John C. Inscoe Appalachians and Race, The Mountain South from Slavery to Segregation (2000)

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.William J.Stephens, Abraham Williams, et al.61.John J.Cabell to Richard K.Cralle, Dec.28, 1833, John J.Cabell Papers.62.Depositions of R.C.M.Lovell, Sept.5, 1854; Nathaniel S.Brooks, Feb.23, 1855; andJohn N.Clarkson, Feb.28, 1855, in Thomas R.Friend v.William J.Stephens, Abraham Williams, et al.63.See statement of account for evidence of payment of employees for very short terms andof the rapid turnover of personnel in Thomas R.Friend v.William J.Stephens, Abraham Williams, et al.74 CHARLES B.DEW5SAM WILLIAMS, FORGEMANThe Life of an Industrial Slaveat Buffalo Forge, VirginiaCHARLES B.DEWWilliam Weaver was the leading ironmaster in Rockbridge County, and per-haps in the entire Valley of Virginia, when he died at his home at Buffalo Forgein March 1863.During his eighty-three years he had built up a legendaryfortune that, at the time of his death, included his iron-making facilities andrich farmlands centered at Buffalo Forge and over twenty thousand additionalacres of land scattered across three western Virginia counties.His accumu-lated force of seventy slaves (twenty-six men, fourteen women, and thirty chil-dren) made him the largest slave owner in the county.l The inventory of hisestate provided a detailed listing of his personal property, his goods and chat-tels in the language of the law, and, along with entries for items like featherbeds, rocking chairs, farm implements, and draft animals, a careful enumera-tion and appraisal of his slave holdings.2 The lengthy list evaluating Weaver sslaves included the following brief notations:One male slave Sam Williams $2,800.00One male slave Sam Williams Senior 0 000.00One female slave Sally 500.00One female slave Nancy 1,500.00One female slave Lydia 2,000.00One female slave Caroline and two children 2,500.00Two female slaves Mary Caroline and Julia 600.00These entries constituted one of the rare instances when the name of SamWilliams and the names of his father, Sam Williams Sr.; his mother, Sally; hiswife, Nancy; two of their children, Lydia and Caroline; and two of their grand-children, Mary Caroline and Julia, appeared on a legal document.And it issymbolic of the status of slaves as property that two of Sam and Nancy Williams sgrandchildren, Caroline s two children in the appraisal, were not even iden-tified by name on this occasion.The public record, in short, is sparse indeedon the life of Sam Williams and his family.As might be expected, Sam Williams did not leave letters, diaries, jour-SAM WILLIAMS, FORGEMAN 75William Weaver, ca.1860.(Author s collection)nals, or other manuscript materials behind either, the kind of documentaryevidence that Weaver and his family left in abundance.Like most slaves in theAmerican South, Sam Williams never learned to read or write; the closest thingwe have to a document written by him is an X he made over his name on awork contract he entered into in 1867.3 No member of the Williams family, asfar as we know, ever talked to an interviewer from the Federal Writers Projector from Fisk or Southern University when their invaluable oral histories ofslavery were being compiled in the 1920s and 1930s.4 Yet it is possible to dis-cover a great deal about Sam Williams and his family, and they are, on manygrounds, eminently worth knowing.They deserve our attention not only be-cause they were people caught up in the American system of human bondageand thus illustrate something of the nature of the antebellum South s mostsignificant institution.They also warrant our best efforts at understandingbecause, if we look carefully, we can catch at least a glimpse of them as menand women who lived out human lives despite the confines and cruelties oftheir enslavement.Their love and affection, their joys and sorrows, theirtimes of trial and moments of triumph come through to us, imperfectly to besure, but visibly nonetheless, in spite of their inability to speak to us through76 CHARLES B.DEWtraditional historical sources.This essay will attempt, in some small measure,to speak for them.William Weaver became an ironmaster, a slave owner, and a Virginianalmost by accident.He was born in 1781 on a farm near Philadelphia, and hespent most of his first forty or so years in and around that city, where he devel-oped a series of successful business enterprises.As a merchant, miller, andtextile manufacturer, Weaver began accumulating enough surplus capital tolook elsewhere for profitable investments, and the War of 1812 seemed tocreate some excellent prospects in the Valley of Virginia [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

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