Life in Old Virginia - Chapters XII-XIV



CHAPTER XII. SOME OBSERVATIONS ON TIDEWATER PEOPLE

The greater percentage of the direct descendants of the original families 
who made the first permanent settlement of the English speaking people in 
America a success, are more likely to be found in rural Tidewater Virginia 
than in any locality of equal size elsewhere in the United States. Up to 
the ending of the Civil War, there were few accessions to the population 
of this section of Virginia, and very few foreigners resident there.

The United States Census of 1900 credited the State of Virginia with 
ninety-nine per cent. of native born population, and one per cent. of 
foreign born population, then resident within its limits. The one per 
cent. of foreign born residents were largely within the cities and big 
towns of the State.

In some counties of Tidewater Virginia, one may travel for continuous days 
without meeting other than native residents whose ancestors came direct 
from Europe many years ago.

Immediately upon the formation of the several counties in Tidewater 
Virginia, the best spots, and the most ferthe soils were selected and 
appropriated into vast estates, in the midst of which was the owner's 
mansion, probably far away from the public road, and the public gaze. Such 
homes needed not the attraction of a passing procession. They held within 
their walls, and their surrounding wide fields sufficient attraction for 
the mind and body of him who was content to lead a decent life.

The most coveted lands were those to be found situated contiguous to 
navigable streams, wherefrom their products could be readily and cheaply 
forwarded to market. The nest choice of lands were those situated upon the 
outskirts of the big estates, where grew heavy timber. The choice spots of 
heavily timbered lands were also the property of the agricultural "barons 
of the waters side." The owners of the large estates never thought of 
putting a price upon them. In fact it would have been an inexcusable 
affront for one to suggest such a contingency as "sell the home." There 
was no place else for them upon this broad earth other than where their 
ancestors dwelt. Under these conditions there were no lands for sale, 
other than the remoter, poor, sandy soils in the interiors of the 
peninsulas, much of which were settled by the poorer classes, who also 
were greatly attached to the soil where they forefathers also lived and 
died. Thus it was that the lands of Virginia became "The Sacred Soil."

Because of this manner of appropriating the soil, and the lack of rapid 
communication, and transportation facilities throughout this section, 
there was left but little or no inducement for an outsider to "come in and 
stay." The newcomer had but one choice left him-the poorest lands; thus 
one sees why this territory had not increased its population 
proportionately with other less favored sections of the United States.

When the Civil War ended, and emancipation changed the old established 
forms of labor, there were left many "land poor" landlords. Since then 
many of these big estates have been curtailed in their dimensions by sales 
to the former servants, and to outsiders who are thus encouraged in the 
opportunity to build up and foster industries hitherto denied this section.

After about its first century of settlement, it was never again the 
territory to which immigrants from the old world came to settle, as they 
did to other parts of the United States. The fact that its southern and 
eastern boundaries are covered with wide waters-the Chesapeake Bay, and 
Potomac River and that there are no railroad facilities in its interior 
sections, may account for the loss of even transient travel throughout its 
limits. It is therefore less known, by means of direct intercourse through 
its territory, than perhaps any other locality of its size in the United 
States, notwithstanding its history is the earliest and most interesting 
of all that territory which comprised the original thirteen States.

The extension of railroad facilities throughout these counties would 
facilitate the transportation of their commodities more rapidly to market, 
and would also bring their lands within easy reach and notice of the 
outside public, thereby enhancing their values which under present 
conditions and surroundings are justly believed to be greatly undervalued.

Tidewater Virginia is nature's sanitarium for the nervously wrecked 
humanity of city life. There are numberless points of land-little 
peninsulas-overlooking pretty streams, throughout all that section which 
are suited to make the ideal home. for the nerve wrecked business man, 
who, because of the necessities of the modern life, is so frequently the 
victim.

There are numerous suitable locations for such hones within less than one 
hundred miles from the Capital City of the United States. Many of these 
spots are yet in the primitively quiet condition in which Captain John 
Smith first viewed them on his voyages of discovery throughout this 
section in the year 1608, in search of a passage way to the Indies. They 
are enlivened only by the echoing whistle of some passing steamer as she 
plows a watery furrow on her voyage up or down their quiet streams, and 
blows a warning of steam to the drowsy wharf master, to get himself in 
readiness to "grab her bow line" and "snub her," era she slips into the 
dark of the overhanging pines, and is lost in the wilderness of shadows 
and waters, and made a wreck on the shore.

The points of land, jutting out between rivers or creek, were the seats of 
the largest land owners, and wealthiest planters, and were the more remote 
spots from the public gaze. In such places often were found the cradles of 
profound thought, and the seats of learning, as well as wealth. From these 
locations came the famous men of Virginia, and of the nation during the 
earliest and later years of history.

To characterize a people is to give an account of their distinguishing 
personal qualities. An extraordinary proof of the orderly condition of the 
people inhabiting this section may be had by reference to the report of 
the State Auditor of the criminal expenses of the counties comprising it, 
during the fiscal year ending September 30, 1905. A few extracts from this 
report are herewith appended:

Charles City County, criminal expenses .....$174.27  
Essex County, criminal expenses ............ 172.28  
King and Queen County, criminal expenses ...  79.50  
New Kent County, criminal expenses ......... 142.33  
Northumberland County, criminal expenses ... 162.99  
Stafford County, criminal expenses ......... 159.46  
York County, criminal expenses ............. 116.67  
City of Fredericksburg, criminal expenses .. 434.20  
City of Williamsburg, criminal expenses ....  44.80  

These are the criminal expenses of a county or city during a whole twelve 
months. Criminal expenses increase throughout the several counties only in 
proportion to the number of alien, or non-native persons either 
permanently or temporarily resident therein. The increase of criminal 
expenses is rarely caused by offences committed by the native residents. 
The man, white, or black, who should become a menace to the peace and 
quiet of society there would not. be tolerated. Heinous crimes against 
one's fellow man are things almost unknown in many of these sections. Very 
many of the county jails are untenanted for successive months, and others 
have been vacant for succeeding years.

The people of Tidewater have developed and practiced these traits of 
honorable character in their dealings with one another, and with strangers 
within their gates, which approach as near to the "Golden Rule" as can be 
found in the same aggregate of population anywhere else in the United 
States.

Without fear or trepidation, one is able to travel during the darkest 
nights over the lonely public roads, notwithstanding the many favorable 
spots within the dense woods which could be found suited to commit dark 
deeds, free from the sight and hearing of all but a dastardly villian and 
his victim.

These people are proverbially courteous to one another and to strangers. 
The abrupt manner often so prominent in many other sections of the United 
States, and especially in the densely populated communities, is not in 
evidence in Tidewater Virginia. When they meet, they take time to greet 
each other, and the frequent and sociable answer to the personal inquiry 
is "I'm tol'able, thank you."

The most common manner of salutation with the "black mammy" is: "Howdy 
Sis' Jane," or, addressing one by the Christian name only, and the answer 
may be: "I'm right smaht pohly, thank de Lawd. How is yo'?" "Sistah Jane " 
means by her reply that she thanks the Lord she is not worse than poorly.

The negro men are usually less serious in their greetings, and will 
frequently answer such inquiry in a mirthful tone "I'se right smaht an' 
sha-ap fo' an of man, thank you'." This manner of reply is more frequently 
heard from the younger men. The old man may tell you of the miseries in 
his body and limbs, with a precision which would do credit to a 
practitioner of medicine.

There is an ease and grace about Virginia hospitality which cannot be 
imitated. It is acquired only as the infant acquires the use of its limbs--
step by step-in long and patient practice. It is devoid of the profuseness 
of "company manners," which wearies both guest and host. If one is 
accepted as a guest he is "at home" during the visit, whether it be within 
the log cabin in the Forest, or the colonial brick mansion on the river's 
shore.

The social life of these people prior to the Civil War was most agreeable. 
Among the wealthier classes, invitations to "come and dine with us" 
followed whenever an extra fat lamb was found among the flock, or when a 
goodly supply of wild birds, wild ducks or geese fell before the hunter's 
gun.

The custom of "spending the day," which might mean a week or more, was of 
common occurrence amongst those of leisure. Well trained servants, and 
abundance of home raised food products lessened the burden of 
entertainment.

When ladies met and saluted each other in the usual form, they completed 
their greeting by an invitation to each other to "come and spend the day 
and bring your knitting." or an invitation to "a quilting" followed. Since 
the Civil War, knitting by hand is fast becoming one of the lost arts of 
the grandmothers. The quilting was one of the many friendly and social 
features of country life, in which young and old participated. A home-made 
quilt in which the neighbors joined to fashion was a work of art and 
patience combined. It was composed of scraps from wedding gowns, and other 
garments, cut into all manner of shapes and devices. Each scrap had its 
own history in connection with the wearer of the original garment from 
which it was cut. Some "patches" in the quilt were cut to represent 
hearts, birds, animals, and such devices as might suit the fancy of the 
worker. Monograms were tastefully and artfully worked with silken threads, 
with the date added in which the work was done. From such a quilt could be 
boilt up a memory history of good neighbors and friends. The male members 
of the respective families attended the quilting in the evening in time to 
partake of the bounteous supper and the dance which followed.

Quiltings were continued until after the Civil War; they have now become a 
memory only of "old times in old Virginia."

In the salt water sections "oyster roasts" and "fish-frys," were amongst 
the social pleasures. These festivals were conducted upon the shores of 
some river where the oysters or fish were procured. Such entertainments 
were frequently conducted during political campaigns, or for church aid.

