An Uncommon Imprisonment

Tal Day, Editor Spring 2020

AN UNCOMMON IMPRISONMENT

The Life and Civil War Times of Welborne Walton Davidson and “the wife”

Sherry Hulfish Browne

Welborne Walton Davidson, my great known as Captain Davidson’s Tavern.1 Wal- great uncle, was a third generation Alexan- ton’s father at the age of 15 was apprenticed drian born on October 28, 1832. We will to James Green and became a local cabinet- call him Walton, his pre- maker who appears to have ferred name as an adult, alt- done well in his craft.2 He hough he was called Wel- bought the house at 404 Prince borne growing up and local Street (then numbered 86 records from his youth list Prince)3 as well as the house him with that name. His next door and was able to pro- mariner grandfather mi- vide his son with an education grated to Alexandria from at the famous Hallowell Board- Whitehaven, England, in the ing School.4 After completing 1790’s. For a time, his his schooling, Walton went to grandfather operated a tav- work as a bookkeeper for the ern on Prince Street on the commission merchant firm of block known as “Gentry Fowle & Co. located on the Row,” just above the block Strand near Prince Street.5 And known as “Captain’s Row.” even though Alexandria was Figure 1 Walton Davidson at Alton The name was The Ship’s Prison, 1864 Credit: Family Records thriving and booming in the Tavern, but it was generally decade of the 1850s,6 Walton

 Sherry Hulfish Browne, Ph.D., Univ. of Florida, is a 6th generation Alexandrian who grew up in Old Town. Since retiring in 2009 from her clinical psychology practice, Sherry has been researching the history of her family. Her first project, Polly’s Houses, documents her mother’s preservation of Old Town’s historic homes. The manuscript is in the Alexandria Public Library Special Collections. Sherry’s article on the Minnigerode Arch at The Virginia Theological Seminary appeared in the Spring 2014 issue of the Chronicle. Much of what is set out in this article could not have been discovered without assistance from her DNA Cousin, Kathryn Convey of Provo, Utah. Sherry particularly wishes to thank her for reaching out and sharing information about Sue Lundy. was restless. Yankee as prisoner whom he was escorting Walton likely grew up hearing tales of his back to the Confederate camp, Walton was grandfather’s seafaring experiences. His himself captured by the Yankees and ended mother was born in a little village in York- up being sent to Alton Prison in Illinois, ar- shire, England, and then moved to Brazil riving in February 1863. where she lived with her family several By all accounts Alton prison was a true years before coming to Alexandria at the age hellhole at this time. It had been built in of 16.7 They had seen something of the 1831 as a state facility but closed in 1860 as world but Walton had not. He was encour- unfit for human habitation at the urging of aged by his paternal aunt and her family to the prison reformer, Dorothea Dix.12 visit them in Memphis where they ran a Hurriedly reopened out of necessity with boarding hotel.8 And so in 1853 at the age of hardly any improvement the first groups of 21 Walton accepted their invitation. Once in prisoners suffered extreme hardship with un- Memphis, Walton found a good job, liked it bearable conditions. It was bitterly cold at and stayed, making Memphis his home in the time Walton arrived and the men were adulthood. It was then that he changed his given only one blanket apiece. They slept on name, going by W. Walton Davidson and straw in overly crowded hallways of the W. W. Davidson. cellblock with rats crawling over them. Sani- About a year later Walton’s letters home tary conditions were abysmal; the outdoor began to mention a pretty girl named Kate latrines contaminated the water source. James and in April 1855 Walton married There were no bathing facilities and the men her. They set up housekeeping and by 1858 were badly clothed, unshaven and filthy. the couple had two little sons, Willy and Food was often inedible. Punishment was Frank. Then tragedy struck. His wife died of severe for any infraction. Not surprisingly diphtheria at the age of 24 in July 1860.9 disease was rampant. It was Walton’s mis- Their sons, ages 4 and 1, went to live with fortune to arrive at the prison at the height of their mother’s extended family who lived in a severe smallpox epidemic that ran from the a multi-generation family compound about winter of 1862 until the spring of 1863.13 two miles outside of Memphis in a rural Alton prison was built with 256 cells to area. The census shows the James males to house a maximum capacity of 900 inmates. be financially comfortable “speculators.”10 Throughout most of the war it held between They set up a room for Walton so that he 1,000 and 1,500 and sometimes more. By could stay overnight when visiting his sons. the last year of the war it held nearly 1900 He gave up the house in Memphis, rented a prisoners. It is thought that over the course room and took his meals at a city hotel. He of the war at least 11,764 POWs passed walked the two miles to visit his sons when though the facility. When Walton arrived the he had time off from work. Such was life death toll was 6 to 10 deaths a week. The until the war began. prison hospital was a small 5-bed room in In the summer of 1862 Walton enlisted in the main prison building; two converted the 2nd Mississippi Partisan Rangers Cav- workshops on the premises were added. The alry, also called Ballentine’s Regiment Cav- dead house was a shed in the prison yard alry, Company C.11 The regiment mainly where the bodies were kept until they could saw action in Mississippi, participating be- be buried in the Alton Cemetery on the north tween September and December 1862 in the edge of town. Some were buried near the Battles of Iuka, Corinth and Coffeeville. In prison building. Finding burial space be- December 1862, when Walton had taken a came a major challenge and many bodies

Figure 2 Alton Prison in 1861 Credit: http://madison.illinoisgenweb.html were thrown into common graves both in- The few letters from Walton to his par- side the prison walls and at North Alton ents in Alexandria during this stay at Alton Cemetery.14 were short, guarded, and largely uninforma- Most historians assess the death rate for tive. He did say he was doing as well as Alton Prison around 20 percent, above aver- could be expected; he had lost 70 pounds but age for a Union prison. However, that figure was physically OK (unlikely but probably does not reflect the total devastation. stated to prevent his family from worrying) Guards were also incapacitated, and it is said and that the only thing he could use and that they had to be threatened with court needed was money.17 Fortunately for Wal- martial to continue their duties. The small- ton, this imprisonment happened while pris- pox spread into town as well, causing a large oner exchange was still in effect. He was ex- number of deaths there. In an attempt to changed and released two months later in stem the epidemic outside the prison walls, April 1863 and sent to Virginia. the mayor made all city hospitals and ceme- After Walton was released, the authori- teries off limits to the prison.15 ties at Alton moved the smallpox patients to In July 1863 the Alton Prison Com- a small uninhabited island called Sunflower mander wrote to the Commissary General of Island in the middle of the Mississippi River Prisoners in Washington, D. C. “Smallpox opposite the prison. It came to be called first appeared in December last with three Smallpox Island. There was a tented area cases…the malady spread with alarming ra- and a small wooden cottage that served as a pidity. It assumed a malignant type and the hospital. Few patients ever returned to the mortality during the months of January, Feb- main prison. After death they were interred ruary, and March was fearful. The guard on the island in unmarked graves. Prison necessarily became affected and the whole records show 900 buried on the island. Esti- city was more or less affected by the conta- mates of the unrecorded deaths and burials gion. Every new accession of prisoners only on the island range from 1,000 to 5,000. The furnished new victims for the disease.”16 island later became flooded and submerged.

