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SUSAN HELLMAN AND MADDY MCCOY Soil Tilled by Free Men

The Formation of a Free Black Community in Fairfax County, Virginia

eorge Washington’s death in December of 1799 sparked a revolutionary chain of events that transformed a small corner of Fairfax GCounty, Virginia, from an assemblage of slave labor plantations into a successful community based on free labor. Washington’s remarkable decision to emancipate his slaves led to the creation of a racially diverse and harmonious community that thrived economically during the antebellum period while the rest of Fairfax County struggled. Four decades after Washington’s death, the efforts of free black families and an influx of progressive northerners ensured this community’s continuing survival. Together this remarkable society managed to navigate and endure the turmoil and strife of the Civil War, emerging poised for a successful postwar Recon- struction. The narrative begins in 1674, when Nicholas Spencer and John Washington, George Washington’s great-grandfather, received a patent for approximately 5,000 acres along the Potomac River in what later became Fairfax County. The Spencers and Washingtons divided the tract into roughly equal shares in 1690. John Washington’s granddaughter, Mildred Washington, eventually came into possession of the Washington half of the grant, later selling it to her brother, Augustine Washington, in 1726. Augustine Washington, George Washington’s father, constructed the dwelling that was later to be called Mount Vernon on this land in 1735. George Washington’s older half-brother Lawrence Washington inherited the

Susan Hellman is the Historic Site Manager of Carlyle House Historic Park and former Acting Director of Woodlawn and Pope-Leighey. Maddy McCoy is a Founding Director of History Revealed, Inc.

VIRGINIA MAGAZINE OF HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY VOL. 125 • NO. 1 40 • Virginia Magazine

property in 1743, naming it Mount Vernon after his commanding officer in the British Navy. Upon Lawrence’s death in 1752, George Washington inherited a managing interest in the estate. As a residuary heir, Washington came into full ownership of Mount Vernon after the deaths of Lawrence’s daughter in 1754 and his widow in 1761. Between 1752 and 1799, Washington expanded Mount Vernon to approximately 7,600 acres.1 Washington divided portions of his estate into five separate farms: Mansion, River, Union, Muddy Hole, and Dogue Run. In 1799, he set aside 2,000 acres from his Dogue Run Farm as well as part of his “chappel lands” as a bequest to his nephew, Lawrence Lewis, and Lewis’s bride, Eleanor “Nelly” Parke Custis. Nelly was Martha Washington’s granddaughter, who had been raised by the Washingtons at Mount Vernon along with her younger brother, George Washington “Washy” Parke Custis. The children’s mother, Eleanor Calvert Custis, suffered from poor health after their births, and their father, John Parke Custis, died at Yorktown in 1781 when Nelly was four and Washy was less than a year old. The Washingtons adopted the two children in 1781, raising them as their own. The 2,000-acre bequest to Lawrence and Nelly Lewis ensured that the couple would reside near the Washingtons at Mount Vernon. The Lewises completed construction of a grand mansion in 1805 and named their plantation Woodlawn. This 2,000-acre tract of land would ultimately become the nucleus of the free labor community.2 George Washington utilized slave labor to work his farms. He became a slaveholder at age eleven, inheriting ten slaves upon his father’s death. He inherited more slaves from his half-brother Lawrence’s estate, six in 1754 and five more in 1762. By the time of the American Revolution, Washington had purchased at least sixty additional slaves. In the summer of 1799, he conducted a census that listed all of the enslaved individuals residing on the Mount Vernon estate. This 1799 slave census is an invaluable document as it is a snapshot of the entire enslaved Mount Vernon population, their ages, family structure, trades, and farms of residence. Importantly, George

Opposite page: This map, published in 1801, shows the five farms that belonged to George Washington in 1793. (Library of Congress) Hellman and McCoy—Soil Tilled by Free Men • 41 42 • Virginia Magazine

Washington also recorded whether they were dower slaves, his slaves, or the hired slaves of his neighbor, Mrs. French. Included on the census was a Washington slave woman named Linney, a twenty-seven-year-old mother of two small children: Bartley and Matilda, whose descendants still live in the Mount Vernon vicinity. Linney and her two children resided on the Dogue Run Farm. Altogether there were 316 enslaved residents of Mount Vernon; 123 belonged to George Washington, 40 hired from Mrs. French, and 153 belonged to Martha Washington. These 153 individuals, commonly referred to as the dower slaves, were inherited by Martha Washington from her first husband, Daniel Parke Custis. Because Custis died without a will in 1757, Virginia law gave his young widow a life interest in one-third of his estate, including the slaves, all of whom had to be divided among any remaining heirs of her first husband when she died, whether she was remarried or not. The dower slaves, as well as those rented from Mrs. French, lived and worked alongside George Washington’s slaves at Mount Vernon, marrying with them, having children, and building families. Despite the close knit nature of this community, the legal distinction between dower and Washington slaves at Mount Vernon would end up making a crucial differ- ence at the death of George Washington. Although he could manage his wife’s dower slaves, Virginia law prohibited him from making decisions regarding their sale or potential manumission. When Washington wrote his will in 1799, he directed that his slaves be emancipated upon the death of Martha Washington. He did not have the right to free Martha Washington’s dower slaves, as they were legally the property of Daniel Parke Custis’s estate. However, George Washington’s slaves did not have to wait for his wife’s death to be freed. For reasons that are not entirely clear, she deeded them their freedom effective 1 January 1801. According to Pennsylvanian con- gressman Horace Binney, the Mount Vernon slaves may have attempted to set fire to the mansion house shortly after General Washington’s death. But upon Martha’s death in 1802, all of her dower slaves were partitioned local- ly among the four Custis heirs-at-law; none were granted their freedom. In keeping with Virginia law, George Washington’s 1799 will stipulated that emancipated minors, who were either orphaned or whose parents were unable to provide for them, were to learn a trade and be taught how to read and write. Nineteen years after Washington’s death, however, the Virginia Hellman and McCoy—Soil Tilled by Free Men • 43

George Washington’s (1732–1799) emancipation of his slaves in his will set off a chain of events that led to the formation of a free black community in Fairfax County. (Virginia Historical Society, 1857.2_AfterCons)