The professors of voice culture throughout the nation should bring their 
pupils to this section to hear the human voice from the lips of a 
Tidewater Virginia lady. Virginians are remarkable for the modulated sweet 
tone of their voices. But nowhere in the United States is the human voice 
so charming to the ear as in the lower peninsulas. The women especially, 
have such an easy, graceful, and charming tone and flow of language as to 
be captivating. One would surmise that it would be an impossibility for 
such people to utter a harsh, violent scream under any provocation. 
Excessively vulgar conversation, or viciously vulgar epithets, even when 
in angry moods are seldom uttered by any class of these people.

There never was in Tidewater Virginia a class of people such as is known 
and classified-sometimes humorously, and often seriously-as "poor white 
trash." The "poor white trash" are supposed to be those persons who lived 
in certain isolated sections of the late slave holding States, remote from 
the improved and enlightened communities, and are said to be devoid of 
education and common information, crude in manner of address and means of 
living.

There are no islolated sections in Tidewater Virginia, in the sense 
referred to here. The several counties are small, and narrow in breadth of 
territory, and therefore few homes can be located far from the regular 
routes of travel, or from the villages where the respective seats of 
justice are located.

The frequent and genteel intercourse of these people with one another at 
all public festivities, political speakings, religious services, etc., 
keep bright and smooth the otherwise dull and rough edges of human nature, 
which are said to be the outgrowth of absolute isolation and seclusion.

There is little envy or jealousy between the classes of rich and poor. 
They mingle on an equality during all public occasions. The "Golden Calf" 
was not originated, neither is he "tethered" in Tidewater Virginia. The 
individual is respected because of his good qualities, and not because of 
his worldly possessions. The learned judge of a Court carries his head no 
higher-in distain of his less favored fellow man-than does the "Forester," 
who can neither read nor write his name, but is a decent citizen. Neither 
of them have disdain for their fellow man unless the individual forfeits 
his self respect through his own seeking.

Wealth is a comparative term which changes with the years of prosperity 
and adversity. Before the emancipation of the negro, persons in that 
section who had several hundreds of acres of land and servants to work it, 
were classed as rich and independent, though the total values of all their 
possessions were less than the sum of fifty thousand dollars. Following in 
the order of property values were, "the well to do," "the fairly well to 
do," and "the tolerably well to do." Beyond these grades of riches were 
many whose whole possessions would value less than one thousand dollars; 
nevertheless, such persons were enabled to live upon and reap many more 
comforts from these meagre possessions than could be had elsewhere for 
many added hundreds per cent. greater values of property.

The Tidewater Virginia farmer who is out of debt, and possesses one or two 
hundred acres of "tolerably good land," convenient to a salt water stream, 
of which he can add the products to his table, is more independent of the 
world than the city dweller who is possessed of countless thousands of 
wealth in stocks or bonds, liable to become "dead sea fruit" upon his 
hands.

The rich and the well to do persons usually sent their children from home 
to be educated at such institutions as the University of Virginia, the 
Virginia Military Institute, William and Mary College, and to the many 
other colleges and prominent academies which were established in the State 
in the 19th Century. When the students completed their education, they 
returned to their homes, some to enter the prefession of law, or medicine, 
or to engage in pursuits other than labors which tended to harden and make 
callous their fingers and palms. The white man of Tidewater Virginia, if 
possible to prevent, did not often endanger his health by hard, manual 
labor, neither did his servant, the negro, "befo' de wah."

The young men of the present generation resident in Tidewater do more 
manual work than did the "cavaliers of the olden time;" and will grasp a 
plow handle, or other implement of honest toil which gives assurance of 
prosperity. Many of them are successfully conducting extensive fisheries 
for fertilizer of the soil, and others are engaged in the canning of 
oysters, fruits, and other commodities that had no market value there 
prior to the Civil War because of the absence of transportation facilities 
to reach a market.

Tidewater Virginia people are conservative to the verge of stubbornness. 
They must have time for full deliberation before they act. They "feel the 
jerk on the fish hook," and determine whether it be a "bite," or "a
nibble" before pulling it up.

The many fishery and canning and lumber industries, and other industries 
which originated since the Civil War were introduced, encouraged and 
successfully maintained by nonnatives long before the Tidewater people 
could be induced to make investments therein. The conservatism of these 
people was inherited from their forefathers. The early colonist preferred 
the independent life upon his own lands and waters to that of any other 
occupation, and refused to encourage, or engage in trading, or 
manufacturing, or in the building up of towns within his section.

In 1680, the assembly passed an act to encourage the building of towns, 
and offered inducements to mechanics and others to settle in them.

"An act for cohabitation and encouragement of trade and manufacture.

"This present general assembly haveing taken into their serious 
consideration the greate necessity, usefulnesse and advantages of 
cohabitation in his Majesties country of Virginia, and observing and 
foreseeing the greate extremeties his Majesties subjects here must 
necessarily fall under by the present and continued loweness of the price 
of tobacco; the only commodity and manufacture of this country (if the 
same be not by all prudential meanes and wayes prevented) and considering 
that the building of store houses for the reception of all merchandizes 
imported and receiving, secureing and laying ready all tobaccos for 
exportation and for sale and disposall of all goods, merchandizes and 
tobaccoes imported and exported into or from this his Majesties colony of 
Virginia will be one greate means for advancement thereof, doe pray your 
majestie that it may be enacted, and be it enacted by the king's most 
excellent majestie by and with the consent of the general assembly, and it 
is hereby enacted by the authority aforesaid that there be within two 
months next, and immediately after the publication hereof in every 
respective county within this his majesties colony 50 acres of land 
purchased by the ffeoffoes of the several counties at the rates hereafter 
sett downe and measured about, layd out and appointed for a towne for 
store houses &c. for such county as is hereafter sett downe and expressed, 
that is to say:

"In Henrico county at Varina where the court house is.

"In Charles Citty county at Fflower de hundred over against Swiniares 
(Swinyards).

"In Surry county att Smith's Ffort.

"In James Citty county at James Citty.

"In Isle of Wight county at Pates Ffield att the parting of Pagans Creeke.

"In Nansemond county att Coll Dues point also Huffs point.

"In Warwick county att the mouth of Deep Creek on Mr. Mathews land.

"In Elizabeth county on the west side of Hampton River on Mr. Thos. Jarvis 
his plantation where he now lives.

"In Lower Norfolk county on Nicholas Wise his land on the Capital Eastern 
Branch on Elizabeth River at the entrance on the Branch." Now a part of 
Norfolk City.

"In Yorke County on Mr. Reeds land where the Ship Honors store was 
including the low beach for land, wharves, &c., and the old field where 
Webber dwelt for cohabitation.

"In New Kent county att the Brick house along the high land from marsh to 
marsh." This is now known as Brick House landing-a plantation.

"In Gloster county at Tindalls point on Tindalls creek side on John 
Williams land." Now known as Gloucester Point.

"In Middlesex county on the west side of Ralph Wormeleys Creek against the 
plantation where he now lives." Now known as Urbanna.

"In Rappahannock county att Hobses Hole." Now known as Tappahannock, Essex 
County.

"In Stafford county att Pease Point at the mouth of Aquia on the north 
side.

"In Westmoreland county att Nominie on the land of Mr. Hardwicke.

"In Accomack county att Colverts Necke on the northwest side att the head 
of an Anchor Creeke." (Onancock Creek). This is now known as the town of 
Onancock, which in 1900 had a population of 938.

"In Northampton county at the north side of Kings creeke beginning at the 
mouth and so along the creeke which divides Mr. Chewnings and the court-
house.

"In Northumberland county, Chickacony," Cone River Landing, now containing 
one store, and canning establishment.

"The price to be paid by each county for each respective 50 acres shat be 
teen thousand pounds and caske, which summe the owner or owners thereof 
shat be and are hereby constrained to accept take and receive as a full 
and valuable price and consideration for the said land forever, and for 
which he shall acknowledge and pass an authentique deed in law to such 
person x x x as shall be nominated by the justices of the county court as 
ffeoffoes in trust to and for the use of the county. Such person x x x 
whatsoever as will build a dwelling house and ware house thereupon x x 
shall have assigned him x x by deed 1/2 acres of the said land in fee 
simple, he to pay to the county 100 pounds of tobacco and caske and 
building such dwelling house and ware house thereupon as by this act is 
enjoyned. All tobacco whatsoever which shall be made within his majesties 
colony from and after the first day of Jany. next (1681) ensueing, and 
alsoe other goods and merchandizes whatsoever of the growth of this colony 
to be exported shal be brought to the aforesaid appointed places where all 
such tobaccoes and all other goods and merchandizes whatsoever of the 
growth and production of this colony are to be brought, sould, shipped and 
freighted, and whosoever shall presume to buy, sell, freight or ship of 
any tobaccoe or other goods or merchandizes aforesaid next after the tyme 
aforesaid, before the same is brought to such appointed places upon due 
proofs thereof made shall forfeit and loose all such tobaccoes or other 
merchandizes whatsoever. All goods imported, servants negroes and other 
slaves &c to be landed at the town only.

"Mechanics, tradesmen and labourers who shall inhabit the towns, be wholly 
freed from any arrest of their persons or seize of their estates for such 
debts as were formerly contracted, and for and during the tyme of ffive 
years to come next after the publication of this law. That all such 
tradesmen and labourers cohabiting in the places aforesaid and not 
planting tending or makeing tobacco, shat be freed and acquitt from paying 
any publique largos during the terms of ffive years from the publication 
of this act:"

Notwithstanding all these inducements to build, and penalties for shipping 
their products or importing their goods elsewhere than at these "towns," 
the people refuse to aid in "building up towns for the benefit of such 
idlers as might congregate there."