In the 1930s during the construction of a excused from any other duty. This suits me nearby dam and locks, 300 graves were in- much better than active service as I am used advertently discovered. The dirt from the is- to hard work at writing …”21 land, including the skeletons of the de- One of Walton’s letters reveals how strik- ceased, was used as fill for one of the em- ingly he distinguished between the War and bankments. In 2002 a monument was erected the humanity of soldiers in the Union Army. at the dam to commemorate the persons who You recollect when I was taken pris- were buried on the island. It lists the known oner last Dec. I myself had a Federal names of 268 prisoners and 16 civilians. The Lieut. prisoner, carrying him to our site, on the Missouri side of the Mississippi major camp. I treated him as well as I River is operated by the U. S. Army Corps could. He appreciated it and during of Engineers.18 the time I was in the Federal hands ex- Walton’s health had been compromised tended a good many acts of courtesy during his imprisonment and by the time he towards me. Well, he was stationed reached Petersburg, Virginia, on his way with other troops on the Memphis and back to his Company in Mississippi he had Charleston Rail Road. Gen. Chalmers to be hospitalized. One author about Alton made a Raid on the place and took Prison wrote, “In researching the history of him and other prisoners. He passed the place, I soon discovered that many of the through Canton a few days ago on his men who served time here died within way South – I tried to see him and do months of their release. Their health was so all I could for him, but met them on completely broken while incarcerated at the the road at midnight and missed see- prison that they simply did not survive much ing him. I have however sent word to beyond their release.”19 friends to attend to him and hope they Walton had the good fortune to survive. may be able to administer to his wants After a week in the hospital in Petersburg, he and comforts…22 was transferred to the hospital in Lynchburg, Virginia. In Lynchburg, he connected with Walton emerges from his letters as an up- some friends formerly from Alexandria and, beat, optimistic, and positive person who fortuitously, also with W.T. Anderson, “one was outgoing and socially engaging. In a let- of the largest commission merchants in the ter to his mother he remarked, “my spirits place. Anderson had married “the mother of are as buoyant as ever.”23 While his sympa- one of my friends and messmates, and as thy was with the South during the war, he soon as they found out that a member of the did not demonize the enemy. Rather he saw same company he was in was at the hospital his opponents as men like himself who were – they insisted I should be removed to their doing their jobs and he instinctively treated house, and got the surgeon to consent to it. I them with respect and consideration. And, lived well, was treated well and enjoyed my- given his background of traditional Southern self as well as any sick person could…”20 values, Walton may have regarded his Yan- Even though Walton survived, he did not kee peers with a sense of chivalry. These recover sufficiently for active duty. As a re- predispositions were to serve him well in the sult, he was transferred from his regiment to future as we will see. General Cosby’s staff. “I am now with the In April 1864 Walton was granted a fur- A. A. G. of Brig. Gen. Cosby’s Staff, 1st Bri- lough. He bought a horse and his plan was to gade, 1st Division, 1st Cavalry Corps. I have try to see his sons just south of Memphis. the writing in the office to do but am Memphis was under Federal control, but

Walton planned to ride at night; he knew the of letter writing. He implored his female rel- terrain and hoped to evade the Yankees. Un- atives to send him old jewelry that he could fortunately, his plan failed. He was captured; incorporate with his gutta percha and mussel his money and horse taken, and he was again shell creations. Both family and friends were sent to Alton Prison in Illinois. As prisoner encouraged to send “Card Photographs” for exchanges had ceased by then, Walton was his album. Frustrated when people were there for the duration.24 slow to send their photographs, he decided Fortunately, conditions had improved at to send one of himself as a prompt. He the prison. There was a new hospital on the wrote to his mother “I got permission from grounds with gaslight and better heating in the General a few days ago to go out in town winter. Walton was assigned to work for the and have some Photographs taken. I enclose doctors writing their you one, it is not as good prescriptions. Eventu- as I would like to have ally he was given a but still is passable.”30 room in the hospital One of Walton’s let- for his quarters. This ters on another occasion was a profoundly dif- described a double ferent set of circum- whammy of privilege. “I stances than experi- have but one constant enced by most of the correspondent, a lady prisoners who like friend from Missouri … himself were en- She has been to see me, I listed.25 got permission to go out A letter from Wal- in the town to see her and ton to his mother fur- enjoyed myself extremely nished reassurance well. I spent yesterday af- that was realistic. He ternoon in company with wrote, “I have good Figure 3 Letter from Alton Prison, Aug. 2, 1864: Let- the ‘Lady Prisoners’ and ter is on reverse of single sheet of paper. Credit: 31 quarters, well venti- Family Records had a fine time.” lated and dry and hope The “Lady Prisoners” to retain my health.”26 In another letter he were Southern women, often of high social wrote “I am still in my old quarters at the standing, found guilty of providing goods or Hospital doing the writing for the Surgeons aid to the Confederate Army or of spying, and live as well as I could expect. I am well smuggling, or even for having powerful in- supplied with good winter clothing, Boots fluence in effecting men to enlist. By late and everything else I need excepting “the 1862/early 1863, the occupying Union root of all evil” and expect to receive some forces determined that their impact was such of that from Memphis before long.”27 that is was best to remove them from their Walton’s letters reveal the constructive communities. Eventually a special Ladies ways that he spent his time. When not busy Quarters was established at Alton Prison for in the prison hospital, he read the medical those engaging in the most serious rebellious books because “I may have occasion to use activities. them again hereafter.”28 He enthusiastically Periodically the women were allowed to embraced two hobbies – jewelry making and select the men they wished to join them for assembling a photo album of friends and social gatherings.32 Walton was one of the family.29 Both hobbies necessitated a flurry men chosen for Christmas dinner 1864. He

5 wrote, “I have an invitation from the “lady his brother in Alexandria informing of his prisoners” to spend a portion of Christmas pending marriage along with a description of day with them, and expect to enjoy myself his bride–to-be: “The lady in the case is very much. Two of them are natives of the from Nottoway County, Va near Petersburg “Old Dominion” and all are intelligent and but has been residing in [Sardis, Panola interesting young ladies.”33 Little did Walton County, Mississippi] for some time. She is know that in less than two months he would [from] one of the most aristocratic families be released on parole for exchange as the of Old Virginia and a great favorite in these war was moving toward the end. parts. She is about medium size, beautiful Walton was discharged from prison on complexion, black curly hair, wears sz 2 February 17, 1865, with a transfer author- shoes & weighs about 95 lbs. She is a mem- ized to Point Lookout, Maryland, for ex- ber of the Presbyterian Church, highly edu- change. He was instead transferred on board cated and one of the most fascinating ladies I the steamer, Mary Washington, to Fortress ever saw (so I think).”37 Monroe. He notes that if there were more Walton was clearly smitten. He was time before his departure from Baltimore, ready to wed, notwithstanding his notice his mother could have visited. As it was, he about how stringently she would observe the wrote, “My health is good, spirits exuberant, Sabbath. “Most too religious, won’t even received very good treatment whilst in talk to her sweetheart on Sunday, but must prison, and had every courtesy and kindness devote the day to religious exercises and shown me whilst en route for Exchange and says I must distinctly understand that there am in every respect satisfied with the trip will be nothing warm to eat in her house on …”34 Sundays and nothing cooked but tea or cof- I believe a combination of personality, fee on that day. I don’t much like that bill of skills, and demeanor toward the enemy as fare but will have to submit with all the well as being chosen to work for the Sur- grace imaginable.” geons with whom he had a good relationship Walton does not give the name of his in- allowed Walton the privileges and comforts tended wife. Letters followed in 1867 and atypical for a Confederate prisoner, espe- 1868 and always his bride is referred to as cially an enlisted private. “the wife.” The couple bought a 150- acre With the end of the war Walton went farm in Pocahontas, Tennessee from Wal- home to Memphis and took a bookkeeping ton’s aunt and uncle. Walton’s two sons job with the Mitchell, Hoffman & Co, deal- came to live with them, and they had a baby ers in rugs and carpets.35 Alton Prison was daughter. Walton continued to work in closed by the summer of 1865 and later de- Memphis, taking the train to the farm on his molished, leaving one corner of its wall in- free days. He was enjoying working on the tact as a monument that is now listed as a land and was also learning law on his own National Historic Landmark and is main- and won the first case he tried for a client. tained by the State of Illinois as a historic Life was demanding but good.38 site. The grounds were turned into a park. And then tragedy struck again. There is a In the early 1900s a monument was erected letter dated June 15, 1869, from Walton’s at the North Alton Cemetery in memory of aunt to her brother, Walton’s father, in Alex- the Confederate soldiers who died at the andria that begins “The dreadful task de- prison. 36 volves on me to write to you the sad, I found no more letters from Walton until heartrending intelligence of the death of September1866, when Walton sent a letter to your son W. W. Davidson, cut off in the