General Assembly outlawed teaching any free person of color to read and write. This new restriction on educating the free black populace in Virginia meant that the former Washington slaves had an uncommon two-decade window of educational opportunity not afforded to many other free blacks.3 Many of Washington’s 123 former slaves remained in the general vicinity of the Mount Vernon estate, as they had family members who remained enslaved either at Mount Vernon itself or on farms in the surrounding area. Washington’s will directed that those former slaves who wanted to stay on the estate be provided for until their deaths. Former bondsman William Lee was a perfect example. Lee had served as Washington’s valet at Mount Vernon and during the Revolutionary War. After Washington’s death, he and his brother Frank were two of the few emancipated individuals who chose to remain on the estate. He became a popular source of stories and anecdotes to the burgeoning Mount Vernon tourist trade. The Washington estate provided housing and employment for the Lee brothers until their deaths— Frank in 1821 and William in 1828.4 44 • Virginia Magazine

Traditionally, little has been known about the dispersal of the former slaves who chose not to accept the estate’s support. However, the 1812 personal property tax list for Truro Parish includes a separate listing for “free blacks at Free Town,” six households in all. All of the Mount Vernon estate lay in Fairfax County’s Truro Parish except for River Farm, which lay in Fairfax Parish. The listing for Free Town is the earliest known recorded reference to a free black settlement in Fairfax County. All of the individuals listed as residing in Free Town in 1812 are also listed together on the 1811 Truro Parish personal property tax list, but they are identified there as “General Washington’s free negroes.” Nat Bowman appears on this Free Town listing. The 1799 Mount Vernon slave census lists Nat as a blacksmith residing on the Dogue Run Farm with his wife Lucy, a dower slave. According to the stipulation of Martha Washington’s will, Lucy would have been bequeathed to one of Martha’s heirs and therefore could not join her husband at Free Town. Unfortunately, the exact location of Free Town is unknown. However, the fact that the Free Town inhabitants are referred to as “General Washington’s free negroes” in 1811 implies that Free Town was on or near the Mount Vernon estate.5 Between 1799 and 1806, at least forty-six enslaved individuals were emancipated outright by deeds of manumission in Fairfax County. Many of those emancipated lived on farms and plantations near the Mount Vernon estate. Census records and personal property tax records indicate that some of the emancipated individuals joined the former Washington slaves in establishing this free black stronghold. By 1813 the separate Truro Parish personal property tax list enumerated a total of forty-eight free black households, including the seven households from the 1811 and 1812 lists.6 Not everyone viewed this mounting transition to freedom in a positive light. From the elitist view of Horace Binney, Washington’s decision to emancipate his slaves was ill advised. At a time when there was little or no experience in the world of the effects of an unprepared emancipation of a considerable body of slaves within a community having large numbers of them, General Washington, from his predominant preference of free institutions and labor, had made this testamentary provision without duly estimating, it seems, the dangers to the intermediate life [Mrs. Washington], or to the slaves themselves. I understood years afterwards in the neighborhood, that no Hellman and McCoy—Soil Tilled by Free Men • 45

good had come from it to the slaves, and that the State of Virginia was compelled to place restraints upon emancipation within her limits, for the general good of all.7 In 1806, the Virginia General Assembly enacted legislation requiring that all free blacks leave Virginia within a year of their emancipation. Those who did not leave forfeited their right to freedom and were sold at auction, with the proceeds going to the County Overseers of the Poor. However, those freed before the law’s enactment were permitted to remain in the commonwealth. In 1810, of the roughly 13,000 residents of Fairfax County, 543 were free people of color. Of this number, approximately 25 percent lived in the Mount Vernon neighborhood. Several local slaveholders followed George Washington’s example and freed their slaves, increasing the number of free blacks in the vicinity of Mount Vernon. Property taxes and census records indicate that some of these free blacks owned slaves. Although this may appear paradoxical, this action may have been taken to protect family members. For example, the 1850 Fairfax County Slave Schedule indicates that John Holland, the son of Matilda and the grandson of Linney from Washington’s Dogue Run Farm, was the slaveholder of a four-year-old male mulatto. This may very well have been his son or another family member he hoped to prevent from being carried out of the state.8 Slaveholders who followed Washington’s example and emancipated their slaves were not necessarily being altruistic. In 1742, at the founding of Fairfax County, 29 percent of its population was enslaved, creating a wealthy slave-based society that ultimately could not be sustained. As the eighteenth century progressed, declining soil productivity because of tobacco cultivation, poor farming practices, and the Revolutionary War took their economic toll. Land fertility and value plummeted, plunging many landowners into significant economic distress. The economy of Fairfax County declined significantly. Washington and a few other forward-think- ing farmers moved away from tobacco, turning to corn, oats, wheat, and rye instead. In an attempt to salvage their farms, they also began utilizing exper- imental farming techniques, including crop rotation and soil enrichment. Not all farmers switched to cereal grains or employed advanced farming methods, however, and even those who did so struggled. Some landowners reduced their large plantations to smaller farms, which required fewer slaves to work them. Many freed their slaves because they could no longer afford 46 • Virginia Magazine

to feed and clothe them. Others sold their land and moved elsewhere. Washington’s neighbor, Daniel McCarty the Younger, put his plantation Mount Air up for sale in the 1790s in hopes of leaving Fairfax County, but he died before he could sell the land. By 1810, the enslaved population of Fairfax County had further increased to 45 percent of the general population. The antebellum period witnessed a steady traffic of landowners pulling up stakes and leaving the county for fresh starts elsewhere. George Washington’s heirs followed this antebellum land-selling trend. In the decades after Washington’s death, they sold off parcels of his Mount Vernon estate until 1858, when they finally sold the Mansion House parcel to the Mount Vernon Ladies’ Association. However, the Washingtons did not give up entirely on Fairfax County. The family of John Augustine Washington III, the last private owner of Mount Vernon, continued to hold land and own slaves in the area, even after the sale of the 200-acre parcel to the Mount Vernon Ladies’ Association.9 In addition to the movement of families departing Fairfax County, the antebellum period witnessed a steady influx of families into the county. Families from Pennsylvania, New Jersey, New York, Maine, and other northern states purchased large tracts of land at rock-bottom prices. They streamed into Fairfax County, ready to apply progressive farming practices and a new social agenda. One gentleman from Pennsylvania wrote: I have not the least doubt that if a law were enacted in Virginia, providing for the gradual abolition of Slavery, Real Estate would command twice its present price immediately, and within fifteen or twenty years the owners would realize from five to ten times the amount for which they are now anxious, but unable to sell.10 These northern antislavery families bought up a large portion of the Mount Vernon estate. They also purchased and settled on other nearby plantations that had once belonged to some of the most elite first families of Virginia, including George Mason IV, Virginia delegate to the U.S. Constitutional Convention and author of the Virginia Declaration of Rights, upon which the U.S. Bill of Rights was based. During the early-to-mid nineteenth cen-

