ Carter resigned his office and withdrew to Nomini Hall. A great deal of information about the Carter family came from the diaries of Philip Fifthian, a Presbyterian minister, who tutored seven Carter children for 13 months in the years 1773 and 1774. He described Nomini Hall thusly: “The Great House was 76 feet long and 44 wide. It stood on a high spot of Ground at the end of a 300-yard avenue lined by tall, flourishing, beautiful Poplars. The mansion was brick, limed white, and its five Stacks of Chimneys could be seen for 6 miles.” Nomini Hall burned and the bricks were carried away some 150 years ago. “Downstairs in the Great House were an off-center hall, a dining room – where, we usually sit – a second dining room for the children, Robert’s study, and a Ball-Room thirty Feet long. Upstairs were bedrooms: one for the parents, another for the Young Ladies, and two for guests.” Fifthian and the boys were housed at the “School House”, a 2 story building, 45 by 27 feet, which also housed offices and Carter’s steward. Other buildings included a “stable and coach-House,” a “Wash-House,” a kitchen, a “Bake- House,” a dairy, and storehouses, as well as mills, smithies, and workshops. By and large Fifthian like the Carters. “The Family is most agreeable!” he exclaims early in his stay. He was “daily more charmed & astonished with Mrs. Carter,” who read widely – “more than the Parson,” claimed her proud husband – and thought clearly. Fifthian found her “an elegant, beautiful woman.” He wrote: “[She] is prudent, always cheerful, never without Something pleasant [to say], a remarkable Economist, perfectly acquainted (in my Opinion) with the good-management of Children, intirely free from all foolish and unnecessary fondness.” Fifthian described the Carter children as follows: “Ben, the eldest son, was 18, a youth of genius: of a warm and impetuous Disposition, but sickly, with a weak chest. Bob, the second son, 16, though slow-witted, was quick and wrathful in his temper. Always in trouble, he was pleased with the Society of persons much below his Family and Estate. [Ben died within 5 years of Fifthian writing this, and Bob, died mysteriously in London at the age of 34]. Miss Priscilla, the eldest daughter about 16, is steady, studious, docile, quick of apprehension. Nancy, not constant in her disposition, nor diligent, was cheerful and lively. Fanny, the Flower in the Family.....seems to have a remarkable Sedateness, & simplicity in her countenance, which is always rather cheerful than melancholy. Betsy was young, quiet, and obedient, while Harriot was bold fearless, noisy and lawless; always merry, almost never displeased.” Throughout the Revolutionary War Carter supplied the American forces with flour, bread, textiles and other goods. He even set up a stocking factory and had slaves trained to operate it. In addition, he supplied iron from the Baltimore Iron Works in order to make arms. During this time, it seems that Robert went through some sort of metamorphosis or mid-life crisis. For no apparent reason, he named many of his plantations after signs of the zodiac – Aquarius, Scorpio, Gemini, and, he quit the vestry. While visiting Maryland in June 1777 to have himself and his daughters vaccinated against smallpox, he experienced what he called: “a most gracious illumination.” He claimed that the Lord “wrought a mighty work on my soul” and began to investigate revealed religion and sought out evangelical prayer meetings. He attended 21 of them in a six-week period. In 1778, Carter ascertained that Jesus Christ had appeared before him, and soon afterwards he testified before an assembly of 200 at the Morarttico Baptist Church in Lancaster County about this and other religious experiences. He was then baptized in his new faith. His wife did not convert to the Baptist faith until about a year before her death in 1787. Carter became very active in the church, and even ordered his overseers to be lenient about allowing slaves time for services. Not long after, Robert became interested in mysticism, and studied the works of Emanuel Swedenborg, a Swedish nobleman, scientist, and theologian, who was said by his followers to have communicated with the dead. Soon after his wife’s death, Carter embraced the Swedenborgian New Church of Jerusalem, never ceasing to support the Baptist preachers and congregations. In 1793, perhaps prompted by the hostility of former friends who didn’t approve of his religious convictions or his “deed of manumission” to free his slaves, Carter moved to Baltimore. Upon moving north, he turned over control of his plantations to his six daughters and 2 surviving sons. The names of these plantations were, Nomony Hall, Aries, Old Ordinary, Taurus, Gemini, Forrest Quarter and Coles Point, in Westmoreland County. Aquarius, Scorpio, Capricorn, Libra, Virgo, and Sagittarius lay in Frederick County, Leo in Loudoun County. He also had two plantations called Cancer, one in Richmond County, the other in Prince William County. Before Robert died in 1804, he wrote to his daughter, Harriot, “My plans and advice have never been pleasing to the world.” Robert may have died with few friends, but he was regarded as a great man by the more than 500 slaves that he attempted to free, a man way ahead of his time.