6 vigour of Manhood by the hand of an assas- this terrible calamity broke up the little cir- sin on last Friday morning. We have yet re- cle.”42 ceived but few particulars…39 The details about “the wife” in another, The aunt enclosed an account from the clearly pro-Confederate account of the Memphis Public Ledger, dated June 14, “cold-blooded piece of atrocity” were more 1869.40 The “further particulars” were that fulsome, but consistent that she was impris- Walton, “a well-known citizen of this city,” oned at Alton: “The grief-stricken widow is had been “assassinated” near the Pocahontas a lady known and beloved throughout the station of the Memphis and Charleston rail- entire South, being the famous Sue Lundy, road and that circumstantial evidence sug- whose heroic and unfalteringly love for the gested that the suspect was a tenant of Wal- South during the late war caused her arrest ton’s, Joseph C. Whitley, with whom he had and incarceration in the Irving Block, had a dispute over divi- whence she was re- sion of the last year’s moved to Alton, Illi- crops. During Walton’s nois.”43 absence Whitley “took Finally, I had a name occasion to render for “the wife” – Sue himself troublesome as Lundy, and I learned that a tenant.” After learn- they met in Alton Prison. ing of this, Walton I began to gather infor- wrote “a sharp letter to mation about her, find- Whitley … warning ing quite a bit about her him that he would soon family of origin. Scots be out to settle with who settled in Isle of him.“ Walton was Wight County, Virginia, killed on his way home in the 1690s, moving from the station. One later to Nottoway of Walton’s sons heard County, Virginia. Her the shots and went out wealthy parents were and found his father prominent and there are dead. Walton was 36 Figure 4 "A Cold-Blooded Piece of Atrocity," Memphis online images of oil por- when he was killed, Daily Appeal, June 13, 1869. Credit: newspapers.com traits of them.44 Her fa- leaving behind “a wife ther built an opulent and three children.”41 home called Bloomfield known for its The account furnished a name and addi- climbing roses but was so grief stricken by tional details about “the wife”: “He married the deaths of a daughter and his wife in 1846 Miss Sue Lundy, a lady who was prominent that he sold the place and moved the family during the war for her Southern proclivities, to Memphis. Sue had several sisters and two and who was sent to prison at Alton, Illinois, brothers who served in the Confederacy, one by the Federal authorities and was detained a physician and one killed in the war.45 But for several months. Mr. Davidson was in the there was no information at all about Sue same prison at the time, and through the during the war or afterward. Nothing. Any- kindness of the officers in charge he was al- where. Except in Walton’s obituaries. It was lowed to see her frequently. After the war as if she had vanished. they were married – this being his second I contacted the Illinois Historical Society, wife – and have lived together happily until the repository for the Alton Prison records,

7 and was told there were no records for Sue After the war Frost became a newspaper edi- Lundy but there was a record for Florence tor and published his journal in 1867.49 Vane Lundy. This was confusing — was Frost’s journal gives a far more detailed Florence a sibling or other relative or the picture of prison life than Walton gave in his same person? I was given several references letters. The first day after his incarceration, to consult. The first reference was a book en- he caught sight of Florence. titled Confederate Heroines by Thomas Oct. 6, 1864 – Took a walk around Lowry where the nature of Florence’s trans- through the yard yesterday…saw at a gression was described.46 window two of the female prisoners. Florence had been charged with smug- One of them is a Miss Lundy from gling cotton cards out of Memphis. Cotton Memphis. She is a very fine looking cards, reported to look like a pair of stiff dog young woman and, I should judge, brushes, were used to straighten cotton by possessed of considerable intelli- hand before it was spun. Still in her 20s, na- gence.50 ïve, and perhaps with an exaggerated sense of her appeal, Florence had approached a Walton had written his mother that he former slave of her father’s who was serving had been invited to spend part of Christmas as a soldier and wagon master at a fort in the Day 1864 with the lady prisoners, two of Memphis suburbs. She offered him money whom were from Virginia, and afterward he to carry the goods outside the lines. He set would write and tell her about the occa- up a sting that led to her arrest and convic- sion.51 Any letter that Walton may have tion. She was fined $3,000 along with six written is lost. However, Captain Frost’s months at Alton Prison with more time in journal has a detailed account of the celebra- prison if the fine remained unpaid.47 tion, which actually occurred on December The second reference, on imprisoned 26, 1864.52 The lady prisoners had been Confederate women, describes Florence as given permission to invite guests of their typical of the rebellious “well-connected choosing. The prisoners invited included, women of the region’s elite class” who two surgeons in the hospital, eleven officers, proudly supported the Confederate cause and and five others, including Walton. One of intentionally found a way to complicate their the officers, a Captain Muir, assisted in the release, necessitating further incarceration. cooking, and all invited contributed toward She refused to pay the fine after serving her the feast from their “boxes from home.”53 six months and she turned away offers from The guests were first shown to the room friends who were concerned about her occupied by Miss Lundy and a Miss Goggin. health.48 Two other lady prisoners were also “fair The third reference was the prize, the hostesses.” All of the “fair hostesses all ap- camp and prison journal of Griffin Frost, a peared to be enjoying excellent health except contemporary source. Frost, who worked in Miss Goggin who had been sick for several printing and publishing newspapers before days.” After introductions and socializing, the war, was a Captain in the 2nd Missouri the party repaired to a “dining room” where Infantry captured for recruiting and sent to the guests found a large table “richly laden Alton. Writing was his passion and solace with everything the most epicurean taste during confinement. Notwithstanding the could desire.”54 prison’s prohibition, Frost managed to keep The celebration continued, “After we had a diary, to hide the pages, and to pass them finished eating, discussing and praising the to his wife when she was permitted to visit. dinner, and congratulating ourselves over the

8 rare good fortune of participating of it to- friends humor the greedy whim which de- gether, we returned to the room temporarily manded the money; but they fearing her appropriated as a parlor, some to engage in health should fail, have, it seems, without talking, others in singing, but the majority consulting her, satisfied the claim of the out- amused themselves in promenading the hall witted State, and her release has been for- and passing from one room to another.”55 mally granted.” 58 Notably, rather than singing or prome- Frost lamented her departure. “Miss nading, Walton devoted his attentions to Ms. Lundy, by her unwavering kindness, and Goggin, the sick lady prisoner roommate of lovely amiability of character, has endeared Miss Lundy. After the feast and singing and herself to every one who has formed her ac- promenading, following an announcement quaintance. Her loss will be very sensibly that supper was waiting, the party “pro- felt by the inmates of the female prison, ceeded with great alacrity to the dining while our mess will realize every day that a room” to a “supper” of kind friend is missing, and cakes and coffee and tea. one of the chief attractions Frost expressly noted the lost from the ladies’ quar- kindness of the com- ters.” 59 manding Union officer, Frost, who, like Walton, General Copeland, and was also a jewelry maker, the courtesy of Major presented Miss Lundy with a Morgan, “without which breastpin inscribed, “Miss we would have been Florence Lundy – only to be condemned to our lonely known, to be loved by all true prison.” 56 Southerners.” The inscrip- About six weeks after tions on pieces of jewelry pre- this feast, Walton was re- sented by two other prison- Figure 5 Charles Pendleton Cooke, Florence leased from Alton. The war Vane, reprinted in 1847 (1st stanza) ers express similar senti- was winding down, but Credit: Google Books ments: “Miss F. V. Lundy – Captain Frost and “Miss the pride of all true patri- Florence Lundy” remained imprisoned, but ots;” “Triumphant still.”60 Three days later, with much greater liberty. Captain Frost Miss Lundy left by packet boat, bound for writes on April 2, 1865, that he was given Memphis.61 leave to go into Alton where he purchased While I had learned a lot about Florence protographs57 of 28 Confederate Generals at Vane Lundy, I remained unsure whether Sue a local bookstore, and that on the following Lundy and Florence Vane Lundy were the day he was given leave to go to church. Af- same person. Quite out of the blue I received ter returning to the prison late that afternoon, an email communication from Kathryn Con- he spent the evening with the lady prisoners. vey in Provo, Utah, stating that I was her He then learned that “Miss Florence closest DNA match, she being the great Lundy” had just received her release. “[I]t great granddaughter of Sue Lundy and W. was procured by her friends paying a fine W. Davidson. I contacted her immediately which was imposed upon her. She had re- and my first question was about the name. fused her consent to their paying the fine, She told me that Sue adopted the name preferring to let the Government vent the full “Florence Vane” from the title of a poem force of its august and dignified anger on her that was internationally popular at that own little person, rather than have her time.62