Opposite page: This published map shows the land ownership of the Mount Vernon estate in 1859. (Library of Congress) Hellman and McCoy—Soil Tilled by Free Men • 47 48 • Virginia Magazine

tury, this area witnessed a startling turnover in population, moving from an area dominated by wealthy slaveholding planters to an area composed of pri- marily small family farms with soil tilled by free men of both races. By the time of the Civil War, approximately forty northern families had settled on, and around, the Mount Vernon estate.11 This population turnover cannot be completely attributed to cheap land prices. Members of the Society of Friends, commonly known as Quakers, were also drawn to the existing free black community. The Friends, who hoped to prove to southerners that successful farming did not require slave labor, purchased much of what had been George Washington’s five farms. In 1846, the Troth, Gillingham & Co. lumber partnership, Quakers who supplied timber to shipyards in Philadelphia and New England, purchased Woodlawn from the Lewis family. In addition to the proximity to the existing free black community, Woodlawn also had an abundant supply of original-growth hardwood forests, crucial to the lumber business. In order to create the free labor colony, the Troths and Gillinghams subdivided the 1,959-acre Woodlawn tract into small family farms ranging in size from 25 to 270 acres, with the intention of selling to both white and black farmers. The Troths and Gillinghams built on the existing tradition of free black farms in the area to create a land use pattern of small, affordable, and racially diverse family farms. This sparked an influx of additional antislavery families to the Mount Vernon neighborhood. News of the fledgling free labor settlement spread to friends and relatives in the northern states, who migrated to the area and purchased lots.12 Chalkley Gillingham, a partner in Troth, Gillingham, & Co., wrote in his journal: We find no difficulty in getting along without the use of slave labor. This was one object in coming here, to establish a free labor colony in a slave state. It works quite well as we expected and the influence it exerts upon the laboring population is very encouraging—elevating them to a much better condition than they were before our establishment went into operation.13 Jonathan Roberts, a Quaker who purchased nearby Cedar Grove from the McCarty family in 1848, wrote that “we moved there to get good land, cheap, and to demonstrate to the slave-holding Virginians, that we could Hellman and McCoy—Soil Tilled by Free Men • 49

Jonathan Roberts (1818–1901) was a Quaker scout fot the Union army and a sheriff of Fairfax County. (Courtesy of Gregory P. Wilson)

hire our own labour, and improve their worn out land, and at the same time make a decent living; we succeeded, even beyond our expectations.”14 Chalkley Gillingham and Jonathan Roberts became two of the most influential members of the Quaker community that settled in the Mount Vernon vicinity. Gillingham had three other partners in Troth, Gillingham & Co.: Jacob Troth, Troth’s son, Paul Hillman Troth, and Chalkley’s cousin, Lucas Gillingham. They purchased Woodlawn from the Lewis heirs in 1848, although they had a purchase agreement in place in 1846. Gillingham trav- eled back and forth between his farm in Locust Grove, New Jersey, and his Vernondale farm at Woodlawn until 1852, when he permanently settled in Virginia. Gillingham donated an acre of his Vernondale farm for the construction of a permanent meeting house for the Friends, who had held their first monthly meeting in Woodlawn mansion. Jonathan Roberts arrived in the area in 1848 with several other families from Burlington County, New Jersey. He was not new to Virginia. He had attended Benjamin Hallowell’s Alexandria Boarding School from 1839 to 1840, where he learned survey- 50 • Virginia Magazine

ing. Roberts purchased the 400-acre Cedar Grove farm from William McCarty and immediately became an active member of the community. In addition to working as a farmer and surveyor, Roberts served as a scout for the Union army and as sheriff of Fairfax County, a post to which he was twice elected.15 Like Washington, the northerners used progressive farming techniques, such as crop rotation, to help elevate the “laboring population.” They worked hard to reverse the ill effects of past poor farming techniques, using new methods of fertilization, deep plowing, plowing according to land contours, and other strategies to improve crop yield. Quakers in particular were well known for their use of current scientific techniques to produce flourishing farms. For example, fertilizing soil with clover, manure, guano, or plaster helped to restore it from barrenness after decades of soil depletion and outdated farming methods. By bringing scientific farming to Fairfax County, the Quakers created comfortable homesteads for themselves and their example helped encourage the local population to try similar techniques. This led to an increase in grain production in the county in the 1850s. The Alexandria Gazette praised the northerners for their role in increasing soil fertility and popularizing “scientific farming.” Samuel M. Janney, a prominent Quaker from neighboring Loudoun County, wrote several articles for the Richmond Whig and the Alexandria Gazette describing the many beneficial effects of northerners immigrating to Fairfax County. He noted that land value had increased significantly and expressed hopes that the immigration and its benefits would extend to the rest of the state. In Janney’s opinion, two key factors would accelerate a rise in prosperity and an economic revival in Virginia: the abolition of slavery and the establishment of a public school system.16 The Quaker immigrants did not openly advocate for the abolition of slavery. Instead, they depended on their actions and obvious prosperity to convince the local population that slavery was immoral and economically damaging. The Friends considered religion and education to be important components of any society, and therefore founded schools and churches that disseminated their belief system among the white population. The Friends and other abolitionist settlers also helped develop and improve the Mount Vernon community by creating employment opportunities. There were Hellman and McCoy—Soil Tilled by Free Men • 51

