Forged Slave Passes & Certificates of Freedom

Extract of a letter from Petersburg, Virginia, dated August 19, 1785.

Some days ago it was discovered that a person unknown in this town was selling out Certificates of Freedom and Passes to the Slaves, and forging such people's names as were most likely to answer the purpose. By the activity and vigilance of some gentlemen in town, this dangerous villain was apprehended last night, about ten o'clock, in company with some slaves, and just as he had finished a pass for one of them. He was carried before a Magistrate, who committed him to prison for further trial. He at first called himself Joe Thompson, but says his name is Thompson Davis. When he was first apprehended, he entreated one of the gentlemen to shot him with the pistol he had in his hand, and discovered such a behaviour as thoroughly indicated that he suspected some other charge against him, besides the forgeries he had committed and upon tracing his conduct during the time he has been in this place, he is render still more suspicious, wherefore the following description is given of him. He is a native of Ireland, about 5 feet 4 inches high, stout made, sloops a little, short dark brown hair, a deep scar on the right side of his forehead, just below his hair, the right eye is a little remarkable, having the appearance of a film on it, appears to be about 38 years of age, says he is a baker by trade, and that he came last from Richmond, where he had been some time soliciting his pay as a dragoon in Col. Baylor's regiment.

Source: The Pennsylvania Packet, and Daily Advertiser, Wednesday, September 7, 1785.

Dinwiddie's Thomas Day noted in the 2007 NAACP Resolutions

The NAACP made a 2007 Resolution that noted the

Inaccuracies in the Depiction of Africans and African Americans in Social Studies Textbooks

and called for…

WHEREAS Strategic Initiative Nine- Enhancing Educational Excellence, Goal 2, states:

Examine a broad range of educational structures and practices with the objectives of advocating for educational equity and student achievement" and WHEREAS the practice of presenting and perpetuating the general perception of the Africans in school history texts as innately inferior as justification for slavery and the treatment of the freedmen following emancipation, does not advocate educational equity and student achievement of African-American students, and WHEREAS the omission of specific data in documents in today's school history textbooks disproving the statement of inferiority continues, and is a criminal assault upon the hearts, souls and minds of African-American students, and WHEREAS the omission of such data denies African-American students a knowledge of historical facts that would engender pride in their inheritance, and WHEREAS the skills of Africans brought to America with their forced entry upon America's shores are not given full credit in school history texts, and WHEREAS photographs, graphs, drawings, and other illustrations denoting the skills and abilities of slaves are omitted from school history texts, students are denied knowledge about the inventive and creative abilities of the Africans and their descendants in America during the Ante-bellum period in America, and WHEREAS school history texts glorify with many illustrations the product of slave labor, but not the unpaid laborers, describing it as "King Cotton" which made this country and countries abroad economically wealthy, and WHEREAS the many skills, arts, crafts, and creative abilities in music, (examples, Negro Spirituals and names of singers, like Elizabeth Taylor Greenfield, born a slave, a talented singer who performed for Queen Victoria) who were slaves and 'free people of color" are not written about nor illustrated with photographs, therefore, blatantly omitted from school history texts, and WHEREAS the service of Africans and African-Americans in each of America's wars is presented only in statistical numbers without quotes from documents attesting to the extent of their leadership and battlefield courage and a description of the dire and unsatisfactory conditions under which their service was rendered are omitted, and WHEREAS the service of fugitive slaves in the Revolutionary War and the Civil War is not described with sufficient credit in school history texts, even though their service earned for thousands, freedom, and WHEREAS the service of fugitive slaves, called contrabands in the Civil War, fled to Union lines and by their presence in thousands forced attention to their plight and fight for freedom, served as scouts, guides and spies, and at times saved entire Union regiments from Rebel forces, and WHEREAS, the contrabands enlisted when restrictions were lifted, also became like encyclopedias to Confederate territory with their knowledge of the topography of the land, its roads and bridges and with their eyes and ears gave reliable information to the Union unavailable from any other source, and with their strength and abilities gave service in non-combat tasks which freed soldiers to fight led the Union to victory, earned their freedom, and WHEREAS, blacks served in the United States Navy in great numbers, little space is given to this service in the Civil War. WHEREAS, persons in the racial likeness of Benjamin Bradley, a slave inventor, are included. Bradley, "at the age of sixteen, showed great mechanical skill and with pieces of steel and other materials constructed a working model of a steam engine and after the sale of his first steam engine, built an engine large enough to drive the first cutter of a sloop-of-war at the rate of sixteen knots an hour." (Katz, Eyewitness, The Negro in American History, 1967, pp.115-116), and THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED that an active protest movement begin with the examination and evaluation of the school history textbooks of Scott Foresman, Houghton-Mifflin, Harcourt and other publishers for omissions, distortions, bias, and insufficient coverage of the contributions of Africans and African-Americans to America with emphasis upon the ante-bellum period, and that efforts are made to effect changes in the books, and BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that this committee demand that publishers' textbooks include the skills brought to America by Africans, and that the craftsmanship of persons the likes of Horace King, a slave bridge builder; Thomas Day, a free man of color and furniture maker,[1] and Gilbert Hunt, a slave carriage maker and blacksmith, and numerous others are included in their books, and if available, their photographs are included, and BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the committee demand that the inventive ingenuity, and creative abilities of slaves and "free persons of color" be included in their books to the extent that the "inferiority perception" is entirely disproved with documentary evidence, and BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that, Norbert Rillieux whose invention revolutionized the production of sugar; slave Henry Blair, inventor of a seed planting machine; and Benjamin Banneker, an astronomer, mathematician and planner for the location of the Capitol and other federal buildings in the nation's capitol-- along with other inventors' biographical summaries are included in school history texts to further substantiate the fact that the black race is not an inferior race, and BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the committee demand that textbooks admit the wrongs of slavery even though the proponents of freedom declared in documents that "all men were created equal..." and furthermore that both George Washington, Thomas Jefferson and each president prior to Abraham Lincoln owned slaves.

BE IT FINALLY RESOLVED that all students and especially, African-American students, will be able to read in their school history texts an accurate account of the contributions of African-Americans (in all fields of endeavor) to the settlement, growth and development of this country.

My footnote...
[1] In 1801 Thomas Day was born, in Dinwiddie County, Virginia, a free black, the son of John and Morning Day, also free blacks. His father John Day was a carpenter and cabinet-maker in Southside Virginia. Their relationship with the area Quakers, and others, within Dinwiddie County and Petersburg has as yet not been well researched. Thomas’ brother John would go on to Liberia, where he would lose his family due to sickness, and retain high governmental office there. Thomas Day would later become North Carolina’s largest furniture maker at Milton, NC., which afforded him to send his children to private school in the north. He died abt. 1860/61 and was buried at his home site in Milton, NC.