Many of the planters destroyed their tobacco in preference to being 
compelled to ship it from these places.

There are steamboat landings at several of the localities herein named, 
but the writer does not know of any towns now existing in any of the 
places specified in the act, excepting Norfolk, Urbanna, Tappahannock, and 
Onancock, as hereinbefore noted.

There were towns built up by the tobacco trade in localities not mentioned 
in this act. Yorktown was one of these places. Its early history shows 
that it was the chief port for the entire trade of Virginia and was during 
that period a busy scene of commerce and wealth. In the year 1900, it 
contained but 151 inhabitants. Hanovertown, on the Pamunkey River was 
built by the tobacco trade before Richmond was laid out, and about the 
date of the Revolutionary War was a place of more importance; it needed 
but one or two votes in the General Assembly of being chosen as the 
Capital of Virginia. Its site is now a ploughed field.

Leedstown in Westmoreland County, on the Rappahannock River was founded in 
the same year with Philadelphia, Pa., (1681) and in its beginning was far 
more prosperous. Its warehouses were better filled and its intercourse 
with England was greater and more profitable than that of Philadelphia. It 
is now a wharf on the Rappahannock River. It is not populated sufficiently 
to make it even a voting precinct.

When Tidewater Virginians become convinced that a change is needed, and 
the same is once made, they are equally determined in maintaining their 
new position.

Every Tidewater Virginian is intensely proud of his native State, whether 
he was born in a log cabin there and quenched his youthful thirst at the 
"sweep pole well" from the "drinking gourd" which got its first training 
in the "gyarden truck patch," or whether he was born in a "colonial brick 
mansion," where the sideboard is graced by the silver "stirrup cup" a 
treasured heirloom to him through a long line of noble English ancestry. 
Because of this pride, he will "stick by old Virginia," and "never tire."

"Breathes there the man, with soul so dead,
Who never to himself hath said,
'This is my own-my Native Land!'
Whose heart hath ne'er within him burned 
As home his footsteps he hath turned 
From wand'ring on a foreign strand? 
If such there breathe, go-mark him well:
For him no minstral raptures swell;
High though his titles, proud his name,
Boundless his wealth as wish can claim
Despite those titles, power and pelf,
The wretch, concentrated all in self,
Living, shall forfeit fair renown;
And, doubly dying, shall go down
To the vile dust from whence he sprung,
Unwept, unhonored, and unsung." 



CHAPTER XIII. THE COMMONWEALTH OF VIRGINIA, 1776-1860

In the first seventy-five years of the eighteenth century, Virginia's 
population trebled. It went from the head of Tidewater, through the 
Piedmont, across the Blue Ridge into the Great Valley and finally across 
the Allegheny mountains, even to the borders of the Ohio River.

England had in her first American daughter, a great commonwealth which 
would have been to her a source of incalculable benefit had she known how 
to handle her own children in the new world. Unfortunately, she was 
unwilling to give to them in America the same rights and privileges that 
they would have enjoyed had they resided in England. She proposed, after 
the French and Indian War, in which Virginia had taken so active a part 
under Washington at Fort Duquesne, and in which Virginia thus showed her 
entire loyalty to England, to tax the American colonies for the support of 
English troops on American soil. In 1765, the English Parliament passed 
the Stamp Act, from which sprang the serious trouble in American colonies. 
It raised the ire of the liberty-loving Virginians who were led by Patrick 
Henry in the House of Burgesses in 1765, to adopt the famous Stamp Act 
resolutions which declared that the right to tax the colony of Virginia 
lay in the General Assembly of the colony, and in no other power. When the 
Stamp Act was repealed, and the tea tax imposed, Virginia again adopted a 
series of famous resolves. The Assembly was dissolved for this action that 
was regarded as treasonable. The members of the House of Burgesses, among 
them George Washington, immediately assembled in the famous Raleigh 
Tavern, at Williamsburg, and entered into a non-importation agreement, by 
which they bound themselves not to buy any tea from England as long as the 
tax was imposed. One measure after another followed. The Virginians 
smypathized with the people of Boston when their harbor was closed. They 
became distrustful of their governor, Lord Dunmore. They, therefore, 
accepted the invitation of Massachusetts to the first Continental Congress 
in 1774. The colony had already appointed a committee of correspondence to 
correspond with all of the colonies on the conditions prevailing in them. 
Her son, Peyton Randolph, was president of the first Continental Congress; 
her Jefferson presented to that Congress a famous paper known as the 
summary view of the rights of British America; and her Henry in that 
Congress declared "British oppression has effaced the boundaries of the 
several colonies, the distinctions between Virginians, Pennsylvanians, New 
Yorkers and New Englanders are no more. I am not a Virginian but an 
American." In the meanwhile matters were reaching a crisis in Virginia. 
Lord Dunmore marched with a force to the West to meet the Indians, but 
instead of joining General Andrew Lewis, left that pioneer to fight alone 
with Cornstalk and his warriors at Point Pleasant. It was generally 
thought that Dunmore did this with the hope that the Virginia army might 
be destroyed. Then it was that the Virginians called a convention, and in 
March, 1775, in Old St. John's Church in Richmond, Patrick Henry made his 
famous speech, asking that troops be raised to defend Virginia against 
British oppression. Hardly had a force been raised before word came from 
New England of the battle of Lexington and Concord. In the meantime, Lord 
Dunmore seized the gun-powder that was stored in the powder magazine at 
Williamsburg; whereupon Virginian troops marched against him; and forced 
him to pay for the gun powder. Thereupon the governor fled from 
Williamsburg, and open war was begun between the colony Of Virginia and 
its royal governor. In the meantime, the second Continental Congress 
(1775) had met in Philadelphia, and Washington had been elected as 
commander-in-chief of the American army.

Dunmore seized Norfolk, and was driven out by Colonel William Woodford. He 
then retired to Gwynn's Island, off the coast of Matthews county, from 
which he was finally driven, in July, 1776. While war was raging, great 
events had taken place at Williamsburg. The famous convention of 1776 had 
met, of which Edmund Pendleton was president. Resolutions had been 
adopted, instructing the delegates in the Continental Congress to declare 
the colonies free and independent. Virginia then proceeded to adopt the 
famous Bill of Rights drawn by George Mason, which set forth that all men 
are equally free and independent. On the 29th of June, she adopted her 
first constitution, five days before Jefferson's famous Declaration of 
Independence was adopted by the Continental Congress. On the 30th of June, 
the Convention elected the first governor of the Commonwealth of Virginia, 
and for this position, in the trying times of the rebellion against the 
Mother Country, Henry was selected. For five years Virginia occupied a 
prominent place in the councils of the united colonies and on the battle-
field, and it was on her soil that the final great struggle-the battle of 
Yorktown-- took place.

The history of Virginia from 1776 to 1860 deals chiefly with matters 
relating to home, development and the relation of the State to the Federal 
government. Following the adoption of her constitution, under the 
direction of Jefferson, the General Assembly of Virginia disestablished 
the church and declared for religious freedom. It abolished the 
primogeniture and entail system, by which lands were held in the family 
and handed down from the father to the oldest sop.

From 1780 to 1850 a struggle was made for the extension of suffrage. Under 
the constitution of 1776 a relic of colonial government, no man could vote 
who did not possess as much as twenty-five acres of land with a house on 
it, or fifty acres of unimproved land. After a long struggle, suffrage was 
extended in 1830 to certain lease-holders and householders, but not until 
the famous Deform Convention of 1850-51 was every free white man allowed 
to vote. During the same period, there was a struggle for the equalization 
of representation in the General Assembly. The Western counties of the 
State became more populous than the Eastern, but yet, under the system of 
representation, established by the Constitution of 1776, each county had 
two representatives, without regard to population: Loudon County, for 
example, in 1829, with forty-two times the white population of Warwick had 
only two representatives. This was especially obnoxious to all the western 
part of the State, and it was with the hope of equalizing representation 
that the Convention of 1829-30 was held. This convention did something 
towards improving the system of representation, but not to the 
satisfaction of the Western people. The result was that twenty years 
later, another convention was called, which made it possible for the 
western counties to be better represented in proportion to population. The 
people of the East, however, had more wealth, and they claimed that it was 
not just to base representation upon white population alone, but that ,the 
basis of taxation should likewise be considered. During this period, also, 
a struggle was made for a change in local government in the counties and 
towns. In 1776, the people of any county in Virginia were allowed to vote 
for no officer except their member of the General Assembly. All other 
officers were appointed by the governor. This system practically remained 
in use until 1850, as the Convention of 1829-30 made few changes, but the 
famous Reform Convention of 1850-51 gave to the people the right to elect 
the governor, and the judges and all local officers as well as members of 
the General Assembly. Thus, the voice of the people was to be taker. on 
all official matters. During this whole period, however, the people voted 
by the viva voce system, and secret ballot was never introduced into 
Virginia elections until after the Civil War.

About 1800 a great fight arose in the State for internal improvements. A 
demand was made in the western part of the State for the building of 
turnpikes and for canals. Eastern Virginia did not clamor so much for 
internal improvements, as there were so many navigable streams in that 
section. For this reason, as much as anything else, Eastern Virginians 
were unwilling to allow too much representation in the General Assembly to 
the people of the West, fearing that if the western part of the State 
controlled the Assembly, it would vote away too freely the money in the 
treasury for internal improvements. During this same period, some trouble 
arose with the slaves, and an insurrection arose in Southampton known as 
the Nat Turner Insurrection. The result of it was that a movement set on 
foot for the abolition of slavery lacked only one vote of passing the 
Lower House of the General Assembly of Virginia.