This photograph shows an unidentified woman standing in the doorway of a cabin in the Woodlawn Neighborhood. (Courtesy of Susan Hellman) forests to clear, crops to sow and harvest, roads to build, animals to tend, and a whole host of other jobs to be filled. The 1864 diary of Ebenezer Erskine Mason, justice of the Fairfax County Court, an elected representative to the 1861 Wheeling Convention, and founder of the Woodlawn Baptist Church, includes several references to free blacks and whites working together on his farm and to regular business dealings with free blacks. Mason built his farm, Independence Hall, a few hundred yards down the hill from the old Woodlawn mansion, which his father John Mason had purchased from P. Hillman Troth in 1850. The Troth, Gillingham & Co.’s Accotink grist mill and sawmill served the entire Mount Vernon community, regardless of race. Chalkley Gillingham’s diary mentions several business transactions involving the local free black population. It also contains a colorful description of the enthusiastic reception the northerners received from the local populace: “One woman visited the sawmill one day and after viewing for some hours 52 • Virginia Magazine

the different operations, raised her hands and exclaimed ‘God bless the Yankees! I wish more of them would come here. Now all our people can get work which before they could not.’”17 When the Quakers arrived in the Mount Vernon neighborhood, where black literacy remained illegal, they brought with them their long-established philosophy of education for all. In 1848, the Quakers of the Fairfax Quarterly Meeting petitioned the Virginia General Assembly to legalize “imparting the blessings of education to the colored children residing in their families, & those properly within their reach; by which we understand the free colored children in our immediate neighborhoods.” Although the General Assembly did not act upon the petition, oral testimony reveals that the Quakers in the Mount Vernon community did proceed with “the education of every child.” It is also probable that this first wave of emancipated slaves who legally learned to read and write were able to pass these skills on to other family members. The 1870 Federal Census offers circumstantial evidence to support that oral history. It indicates that 16 percent of African Americans of all ages in the Mount Vernon area could read and write or had some degree of literacy, despite free schooling only having been legalized a month earlier.18 The free labor community built on the foundation of Washington’s emancipation legacy consisted of four disparate social factions: newcomers from the north, white southerners (both slaveholding and nonslaveholding), free people of color, and enslaved individuals. In the years leading up to the outbreak of the Civil War, it was a remarkably harmonious enclave. Jacob M. Troth, whose older brother, Paul Hillman Troth, was a principal in Troth, Gillingham & Co., later wrote about the area: “it passed into the hands of Quakers and anti-slavery men, and became Free Soil. . . . It at once became the center of a society dominated by religious sentiments and temperance propaganda, a pure democracy.” Troth noted that these northerners reclaimed the area “not only from the forest but [also] from the dry rot of slavery.” He claimed that this process did not disrupt what he termed “the friendly relations which existed from the first between them and their slaveholding neighbors.” Paul Hillman Troth and Jacob Munson Troth, born in Camden County, New Jersey, were key figures in the local Quaker community. Their sister, Elizabeth Troth Gibbs, also migrated to the Mount Vernon Hellman and McCoy—Soil Tilled by Free Men • 53

area. She and her husband, Edward Curtis Gibbs, bought George Mason’s Hollin Hall in 1852. Their brother, Abel, moved to Virginia as well but returned to New Jersey in 1857. The elder Jacob Troth, a principal in Troth, Gillingham & Co. and father to Hillman, Jacob, Elizabeth, and Abel, never resided in Virginia.19 Jonathan Roberts wrote: we found favour with all that came in contact with us. The slave-holders found we did not meddle with their Slaves;—the Poor White men found employment at good wages (a thing they never did before); and the Black people, whether Slave or free, found us friends and good counselors; but we hired no Slaves of their masters;—and so we lived and found favour with all our neighbours.20 This unexpectedly cohesive community was to become strained as the country moved toward civil war. Although Roberts described a generally welcoming and friendly attitude toward the northern settlers, he also noted that tension grew between the different factions in the community. Small actions, such as demanding full payment on demand notes, escalated into possible arson and threats of physical assault. In the early 1850s, Fairfax County justice Silas Burke warned Roberts to be cautious around his neighbors, some of whom referred to Roberts as a “sneaking black Abolitionist,” believing that Roberts worked to lure slaves out of Virginia. One of Roberts’s outbuildings burned suspiciously in 1860, and several men threatened his life because of his abolitionist views. In January of 1861, James Jackson led a mob attempting to lynch Roberts after a public meeting at the Fairfax County Courthouse. Fortunately for Roberts, another pro-Union man, Thomas Peacock, stepped in and stopped the assault. Four months later, Jackson was dead, the first southern civilian killed by a Union soldier. Interestingly, Roberts later told his great-niece that the Quakers remained on good terms with the upper class members of the community but “had made most bitter enemies of the poor whites and the overseer class, who now determined to hang and drive out those Black Abolitionists, as they called those Quaker settlers.”21 On 12 April 1861, Confederate forces opened fire on Fort Sumter, South Carolina. On 23 May, Fairfax County citizens voted on the Ordinance of Secession, which asked Virginians to decide whether or not their state should secede from the Union. Most of the residents of the Mount 54 • Virginia Magazine

Vernon area voted at Accotink, a small village approximately four miles west of Mount Vernon. Of the fourteen voting precincts in Fairfax County only three voted against the Ordinance: Accotink, Lewinsville, and Lydecker. The vote count in Accotink was 19 for secession and 76 opposed. Although a mere 20 percent of Accotink voters supported secession, 76 percent of all Fairfax County voters supported the measure. Lewinsville and Lydecker were in the northern part of the county, closer to anti-secession counties in Maryland in Western Virginia; the northern sympathizers of Accotink were isolated in the south. Voting against secession took courage. The vote was not secret; voters signed their name on a sheet of paper in either the “for rat- ification” column or the “for rejection” column. Everyone knew how everyone else voted. Pro-secession men practiced extreme forms of voter intimi- dation.22 John Devers, a farmer born in Fairfax County, made the following claim: When we went to Accotink to vote on the Ordinance of Secession, the Rebels had thrown old Mr. Plaskett out of the door. I came out and told them they could not throw me out of doors. Old Willis Henderson came to me at the election and told me if I did not vote for secession I would be taken in the woods and hung. I told him I would die in a good cause.23 Jonathan Roberts had a similar experience: One of the judges of Election placed his Pistol on the table before him and swore he would shoot the first man that voted for the Union . . . after posting myself I told them [the Union men] if they would follow, I would lead the way and cast the first vote or be shot, and they all agreed to follow, and I led and voted . . . needless to say, no one was shot. The Confederate-sympathizing white southern population in the Mount Vernon community had become the enemy of their longtime neighbors.24

