Percival Miller | |
|---|---|
.png) Posthumous depiction of Miller, circa 1810 | |
| Member of the Richmond City Council | |
| In office February 27, 1808 – March 4, 1809 | |
| Personal details | |
| Born | August 2, 1772 Norfolk, Virginia, U.S. |
| Died | December 18, 1816 (aged 44) Richmond, Virginia, U.S. |
Percival Miller (August 2, 1772 — December 18, 1816) was an American politician, essayist, poet, and abolitionist who served as a Member of the Richmond City Council from 1808 to 1809.[1]
Biography
editPercival Miller was born on August 2, 1772 in Norfolk, Virginia, to Lemuel (1750-1813), a Second Lieutenant in the Revolutionary War, and Anne Longworth Miller (1751-1818).[2] Both of his parents were of French Huguenot and English descent. His paternal family had been in America for a century before him; his great-great-grandfather, Albert Miller, originally a Catholic Frenchman with the surname of Meunier, had converted to Anglicanism in his youth after emigrating from England and later the Colonies. In contrast, Percival Miller's maternal side had immigrated from the Caribbean only a few years before his birth. Raised in the Episcopalian faith, he was nonetheless described by his contemporaries as having atheistic tendencies.
In 1796, Miller married Gertrude Cook (1780-1874), and had one son with her, who went by the name of Mathew (1797-1872). Despite his father's abolitionist inclinations, Mathew would go on to be a fervent slaveholder and later Confederate who published essays directly opposing his father's views.[1][3]
In 1809, while still a member of the Richmond City Council, Percival Miller wrote an essay on slavery and race titled The Negro is Superior to the White.[4] It is worth noting that the title should not be taken literally; his central argument is encapsulated in the question: “What if the Negro could rightly claim Superiority over the White? Would this not be an Argument just as valid as the Claim made by the White Man?” In the essay, he recounts stories of various slaves and their observations of inadequacies in their supposedly superior owners.[1][5]
The same year he wrote an abolitionist poem depicting an America in 1850 that was divided due to the question of slavery, nearly akin to what we see happening in the American Civil War, which occurred over fourty years after Miller's death.[4] It reads the following:
A Cry from Virginia (1809)
In Silas Gray, the Chains of Pow'r stay, He grasps the Fields, and Men with Iron Hand. Yet Abram Reed, once bound, now finds his Way, To free his Kin, and Liberate the Land.
The Year 1850 looms ahead, Its Reckoning, with Fyre and Sword, draws nigh. The Cries of those still Shackled fill his Head, And "Sic semper Tyrannis!" is his Cry.
The Master's Rule begins to quake and Fall, The Dawn of Justice: rising ever near. A Reckoning comes soon for one and all, As Tyrants shake, with newfound Fear.
Oh, let the Banner of the Free arise, For Liberty—it shall light these darkened Skies.
The exact date of the poem's composition is unclear, but it was written during his 1809 campaign for the Virginia State Senate.[5] His authorship negatively impacted his campaign, and later that year, he was lynched by a purportedly black slave owner along with a white mob, likely driven by anti-abolitionist motivations.[4][6] Consequently, he also lost his seat on the City Council.
In 1816, he was lynched once more by the same mob and reportedly developed tuberculosis from one of the assailants. He would end up dying just seven days before Christmas, on December 18, 1816, at the age of 44 in Richmond, Virginia. At the time of his death, he owned one slave, which his son Mathew had inherited. This was a reduction from the five slaves he had owned according to the 1810 Census, which he had willingly freed as part of his adherence to abolitionist principles.[3]
- ^ a b c Dabney, Virginius (1976). Richmond: the story of a city. Garden City, N.Y: Doubleday. ISBN 978-0-385-02046-6.
- ^ Burton, Harrison W (September 10, 2021). History of Norfolk, Virginia: a Review of Important Events and Incidents Which Occurred From 1736-1877: Also a Record of Personal Reminiscences and Political, Commercial, and Curious Facts. Legare Street Press. pp. 109–113. ISBN 978-1015245808.
- ^ a b "1810 Richmond Census". www.familysearch.org. Retrieved 2024-09-15.
- ^ a b c Sommers, Richard J. (1981). Richmond redeemed: the siege at Petersburg. Garden City, N.Y: Doubleday. ISBN 978-0-385-15626-4.
- ^ a b Mitcham Jr., Samuel W. (February 16, 2021). It Wasn't About Slavery: Exposing the Great Lie of the Civil War. Regenery History. ISBN 9781621578765.
- ^ Drescher, Seymour (2009). Abolition: a history of slavery and antislavery (1. publ ed.). Cambridge: Cambridge Univ. Press. ISBN 978-0-521-60085-9.