EXCERPT: pages 251-251 in chapter 25 "Born Free" about the JUMPER FAMILY originating with Hagar Jumper on Dinwiddie County, Virginia.
Background : Hagar triumphed in court when she won her freedom - and that of her children and grandchildren - and soon appeared on lists of free blacks in the county. She had filed a lawsuit against her owner based on Indian (Native American) heritage.]
"Hagar was joining the nation's first communities of free blacks, which emerged after the American Revolution when some slaveholders embraced Democratic ideas. One Maryland woman said she freed her slaves because holding black people in bondage contradicted "the inalienable Rights of Mankind." That egalitarian spirit also inspired slaves, like Hagar, to take matters into their own hands and to fight for their liberty in the courts. "Whole families," recalled one abolitionist, "were often liberated by a single verdict, the fate of one relative deciding the fate of many." It is possible that Peter was descended from this line. He and Dolly may have also been the children of slaves who were freed by their masters, or the progeny of white indentured servants or poor white women who had relationships and children with African slaves. It was not uncommon for free blacks in Pittsylvania and Henry Counties, where the Jumpers lived, to report to the local courts that their mothers were white. The petitions - filed by men and women hoping to gain their freedom through the courts - suggested that these mothers were close to their children and willing to testify on their behalf.
However they won their freedom, Dolly and Peter (Jumper) clearly joined the free black community at a time when It was growing at an unprecedented clip. Between 1790 and 1810, the number of free blacks in the Unites States rose from 59, 466 - about 8 percent of all blacks - to 186,446 - about 13.5 percent of all blacks. In Virginia, where the Jumpers lived, the free black population more than doubled during that time By 1810, some 30, 570 African Americans - or 7.2 percent of the populations - were living free."