Opposite and following pages: This three-page document entitled “An Ordinance of Secession,” bears the names of all those white men who lived in Accotink in Fairfax County who voted on 23 May 1861 on the question of whether or nor Virginia should secede from the Union. Most of the residents of the Mount Vernon area voted at Accotink, a small village approximately four miles west of Mount Vernon. Of the fourteen voting precincts in Fairfax County, only three voted against the Ordinance: Accotink, Lewinsville, and Lydecker. The vote count in Accotink was 19 for secession and 76 opposed. (Courtesy of the Fairfax Circuit Court Historic Records Center) Hellman and McCoy—Soil Tilled by Free Men • 55 56 • Virginia Magazine Hellman and McCoy—Soil Tilled by Free Men • 57 58 • Virginia Magazine

The day after the secession vote, Union troops occupied the City of Alexandria, eight miles north of Mount Vernon. For much of 1861, the free labor colony remained unprotected outside Union lines, with the closest northern troops at Gum Springs, a small free black community formerly part of the Mount Vernon estate. West Ford, who had gained his freedom at age twenty-one, originally settled Gum Springs in the 1830s. Ford came to Mount Vernon in 1802 as a slave of George Washington’s nephew, Bushrod Washington, who had inherited the estate from his uncle. Bushrod Washington willed Ford a tract of land, which Ford enlarged, enabling him to establish the free black community of Gum Springs.25 While living outside of Union protection, Chalkley Gillingham wrote that “we were alarmed continually by scouting parties of rebel troops coming into the neighborhood and carrying off men, horses, wagons, and provisions.” Period letters indicate that most of the pro-Union men in the area either fled from their homes or went into hiding in order to avoid con- scription into the Confederate army. The Union Provost Marshal’s office in Washington referred to this area as “one of the most vulnerable portions of our entire lines.” It was a crucial region for both sides, right at the geograph- ic, as well as cultural, dividing line between North and South.26 In October of 1861, the Union army finally extended its reach as far as the Friends Meeting House at Woodlawn, providing a small degree of protection for the residents, although scouting and foraging parties continued to come and go almost constantly. Benjamin Chambers, a captain of the 2nd Pennsylvania Cavalry who spent about four months in the area, testified in Southern Claims that this free labor community “was the only loyal settlement I ever saw while I was in the army.” While encamped in the area, the Union troops needed food, shelter, water, firewood, and other necessities. The locals provided as best they could, but it was hard enough to feed one’s own family, much less an entire army. Elizabeth Troth Gibbs wrote of wartime experiences and Union depredations at Hollin Hall. Union troops stole poultry, jewelry, silver, and other items; they even milked her family’s cows. Both sides, Confederate and Union alike, were guilty of confiscating items and taking captives from the local populace. At one point, men attached to the 3rd Maine Infantry took a man’s entire house, dismantling it to use for firewood and tent flooring.27 Hellman and McCoy—Soil Tilled by Free Men • 59

Matthew C. Butler (1836–1909), a major in the Confederate cavalry in 1861, submitted a detailed report about the arrest in September ot that year of two Quakers and a free black in Fairfax County. This photograph shows Butler later in the war as a Confederate major general (Virginia Historical Society, accession no. FIC2009.04298, From the Collections of the Confederate Memorial Literary Society managed by the Virginia Historical Society by agreement of January 1, 2014)

In September of 1861, Confederate troops took Hillman Troth prisoner and brought him to Dr. Napoleon B. Nevitt’s house near Accotink. Doctor Nevitt served as a surgeon in the Confederate army, yet he remained on civil terms with his northern sympathizing neighbors, continuing to treat their families throughout the war. Nevitt pleaded with his fellow Confederates for Troth’s release. Richard Windsor, another staunch local Confederate, also offered to help Troth secure his freedom. Although they were on opposite sides of the war, some degree of mutual respect still existed between many of the neighbors, southern and northern supporters, bound by the ties forged during the antebellum period.28 A Confederate scouting report written by an officer in Wade Hampton’s cavalry brigade describes in detail the 6 September 1861 arrest of two Quakers: Walter Walton and Edward Curtis Gibbs. Porter Smith, a local free black and West Ford’s son-in-law, was also arrested with the Quakers. Confederate major Matthew C. Butler led a reconnaissance mission moving 60 • Virginia Magazine

north from Pohick Church to Alexandria, acting on intelligence from a Confederate informant who had indicated that “old Gibbs” was harboring federal pickets in his barn. On his way to Hollin Hall, Butler came across Walton, who jumped out of his wagon and ran off through the woods. Butler quickly captured Walton and confiscated his horse and wagon. Upon encountering Smith, who had been reported as supplying information to the Union troops, Butler noted that Smith “was quite familiar and insolent and I had him arrested forthwith.” Once at Hollin Hall, Butler captured three of the Union soldiers and confiscated guns and camp supplies. The Confederate officer also reported that he had “procured evidence sufficient to justify the arrest of Wright and his son, Mason and his son William, old Gibbs and a free negro named Holland.”29 Throughout the war, Confederate troops arrested dozens of men from the area, white and black alike. These arrests kept the community on edge and in fear. Who would be next? William Mason, the twenty-two-year-old brother of Eben Mason and son of John Mason, was arrested in October of 1863. Will’s sister, Mary Washington Mason Hunter, described the event many years later: It was my youngest brother who finally was carried away prisoner . . . Kincheloe’s band of guerrillas came dashing through the gates between our yard and Mrs. Hannah Cox’ place and out through the gate leading down to the ice house, and meeting the teams coming up the hill, took the horses off and my brother and a colored man named John Green, and a young cousin, John Mason, whom they let go, as he was just a boy.30 Kincheloe was Capt. James Cornelius Kincheloe, a Fairfax County resident who had assumed command of Company H of the 15th Virginia Cavalry in June of 1863. This group, known as the “Chincapin Rangers,” merged with Mosby’s Rangers later in the war. Will Mason and John Green were both sent to the notorious Castle Thunder Prison in Richmond. Before his family could obtain his release, young Mason was drafted into the Confederate army. He eventually escaped through Union lines, surrendered, and finally made his way home, exhausted and starved. The details of John Green’s return home were not recorded, but it is known that the Mason family some- how managed to secure his release.31 Hellman and McCoy—Soil Tilled by Free Men • 61

The Alexandria Gazette announced in its 17 February 1864 issue that all of the Accotink Home Guard members were armed, not just the whites.

