African American History

Stuart Family Slaves and Free Black Servants and Artisans:
at Cleydael and at Cedar Grove

Cleydael was built by slave artisans and carpenters and is a living testimony to their skills. It is probable that the work crew included at least a few artisans who had worked on the rebuilding of Cedar Grove in 1840 after the original house was lost to fire, as there are substantial stylistic similiarities despite Cedar Grove being of brick and Cleydael being frame.

We have not at this stage researched how intensively Cleydael was cultivated or how many fieldhands would be required to work it. Perhaps it was primarily used as timberland as the later owners, the Richardsons used it. The best arable land in King George is further south. It was at least cultivated in some part, as the 1937 WPA study takes note of an 1850s barn, now long gone. (The present barn is later, probably turn of the century to 1930s)

The main house servants at Cleydael during the Civil War were Junius and Patsy Dixon. Junius Dixon was apparently Dr. Stuart's manservant and Mrs. Dixon was the cook. Their cabin was near the entrance to the present-day subdivision and, sadly, was demolished in the mid 1980s, apparently being beyond hope of restoration. If anyone has pictures, we would be grateful for copies. The age of the cabin was unknown. It might have been built when Cleydael was built, or been built before the "big house" was finished to house the construction workers, or it might have been a preexisting part of the old "Neck Quarter" complex. Perhaps a photo might provide some clues. According to at least some reports, there was least one further surviving slave cabin next to the Dixon's well into the 20th century.

The Dixons served John Wilkes Booth and David Herold when they were fed dinner at Cleydael. We do not yet know if they had been working at Cleydael before the family moved there full time during the Civil War or whether they were trusted servants from Cedar Grove who came to Cleydael with the Stuarts.

When the Dixon Cabin was still standing, it was frequently mistaken for the cabin of William Lucas, a free person of color who was a tenant on the Stuart's Cleydael property and owned a wagoneering business. However the Lucas cabin was further down the road which is the present-day Rt. 206 from the Dixons and Cleydael itself, heading south toward King George Courthouse. The cabin was demolished sometime in the 1930's a few years before Stanley Kimmel, author of The Mad Booths of Maryland, came to Cleydael while researching the book. The then-owner, Mrs. Richardson, showed him the site where the cabin had stood.

It was at the Lucases' cabin that Booth and Herold spent the night of April 23, having been shooed out of Cleydael after being hastily fed dinner. Booth was rude and threatening to the Lucases, but David Herold was pleasant and polite and smoothed things over to some extent. However, the Lucases were afraid to stay in their cabin with the desparados and spent the night on their own porch. The following morning, their son, Charley Lucas, drove Booth and Herold to the ferry at Port Conway.

The way Dr. Stuart refers to William Lucas in his testimony during the assassination investigation is particularly telling. It suggests a similar mindset to that of that of his in-laws Mrs. and Mrs. Robert E. Lee and Mrs. Lee's late father George Washington Parke Custis, who views on racial issues and slavery were considerably more benign and enlightend for that era.1

Dr. Stuart calls him "my colored neighbor, Mr. Lucas", an extremely polite and respectful usage at a time when most white Americans, north or south, used the dreaded "N word" or other pejoratives to describe persons of color. A more neutral usage might have been "a free black named Lucas" or "my black tenant Lucas". Stuart's usage of the term "colored" which was considered more polite back then, and most particularly, his referencing Lucas has his neighbor, rather than merely his tenant, suggests a relationship of mutual respect.

We have only begun to research the black families of Cleydael, Cedar Grove and the other Stuart properties. There are undoubtedly several descendants still living in the area, and we'd love to hear from any who can provide further information.

More will be revealed by reading the slave schedules of the 1850 and 1860 census, and looking for free persons of color in the area around Cleydael in the 1850 and 1860 censuses as well as looking for white residents near Cleydale who might have been the farm's resident overseer.

The 1850 census lists the Stuart household as comprising, in addition to the immediate family, a large family of free blacks called the Fraziers (Edward and Sally Frazier and their six children)2<, David and Emmanuel Rich, probably brothers, aged 45 and 50, with no spouses listed; and two further Frazier daughters listed separately from the other Fraziers so possibly nieces of Edward and Sally rather than their children. The 1850 census also lists a 51 year old white woman Jane S. Park as being attached to the Stuart household (a housekeeper or other servant? a relation?) and the Stuart children's governess, 22 year old Henrietta Therbuck. All were listed as born in Virginia.

An African American Genealogy website, the Bumbrey Family of King George County< provides some further clues to who some of the Stuart family slaves were:

Anna Eliza Bumbrey (b. circa 1846) married Clay Prior - son of Calvert Jones - in 1865, King George County. Either Clay or Ann was listed as a slave of Dr. Richard H. Stuart. And their children were so labeled. Their daughter Kitty Prior died at age 10 months in 1854, a child slave of Dr. Richard H. Stuart. The 1850 census of King George County shows Clay as a free person of color."

It is probable that Anna was the one who was a Stuart family slave, as Clay was already listed as free. Furthermore, their child was listed as a slave and children took their status from their mothers. Clay Prior or his ancestors might have been in the Calvert family prior to being freed, as his father's name was Calvert Jones.

Footnotes:
1.Mr. Custis freed the Arlington slaves in his will, and Lee carried this out as his executor, ensuring that each was economically perpared to cope with the new challenges of freedom. Some Custis slaves had been freed earlier and given sizeable parcels of land, and others were provided with funds to go to Liberia. Mrs. Lee was active in Liberian colonization efforts, convinced that black Americans would never be able to receive equal treatment unless they had their own country.

2. Free Blacks in the Stuart household, 1850 census: Edward FRAZIER , age 35, laborerer and Sally Frazier age 30. Children: Harriet (16), Henry (14), Sarah (12), Jarrett (10), Julia (8), Martha (6). Two further Frazier children are listed separately after the Rich brothers, and might have been nieces: Mary (4) and Catharine (16).

Cleydael is a private home. please respect our privacy and do not visit without an invitation. (Unless, of course, you're somebody we know, in which case y'all come!!
-- but phone first and give us a heads up and be expected to be handed a paint brush!)

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