"Baptist Billy" sometimes called "Black Brother Billy" [or] "Will", was born 1723 or 1724.  [Baptist Billy the son of Mary, born 1703 or 1704 ? Mary, age 88 when residing at Leo in 1791. Henry Robert Burke insert]. Baptist Billy, residing at Leo in 1791, huband of Hannah , father of Mary Anne, Betty Robinson, Winny Burke, William Robinson, Jesse, Hannah; grandfather Micaijah Wyatt, and Nancy. Resided at Bull Run 1774. Tithable in Loudoun County 1760-85. Resided at Leo in 1788 and 1791. Exempt from taxes and levies after April 13, 1784. Frequent messenger between Bull Run and Nomony Hall, 1779-89. Over 45 years old in 1791. Possibly emancipated by deed proved in Westmoreland County Court on June 24th, 1794 (text not recorded--as in Barden original).

Hannah (from above), born 1733, one source suggests 1728, parents unknown. Wife of Baptist Billy, mother of Mary Ann, and possibly others. Residing at Bull Run in 1774. Tithable in Loudoun County, 1760-80. Residing at Leo in 1788 and 1791. Exempt from taxes and levies by 1788. Over 45 years old in 1791. Possibilty emancipated by deed proved in Westmoreland County Court on June 24, 1794.

Frances ("Frank") born 1728, parents unknown, grandmother of Micaijah Wyatt, and Lett. Resided at Bull Run 1774. Tithable in Loudoun County 1760-85. Resided at Leo in 1788 and 1791. Exempt from taxes and levies by 1788. Over 45 years old 1791. Possibly emancipated by deed proved in Westmoreland County Court on June 24, 1794.

Enoch Burke, b 1778. Son of Winney Burke. Resided at Leo 1788, 1791, 1796. Named in 1791 deed of emancipation. Scheduled for emancipation in 1800. Emancipated by deed dated Jan 6, 1800.

Harriet Burke, born ca. 1792-94, mulatto, ex Nomony Hall, certified as free by Benjamin Dawson, recorded in Fairfax County, 1826

James Burke born 1790 dark mulatto, son of Winney Burke, ex-slave at Nomony Hall. Certified as free in Fairfax County 1832.

 Jesse Burke, born 1788 or 1789, dark mulatto, son of Winey Burke, ex-slave at Nomony Hall. Certified as free in Fairfax County, 1826; certificate reissued in Fairfax County, 1831, and again in Fairfax County in 1839.

James Burke, listed as Jesse Burke 1796 and later. Born 1789 or 1790, possibly earlier (1787 suggested, twin Henry, living at Leo 1788). Sons of Winny Burke, dark mulatto, at Leo 1791 and 1796. Named in 1791 deed of emancipation. Scheduled for emancipation 1812. Certified as free in Fairfax, 1816, 1831, 1839. Henry (Burke?--question mark in original).

 "Harry" born 1789 or 1790, possibly 1787, Leo, 1788; Son Winny Burke, at Leo 1791 and 1796, named 1791 deed of emancipation. Scheduled for emancipation 1812

Nanny (Burke?--as original), also referred to as Nancy. Born 1785 or 1786, daughter of Winny Burke, resided at Leo 1788, 1791, 1796. Named 1791 deed of emancipation. Scheduled for emancipation in 1805, but name does not appear among those presented for freedom that year. (Possibly Winny Burke died in 1804.)

Nelly Burke, b. 1781, daughter of Winny Burke. Leo 1788, 1791, 1796. In 1791 deed of emancipation. Scheduled for emancipation 1800. Emancipated by deed dated Jan 6, 1800.

Micaijah Wyatt (Cajah, Cagey), born 1778. Son Frances, grandson of Baptist Billy, also of Frances. Residing at Leo, 1788, 1791, 1796. Named 1791 deed of emancipation. Scheduled for emancip. 1800. Emancipated by deed dated Jan 6, 1800.