The relation of the State to the Federal Government was also an important 
matter. As a rule, the Virginians claimed that no law could be passed by 
Congress unless the power to pass such law was specifically granted to 
Congress by the Constitution of the United States. The famous Virginia 
resolutions of 1798-99 declared the alien and sedition laws 
unconstitutional. Every step towards broadening the powers of the Federal 
Government was fought by the State of Virginia. Her statesmen saw that 
eventually trouble would come over the question of how to construe the 
Constitution and how the Federal government might deal with the Slavery 
question. When the John Brown Insurrection occurred in 1859, and the 
election of Lincoln as President in 1860, Virginia did its utmost to 
preserve the Union. She cast her electoral vote for the Constitutional 
Union party, and after a number of Southern States had seceded, in the 
early Dart of 1861 she called for a Peace Commission to meet in 
Washington, to try to bring about a reconciliation between the Union and 
the seceding states, and it was her son, ex-president John Tyler who 
presided over this conference.

During this period, from 1776 to 1860 Virginia furnished the Union seven 
presidents - Washington, Jefferson, Madison, Monroe, William Henry 
Harrison, John Tyler and Zachary Taylor. This is enough to give her the 
name of Mother of Statesmen. She likewise gave to the Union in the early 
part of this period a large territory from which six States have been 
carved-the Northwest territory which had been conquered for Virginia by 
George Rogers Clark, and Kentucky which in 1792, she voluntarily allowed 
to become a State in the Union. This entitles her to be called the Mother 
of States. The increase in her population was great, though not in 
proportion to some of the other States of the Union.

During this period the following counties were organized:

1. HENRY, formed in 1776, from Pittsylvania, named after Patrick Henry.

2. MONONGALIA, formed in 1776.

3. MONTGOMERY, formed in 1776, from Fincastle County, and named after 
General Montgomery. In this county is situated Blacksburg, the seat of the 
Virginia Polytechnic Institute.

4. OHIO, formed in 1776, and named after the river. In this county is 
situated Wheeling.

5. WASHINGTON, formed in 1776, from Fincastle County (now Botetourt). In 
this county is located Emory and Henry College. The settlers of this 
county had to fight with the Cherokee Indians in the South. To protect 
this country, even before it was made into a county, General Andrew Lewis 
led a force as far south as Knoxville, Tennessee.

6. FLUVANNA, formed in 1777 from Albemarle, and named after James river 
above the falls, which for a long time was called Fluvanna.

7. GREENBRIER, formed in 1777, from Botetourt and Montgomery, and named 
for its principal stream.

8. POWHATAN, formed in 1777, from Cumberland and named after the old 
Indian chief.

9. ROCKBRIDGE, formed in 1778, from Augusta and Botetourt, and named after 
Natural Bridge, which is in the county. The county seat is Lexington, in 
which is located Washington and Lee University and Virginia Military 
Institute. In this locality, the chief settlers were Scotch-Irish. Howe 
says:

They had no sooner found a home in the wilderness, than they betook 
themselves to clearing fields, building houses, and planting orchards, 
like men who felt themselves now settled, and were disposed to cultivate 
the arts of civilized life. Few of them ever ran wild in the forests, or 
joined the bands of white hunters who formed the connecting link between 
the savage aborigines and the civilized tillers of the soil. They showed 
less disposition than the English colonists to engage in traffic and 
speculative enterprises. Without feeling dull or phlegmatic, they were 
sober and thoughtful, keeping their native energy of feeling under 
restraint, and therefore capable, when exigencies arose, of calling forth 
exertions as strenuous and as persevering as the occassion might demand. 
In their devotion to civil liberty, they differed not from the majority of 
their fellow colonists. Their circumstances, in a new country planted by 
themselves, far remote from the metropolitan government, fostered and 
strengthened their ancestral spirit of freedom. As Presbyterians, neither 
they nor their forefathers would submit to an ecclesiastical hierarchy; 
and their detestation of civil tyranny descended to them from the 
convenanters of Scotland. Hence, in the dispute between the colonists and 
the mother country, the Presbyterians of the valley-indeed of the whole 
country-were almost unanimously Whigs of the firmest and most 
unconquerable spirit. They were among the bravest and most effective 
militia, when called into the field. General Washington signified his 
opinion of them when, in the darkest day of the revolutionary struggle, he 
expressed his confidence, that if all other resources should fail, he 
might yet repair with a single standard, to West Augusta, and there rally 
a band of patriots who would meet the enemy at the Blue Ridge, and there 
establish the boundary of a free empire in the west. This saying of the 
father of his country has been variously reported; but we have no reason 
to doubt that he did, in some form, declare his belief that, in the last 
resort, he could yet gather a force in western Virginia which the 
victorious armies of Britian could not subdue. The spirit of these sires 
still reigns in their descendents, as the day of trial, come when it may, 
will prove.

10. ROCKINGHAM, formed in 1778, from Augusta, named after Rockingham, in 
England. This hart of the valley was settled chiefly by Germans from 
Pennsylvania. Of their home life Kercheval says:

The first houses erected by the primitive settlers were log cabins, with 
covers of split clap-boards, and weight poles to keep them in place. They 
were frequently seen with earthen floors; or if wooden floors were used, 
they were made of split puncheons, a little smoothed with the broadaxe. 
These houses were pretty generally in use since the author's recollection. 
There were, however, a few framed and stone buildings erected previous to 
the war of the revolution. As the country improved in population and 
wealth, there was a corresponding improvement in the erection of buildings.

When this improvement commenced, the most general mode of building was 
with hewn logs, a shingle roof, and plank floor, the plank cut out with 
the whip-saw. Before the erection of saw-mills, all the plank used in the 
construction of houses was worked out in this way. As it is probable some 
of my young readers have never seen a whip-saw, a short description of it 
may not be uninteresting. It was about the length of the common mill-saw 
with a handle at each end transversely fixed to it. The timber intended to 
be sawed was first squared with the broadaxes and then raised on a 
scaffold six or seven feet high. Two able-bodied men then took hold of the 
saw, one standing on the top of the log and the other under it, and 
commenced sawing. The labor was excessively fatiguing, and about one 
hundred feet of plank or scantling was considered a good day's work for 
the two hands.

The introduction of saw-mills, however, soon superceded the use of the 
whip-saw, but they were not entirely laid aside until several years after 
the war of the revolution.

The dress of the early settlers was of the plainest materials generally of 
their own manufacture; and if a modern "belle" or "beau" were now to 
witness the extreme plainness and simplicity of their fashions, the one 
would be almost thrown into a fit of the hysterics, and the other 
frightened at the odd and grotesque appearance of their progenitors. 
Previous to the war of the revolution, the married men generally shaved 
their heads, and either wore wigs or white linen caps. When the war 
commenced, this fashion was laid aside, partly from patriotic 
considerations and partly from necessity. Owing to the entire interruption 
of the intercourse with England, wigs could not easily be obtained, nor 
white linen for caps. The men's coats were generally made with broad 
backs, and straight short skirts, with pockets on the outside having large 
flaps. The breeches were so short as barely to reach the knee, with a band 
surrounding the knee, fastened with either brass or silver buckles. The 
stocking was drawn up under the knee-band, and tied with a garter 
(generally red or blue) below the knee, so as to be seen. The shoes were 
of coarse leather, with straps to the quarters, and fastened with either 
brass or silver buckles. The hat was either of wool or fur, with a round 
crown not exceeding three or four inches high, with a broad brim. The 
dress for the neck was usually a narrow collar to the skirt, with a white 
linen stock drawn together at the ends, on the back of the neck, with a 
broad metal buckle. The more wealthy and fashionable were sometimes seen 
with their stock, knee and shoe buckles, set either in gold or silver with 
brilliant stones. The author can recollect, when a child, if he happened 
to see any of those finely dressed "great folk" as they were then termed, 
he felt awed in their presence, and viewed them as something more than 
man. The female dress was generally the short gown and petticoat, made of 
the plainest material. The German women mostly wore tight calico caps on 
their heads, and in the summer season they were generally seen with no 
other clothing than a linen shift and petticoat-the feet, hands and arms 
bare. In hay and harvest time they joined the men in the labor of the 
meadow and grain fields. This custom of the females laboring in the time 
of harvest, was not exclusively a German practice, but was common to all 
the northern people. Many females were most expert mowers and reapers. 
Within the author's recollection, he has seen several female reapers who 
were equal to the stout. est males in the harvest-field. It was no 
uncommon thing to see the female part of the family at the hoe or the 
plow; and some of our now wealthiest citizens frequently boast of their 
grandmothers, ay, mothers too, performing this kind of heavy labor. The 
natural result of this kind of rural life was to produce a hardy and 
vigorous race of people. It was this race of people who had to meet and 
breast the various Indian wars, and the storms of the revolution.

The Dutchman's barn was usually the best building on his farm. He was sure 
to erect a fine large barn before he built any other dwelling-house than 
his rude log-cabin. There were none of our primitive immigrants more 
uniform in the form of their buildings than the Germans.- Their dwelling-
houses were seldom raised more than a single story in height, with a large 
cellar beneath; the chimney in the middle, with a very wide fireplace in 
one end for the kitchen; in the other end a stoveroom. Their furniture was 
of the simplest and plainest kind; and there was always a long pine table 
fixed in one corner of the stove-room, with permanent benches on one side. 
On the upper floor, garners for holding grain were very common. Their beds 
were generally filled with straw or chaff, with a fine featherbed for 
covering in the winter. The author has several times slept in this kind of 
bed; and to a person unaccustomed to it, it is attended not unfrequently 
with danger to the health. The thick covering of the feathers is pretty 
certain to produce a profuse perspiration, which an exposure to cold, on 
rising in the morning, is apt to check suddenly, causing chilliness and 
obstinate cough. The author, a few years ago, caught in this way the most 
severe cold, which followed by a long and distressing cough, he ever was 
afflicted with.

