Four negroes ran away from me on Saturday night the 30th Dec. 1854 from Chan[tilly] [Plantation] City, Fairfax, VA.

National Hotel, Washington, D. C., Dec. 1854 or Jan. 1855. 8vo bifolium, 3 pp. of manuscript. Docketed, “S. T. Stuart Vz. 4 Negroes.”.

A Virginia planter’s manuscript draft for a runaway slave advertisement seeking the recovery of four male slaves, plus a female slave possibly owned by his brother.

This advertisement was submitted to the Alexandria Gazette and appeared in the issue for 8 Jan. 1855. Interestingly, the present draft differs considerably from the final published ad: the descriptions of the individual slaves and their clothing are often divergent, and there is language in each version not present in the other. In the published version Stuart suggests that the flight of the four men was aided by an abolitionist living in Fairfax County at the time. He notes in this draft that “these negroes are all young short active looking men,” and lists each of the runaways (three of whom were related), describing them as follows:

Trolious [Riley] a stout well built negroe, heavy lips, large mouth. Front tooth out. Brown complexion. About 5 ft. 8 or 10 inches.

Vincent a bright mulattoe with bushy head, scar on face full light eyes, gruff in manner, small for his age, about 22 years old, about 5 ft. 8 inches.

Douglas [Riley] a short, stout fellow very broad large mouth good teeth. About 21 years. black bow leged. Open good countenance when spoken to. About 5.5 ft. in height.

Henry [Riley] a bright mulattoe—honest expression stout erect in carriage about 5 ft. 10 inches in height about 20 years old.

Stuart then describes the clothing worn by each: “[All] have on good clothes, all of them Virginia fulled cloth. Henry has no other clothes but this cloth. Douglas & Henry have on good new boots No. 11s, made in Alex[andri]a. Trolious has on brogan shoes No. 11s, nearly new. Vincent also shoes, No. 9s.” He announces he will “give $100 each for their apprehension & delivry to me of these negroes” and notes that the runaways “were seen to cross the Chain Bridge [in Georgetown, D.C.] on Sunday night the 31st [18]54.” Lastly, he notes that he can be reached at the National Hotel in Washington D.C. The slaves were ultimately captured at the Point of Rocks, Virginia.

Additionally, the following language appears on the final page, somewhat in the form of a postscript: “Sharlet a negro woman belongs to Charles Calvert. She is a bright mulatta has some children she has lived with Mr. Coyel[?] and kept by a white man as I am told and is now in the city. Her master has not seen her for fifteen years. He will give a handsome reward for her apprehension. Look out for her.” The owner named here, Charles Calvert, may have been Sholto Stuart’s brother Charles Calvert Stuart.

Historian Debbie Robison speculates that the four slaves may have run away out of fear of being distributed amongst the Stuart heirs or being sent to Arkansas to be hired-out—the latter fate having befallen four of their fellow Chantilly plantation slaves. Trolious is said to have been a house servant, and Henry Riley a farm hand; two of the four men were married and each had infants. In addition to offering a reward, Stuart paid himself $125.00 out of the estate funds for hunting the runaways. After their capture, the slaves were taken to the Fairfax jail, where Stuart retrieved them. Stuart then took them to Richmond to be sold on account of their liabilities. Trolious, Douglas, and Vincent were sold for a sum of $2,402. The fourth—curiously later identified as Julius instead of Henry Riley (as Stuart had initially thought)—was sold for $212.00.

Sholto Turberville Stuart (1821–1884) was the son of Charles Calvert Stuart (1794–1846) and Cornelia Lee Turberville. Charles Calvert Stuart was the half-brother of Eleanor Parke Custis and George Washington Parke Custis, who were raised by George and Martha Washington. The Chantilly plantation and mansion were likely constructed by the slaves belonging to Charles Calvert Stuart, who is recorded as owning twenty-three slaves at the time of his death. Charles Stuart became indebted to his neighbor Francis L. Lee, and entered into a trust agreement with Lee’s representatives, who used the Chantilly farm as collateral. When Charles Stuart died the debt was still outstanding, and it fell to his widow Cornelia to make good. Cornelia continued to live at Chantilly with her son Sholto, who served as her agent in managing the farm. Like his father, Sholto Stuart also used slaves as house servants and farm workers. The trust with Lee was dissolved in 1853—indicating that Stuart paid back the loan before the Civil War began. Sholto Stuart was pro-secession and was publicly and politically engaged. Chantilly suffered during the Civil War and was a site of occupation—primarily being used as a Union headquarters. Chantilly was a strategic point in the defenses around Washington, D.C., and sometime around Feb. 1863 Union troops burned the mansion to the ground.

REFERENCES: Robison, Debbie. Chantilly, ca. 1817 (2007) at novahistory.org; Robison, Debbie. Unsuccessful Bid for Freedom: Plight of the Rileys (2008) at novahistory.org; Stuart, S. T. “$400 Reward,” Alexandria Gazette (January 8, 1855), p. 2.

CONDITION: Good, ink of postscript has bled through to the preceding page, but text still legible.