The poem, like much Romantic poetry of Indian Territory, Muskogee, Oklahoma, the time, concerns a young, aloof, deceased where Florence soon joined them.65 It is beauty who had spurned the poet’s atten- where Florence died and was buried in 1898. tions, “Thou wast lovelier than the roses in She was about 61. Her obituary from the their prime; thy voice excelled the closes of Muskogee Phoenix was under the name Mrs. sweetest rhyme; thy heart was as a river Florence Davidson and it noted that although without a main, would I had loved thee she had only lived in Muskogee for several never, Florence Vane!” The closing stanza years her funeral cortege was accompanied prays that lilies of the valley and pansies by a large number of friends and acquaint- near her grave, “in beauty vying never wane ances.66 She had not lost her charm. where thine earthly part is lying, Florence If it had been Florence’s hope that her Vane.”63 daughter would “marry well,” she certainly The name Florence Vane became Sue’s got her wish. Nathan became a highly suc- code name or nom de guerre for her rebel cessful attorney, President of the Oklahoma activities. After the war she used the name Bar Association, and pillar of the commu- for the rest of her life. So Sue Lundy and nity, active in many professional, civic, and Florence Vane Lundy were the same person. social organizations. In a tribute, Supreme She was considered a heroine in the South Court Chief Justice and former President and was evidently proud of her defiance. William Howard Taft stated that Nathan Florence sold the farm after Walton was made the best appearance of anyone before- murdered. Walton’s two sons moved back the U. S. Supreme Court during his tenure.67 to live with their biological mother’s family The couple had seven surviving children who had raised them and who had been sig- (one died as an infant), and the house they nificantly reduced in circumstance by the built in 1907 in Muskogee is now preserved war. Florence with her little daughter moved as a historic home.68 to Mississippi and lived with her physician The raw details of births and deaths of brother and his family until 1889 when her family members too often mean very little. daughter, Florence Walton Davidson, came When research leads to discovery of their of age and the two of them moved to Mem- experiences and challenges in negotiating phis.64 Her daughter worked as a stenog- the currents of their times, the experiences of rapher at a prominent law firm and in 1895 these relatives while interesting in them- married an ambitious and talented lawyer, selves also cast a light that illuminates and Nathan Gibson. adds nuance to our knowledge of history that The young couple immediately moved to we might already believe we know.

1 Cox, Ethelyn, Historic Alexandria Virginia The Alexandria Association, 1986; Kaye, Ruth Lin- Street by Street, Historic Alexandria Foundation, coln; The Merger of Two Early Alexandria Fami- 1976 at 122. (The Ship’s Tavern); Miller, T. Mi- lies, unpublished manuscript, Oct. 31, 2011 at 6. chael, Artisans and Merchants of Alexandria, Vir- (Financial well-being of Walton’s father). ginia, 1780-1820, Vol. 1, Alexandria Library, 3 Alexandria Library, Important Facts to Know Lloyd House, Heritage Books at 96, 204, 250. (current street numbering in Alexandria dates from (The Ship’s Tavern). 1888), https://alexlibraryva.org/alexandria-house- 2 Miller, T. Michael, Portrait of a Town: Alex- histories. andria District of Columbia (Virginia), 1820-1830, 4 Moore, Gay Montague, Seaport in Virginia, Bowie, Maryland, Heritage Books, 1995, page 447. University Press of Virginia, 1949 at 247-253. (Apprenticeship Indenture of Francis Davidson, (Benjamin Hallowell); Circular of the Alexandria from age 15 in 1825 until age 21 in 1831); Fitzger- Boarding School, published 1844, Alexandria, Wil- ald, Oscar, The Green Family of Cabinetmakers: liam S. Hough, printer, Fairfax Street, in family pa- An Alexandria Institution 1817-1887, Alexandria, pers. (Walton is listed as one of the students from