Many of the Germans have what they call a drum, through which the stove 
pipe passes in their upper rooms. It is made of sheet iron, something in 
the shape of the military drum. It soon fills with heat from the pipe, by 
which the rooms become agreeably warm in the coldest weather. A piazza is 
a very common appendage to a Dutchman's dwelling house, in which his 
saddles, bridles, and very frequently his wagon or plough harness, are 
hung up. The Germans erect stables for their domestic animals of every 
species; even their swine are housed in the winter season. Their barns and 
stables are well stored with provender, particularly fine hay, hence their 
quadrupeds of all kinds are kept throughout the year in the finest 
possible order. The practice of housing stock in the winter season is 
unquestionably great economy in husbandry. Much less food is required to 
sustain there, and the animals come out in the spring in fine health and 
condition. It is a rare occurrence to hear of a Dutchman's losing any part 
of his stock with poverty. The practice of housing stock in the winter is 
not exclusively a German custom, but is common to mast of the nothern 
people, and those descended from immigrants from the North. The author 
recollects once seeing the cow-stabs adjoining a farmer's dwelling.

11. CAMPBELL, formed in 1781, from Bedford and named in honor of General 
William Campbell, an officer of the revolution. In this county is situated 
Lynchburg, named after a member of the Lynch family, which has been 
perpetuated in the well-known Lynch Law. Howe says:

Colonel Charles Lynch, a brother of the founder of Lynchburg, was as 
officer of the American revolution. His residence was on the Staunton, in 
the southwest part of this county, now the seat of his grandson, Charles 
Henry Lynch, Esq. At that time, this country was very thinly settled, and 
infested by a lawless band of tories and desperadoes. The necessity of the 
case involved desperate measures, and Colonel Lynch, then a leading Whig, 
apprehended and had them punished without any superficus legal ceremony. 
Hence the origin of the term "Lynch Law." The practice of lynching 
continued three years after the war, and was applied to many cases of mere 
suspicion of guilt, which could not be regularly proven.

It was at old Campbell Court house that the celebrated case of John Hock 
was tried. According to Howe:

Hook was a Scotchman, a man of wealth, and suspected of being unfriendly 
to the American cause. During the distresses of the American army, 
consequent on the joint invasion of Cornwallis and Phillips in I581, a Mr. 
Venable, an army commissary, had taken two of Hock's steers for the use of 
the troops. The act had not been strictly legal; and on the establishment 
of peace, Hook, en the advice of Mr. Cowan, a gentleman of some 
distinction in the law, thought proper to bring an action of trespass 
against Mr. Venable, in the District court of New London. Mr. Henry 
appeared for the defendant, and is said to have deported himself in this 
cause to the infinite enjoyment of his hearers, the unfortunate Hook 
always excepted. After Mr. Henry became animated in the cause, says a 
correspondent, he appeared to have complete control over the passions of 
his audience; at one time, he excited their indignation against Hook; 
vengeance was visible in every countenance; again, when he chose to relax, 
and ridicule him, the whole audience was in a roar of laughter. He painted 
the distresses of the American army, exposed almost naked to the rigor of 
a winter's sky, and marking the frozen ground over which they marched with 
the blood of their unshod feet; where was the man, he said, who had an 
American heart in his bosom, who would not have thrown open his fields, 
his barns, his cellars, the doors of his house, the portals of his breast, 
to have received with open arms, the meanest soldier in that little band 
of famished partiots? 'Where is the man? There he stands but whether the 
heart of an American beats in his bosom, you, gentlemen, are to judge. He 
then carried the jury, by the powers of his imagination, to the plains 
around Yorktown, the surrender of which had followed shortly after the act 
complained of: he depicted the surrender in the mast glowing and noble 
colors of his eloquence--the audience saw before their eyes the 
humiliation and dejection of the British, as they marched out of their 
trenches-they saw the triumph which lighted up every patriotic face, and 
heard the shouts of victory, and the cry of Washington and liberty, as it 
rung and echoed through tine American ranks, and was reverberated from the 
hills and shores of the neighboring river-"but hark! what notes of discord 
are these which disturb the general joy, and silence the acclamations of 
victory-they are the notes of John Hook, hoarsely bawling through the 
American camp, beef! beef! beef!" The whole audience were convulsed: a 
particular incident will give a better idea of the effect, than any 
general description. The clerk of the court, unable to command himself and 
unwilling to comma any breach of decorum in his place, rushed out of the 
court-house, and threw himself on the grass, in the most violent paroxysm 
of laughter, where he was rolling, when Hook, with very different 
feelings, came out for relief into the yard, also. "Jemmy Steptoe," he 
said to the clerk, "what the devil ails yo, men?" Mr. Steptoe was only 
able to say, that he could not help it. "Never mind ye," said Hook, "wait 
till Billy Cowan gets up: he'll show him the la'." Mr. Cowan, however, was 
so completely overwhelmed by the torrent which bore upon his client, that 
when he rose to reply to Mr. Henry, he was scarcely able to make an 
intelligible or audible remark. The cause was decided almost by 
acclamation. The jury retired for form sake, and instantly returned with a 
verdict for the defendant. Nor did the effect of Mr. Henry's speech stop 
there. The people were so highly excited by the tory audacity of such a 
suit, that Hook began to hear around him a cry more terrible than that of 
beef; it was the cry of tar and feathers; from the application of which, 
it is said, that nothing saved him but a precipitate flight and the speed 
of his horse.

12. FRANKLIN, formed in 1784, from Bedford and Henry, and named after 
Benjamin Franklin.

13. GREENESVILLE, formed in 1784, from Brunswick.

14. HARRISON, formed in 1784, from Alonongalia, named after Benjamin 
Harrison, Governor of Virginia.

15. HARDY, formed in 1786, from Hampshire, named after Samuel Hardy.

16. RUSSELL, formed in 1786, from Washington County, named after General 
William Russell.

17. RANDOLPH, formed in 1787, from Harrison, and named after Edmund 
Randolph.

18. NOTTOWAY, formed in 1788, from Amelia, and named after the Nottoway 
tribe of Indians.

19. PENDLETON, formed in 1788, from Augusta, Hardy and Rockingham, and 
named from Edmund Pendleton.

20. KANAWHA, formed in 1789, from Greenbrier and Montgomery.

21. MATTHEWS formed in 1790, from Gloucester, named in honor of a Virginia 
revolutionary officer, afterwards governor of Georgia.

22. WYTHE, formed in 1790, from Montgomery, and named after George Wythe.

23. BATH, formed in 1791, from Augusta, Botetourt and Greenbrier. In this 
county are located the Warm Springs and Hot Springs. This county was the 
home of General Samuel Blackburn, one of the most famous orators and 
criminal lawyers of his time in Virginia. Of him Howe wrote:

He was the father of the anti-duelling law of the state, which we believe 
was the first passed in the country after the war of the revolution. Among 
other penalties, it prohibited anyone who had been engaged in a duel from 
holding offices of trust in the gift of the state. Some years after, a 
gentleman who had challenged another, was elected to the legislature. When 
he came forward to take the customary oath, his violation of this law was 
urged against him. Some, however, contended that the circumstances of the 
case were so aggravating that its provisions ought to be disregarded, and 
fears were entertained that this sentiment might prevail. Then it was that 
General Blackburn, who was a member, came forward with a speech of great 
power in opposition. The result was the triumph of the law in the 
rejection of the member.

24. PATRICK, formed in 1791, from Henry, and named after Patrick Henry.

25. LEE, formed in 1792, from Russell, named after Henry Lee, governor of 
Virginia. The following account of a duel reported in a newspaper of the 
year 1823 is given by Howe:

A remarkable duel took place in Lee County, on Sunday, December 7th, which 
has been the subject of much conversation here . . . . . Two negro men, 
belonging to two gentlemen, had been bitten by the charms of a sable 
beauty, and neither being willing to yield to the other, they determined, 
like gentlemen, to decide their pretentions by a duel. The arrangement was 
accordingly made, and they met in a distant and retired wood, unattended 
by seconds, and without the knowledge of any other person-each armed with 
a trusty rifle. Their proceedings appear to have been conducted with a 
strict honor, the more remarkable in such case as it was exhibited by 
slaves. The ground was measured off about fifteen paces; the antagonists 
took their posts; the word was given by one of them, and both instantly 
fell-one shot through the heart, and the other through the right breast. 
The former expired immediately; the latter, with great difficulty and 
pain, crawled to a small path not far from the scene of combat; but unable 
to go further, he remained by it, in the hope that someone would pass and 
find him. He lay there, under all the suffering which his wound and 
exposure inflicted, until the following Tuesday, before he was found. 
Depressed and debased as that unfortunate race is, there are occasional 
instances in which they exhibit traits of character which elevate them 
above the sphere to which our policy compels us to confine them. The 
strict observance of honorable conduct, and the cool determined courage of 
these negroes, afford an example which ought to make some gentlemen of 
high condition blush.

26. MADISON, formed in 1792, from Culpeper, named after President Madison.

27. GRAYSON, formed in 1793, from Wythe, and named after William Grayson, 
a member of the Virginia Convention that ratified the Federal constitution.