The Confederate invasion of Pennsylvania in June of 1863 drew the Union troops away from the Mount Vernon area, leaving it even more vulnerable to the Confederates. Southern raids increased dramatically. Eben Mason took action. After two years of imploring, he finally convinced Brig. Gen. Henry Horatio Wells, the Union Provost Marshal in Alexandria, to authorize the formation of a Home Guard based out of Accotink for the protection of the local citizenry. Typically, officially sanctioned Home Guard Units served wherever Union commanders sent them. The Accotink Home Guard was unique. Its members remained at home, protecting their own community. In Eben Mason’s own words: I don’t suppose it was altogether strictly legal, but it had [Wells’] approval, and I organized all the loyal element I could. It was as much for self-protection as anything else, but still we rendered the gov’t a great deal of service. From the time we organized, the gov’t never lost a horse or a cent’s worth of property from Alexandria down the river 16 miles.32 Mason recruited willing members from all segments of the local Mount Vernon population, creating a racially integrated military unit. Even the pacifist Quakers joined. Among the Home Guard was William Holland, son of Matilda, grandson of Linney, and brother of John Holland. In addition to approving Mason’s Accotink Home Guard, General Wells provided Union weapons for their use. An Alexandria Gazette headline declared that all of the Accotink Home Guard members were armed, not just the whites. There is no evidence of another official, federally sanctioned, integrated Home Guard. A Home Guard unit based in nearby Falls Church was reportedly integrated, but it did not have official Union army sanction, nor did it use 62 • Virginia Magazine

Union-provided guns. The community surrounding Mount Vernon had two decades of established trust among neighbors that outweighed the larger racial and political divisions that threatened their lives and land. They had forged relationships that war could not break, and they continued to rely upon one another during the conflict.33 After its formation, the Home Guard continually patrolled the area and turned any captured rebel soldiers over to northern troops. The organization rescued several horses and people from Confederate forces over the next two years. In July of 1864, “guerrillas,” as the pro-Union locals referred to the southern troops, stole four horses from Chalkley Gillingham’s farm. The Home Guard quickly recaptured them. Jonathan Roberts described an excit- ing encounter between the Home Guard and a rebel raiding party in nearby Accotink: Ezra (Troth) made his way to Louis Gillingham’s, the nearest member of the Home Guard, who immediately blew his horn, which was almost instantly answered by others all around, and the Home Guard began to gather, coming from all directions, armed to the teeth, and as the rebs passed gave them the contents of their guns and pistols and then joined in the pursuit. Roberts wrote that the Home Guard chased the raiders for several miles, cap- turing two of the men, all of the guns, and all of the stolen horses and goods.34 In an October 1864 article, a correspondent to the New York Evening Post described the successful and prosperous Quaker colony surrounding Woodlawn as a tempting target. He noted that because they were pacifists, most of these Friends had not joined the army but had organized into a Home Guard. “[T]he old men promised, on the approach of a guerrilla from any quarter, to blow vigorously on a sonorious horn provided for the pur- pose; and then the young men would hasten to the rescue. ‘We will not fight thee, friend,’ said an old Quaker once to a party of guerrillas, ‘but we cannot tell what our rash young men may do if thee take any of our horses.’”35 By the time the Civil War ended in April of 1865, Fairfax County had been ravaged by war. The free labor community, however, managed to return to a new normalcy based on the resilience of strong antebellum ties. Economic and social bonds forged during the antebellum period helped residents knit together a fractured postwar community and successfully Hellman and McCoy—Soil Tilled by Free Men • 63

This photograph, taken around 1887, shows Woodlawn as it appeared during the Mason family’s ownership of the property. (Courtesy of Susan Hellman) negotiate the transition into postbellum life. The strongest example of the postwar achievement highlights the importance of education and religion to the entire community. On 4 August 1866, only sixteen months after the end of the war, members of the Gillingham family sold one acre of land, formerly part of the Woodlawn estate, for $40 to William Holland, John Green, William Franklin Moore, James Dent, and Stephen Blair, Trustees for the Woodlawn Colored Meeting and School Association—the first African American church and school property officially recorded at the Fairfax County Courthouse. These men all had strong links to the local free community. John Green’s mother, for example, had been emancipated by one of Washington’s neighbors.36 George Washington’s will provided long-range and far-reaching benefits for the entire community, most notably its African American residents. By following his lead, the northern families who invested in Washington’s land also invested in a community forged in large part by his former slaves and 64 • Virginia Magazine

their descendants. This created an environment that allowed the Mount Vernon free black population to continue their courageous and determined efforts to become educated and engaged and invested in their community. By making the decision to emancipate his slaves upon his death, George Washington unwittingly created a ripple effect that led to massive cultural change in this small corner of Fairfax County.

