How John Randolph’s Wills Changed the Lives of 383 Enslaved People
John Randolph was an American politician who owned 383 slaves to manage his 6000-acre plantation in Roanoke County, Virginia. He wrote three separate wills in 1819, 1821, and 1832. The first two wills directed his executor to free the people he enslaved and purchase land to resettle them outside Virginia (as Virginia law required). The third will freed none of Randolph’s slaves and directed his executor to sell most of them.
Randolph rejected the third will on his deathbed. When Randolph died in 1833, his family contested the wills. Twelve years later, the court ruled that Randolph’s 1821 will was valid. In this document, Randolph had written: “I give and bequeath to all my slaves their freedom, heartily regretting that I have ever been the owner of one.” He also had set aside $8,000 to buy land for the freed slaves to live on.
The Randolph Freedpeople, as they are known, left for Ohio in June 1846. Accompanied by a 16-wagon convoy, they walked to Kanawha, West Virginia. They camped along the side of the road in tents. From Kanawha, the group took a steamboat to Cincinnati. They faced many challenges and obstacles along their journey, such as an armed mob of German settlers who stopped them from going to their land and forced them to return back down the canal.
The Randolph Freedpeople ultimately dispersed and set up communities throughout Miami and Shelby counties. One of these communities was in Rossville, where African Jackson Cemetery was founded.
How Roanoke County Archives Made It Possible to Preserve and Access These Stories
The goal of the Genealogy of Slavery database is to help make public and accessible the hundreds of records located in the Roanoke County Archives. These records can be hard to access due to the limited hours the archives are open and sources that are difficult to read due to the often illegible cursive handwriting.
The CSSR team has gone through the 26 books in the archives with information ranging from the late 1700s to the early 1900s, specifically looking for all information relating to enslaved and free African Americans in the Roanoke Valley. You can search this database by these collections and use their search function to search for the names of enslaved and free African Americans, as well as enslavers and their family members.
The Genealogy of Slavery database is a valuable resource for researchers, historians, educators, and anyone interested in learning more about the history and legacy of slavery in Roanoke County and beyond.