28. CHARLOTTE, formed in 1794, from Lunenburg, named after Princess 
Charlotte. Charlotte was the residence of Patrick Henry in his latter 
days, of John Randolph of Roanoke, and of Judge Paul Carrington. Henry 
lived at Red Hill and John Randolph at Roanoke.

29. BROOKE, formed in 1797, from Ohio county. It lies in the "panhandle" 
of what is now West Virginia. It was in this county that the Rev. Dr. 
Alexander Campbell established Bethany College under the direction of the 
Disciples of Christ. It was the home of Philip Doddridge, who was the 
leader of the western element of the Convention of 1829-30.

30. MONROE, formed in 1799, from Greenbrier, and named after President 
Monroe.

31. TAZEWELL , formed in 1799, from Russell and Wythe, and named after 
Senator Henry Tazewell.

32. WOOD, formed in 1799, from Harrison, and named after Governor James 
Wood, of Virginia.

33. JEFFERSON, formed in 1801, from Berkeley, and named after Thomas 
Jefferson. In this county is situated Harper's Ferry, the scene of John 
Brown's raid. In this county was also the home of Rumsey, the inventor of 
the first steam-boat.

34. MASON, formed in 1804, from Kanawha, and named after George Mason. In 
this county is situated Point Pleasant, famous for the battle with the 
Indians tinder Cornstalk.

35. GILES, formed in 1806, from Monroe and Tazewell, and named after 
General William B. Giles. In this county the celebrated Salt Pond.

It is a natural beautiful lake of pure fresh water, on the summit of the 
Salt Pond mountain, one of the highest spurs of the Alleghany. This pond 
is about a mile long and one-third of a mile wide. At its termination it 
is dammed by a huge pile of rocks over which it runs, but which once 
passed through the fissures only. In the spring and summer of 1804, 
immense quantities of leaves and other rubbish washed in and filled up the 
fissures, since which it has risen full 25 feet. Previous to that time, It 
was fed by a fine, large spring at its head; then that disappeared, and 
several small springs now flow into it at its upper end. When first known, 
it was the resort of vast numbers of elk, buffalo, deer, and other wild 
animals, for drink; hence its name of salt pond. It has no taste of salt, 
and is inhabited by fine trout.

36. NELSON, formed in 1807, from Amherst and named after Governor Thomas 
Nelson.

37. SCOTT, formed in 1814, from Lee, Washington and Russell, and named 
after General Winfield Scott.

38. TYLER, formed in 1814, from Ohio, and named after John Tyler, Sr.

39. LEWIS, formed in 1816, from Harrison, and named after Colonel Charles 
Lewis. 40. NICHOLAS, formed in 1828, from Kanawha, Greenbrier and 
Randolph, and named after Governor Nicholas.

41. PRESTON, formed in 1818, from Monongalia, and named for Governor James 
B. Preston.

42. MORGAN, formed in 1820, from Hampshire and Berkeley, named after 
General Daniel Morgan.

43. POCAHONTAS, formed in 1821, from Bath, Pendleton and Randolph, and 
named for the Indian princess.

44. ALLEGHANY, formed in 1822, from Bath, Botetourt and Monroe. The county 
is named for the mountains which traverse it. During the early part of the 
nineteenth century, this was a wild country, frequently traversed by 
Indians and outlaws. An interesting story is told of an eccentric female 
named Ann Bailey who lived in this locality. Howe says

She was born in Liverpool, and had been the wife of an English soldier. 
She generally went by the cognomen of Mad Ann. During the wars with the 
Indians, she very often acted as a messenger, and conveyed letters from 
the fort, at Covington, to Point Pleasant. On these occasions she was 
mounted on a favorite horse of great sagacity, and rode like a man, with a 
rifle over her shoulder and a tomahawk and a butcher's knife in her belt. 
At night she slept in the woods. Her custom was to let her horse go free, 
and then walk some distance back on his trail, to escape being discovered 
by the Indians. After the Indian wars, she spent some time in hunting. She 
pursued and shot deer and bears with the skill of a backwoodsman. She was 
a short, stout woman, very masculine and coarse in appearance, and seldom 
or never wore a gown, but usually had on a petticoat, with a man's coat 
aver it, and buck-skin breeches. The services she rendered in the wars 
with the Indians endeared her to the people. Mad Ann and her black pony 
Liverpool were always welcome at every house. Often she gathered the 
honest, simple-hearted mountaineers around and related her adventures and 
trials, while the sympathetic tear would course down their cheeks. She was 
profane, often became intoxicated, and could box with the skill of one of 
the fancy. Mad Ann possessed considerable intelligence, and could read and 
write. She died in Ohio, many years since.

45. LOGAN, formed in 1824, from Giles, Kanawha, Cabell and Tazewell, and 
named after the Indian chief.

46. FAYETTE, formed in 1831, from Logan, Greenbrier, Nicholas and Kanawha.

47. FLOYD, formed in 1831, from Montgomery, named after John Floyd, 
governor of Virginia.

48. PAGE, formed in 1831, from Rockingham and Shenandoah, and named after 
Governor John Page. In this county is situated the celebrated Luray Cave, 
that attracts the admiration of visitors from all parts of the world.

49. RAPPAHANNOCK, formed in 1831, from Culpeper, and named after the river.

50. SMYTH, formed in 1831, from Washington and Wythe, and named after 
General Alexander Smyth, an officer of the War of 1812.

51. Marshall, formed in 1835, from Ohio County, and named after Chief 
Justice Marshall.

52. BRAXTON, formed in 1836, from Lewis, Kanawha and Nicholas, and named 
after Carter Braxton, one of the signers of the Declaration of 
Independence, from Virginia.

53. CLARKE, formed in 1836, from Frederick, and named after George Rogers 
Clark. In this county lived General Daniel Morgan, at "Soldiers' Rest " 
only a few miles from Berryville. Morgan subsequently built another, a 
beautiful seat, in this county, which he very appropriately named 
Saratoga. It was erected by Hessians taken prisoners at Saratoga. 
According to Howe:

About 200 yards from Soldiers' Rest stands an old log hut, which well 
authenticated tradition states was occupied by Washington while surveying 
land in this region for Lord Fairfag. It is about twelve feet square, and 
is divided into two rooms; one in the upper, and the other in the lower 
story. The lower apartment was then, and is now, used as a milkroom. A 
beautiful spring gushes up from the rocks by the house and flows in a 
clear, crystal stream, under the building, answering admirably the purpose 
to which it is applied, in cooling this apartment. Many years since, both 
the spring and the building were protected from the heat of the summer's 
sun by a dense copse of trees. The upper, or attic room, which is about 
twelve feet square, was occupied by Washington as a place of deposite for 
his surveying instruments, and as a lodginghow long, though, is not known. 
The room was lathed and plastered. A window was at one end, and a door-up 
to which led a rough flight of steps-at the other. This rude but is, 
perhaps, the most interesting relic of that great and good man, who became 
"first in the hearts of his countrymen."

In this county also was Greenway Court, the seat of Lord Fairfax. Howe 
says:

His lordship lived and died in a single story and a half-house, which 
stood just in front of the modern brick dwelling of Mr. Kennerly, and was 
destroyed in 1834. There are now several of the original buildings 
standing at the place; among them is a small limestone structure, where 
quit-rents were given and titles drawn of his lordship's domains. Fairfax 
had, probably, 150 negro servants, who lived in log huts scattered about 
in the woods. A few years since, in excavating the ground near the house, 
the servants of Mr. Kennerly discovered a large quantity of joes and 
halfjoes amounting to about $250.00; they were what is termed cob-coin, of 
a square form, and dated about 1730. They were supposed to have been 
secreted there by Lord Fairfax. Under a shelving rock, nine feet from the 
surface, there was also found a human skeleton of gigantic statue; 
supposed to be that of an Indian. When Lord Dunmore went on his expedition 
against the Indians in 1774, he came on as far as this place with a 
portion of his troops, and waited here about a fortnight for 
reinforcements. His soldiers encamped in what was then a grave-now a 
meadow-about three hundred yards north of Mr. Kennerly's present 
residence. The spot is indicated by a deep well, supposed to have been dug 
by them; an old magazine, destroyed in 1843, stood near the well. 
Washington, when recruiting at Winchester, often visited this place. Lord 
Fairfax had but little cultivated ground around his premises, and that was 
in small patches without taste or design. The land was left for a park, 
and he lived almost wholly from his rents. The following, as well as much 
of the foregoing, respecting him, is traditionary: His lordship was a 
dark, swarthy man, several inches over six feet in height, and of a 
gigantic frame and personal strength. He lived the life of a batchelor, 
and fared coarse, adopting in that respect the rough customs of the people 
among whom he was. When in the humour, he was generous-giving away whole 
farms to his tenants and simply demanding for rent some trifle-for 
instance, a present of a turkey for his Christmas dinner.

54. WARREN, formed in 1836, from Frederick and Shenandoah, and named after 
General Warren.

55. MERCER, formed in 1837, from Giles and Tazewell, and named after 
General Hugh Mercer.

56. GREENE, formed in 1838, from the western part of Orange, and named 
after General Nathaniel Greene,

57. ROANOKE, formed in 1338, from Botetourt. The name is probably derived 
from an Indian word, meaning shell-money.

58. PULASKI, formed in 1839, from Montgomery and Wythe, and named after 
Count Pulaski.

59. CARROL, formed in 1842, from Grayson, named after George Carrol, a 
member of the Legislature from Grayson.

60. MARION, formed in 1842, from Harrison and Monongalia, and named after 
General Francis Marion.

61. WAYNE, formed in 1842, from Cabell County, and named after General 
Anthony Wayne.

62. BARBOUR, formed in 1843, from Harrison, Lewis and Randolph, and named 
after Philip and James Barbour.

63. RITCHIE, formed in 1843, from Harrison, Lewis and Wood, and named 
after the well-known editor, Thomas Ritchie.

64. TAYLOR, formed in 1844, from Harrison, Barbour and Marion, and named 
after John Taylor, of Caroline.

65. ALEXANDRIA, formed in 1846, from that part of the district of Columbia 
which was given by Virginia to the National Government, and afterwards 
returned to the State.

