The Randolph Freedpeople Part Two: The Legal Road to Freedom

Posted February 21, 2017

Topics: Historic PreservationAfrican American History

Tagged with: african-american historyRandolphRoanokeslavery

Part Two: A Legal Battle.

Before they were freed, the people on the Roanoke Plantation were held captive by one of the most powerful men in America. They numbered in the hundreds, most known only by a single name. Many white Americans believed their lives were measurable in American dollars. Although 88% of antebellum Southern masters enslaved twenty or fewer people, one researcher has estimated the ascribed value of those at Roanoke at $5,000,000.1 Emancipation for Effy, Meshack, Silas, Juba, Old Milly and the 378 others who would eventually settle in the Miami Valley, presented a direct threat to the Randolph family’s social and economic standing.

On May 4th, 1846, the people of the Roanoke Plantation were manumitted by a court in Virginia following thirteen years of litigation.2 John Randolph, their former captor, had been partly to blame for the controversy. He drafted conflicting wills, only to recant the final written will on his deathbed.3 The first of these, written in 1819, would have granted full emancipation. The second, in 1821, made provisions for their lives beyond liberation. But in his final will, he demanded that “executors may select from among my slaves a number not exceeding one hundred, for the use of the heir, the remainder to be sold.”4 It was this last written defense of slavery that he wished to retract on his deathbed. As was required by law, a white witness was present to provide eyewitness testimony of his retraction. This would have been legally sufficient, had it not been for the protestations of John’s family and the accusations of his insanity. The underlying cause for this legal battle was in many ways the bedrock of slavery itself. Freedom represented more than just a loss of workforce. It was a direct threat to the wealth of the Randolph lineage. Enslaved people were considered property, like the 8,207 acres of productive land on John’s Roanoke plantation, or his collection of thoroughbred horses.5 These human lives were treated as a form of currency representing white affluence. Because their literacy was prohibited by 1740, the Randolph People did not produce diaries or manuscripts while in legal limbo. They remained in Virginia, but their daily experience is relatively unknown.

There is no direct evidence that the Randolph People had knowledge of their potential manumission. John Randolph had convoluted ideas of slavery that toggled between extremes throughout his life. At times, he professed sympathy for their plight. At others, he suggested their lives were better than others who were free but working-class. According to the Chicago Tribune, the famed orator once claimed that the greatest speech he ever heard came from a Black mother on the auction block.6 But regardless of his feelings at any given time, he continued to hold captive hundreds of Black people on his plantation, just like his cousin, Thomas Jefferson. In 1833, he called for Dr. Joseph Parrish, a local Quaker physician, to come to his bedside at the City Hotel in Philadelphia. Randolph had been on his way to England, but fell ill and never reached his destination. Despite Parrish’s efforts, Randolph’s health continued to decline. According to court testimony, Randolph requested emancipation for all his slaves and cried out “Remorse! Remorse!,” just before he died at 11:45 AM on May 24th, 1833.7

During the next thirteen years, Randolph’s family battled each other and William Leigh, John’s confidant and proposed executor, in the courts. Meanwhile, those who became the Randolph Freedpeople remained in captivity, until the judge’s final decision.

1.Nick Thompson, “The History that Surrounds Us, Part 1” Piqua Daily Call, May 28th, 2014.
2.Frank F. Mathias, “John Randolph’s Freedmen: The Thwarting of a Will,” Journal of Southern History, vol 39, 1973.
3. Accounts vary on the subject of John Randolph’s wills. In some, he is purported to have written only two wills, ignoring the one written in 1819. Others recall wills in 1821, 1832, and 1833.Unfortunately, a fire during the Civil War destroyed the original documents and only newspapers and court cases referencing the wills survive. An article by Frank. F. Mathias published in The Journal of Southern History lists one such case, titled Coalter’s Executors et. al. v. Bryan and Wife et. al. Another commonly recycled misconception suggests that all three wills demanded release of his slaves.
4.“Randolph’s Will,” The Long Island Star, Brooklyn, NY: July30th, 1835
5.Department of the Interior, “Virginia SP Roanoke Plantation,”
National Register of Historic Places Inventory – Nomination Form, July 24, 1973.
6.Roscoe Simmons, “The Untold Story,” The Chicago Daily Tribune, Chicago, IL, March 20, 1949.
7.“Last Illness of John Randolph,” The Tennessean. Nashville, TN: August 18th, 1835.