2nd Cavalry Regiment (Partisan Rangers) (aka Bal- Alexandria, not boarding. 12 years old. It is un- lentine’s Cavalry Regiment),The American Civil known how long he attended this school) War, on the Web: https://www.nps.gov/civil- 5 Riker, Diane, Fowle Warehouses, 204-206 war/search-battle-units-detail.htm?battleU- South Union Street, City of Alexandria, Office of nitCode=CMS0002R001. 12 Historic Alexandria, Alexandria Archaeology, Cameron, Terri (March-April 2007) Alton’s Studies of the Old Waterfront, 2009 at 1-12. POWs, Illinois Heritage (“Cameron, Alton’s 6 “Discovering the Decades: 1850s;” Alexandria POWs”), published by the Illinois State Historical Archaeology Volunteer News, City of Alexandria, Society, Vol. 10 No. 2 at 2, on the Web: Va., 1999 (expansion of city limits in 1850s); www.lib.niu.edu/2007/ih030708.html; Madison Smith, William Francis and Miller, T. Michael, A County Historical Society (“MCHS”), The Alton Seaport Saga, Portrait of Old Alexandria, Virginia, Military Prison, (“MCHS, The Alton Military The Donning Company, Norfolk, Virginia, 1989 at Prison”)(compiled and written by Madison County 72-83 (vibrancy in 1850s). Historical Museum Staff, C. Longwisch. July 7 Welborne Family Bible page listing dates and 1982) at 2, on the Web: www.madcohis- places of births and deaths in family papers. (Wal- tory.org/online-exhibits/civil-war-stories-introduc- ton’s mother Jane Welborne born Kirbymoorside, tion/the-alton-military-prison/; Greater Alton Yorkshire, England June 6, 1811; Jane’s mother Chamber of Commerce, The Infamous Alton Avis died Maranham, Brazil, August 15, 1820; Prison, Brochure (“Alton Chamber of Commerce, Jane’s father David died Alexandria June 9, 1827); The Infamous Alton Prison”) at 1, on the Web: U.S. Atlantic Ports Passenger Lists, 1820-1873, www.visitalton.com/blogs/detail/31/the-infamous- Ancestry.com (This site shows Jane, her father and alton-prison. 13 3 brothers departed Maranham on the Schooner Cameron, Alton’s POWs at 3, 5; Frost, Grif- Triton and arrived at the Port of Alexandria be- fin, Camp and Prison Journal (“Frost, Camp and tween April 8 and June 30, 1827. Jane was the Prison Journal”), originally printed in 1867, re- only female listed on the ship’s passenger list. I printed by the Camp Post Bookshop Press, Iowa know they arrived prior to June 5 as on that day City, 1994, 2006, at 108-118; Union & Confederate David made his will in Alexandria (a copy in my Civil War Prisoner of War Records, Alton Prisoner possession) and he died June 9. Jane was orphaned of War Camp at 4. Retrieved from: www.mycivil- at the age of 16 with her older brothers in an unfa- war.com/pow/il-alton. 14 miliar land. MCHS, The Alton Military Prison at 4; Cam- 8 Memphis City Directory, Edward’s Annual eron, Alton’s POWs at 3-4; Speer, Lonnie R., Por- Director, Southern Publishing Co. Memphis, 1870 tals to Hell: Military Prisons of the Civil War at 296 & 338, accessed through Ancestry.com (“Speer, Portals to Hell”), University of Nebraska (Listing of Walton’s uncle Z. Whitemore and list- Press, 2005 at 67-70 & 134-135; Union & Confed- ing of hotel). erate Civil War Prisoners of War Records, Alton 9 Fourteen letters from Walton in Memphis to Prisoner of War Camp at 3, on the Web: www.my- his brother, sister, and mother in Alexandria dated civilwar.com/pow/il-alton. 15 January 1855 to September 1860, in family papers; Cameron, Alton’s POWs at 4; Speer, Portals Death Notice for Kate Davidson, Memphis Bulle- to Hell at 178. 16 tin, July 1860, copy in family papers. “Alton Chamber of Commerce, The Infamous 10 1860 U. S. Federal Census, First Ward, Mem- Alton Prison at 2; The War of the Rebellion, a phis, Shelby County, Tennessee at 16, W. W. Da- Compilation of the Official Records of the Union vidson, available from Ancestry.com (enumerated and Confederate Armies, Series II – Volume VI, on 6 June 1860, when all was well); Kate died 7 Washington Printing Office, 1899 at 96-7 (July 9, weeks later); Kate’s two ”speculator” brothers lived 1863 report from Lt. Col. De Haas to Col. W. Hoff- on adjoining properties as part of a James family man, Commissary General of Prisoners, regarding compound where Kate’s two sons moved after her smallpox epidemic at Alton Prison.) 17 death. See 1860 U. S. Federal Census, District 5, Three letters from Walton in Alton Prison to Shelby County, Tennessee, at 86 (enumerating his mother in Alexandria dated Feb. 27, March 13 D. G. James and William James), available from and March 18, 1863. 18 Ancestry.com. McCormick, Jinny, “The Union’s Smallpox 11 Rigdon, John C., Historical Sketch & Roster Island, Where Men were Sent to Die,” 2016 at 4-6, of The Mississippi 2nd Cavalry Regiment Partisan on the Web: www.warhistoryonline.com/american- Rangers (Ballentine’s), Eastern Digital Resources, civil-war/unions-smallpox-island.html; Harriel, Cartersville, GA., 2004, at 13-39 (Timelines, Cam- Shelby, Forbidden, Hidden, and Forgotten: paigns, Historical Sketch), at 55 (W. Walton Da- Women Soldiers of the Civil War, 2016 at 2-3, on vidson, in Roster of Company C); “Mississippi’s 11

36 Alton Web, Alton in the Civil War - Alton the Web; https://forbiddenhiddenforgotten.blog- Prison at 2 (July 2008), on the Web: www.alton- spot.com/2016/09/rising-tides-and-fallen-heroines- web.com/history/civilwar/confed/index.html ; at.html; MCHS, The Alton Military Prison at 5-6; MCHS, The Alton Military Prison at 6; Speer, Por- Alton Chamber of Commerce, The Infamous Alton tals to Hell at 303. 37 Prison at 2. Letter to Brother dated Sept. 28, 1866 (advis- 19 Taylor, Troy, The Big Book of Illinois Ghost ing of Nov. 20, 1866, wedding date and describing Stories, Lanham, Md., Rowman & Littlefield, 2019 the bride). 38 at 16. Letters from Walton to his brother in Alexan- 20 Letter dated Aug. 30, 1863 (from camp near dria dated April 3, 1867, June 24, 1868, and August Clinton, Ms.). 13, 1868. 39 21 Letter dated Aug. 30, 1863 (from camp near Letter from Walton’s aunt, Elizabeth Da- Clinton, Ms.). vidson Whitemore, to her brother and Walton’s fa- 22 Letter to Mother dated Oct. 26, 1863. ther Francis Kirby Davidson living in Alexandria, 23 Letter to Mother dated Sept. 10, 1864 (“spir- dated June, 15, 1869 (in family papers). 40 its as buoyant as ever”). Public Ledger, That Assassination, June 14, 24 Letter from Walton at Alton Prison to his 1869 at 3. 41 mother dated July 15, 1864; Cameron, Alton’s Public Ledger, That Assassination, June 14, POWs at 4, Retrieved from 1869 at 3. 42 www.lib.niu.edu/2007/ih030708.html (Exchange That Assassination, Public Ledger, June 14, program in Illinois discontinued by June 1863); 1869 at 3. 43 Civil War Prison Camps, Civil War Academy at 2- A Well-Known Citizen Waylaid and Mur- 3, on the Web: www.civilwaracademy.com/prison- dered, Memphis Daily Appeal, June 13, 1869 at 4. 44 camps (exchange program, general article); Speer, Oil portrait of Col. Isham Gillium Lundy, Portals to Hell at 97-105. Ancestry.com/all collections/pictures/public mem- 25 Frost, Camp and Prison Journal at 184-188 ber photos & scanned documents; oil portrait of (improved conditions; new hospital within prison Mary Epes Jones, wife of Col. Lundy, Ances- walls); Alton Chamber of Commerce, The Infa- try.com/all collections/pictures/member photos & mous Alton Prison at 1 (treatment of another in- scanned documents. 45 mate at Alton very different from Walton’s treat- Cummings, A. B., Landmarks of Nottoway ment). County, Richmond, VA. W. M. Brown, 1970 at 26 Letter dated Nov. 28, 1864. 27-28 (Bloomfield, prominent families); personal 27 Letter dated Jan. 20, 1865. communication with Kathryn Convey, my DNA 28 Letter dated Aug. 2, 1864. cousin, regarding her research on the Lundy line 29 Coski, John M., Prisoner of War Collections beginning with James Lundy, born c.1660, who im- Reveal Creativity in Captivity, Museum of the Con- migrated from England c. 1693 to Isle of Wight federacy Magazine, Spring 2006 at 3-6. (a general County, Virginia, as an indentured servant. 46 article about jewelry making that specifically men- Lowry, Thomas P., Confederate Heroines: tions Alton); Frost, Camp and Prison Journal at 120 Southern Women Convicted by Union Military 185; MCHS, The Alton Military Prison at 3. Justice (“Lowry, Confederate Heroines”), Louisi- 30 Letter dated Sept. 1, 1864 (with enclosure). ana State University Press, 2006 at 104-105. 47 31 Letter dated Jan. 20, 1865. Lowry, Confederate Heroines at 104-105. 48 32 Curren, Thomas, Making War on Women and Curren, Imprisoned Confederate Women at Women Making War: Confederate Women Impris- 11-12. 49 oned in St. Louis During the Civil War (“Curren, Frost, Camp and Prison Journal at v-ix (biog- Imprisoned Confederate Women”), The Conflu- raphy of Frost). 50 ence, Lindenwood University Press, St. Louis MO Frost, Camp and Prison Journal at 185. 51 Spring/Summer 2011 at 4-15; Frost, Camp and Letter to Mother dated Dec. 21, 1864 (Alton Prison Journal at 187, 206. prison hospital). 52 33 Letter to Mother dated Dec. 21, 1864 (from Frost, Camp and Prison Journal at 206-09. 53 Alton Prison Hospital). Frost, Camp and Prison Journal at 206-07 34 Letter to Mother dated Feb. 24, 1865 (on (Dec. 24, 1864, and Dec. 26 -27, 1864, entries). 54 board the steamer, Mary Washington). Frost, Camp and Prison Journal at 207-08 35 Letter from Walton to his brother dated Sep- (Dec. 27, 1864)(The bill of fare included five tember 28,1866 (written on the business stationery roasts, goose, beef, duck, turkey, and chicken, five for Mitchell, Hoffman & Co., Furniture and Carpet boiled dishes, turnips, bacon, potatoes, cabbage, Ware Rooms, Memphis, Tennessee). and tomatoes, accompanied by crackers, butter,