NOTES

The authors would like to thank the National Trust for Historic Preservation, which awarded us a two-year research grant in 2009 to further our research on this topic. The grant was funded in sub- stantial part by the Trust’s Interpretation and Education Fund in cooperation with the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Jessie Ball duPont Fund. We would like to thank Katrina Krempasky, Historic Records Center Manager, Fairfax Circuit Court Historic Records Center, for her gracious assistance in procuring historic documents. We would especially like to thank Dr. J. Laurie Ossman for her invaluable assistance, advice, and mentorship throughout the project. Finally, we extend a special thanks to Mary V. Thompson, Mount Vernon Research Historian, who read the initial manuscript and suggested several helpful edits. 1. Virginia, Northern Neck Land Office, Northern Neck Grants, 1690–1874, Northern Neck Grants No. 5, 1713–1719, 207–8 (Reel 289); Land grant, 1 Mar. 1674, Virginia Land Office Patents and Grants/Northern Neck Grants and Surveys, Library of Virginia, Richmond (cited hereafter as LVA), http://www.virginiamemory.com (accessed 8 Feb. 2014). Grantee(s): Spencer, Nicholas, and Washington, Col. John. Description: “5000 acres [in Stafford County, Virginia] in the freshes of Potowmack River and near opposite Puscataway Indian Town in Maryland, and near the land of Capt. Giles Brent. &c.”; Lease of Mount Vernon, 17 Dec. 1754, in W. W. Abbot, Dorothy Twohig, and Philander D. Chase, eds., The Papers of George Washington, Colonial Series (10 vols.; Charlottesville, 1983–95), 1:232–35; Last will and testament of Lawrence Washington, Fairfax County Will Book A1:539, Fairfax County, Virginia, Historic Records Center, Fairfax Circuit Court (cited hereafter as HRC) (written on 20 June 1752 and recorded on 26 Sept. 1752). 2. George Washington to Arthur Young, 12 Dec. 1793, in John C. Fitzpatrick, ed., The Writings of George Washington from the Original Manuscript Sources, 1745–1799 (39 vols.; Washington D.C., 1931–44), 33:174; Craig Tuminaro, “Woodlawn” (National Historic Landmark Nomination, Hellman and McCoy—Soil Tilled by Free Men • 65

Washington, D.C.: National Trust for Historic Preservation, 1988). For more information on Eleanor Parke Custis Lewis, see Brady, Patricia, ed., George Washington’s Beautiful Nelly: The Letters of Eleanor Parke Custis Lewis to Elizabeth Bordley Gibson, 1794–1851 (Columbia, 1991). 3. Personal communication with Mary V. Thompson, 25 June 2015; “Washington’s Slave List, June 1799,” in W. W. Abbot, ed., The Papers of George Washington, Retirement Series (4 vols.; Charlottesville, 1998–99), 4:527–42; Will of George Washington, Fairfax County Will Book H1:1, HRC (written on 9 July 1799, recorded on 20 Jan. 1800); Horace Binney, Bushrod Washington (Philadelphia, 1858), 25; Deed of Manumission, Fairfax County Deed Book C2:323, 1800, HRC; Fairfax County Minute Book, 1800–1801:208, HRC; Deed of Manumission from Martha Washington to Sundry Negroes as per Schedule annexed was proved by the oath of James Anderson and Lawrence Lewis and recorded at December Court 1800; Will of Martha Washington, 1802, Fairfax County Will Book I1:133, HRC (written on 22 Sept. 1800, codicil written on 4 Mar. 1802, recorded on 21 June 1802); John H. Russell. The Free Negro in Virginia, 1619–1865 (New York, 1969). 4. Estate Account of George Washington, Fairfax County Will Book Q1:262, HRC (recorded on 21 Mar. 1832). 5. Truro Parish Personal Property Tax List A, 1812, Robert Ratcliffe, Commissioner, Fairfax County Personal Property Tax Lists 1809–1839, Reel 108, LVA; Truro Parish Personal Property Tax List A, 1811, Robert Ratcliffe, Commissioner, Fairfax County Personal Property Tax Lists 1809–1839, Reel 108, LVA; “Washington’s Slave List, June 1799,” in Abbot, ed., Papers of George Washington, Retirement Series, 4:527–42. 6. Recorded Deeds of Emancipation, Fairfax County Deed Book Index, 1797–1841, HRC; Truro Parish Personal Property Tax List A, 1813, Robert Ratcliffe, Commissioner, Fairfax County Personal Property Tax Lists 1809–1839, Reel 108, LVA. 7. Binney, Bushrod Washington, 26. 8. Samuel Shepherd and William Waller Hening, comps., The Statutes at Large of Virginia, from October Session 1792 to December Session 1806 (3 vols.; Richmond, 1836–36), 3:251–53; U.S. Census Bureau, Third Census of the United States, 1810, Fairfax, Virginia, 68; Slavery Inventory Database, Fairfax County, HRC; Record for John Holland, U.S. Census Bureau, Seventh Census of the United States, Slave Schedules, 1850, Fairfax, Virginia. 9. Damian Alan Pargas, The Quarters and the Fields: Slave Families in the Non-Cotton South (Gainesville, Fla., 2010), 15–18; Slavery Inventory Database, Fairfax County, HRC; Nan Netherton, Fairfax County, Virginia: A History (Fairfax, 1978); Agreement of John A. Washington to Mount Vernon Ladies Association of the Union, 1858, for 200 acres and 1/2 acre surrounding the tomb of the Washington family, Fairfax County Deed Book A4: 19, Fairfax County, HRC (written on 6 Apr. 1858, recorded on 19 Apr. 1858). 10. “J. D.” in Samuel M. Janney, The Yankees in Fairfax County, Virginia: By a Virginian (Baltimore, 1845), 22–23. 11. Deed of Purchase, 1852, Fairfax County Deed Book Q3:539, HRC; George Mason and Sally E. Mason to Edward Gibbs, Springbank Estate; Warrenton Gillingham, Map of George Washington’s Land at Mount Vernon, Fairfax Co., Virginia, As It Was and As It Is, Laid Down from Old Maps Made by G. Washington and from Actual Surveys (Baltimore, 1859). The Mason plantation was not George 66 • Virginia Magazine

