From the files of the Greenbrier Independent, May 24, 1963
    KNOW YOUR STATE, by Phil Conley, President Education Foundation, Incorporated

        Slavery in West Virginia
Slavery was not the cause of the Civil War.  The main issue was whether a state or group 
of states could secede from the Union.  When the constitution was ratified by nine of the
thirteen colonies, it was possible to form the government of the United States.  Could a 
sovereign state or a group of states, under the Constitution, annul the ratification and
become independent?
We are not concerned with technical legal aspects of the subject.  Since slavery was such
an important factor in the secession movement, and since West Virginia became a separate 
state in the conflict between the states, it is of interest to review the situation as 
regards to the slave problem our forefathers faced.
In 1850 the total population of West Virginia was 302,313.  Of this number there were 
21,736 slaves.  Most of the Negroes in West Virginia were owned by planters in the 
eastern section or by large landowners in the central section.  In that year there 
were 247 slaves in all of the Northern Panhandle-Hancock,Brook, Ohio, and Marshall counties.

When raising crops with slaves ceased to be profitable with some owners, they raised 
slaves for the Southern market.  Granville Davisson Hall wrote:  "The breeding of Negroes
was more lucrative than breeding cattle, or raising tobacco, and not so exhaustive of 
the soil . . . This domestic slave-trade was active in western Virginia, thought far 
less important there than in the East.  When the writer--was a boy, there was about three
miles east from Clarksburg -- a Negro "ranch" where young Negroes, from mere children 
upward, were corralled, ranged and fed for the Southern market, almost as if they had 
been sheep or swine.  This human stockyard was the consummate flower of the patriarchal 
institution which northwestern Virginia was fighting to get away from."
The Negro servants responded to good treatment, became docile and faithful, and felt
pride in their family connections.  The slave looked down upon "poor white trash"; he
became an aristocrat because he belonged to a good family, and he usually assumed the
name of his master or selected the name of some well-known character like Washington.

Slaves were taught trades.  It was necessary for the large landowners to have blacksmiths, 
carpenters, cooks, bricklayers, and butchers.  The Kanawha Republican carried a reward for
a "Negro who was miner by trade."  The Kentucky  Gazette in Lexington carried an 
advertisement to sell:  "Three stills of the best quality.  Also a likely young Negro 
man, a good distiller."
The slaves in West virginia had a distinct social strata.  The house servants were above 
those who worked in the fields; the butlers were above the waiters; and the best beloved 
"black mammy," the nurse of the master's children, was on the highest level because she 
had the confidence and respect of the heads of the household.
West Virginia was near the free territory of Ohio and Pennsylvania.  While there was 
a fugitive slave law which was intended to have runaways returned to their owners, it 
was difficult to enforce it where public sentiment was opposed to the institution. They
felt morally obligated to assist in every way possible any slaves who wanted to gain 
their freedom.  As a result, there were many depots in West Virginia on the underground 
railway.  By this system slaves were sent from one station to another, given food, shelter,
and clothing, and assisted to escape to Canada where they were free.