66. HIGHLAND, formed in 1847, from Bath and Pendleton.

67. CRAIG, formed in 1851, from Botetourt, Roanoke, and Giles.

68. WISE, formed in 1846, from Russell, Scott, and Lee.

69. BUCHANAN, formed in 1858, from Russell and Tazewell.

70. BLAND, formed in 1860, from Wythe, Giles, and Tazewell.

The preceding account of the formation of the counties of Virginia shows 
that the State was growing toward the west. Of the seventy counties herein 
named, twenty-nine are now a part of West Virginia. Virginia has to-day 
100 counties.



CHAPTER XIV. THE NEGRO SLAVE IN VIRGINIA

The want of labor to help fell the forests, and to clear and cultivate 
fields for the needed harvests were perplexing and vital questions in the 
17th century with the new colony. Indented white men, boys, and girls were 
shipped from England for this purpose. This help was but temporary as the 
indented service was limited to a few years at most, and at its expiration 
this imported labor was given a certain number of acres of land for their 
own use, and thus they became masters, and would be hirers themselves, 
thereby adding to the perplexity of the question which their original 
introduction into Virginia was intended to settle.

The negro reached Virginia nearly as soon as the white man. In April, 
1607, the first colony landed there, and in August, 1619, the negro 
followed. About two months before this first cargo of slaves reached 
Jamestown the people of the colony were granted the right of suffrage, for 
the first time in the new world, through the election of a House of 
Burgesses. Thus did "the Fates decree," that while the white man in 
Virginia, was enjoying his first rights there as a freeman, the negro, as 
a slave, was offered him, and accepted as a Godsend. Whether the 
introduction of slavery was a God-send to Virginia has long been a mooted 
question.

This first cargo of negro slaves to reach Virginia was pirated from the 
Spanish West Indies by a "Dutch Man o' War," so called. It is stated that 
this "Man of War" was a pirate ship-a class of vessels common in those 
yearsmanned in part by Englishmen, and that Ca pt. Samuel Argall, Lieut.-
Governor of Virginia from 1617 to 1619, was largely interested in this 
adventure of shipping slaves to Virginia.

At the period of the introduction of slavery into Virginia the colony was 
confined mainly to small settlements along the banks of the James River. 
The negro helped to fell the primeval forests to make way for fields of 
tobacco and golden headed grain. He heaved out the highways for his 
master's vehicle through the dense woods, and shared with him the dangers 
and privations of the early life in the wilderness, and accepted the ill 
luck, or the good loch which came to the pioneer, and was generally fairly 
treated in all things but his freedom. In fact his lot was frequently a 
happier one than that of many of the white indented servants in whom their 
masters had no pecuniary interest beyond the cost of their transportation 
to the colony. Very many of these were forced to harder tasks than befell 
the slave.

Slavery, even of the white race, was in existence from the earliest days 
of history. "Joseph," whose coat of many colors excited the envy of his 
brethren, was sold by them to the traders who trafficked in human flesh, 
as well as in the other commodities demanded in that day. Later we read of 
the Egyptian taskmasters under whom the Israelites-the chosen people of 
God-worked at hard tasks, made the more severe by reason of the prejudice 
and jealousy of the task master against that race. Later history records 
the slavery of prisoners captured in the wars of all nations. In those 
ages color of the skin was no bar to slavery.

Tidewater Virginia was virtually the slave's paradise. The largest farms, 
and consequently the largest owners of slaves were usually located in the 
river bottom lands, or convenient to the affluent streams which led into 
the larger navigable waters. As nearly all these streams were abundantly 
supplied with oysters, and fish of every variety, the thrifty were enabled 
to add to their allowance from "the store house of nature:" The early 
riser could have his fish for breakfast fresh from his own net. In the 
fall and winter, he might have wild fowl, and he could find small game in 
the dense timbered lands, which worded a dietary change as well as 
amusement. Added to these was the regular ration of meal and meat, and the 
products of a "garden patch" which all were allowed to cultivate for their 
own benefit. The farmers who were morn remote from the navigable streams 
were the owners of smaller tracts of land, and fewer servants. The 
servants of these farmers generally fared quite as well as their owners, 
and in the absence of their masters were in full control of their 
business. In the writer's experience of mere than twenty-five years' 
travel through the several counties of Tidewater Virginia, he has never 
heard a complaint from the former slaves of ill treatment at the hands of 
their former owners. On the contrary all references to their former master 
and mistress were affectionate, and to their great credit.

The owners of slaves never referred to them other than as "servants." The 
master's residence was called by the negroes the "Great House,"without 
regard to its size. The young "white folks" were always welcomed in their 
visits to the "negro quarters" and were especial favorites with the "Black 
Mammys," whom they were taught to respect and to give evidence of their 
appreciation of courtesies received at their hands.

A "Black Mammy" was one of the servants reared within the "Great House," 
beginning service as a child, and servant to some one of the children of 
her owner. It was frequently the case that she was provided with a bed 
within the same room wherein slept her child mistress or master.

There were no secrets of the family with which this descendant of Ham was 
not conversant, and few of those to whom these secrets were known kept 
them more inviolable. As she grew in years she was burdened with the care 
of the white children, often to the extent of nursing them from the milk 
of her own breast. She loved her "lil chillun" and they loved her, and why 
should they not love one another when their lives were thus so closely 
combined. The Black Mammy was fond of the recital of the traditions of her 
owners and a zealous defender of their family honor.

Slavery in Virginia differed greatly from that of the cotton States. In 
many instances in those States the owners had little or no intercourse or 
acquaintance with their slaves. They were in such instances managed and 
worked by overseers who lived upon the plantation, and had supreme 
control, and it depended upon the humanity of such overseers as to how the 
servants were treated.

In Virginia the Owner of less than half a dozen male servants usually 
worked with them at their several tasks in the field, or forest, or in the 
rivers. Those who owned a greater number of servants, and themselves 
pursued some occupation, as county officer, or the profession of law, or 
medicine, or other business undertaking which occupied their time, usually 
hired an overseer, more as an aid than a supreme controller of their 
servants. In many instances the place of white overseers was servants.

Those who had more servants than were needed frequently hired them out. In 
that event the servants were usually permitted to seek their employers. If 
a servant disliked his former employer, and made known his displeasure to 
his master, he was permitted to seek service elsewhere. It was difficult 
for any hirer of servants who had incurred their ill will to again hire 
one. "Hiring time" was usually during the Christmas holidays. All hired 
servants returned to their owner's homes during the Christmas holidays, 
where feasting, frolicking and dancing was the custom. The negro was a 
great frolicker during slavery. Female servants often helped filled by a 
"head man," who was himself one of the in the field at such labors as 
plowing corn, binding grain, pulling fodder and shucking corn.

It was the custom of many negroes to wrap their hair in little knots with 
strings of various colors. This custom was more frequently followed by the 
young female servants; it was usually a Sunday job to "look the hair
over," and wrap it. This custom was based upon the belief that it would 
induce the hair to grow straight, and for this purpose they would stretch 
the lock until the scalp rose with it, and then wrap each lock of hair so 
tight, and cover it so thickly with cord that it stood aloft like the 
quills upon an angry porcupine, and lead one to wonder how the wearer 
could shut her eyes without jerking the hair from its scalp by the roots.

The matrons of the homes were the angels of the households in Old 
Virginia. They watched over all, nursed, advised and comforted both black 
and white. The "Misses" was profoundly respected by the servants and 
worshipped by the white members of the family. Nowhere in the world were 
women shown more respect and courtesy than in Virginia. Their soft, gentle 
voices and their easy, graceful, and courteous manners forbade that none 
other than the best of treatment should be accorded them.

Because of the numerous servants subject to their call they were exempt 
from the menial duties of life. Their duty was to manage the household and 
cultivate their minds and manners.

The nears of Virginia took his captivity lightly. He is by nature endowed 
with a happy disposition. His laugh is hearty, extending over his whole 
face, and is so surely contagious that it would crack the skin of a 
hypochondriac who dared to venture within its bounds. Like their masters 
they had no use for "an or'nary white man," and were appreciative of 
favors and courtesies. The negro has two prominent, commendable traits, a 
short memory for a wrong, and a quickness to be gratified to his joy.

Greed of riches forces men to commit crimes and outrages against humanity, 
and the greater the sum of wealth involved the greater becomes the 
outrages in its seeking. Perhaps when the Tidewater Virginian acquires the 
greed of riches he may commit its consequent crimes to accomplish his end. 
Had these owners worked their servants as laborers are worked in many of 
the densely populated cities of the world they would have heaped up 
riches. On the contrary, these people led a life of ease and comfort in 
which their servants participated. The tasks of the servants were usually 
light; the chopping of four or five cords of wood was a whole week's task. 
Poverty and want, such as is frequently the experience of the white 
laborer in sweat shop, or factory, was never known in tidewater by the 
master or slave. There were no profligate expenditures for gaudy show, 
neither was there miserly, grovelling poverty. There were no care-worn 
wrinkles in the faces of the master, or his servant, induced by poverty's 
unrelenting laws. These people were not very rich, neither were they very 
poor. The following is an interesting account of the conditions existing 
between the master and his slave written more than twenty years prior to 
the Civil War.