poetry of the era, one that Poe exploited as well. As light bread, pickles, and cold slaw, together with late as 1912, Florence Vane was included in signif- mince pie and cranberry tart for dessert. icant anthologies, see Thomas R. Lounsbury 55 Frost, Camp and Prison Journal at 208 (Dec. (ed.), Yale Book of American Verse (1912), 27, 1864). https://www.bartleby.com/102/118.html. 63 56 Frost, Camp and Prison Journal at 208-09 1847 publication and poem hunter citations. 64 (Dec. 27, 1864)(fruit cake, jelly cake, and pound U. S. Federal Census, 1880, Nesbits Station, cake). De Soto County, Mississippi, Page 21, Florence 57 Note that Frost did not purchase “photo- Davidson, age 42, and Florence Davidson, age 15, graphs,” but protographs. it appears likely that the in the household of William Lundie (misspelled by images he purchased were copies of original en- census worker) accessed through Ancestry.com; gravings. City Directory, Memphis Tennessee, 1889, page 58 Frost, Camp and Prison Journal at 240, 242- 260, Florence Davidson (widow) and Miss Flor- 43). ence W. Davidson (stenographer) living at 70 St. 59 Frost, Camp and Prison Journal at 240, 242- Martin accessed through Ancestry.com. 65 43. Muskogee Phoenix, April 10, 1895, page 3, 60 Frost, Camp and Prison Journal at 240, 242- Upcoming marriage of Florence Walton Davidson 43 (Wednesday, April 5, 1865). and Nathan Gibson. Retrieved from: www.news- 61 Frost, Camp and Prison Journal at 240, 242- papers.com/image/611451383 [I have a photo- 43 (Saturday, April 8, 1865). copy]. 66 62 The poem by Philip Pendleton Cooke was Muskogee Phoenix, April 28, 1898, page 6, first published in 1840 in Burton’s Gentleman’s Obituary of Mrs. Florence Davidson. Retrieved Magazine, a periodical that Edgar Allan Poe helped from: www.newspapers.com/image/13160904 [I to edit. See Whitley, W. B., & the Dictionary of have a photocopy]. 67 Virginia Biography. Philip Pendleton Cooke “Nathan Adams Gibson (1867-1940),” (1816–1850), July 1, 2014, in Encyclopedia Vir- Chronicles of Oklahoma, Vol. 19, No. 3, Septem- ginia, on the Web: http://www.EncyclopediaVir- ber 1941 Necrology page 297; Taft complement, ginia.org/Cooke_Philip_Pendleton_1816-1850. http://www.historic-homes-muskogee.com/im- Cooke later included the poem in a collection of his ages/pages/gibson.html (in legend). 68 poetry, Froissart Ballads and Other Poems, Phila- http://www.historic-homes-muskogee.com/. delphia, Carey & Hart, 1847 at 171-73. The aloof, dead beauty was a common theme in the Romantic

Oscar Payne’s Escape to Freedom from Antebellum Alexandria

Michael Reynolds*

On Saturday, July 10, 1858, a 30-year old branch of the Farmer’s Bank of Virginia in Al- enslaved man named Oscar Payne walked exandria and lived with his aunt, wife and away from the grounds of Episcopal High children in a house on South Fairfax Street a School where he was hired to work and began few blocks from the Potomac River.2 his journey to freedom. The primary sources McGuire was an ordained Episcopal priest that speak to his enslavement and escape help in his seventh year as principal of Episcopal show how slavery operated in Antebellum Al- High School. In 1839, The Episcopal Diocese exandria and how African Americans resisted of Virginia founded the preparatory school as the brutal institution. an auxiliary to the Virginia Theological Semi- Payne, like most enslaved people, did not nary. When Payne escaped in 1858, Episcopal leave an extensive trail in the historical record, was a thriving boarding school located adja- but the sources available cent to the Seminary. provide an opportunity Both were located about to better understand three miles northwest of what life was like for Alexandria on what be- African Americans in came known as Seminary and around Alexandria Hill near the Leesburg in the years before the Turnpike (today known Civil War.1 as King Street/Route 7). Runaway slave ads Despite the proximity published in the Alexan- to town, that section of dria Gazette and Balti- Fairfax County was pre- Figure 1 Runaway Slave ad that first appeared in the more Sun alerted the pub- Alexandria Gazette on July 15, 1858 dominantly rural. A sem- lic that Payne escaped inarian at the time wrote from “the service of” The Reverend John Pey- to his family that the school was “on a high ton McGuire. Beneath that euphemism is the hill in the woods” and was a “lonely, desolate reality that McGuire rented Oscar Payne from sort of place.”3 In the late 1850s students at Mary Dade, the 63-year-old Alexandria resi- the high school numbered in the eighties and dent who enslaved him. The ad, with a reward included boys from some of the wealthiest and of $200 for Payne’s capture, was placed by most prominent families in Virginia and Dade’s nephew, T.D. Fendall. Townsend neighboring states.4 Dade Fendall worked as a discount clerk at the

* Michael Reynolds is a member of the history faculty at Episcopal High School in Alexandria who has lived on the campus since 2008. During his time at Episcopal, Reynolds and his students have investigated what life was like for enslaved people in Alexandria and more generally in the Washington, D.C. region. Mike earned his B.A. in history from Presbyterian College in Clinton, SC and M.A. from a joint program of The College of Charleston and The Citadel. He also studied and taught 19th Century southern history at the University of South Carolina before moving to Alexandria. Mike is a member of the Alexandria Historical Society Board and will become editor of this publication in fall 2020.

Antebellum Virginia was a slave society African Americans with a white ancestor. As a and every institution and business in the state, final point, Fendall revealingly noted that Os- including Episcopal and the Seminary, relied car Payne had a “pleasant manner” when spo- on the work of enslaved African Americans in ken to. It seems that Payne was adept at ma- some form. Learning as much as possible neuvering within both the black and white about Oscar Payne offers an opportunity to worlds of Alexandria.7 better understand that world from his perspec- Renting the labor of enslaved people was tive and come to grips with a common in southern towns society that commodified hu- like Alexandria. Hiring out man beings as property to be allowed slave owners to rented and sold. Payne’s es- turn their ownership into cape also shows the risks that ready cash without actually one man was willing to take selling their human property for freedom.5 and it created a flexible la- In addition to the runaway bor system that was more slave ads, a remarkable, but readily adapted to an urban brief, account of Payne’s es- work environment. Enslav- cape and arrival in Philadel- ers did not have to risk phia was published in William starting their own business Still’s The Underground Rail- or raising crops to earn road. Still, a free African money, and renters could American, was a leading aboli- access workers without hav- tionist and from his position as ing to accrue the capital chairman of the Vigilance necessary to purchase a per- Committee in Philadelphia he Figure 2 John Peyton McGuire son or pay significantly Credit: EHS Collection provided refuge for fugitives higher wages to white la- who made their way north. He borers. also interviewed them and recorded their ac- In his classic study Slavery in the Cities, counts of harrowing escapes from slavery and historian Richard Wade estimates that approx- what life had been like for them in bondage. imately 30 percent of the enslaved people in From Philadelphia, Still supported the work of urban areas were hired out. The percentage a number of “conductors” and other allies of was likely similar for Alexandria. The Alexan- the Underground Railroad, including Harriet dria Gazette contains numerous advertise- Tubman.6 ments for hiring and the paper reported on the Runaway advertisements offer remarkably annual hiring auction held at Catt’s Tavern in candid descriptions, and historians have uti- the West End neighborhood every January.8 lized them to learn more about the way en- Hiring enslaved workers was common at slaved people fashioned themselves, what both Episcopal and the Seminary. Phillips skills they possessed and the ways in which Brooks, a young seminary student from Bos- they resisted bondage. The description of ton with abolitionist leanings, wrote shortly Payne from the runaway ad provides im- after his arrival on campus in 1856 that, “there portant details about his age, height, build, are crowds of slaves about here; very many of skin complexion and the way he kept his hair. them, however, are hired from other parts of Fendall described Payne as “mulatto color,” the State, and from other States, of their mas- indicating that he was likely one of the many ters.”9