Mason IV’s seat of Gunston Hall. It was his father’s estate Hollin Hall, which George Mason IV conveyed to his son Thomson in 1779. 12. Deed of Purchase, Fairfax County Deed Book N3:102, HRC; Laurence B. Taylor, Commissioner, Appointed by a decree of the County Court of Fairfax County and Esther Maria Lewis of Clarke County, Virginia, to Jacob Troth, Chalkley Gillingham, Lucas Gillingham, Paul Hillman Troth, 26 Aug. 1848, tract of land “Wood Lawn,” $16,630, 1959 acres 34 poles (recorded on 21 Nov. 1848, oral agreement reached in 1846); Gillingham, Map of George Washington’s Land at Mount Vernon; “Woodlawn Farmer’s Club,” Echoes of History 2 (September 1972): 3. After about 1857, business correspondence listed the name of the firm as Gillingham & Troth. The name Troth, Gillingham & Co. is used throughout this article for consistency’s sake. 13. Chalkley Gillingham, The Journal of Chalkley Gillingham: Friend in the Midst of Civil War (Springfield, Ill., 1989), 1. 14. Susan Hellman, “The 1864 Diary of Ebenezer E. Mason,” Yearbook: The Historical Society of Fairfax County, Virginia 31 (2007–8): 80–139. 15. Deeds of Purchase, 1853, Fairfax County Deed Book T3:131, HRC; Chalkley Gillingham to Lewis Quander, 1855, Fairfax County Deed Book Y3:206, HRC; Chalkley Gillingham to William Holland, 1858, Fairfax County Deed Book A4:124, HRC; Chalkley Gillingham to Lewis Quander; Jonathan Roberts to James Wilson, n.d., James Wilson Pension File, Application No. 208529, 29 Sept. 1878, Certificate No. 156734, National Archives and Records Administration, Washington, D.C. (cited hereafter as NARA). Woodlawn Friends Meeting continues to hold serv- ices today as the Alexandria Monthly Meeting at Woodlawn. 16. Deed of Purchase, 1848, Fairfax County Deed Book N3:102, HRC; Chalkley Gillingham, “Chalkley Gillingham’s Diary,” unpublished (Springfield, 1989); Gregory P. Wilson, Jonathan Roberts: The Civil War’s Quaker Scout and Sheriff (North Charleston, S.C., 2014); Pargas, The Quarters and the Fields, 19; Netherton, Fairfax County, 251–60; Janney, Yankees in Fairfax County, 23. 17. Hellman, “Diary of Ebenezer E. Mason,” 80–139; Troth, Gillingham & Co., “Mill Book: 1853–54,” private collection (1943), 189; Dorothy Troth Muir, Potomac Interlude: The Story of Woodlawn Mansion and the Mount Vernon Neighborhood, 1846–1943 (Washington, D.C., 1943); Gillingham, Journal of Chalkley Gillingham, 1–2. 18. Petition, 26 Feb. 1848, Society of Friends (Quakers) Residing in Berkeley, Frederick, Jefferson, Fairfax, and Alexandria City, Legislative Petitions of the General Assembly, 1776–1865, folder 22, box 262, accession # 36121; Jacob M. Troth, “History of Woodlawn,” unpublished memoirs, n.d., Woodlawn Archives, Alexandria, Virginia (“education of every child” quotation); Slavery Inventory Database, Fairfax County, HRC. 19. Jacob Troth, “History of Woodlawn,” Gibbs Family Papers, Private Collection. 20. Jonathan Roberts to James Wilson, 29 Sept. 1878, Pension Application No. 208529, Certificate No. 156734, NARA. 21. Wilson, Jonathan Roberts, 77, 118, 122, 142–143. 22. Fairfax County Ordinance of Succession, 1861, Accotink Precinct, Fairfax County, HRC. 23. Deposition of John W. Devers, Claim of John H. Devers, Claim No. 14,841, Fairfax County, Hellman and McCoy—Soil Tilled by Free Men • 67

Virginia Case Files, Southern Claims Commission, Records of the 3rd Auditor, Allowed Case Files, Records of the U.S. General Accounting Office, Record Group 123, NARA. 24. Jonathan Roberts to James Wilson, n.d., Marietta Post Office, Marshall County, Iowa. Although this is a good story, Fairfax County Election Records in the Circuit Court indicate that Roberts was the fortieth person to vote against secession. Alexander Denty was the first. 25. Hannah Washington, will, 26 Apr. 1801, Westmoreland County, Virginia, Will Book 20:211; Bushrod Washington, will, 1829, Fairfax County Will Book P1:350, HRC. 26. Gillingham, Journal of Chalkley Gillingham, 5; E. J. Allen, report, 5 Feb. 1862, United States Congressional Serial Set, Serial No. 155, Provost-Marshal’s Office, Washington, D.C., 206–8. 27. Gillingham, Journal of Chalkley Gillingham, 7; Deposition of Benjamin Chambers, Claim of Walter Walton, Administrator of Thomas Wright, Claim No. 20,557, Gibbs Family Papers; Deposition of John Devers, Southern Claims Commission, Claim of John W. Devers, Claim No. 14,841, Washington, D.C. 28. Muir, Potomac Interlude, 108–10. 29. M. C. Butler, Report of a reconnaissance in the direction of Alexandria by written from Cavalry Camp, Hampton Legion, to “Colonel,” Gibbs Family Papers. 30. Mary Hunter, “Memoirs of Woodlawn,” unpublished memoirs, Woodlawn Archives. 31. Ibid. 32. Deposition of Eben Mason, Southern Claims Commission; Claim of John Haislip #14,553, Claims Disallowed by the Commissioners of the Southern Claims Court; Deposition of Eben Mason, Fairfax County, Virginia Case Files, Barred and Disallowed Case Files of the Southern Claims Commission, 1871–1880, Records of the U.S. House of Representatives, Record Group 233, NARA. 33. “Accotink Home Guard” Alexandria Gazette, 17 Feb. 1864, 2. 34. Jonathan Roberts, “The Quaker Scout,” National Tribune, 3 Dec. 1891, 1. 35. “A Visit to Alexandria, Virginia on September 29th, 1864,” Alexandria Gazette, 1 Oct. 1864. 36. Deed of Purchase, 1866, Fairfax County Deed Book G4:338, HRC; George S. and Elizabeth L. Gillingham to William Holland, John Green, William Franklin Moore, James Dent, Stephen Blair, Trustees of the Woodlawn Colored Meeting and School Association; Deposition of P. Hillman Troth, Claim of William Holland, Claim No. 17,091, Fairfax County, Virginia Case Files, Southern Claims Commission, Records of the 3rd Auditor, Allowed Case Files, Records of the U.S. General Accounting Office, Record Group 217, NARA; Register of Free Blacks 1835[–1861], Book 3, Registration No. 3–139, Fairfax Circuit Court, HRC: John Ignatius Green, the son of Agreeable who was emancipated by Benjamin Burton in the year 1809 (recorded in the August 1841 Court). William Holland’s mother was a bondswoman of George Washington.