"Slaves not allowed to keep or carry military weapons. Not allowed to 
leave home without written permission. Not to assemble at any meeting 
house or other places in the night, under pretence of religious worship-
nor at any school for the purpose of being taught to read or write-nor to 
trade and go at large as freedmen-nor to hire themselves out-nor to preach 
or exhort. Some of the penalties for a violation of these laws are imposed 
upon the master, for permitting his slave to do certain acts; in other 
cases, the slave is liable to be taken before a justice of the peace, and 
punished by stripes, never exceeding thirty-nine. Slaves emancipated by 
their master, are directed to leave the State within twelve months from 
the date of emancipation. These and every other law having the appearance 
of rigor towards the slaves are nearly dead letters upon the statute book 
unless during times of excitement. It is rare to witness the trial of a 
slave for any except very serious crimes. There are many offences 
committed by them, for which a freeman would be sent to the penitentiary, 
that are rot noticed, or punished by a few stripes under the direction of 
the master. When tried for a crime, it is before a court of at least fig-a 
magistrates, who must be unanimous to convict. They are not entitled to a 
trial by jury, but it is acknowledged on all hands that this is a benefit, 
and not a disadvantage. Slaves may be taught, and many of them are taught 
in their owner's family. They are allowed to attend religions worship, 
conducted by a white minister, and to receive from them religious 
instruction. In point of fact, they go where they please on Sundays, and 
at all times when they are not engaged in labor.

"The rights and duties of slaves, as a distinct class, are not defined by 
law. They depend upon usage or custom, which controls the will of the 
master. Thus, the law does not recognize their right to hold property, but 
no instance is brown of the masters interfering with their little 
acquisitions; and it often happens, that they are considerable enough to 
purchase themselves and family. In such cases I have never known the 
master to enact from the slave the fill price that he might have obtained 
from others. In the same manner, the quantity and quality of food and 
clothing, the hours of labor and rest, the holidays, the privileges, &c., 
of the slave, are regulated by custom, to depart materially from which 
would disgrace the master in public opinion.

"The intercourse between the master and slave is kind, respectful and 
approaching to intimacy. It must be recollected that they have been 
brought up together, and often form attachments that are never broken. The 
servants about the house are treated rather as humble friends than 
otherwise. Those employed differently have less intercourse with the white 
family; but, when they meet, there is a civil, and often cordial greeting 
on both sides. The slaves generally look upon their masters and mistresses 
as their protectors and friends. The slave of a gentleman universally 
considers himself a superior being to 'poor white folks.' They take pride 
in their master's prosperity; identify his interest with their own; 
frequently assume his name; and even his title; and speak of his farm, his 
crops, and other possessions as their own.

"In their nature the slaves are generally affectionate; and particularly 
so to the children of the family, which lays the foundations of the 
attachments spoken of, continuing through life. The white children-if they 
had the desire-are not permitted to tyrannize over the slaves, young or 
old. The children play together on terms of great equality, and if the 
white child gives a blow, he is apt to have it returned with interest. At 
the tables you will find the white children rising from them, with their 
little hands full of the best of everything to carry to their nurses or 
playmates, and I have often known them to deny themselves for the sake of 
their favorites. These propensities are encouraged, and everything like 
violence or tyranny strictly prohibited. The consequence is that when the 
young master (or mistress) is installed into his full rights of property, 
he finds around him no alien hirelings, ready to quit his service upon the 
slightest provocation, but attached and faithful friends, known to him 
from his infancy, and willing to share his fortunes, wherever they may 
carry him.

"The old gray headed servants are addressed by almost every member of the 
white family as 'uncles' and 'aunts.' The others are treated with as much 
respectful familiarity as if they were white laborers. They never hesitate 
to apply to their masters or mistresses in every difficulty. If they have 
any want they expect to be relieved. If they are maltreated they ask 
redress at their hands. Injury to the slave from any quarter, is regarded 
as an injury to the master.

"When the slave is not at work he is under no restrictions or 
surveillance. He goes where he pleases and seldom asks for a pass. If he 
is on the farm at the appointed hours no inquiry is made how he has 
employed the interval. The regular holidays are two at Easter, two at 
Whitsuntide, and a week at Christmas. These he enjoys by prescription, and 
others, such as Saturday evenings, by the indulgence of his master. The 
time is generally spent visiting from house to house and in various 
amusements. His favorite one is playing the fiddle, the jews harp, and 
dancing, and wrestling and cracking the bones. They have no anxiety about 
their families or the failure of crops, or the horrors of debt. Those who 
are provident employ their liberty hours in working for themselves or 
others who may need their services. Near their cabins (quarters) they have 
ground allotted for their gardens and patch of corn. They are allowed to 
raise a hog and fowls. The latter they sell to their masters or others. 
They make brooms, baskets and flag chairs, corn shuck collars and corn 
shuck door mats, etc., which they sell for their own purposes. Provision 
was made for those who were too young or too old to labor. Their allowance 
of clothing was generally a hat, blanket, 2 suits clothes, 3 shirts or 
shifts, and 2 pair shoes a year. The winter suit is of strong linsey 
cloth, the summer, of linen for the men, and striped cotton for the women. 
The children have linsey and cotton garments, but no shoes or hat until 
they are 10 or 11 years old, and begin doing something.

"On large farms the doctor for the slaves was paid by the year. When sick 
they are nursed by the white family, and whatever is necessary they are 
supplied with. The moral sense of the community would not tolerate cruelty 
in a master. I know of nothing that would bring him more surely into 
disgrace.

"Negro traders are despised by the master and detested by the slaves. 
Their trade is supported by the misfortune of the master, and the crimes 
or misconduct of the slaves, and not by the will of either party except in 
few instances. Masters will not part with their slaves but from sheer 
necessity, or for flagrant delinquencies, which in other countries would 
be punished by severity. Thousands retain them when they know full well 
that their pecuniary condition would be greatly improved by selling, or 
even giving them away. Sometimes a slave, after committing a theft or 
other crime, will abscond for fear of detection. If caught he is generally 
sold for the sake of the example to other slaves. From these sources the 
negro buyers are supplied, but it does not happen in one case out of a 
thousand that the master willingly sells an honest faithful slave. The man 
doing so would be looked upon as a sordid, inhuman wretch, and be shunned 
by his neighbors and countrymen of respectable standing. Notwithstanding 
the law to the contrary thousands of emancipated slaves remain in the 
State incurring the risk of being sold as slaves."

Prior to the Civil War there was no migration of the free negro race to 
any of the Southern States. It is therefore to be presumed that all the 
free colored residents in Virginia at the period of the Civil War were 
manumitted slaves or their descendants, who were permitted to remain, 
notwithstanding laws to the contrary. It is safe to say that all the 
slaves who were manumitted-except the very few who purchased themselves-
were granted their freedom through motives of humanity, and not through 
economy, as there was always a ready market for them. Many a master in 
Tidewater Virginia was deeply concerned as to what would become of his 
servants after his demise, and it is said of them that they would have 
provided for manumission but for the fact that they feared the freed 
servants could not provide for themselves.

The Virginia servants were the most intelligent of their race who were in 
bondage in America. This was owing largely to the fact that they had 
greater opportunity to mingle with the whites than had the servants of the 
Cotton States, many of whom rarely ever saw a white man other than the 
ignorant overseer. Many of them were permitted to follow their young 
master in the hunt, and were with him in many of his other frolics. Many 
instances are recorded in which the servants followed their masters into 
the Confederate Army, and continued to render faithful and constant 
service, and share the dangers and privations incident to army life until 
the war closed, or their beloved master's body was laid in the grave. The 
great diversity of their labors in the field, the forest, and the waters 
was of much advantage in the training of their minds and muscles. They 
were handy as plowmen, axemen, and sailors, and many were skilled enough 
to perform the several mechanical labors needed on the plantation.

Because of these qualities the "negro traders" valued him highly, and if 
opportunity offered would give the highest market price for "the servant 
raised in Tidewater Virginia."

The price of the average slave was from $1,200 to $1,500. There was but 
one serious uprising of the negro slaves in Virginia, excepting the 
endeavor of John Brown to free the slaves, know-n in history as the "John 
Brown Raid," which occurred in 1859, during the period in which the famous 
Henry A. Wise was Governor of the Mate. This insurrection was suppressed 
by him, and is a matter of history too well known to repeat here.

In 1831, Nat Turner, a negro slave of Southampton County, Virginia, 
together with his brother, rallied many negro slaves in a band, who with 
stolen firearms and clubs, murdered several whole families, men, women and 
children, before they were apprehended by the State militia and citizens. 
Nat Turner was a favorite servant, well treated, and trusted by his 
master, and therefore had no personal cause for his evil work except that 
of obtaining his freedom. It was said he was induced to the insurrection 
by superstitious beliefs based mainly upon the unusual appearance of the 
sun at that period. Nat Turner left a son named John, who was later sold 
to a negro trader and taken to St. Louis, Mo., -where he became the trusty 
servant of a master there who permitted him to hire his own time, paying 
the master therefor. He was known in that city as "Uncle John Turner, the 
veterinarian and horse trader," and kept horses and vehicles for hire. He 
purchased his own freedom and that of his wife. He died in St. Louis, 
leaving a son, James Milton Turner, who was for eight years minister to 
Liberia, and subsequently held other positions of honor and trust.