We do not know the terms of the agree- and Modern Languages, Lights, Fuel, Wash- ment between McGuire and Mary Dade, but ing, Mending & c.”13 At the seminary, when according to the prices reported from the 1858 Phillips Brooks returned for the 1858 aca- auction at Catt’s Tavern, Payne would likely demic session, he wrote to his father that, “the have garnered between $100 and $125 for boy that used to make my bed last term has Dade if hired for the year.10 Some enslaved made tracks for the North during vacation.” men and women were allowed to “hire their That “boy” was a 23-year-old man named own time.” As such, they were Carter enslaved by David Fitzhugh required to pay their owners a of Fairfax Courthouse and rented fixed sum every week or to the Seminary.14 Brooks’ quip month but could often keep only offers a small glimpse, but it what they earned beyond that reveals one of the many jobs en- amount. Payne described Dade slaved people were tasked with as as a “very clever mistress,” so they performed the work essential she was likely adept at maxim- to the every-day operations of both izing the return on her human the high school and the Seminary. property.11 When interviewed by Still in The limited autonomy that Philadelphia, Payne did not com- came with hiring created some plain of the physical abuse that opportunities for African was so often a part of the lives of Americans and at the same the enslaved, but he did lament time generated significant fear that, “no privilege was offered me amongst whites. Enslaved peo- to study books.”15 Whites in Vir- ple who were hired out had ginia understood that literate en- more frequent excuses to Figure 3 The Underground Railroad slaved people posed a threat to their travel and often lacked direct Title Page, First Edition control and could forge passes or Credit: Hathi Trust Digital Library supervision, making it easier freedom papers, read abolitionist for them to run away. Frederick Douglass’ es- literature and perhaps even be inspired to run cape from Baltimore in 1838 is perhaps the away or revolt. In April 1831, eight months af- most famous example. Payne took his chance ter the Nat Turner Revolt in Southampton 20 years later.12 County, the Virginia General Assembly Work for Payne at the school likely con- passed a series of new restrictions, expressly sisted of domestic labor and farm or garden making teaching enslaved men and women to work. With around 80 boys to feed and house, read and write a crime punishable by a fine of the boarding school needed great quantities of from $10 to $100. McGuire and the faculty food and wood and coal for fuel. When the and students at the school felt no inclination to school was established, 77 acres was pur- violate the law for Payne’s benefit.16 chased adjacent to the Seminary so it is proba- ble that some of this land was used to grow produce and raise livestock. Payne was likely housed in one of the buildings on the grounds. An advertisement for the school term set to begin on September 8, 1858 explained that, with the $250 annual tuition, students could expect, “Board, Tuition in the regular course,

Payne arrived at the offices of the Pennsyl- being sold to the cotton states or to New Orle- vania Anti-Slavery Society in Philadelphia ans was a real fear for enslaved people in with eight others. In The Underground Rail- northern Virginia.19 road, William Still relates the stories this What we know about Payne’s family can group told him and often describes the triggers also help explain why he chose to flee. He told that prompted them to risk their lives in pur- Still that the only family he had left in Alexan- suit of freedom. Fear of being sold was a dria, after the sale of his brothers and sister, prime motivator. Joseph Ball, a member of the were two cousins. It seems that he was not group, told of his fear that his elderly mistress, married, had no children, and had few other Elizabeth Gordon of Alexan- ties that would have compelled dria, would die soon and he him to stay. Payne does tell Still understood his fate if the about two older brothers, Brooks “young tribe of nephews and and Lawrence, who successfully nieces” took ownership of escaped to the North. In Febru- his person. Another member, ary of 1838 when he was 18, Twenty-two-year-old Jake, Brooks ran away from the man told Still that his enslaver’s he was being hired to in son chided him that it Georgetown in the District of “wouldn’t be long before he Columbia. Benjamin Fendall, would have him jingling in acting as agent for his sister-in- his pocket.” According to law Mary Dade, placed an ad in Still’s account, there was no the Gazette offering a $100 re- specific reason for Payne to ward for his capture and return. leave Alexandria. He ex- He described Brooks as slender plained that “I cannot say I with a “mild countenance” and a left for any other cause than scar on his right leg.20 to get my freedom.”17 Lawrence, hired to Brown’s Figure 4 Frontispiece, The Underground The bit of his family his- Railroad Credit: Hathi Trust Digital Library “Indian Queen” Hotel in Wash- tory that Payne does tell ington, ran away in early Octo- leaves a few clues that should be considered. ber 1842. He made his escape after working at Tragically, he told Still that three brothers and the hotel for two years. In the ad, Townsend a sister were “sold South” and he had no clue Fendall described the 29-year-old Lawrence as of their whereabouts.18 Since the mid-eight- five feet tall, square built and a “dark mulatto eenth century, as crop yields declined and or copper color.” Fendall went on to relate that prices dropped, tobacco planters were shifting he possessed a “sprightly countenance” and to growing wheat and other grains that re- was “very polite when spoken to.” An added quired fewer workers. As a result, many slave grisly detail was that Lawrence was “branded owners in the Chesapeake region had excess in the hand with a key in 1840.”21 Perhaps the labor at the same time that demand coming branding was punishment for an earlier escape from the Deep South was booming because of attempt, a common practice among antebellum the expansion of short-staple cotton produc- slaveholders, but for whatever reason this de- tion. For many whites, selling people became tail reinforces the reality that violence was at more lucrative than farming. Port towns like the heart of the relationship between enslavers Baltimore, Richmond, and Alexandria became like Mary Dade and the people they claimed critical hubs of the domestic slave trade, and as property. For Oscar Payne, the knowledge

