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various aspects of enslavement in Pennsylvania
Enslavement in Centre County, Pennsylvania
Centre County Miscellaneous Enslavement Data
Enslavement Items
Will of General James Potter; enslaved people Hero, Bob, Daphne (and her children)
General James Potter, 1729-1789, leaves his slaves ("Negro") Hero and ("Mullata") Bob to Potter's son James, and to his daughter Martha, wife of Andrew Gregg, he willed his slave Daphne and her children Sal and Bob.Source
Will of James Potter, 19 December 1789.Spring Township, Execution of slave Daniel Beyers, 13 December 1802
"The first capital case was that of negro Dan, alias Daniel Beyers, who murdered James Barrows, on the night of the 15th of October, 1802, in Spring township. The jury returned with their verdict a valuation of him; "valued him at two hundred and fourteen dollars." He was executed on the 13th of December, 1802, by James Duncan, Esq., then high sheriff. A large crowd, consisting of forge-men and other original characters, had assembled to witness the execution, and a company of horse, under the command of Captain James Potter (General Potter, 2d), was drawn up near the scaffold. With the first swing the rope broke, and negro Dan fell to the ground unhurt; with that the crowd shouted "Dan is free," and headed by Archy McSwords and McCamant, they made a move to rescue him. Sheriff Duncan, who always carried a lead-loaded riding whip, drew it promptly, and struck McSwords a blow that might have felled an ox. McSwords scratched his head, and said, 'Mr. Duncan, as you are a small man, you may pass on,' with that Captain Potter's company made a charge, and William Irvin, of the troop, levelled McCamant with a blow of his sword, cutting his cap-rim through. Mean while William Petriken stepped up to Dan, and patted him on the shoulder, saying, 'Dan, you have always been a good boy, go up now and be hung like a man,' which he did." (Egle)
Some additional details are added by Myron R. Huff, writing of the incident decades later in the Altoona Tribune:
Daniel Byers was enslaved by Jacob Smith of Bellefonte. The man Byers killed was a free Black by the name of James Barrows, who had married a woman who had earlier been romatnically involved with Byers. After the execution, Byers was buried in an unmarked grave somewhere in Bellefonte.
Sources
Egle, William Henry. An Illustrated History of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, Civil, Political and Military: With Historical Descriptions of Each County In The State. Harrisburg: De Witt C. Goodrich & Co. 1876.Huff, Myron R., "The First Murder in Centre County," Altoona Tribune, 02 April 1917, page 8.
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