17 that two brothers successfully escaped must There were “stations” for refuge and people have given him hope. Perhaps the dream of re- willing to offer support to fugitives in Wash- uniting with them was another factor that en- ington, Wilmington, and many other places in couraged him to run. For Payne though, he the border states.22 was content to explain his motive to Still in After Philadelphia, historical records of more simple terms. He just wanted to be free. Oscar Payne and his escape to freedom go We do not know exactly how Payne made quiet. Perhaps he went to Canada. The region his way to Philadelphia, but the most likely between Toronto and Niagara Falls along routes were either by water, perhaps stowing Lake Ontario was a haven for African Ameri- away on a boat headed up the Chesapeake cans escaping slavery in the United States, es- Bay, or overland from Washington through pecially after the passage of the 1850 Fugitive Montgomery and Frederick Counties in Mary- Slave Act provided white southerners federal land to Pennsylvania. Still’s account offers a support to capture and return those who had few hints that are worth exploring. Two of the successfully made their way north. Canada nine freedom seekers, a married couple named was beyond the reach of slave catchers look- Jake and Mary Ann, who showed up on Still’s ing to cash in on the $200 reward offered for doorstep with Payne were from the region Payne’s capture and return. William Still re- around Elkton, Maryland. The town sits on the ported that five of the nine who travelled with Elk River which opens up to the extreme Payne made it to Canada.23 northern end of the Chesapeake Bay and is Historical research often leaves as many only about 20 miles from Wilmington, Dela- questions as answers, but telling Oscar ware. Philadelphia lies 30 miles from there so Payne’s story helps sheds light on the motiva- it is possible that Payne and the six other men tions and experiences of thousands of other from the Washington area met up with Jake African Americans who risked their lives to and Mary Ann along the way and continued escape slavery. Payne’s story reminds us how the journey together. Payne and his travelling limited freedom was in places like Alexandria companions knew where to seek refuge in on the eve of the Civil War, but it also under- Philadelphia and also were no doubt helped scores how hope and courage can persist and along the way by Underground Railroad “con- prevail over oppression. ductors” and other enslaved and free African American and white supporters of the cause.

1 Alexandria Gazette, July 15, 1858; See Peter 2020). $200 in 1858 is the equivalent of around Kolchin, American Slavery: 1619-1877, revised ed. $6400 in 2020 according to the inflation calculator, (New York: Hill and Wang, 2003) for more on the www.measuringworth.com. challenges faced by historians studying the lives of 3 Alexander V.G. Allen, Life and Letters of Phillips enslaved people. Also see Ira Berlin, Many Thou- Brooks (New York: E.P. Dutton, 1900), 151. sands Gone: The First Two Centuries of Slavery in 4 Arthur Barksdale Kinsolving, The Story of a North America (Cambridge: Belknap Press, 1999). Southern School: The Episcopal High School of Vir- 2 Fendall placed the first runaway ad in the Alex- ginia (Baltimore: Norman, Remington, 1922), 38. andria Gazette on July 15, 1858 and in the Baltimore 5 On the way slavery evolved and remained a critical Sun on July 17. The ad in the Sun only ran one week, aspect of life in Virginia and the Upper South up un- but Fendall continued the Gazette ad until August 20; til the Civil War, see Calvin Schermerhorn, Money William Still, The Underground Railroad: A Record over Mastery, Family over Freedom: Slavery in the of Facts, Authentic Narratives, Letters, & C. (Phila- Antebellum Upper South (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins delphia: Porter and Coates, 1872), 466-467; 1860 University Press, 2011). U.S. Census, Alexandria Virginia, 215. All census 6 Still, The Underground Railroad, 465-468. For data is found at ancestry.com (accessed April 15, more on Still’s life, remarkable career and the

13 Kinsolving, The Story of a Southern School, 22; Al- significance of The Underground Railroad as a exandria Gazette, July 15, 1858. An advertisement source for studying resistance to slavery see Temple for the 1858 school year appeared in the same edition University Library: http://stillfamily.library.tem- of the Gazette that included the first ad offering a re- ple.edu/exhibits/show/william-still and Elizabeth Va- ward for Oscar Payne. 14 ron, "'Beautiful Providences': William Still, the Vigi- Phillips Brooks to William G. Brooks, October 1, lance Committee, and Abolitionists in the Age of 1858, quoted in John F. Woolverton, The Education Sectionalism," in Antislavery and Abolition in Phila- of Phillips Brooks (Champaign: University of Illinois delphia: Emancipation and the Long Struggle for Ra- Press, 1995), 67; Alexandria Gazette, September 17, cial Justice in the City of Brotherly Love, ed. Richard 1858. 15 Newman and James Mueller (Baton Rouge: Louisi- Still, The Underground Railroad, 467. 16 ana State University Press, 2011). William Still, por- Acts Passed at the General Assembly of the Com- trayed by actor Leslie Odom, Jr. plays a lead role in monwealth of Virginia, 1831. https://www.encyclope- the movie Harriet (2019, directed by Kasi Lem- diavirginia.org/An_Act_to_amend_the_act_concern- mons). The film highlights Harriet Tubman’s escape ing_slaves_free_negroes_and_mulat- to Philadelphia from the Eastern Shore of Maryland toes_April_7_1831 (Accessed May 1, 2020). 17 and her work as a conductor on the Underground Still, The Underground Railroad, 466-469. 18 Railroad. Still, The Underground Railroad, 467. 19 7 For more on how historians have used runaway Schermerhorn, Money over Mastery, 3-20. For two slave ads to uncover African American resistance and significant contributions to the growing literature on culture see John Hope Franklin and Loren Schwenin- the domestic slave trade, see Walter Johnson, Soul By ger, Runaway Slaves: Rebels on the Plantation (New Soul: Life Inside the Antebellum Slave Market (Cam- York: Oxford University Press, 1999) and Shane bridge: Harvard University Press, 1999) and Daina White and Graham White, "Slave Hair and African Ramey Berry, The Price for Their Pound of Flesh: American Culture in the Eighteenth and Nineteenth The Value of the Enslaved, from Womb to Grave, in Centuries," The Journal of Southern History 61, no. 1 the Building of a Nation (Boston: Beacon Press, (February 1995). 2017). 20 8 Richard C. Wade, Slavery in the Cities: The South Still, The Underground Railroad, 467; Alexan- 1820-1860 (New York: Oxford University Press, dria Gazette, February 20 1838. 21 1964), 42-51. Also see John J. Zaborney, Slaves for Alexandria Gazette, October 26, 1842. 22 Hire: Renting Enslaved Laborers in Antebellum Vir- Still, The Underground Railroad, 469. The litera- ginia (Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University ture on the Underground Railroad is extensive, but Press, 2012) who argues that extensive slave hiring for works that offer insight on the Chesapeake region was a key aspect of the antebellum Virginia econ- see R.J.M. Blackett, The Captive's Quest for Free- omy; Alexandria Gazette, January 2, 1858; One of dom: Fugitive Slaves, the 1850 Fugitive Slave Law the many “for hire” ads found in the Gazette was and Politics of Slavery (Cambridge: Cambridge Uni- placed by Townsend Fendall in March 1859 looking versity Press, 2018) especially chapter eight on the to rent out “a likely SERVANT GIRL” who was “a Chesapeake and Philadelphia. See also Stanley Har- good house Servant, Washer and Ironer,” Alexandria rold, Subversives: Antislavery Community in Wash- Gazette, March 28, 1859. ington, DC, 1828-1865 (Baton Rouge: Louisiana 9 Allen, Life and Letters of Phillips Brooks, 152. State University Press, 2002). 23 10 Alexandria Gazette, January 2, 1858 Still, The Underground Railroad, 465-470. 11 Still, The Underground Railroad, 467. 12 Wade, Slavery in the Cities, 42-51.

The mission of the Alexandria Historical Society is to promote an active interest in American history, particularly the history of Alexandria and that of the Commonwealth of Virginia as a whole. Schedule of Events: Fall 2020

Cartography of a Port City: The History of Alexandria in 15 Maps Benjamin Skolnik, PhD, City Archaeologist September 24, 2020 7:30 p.m. at The Lyceum

Military housing in Alexandria Ryan Reft, Historian, 20th Century History, Manuscript Division, Library of Congress October 28, 2020 7:30 p.m. at The Lyceum

COVID-19 NOTICE: The Society is monitoring the risks associated with meetings indoors for groups larger than six that last for an hour or more.

If necessary to ensure that members may stay safe and participate in the Fall Programs, the Society will make a decision during the summer whether the Fall programs should be virtual.

Additional details will be published later on the Society Website: www.alexandriahistorical.org