Crusade Against Slavery: Edward Coles, Pioneer of Freedom

2. Man of Property

17 2 Man of Property J ohn Coles died in the winter of 1808. He was laid in the family cemetery behind his own Enniscorthy, close by the three children who had preceded him in death (Jack, who died of burns at the age of four in 1773; Isaac, who died in 1778 at five weeks of age; and William, who died at one year in 1794). The family took up the last will and testament, signed by the master of Enniscorthy on 6 December 1795. It was an account of his success and a demonstration of his love. Properties human and otherwise were passed down among the children: Enniscorthy (to the eldest John) and then the Upper Quarter, the Beaver Dam Tract, Meadows of Dan (high country south of Roanoke), and properties south of Scott’s Ferry. Slaves Harry, Lewis, Lucy, Lucy’s child, Mariah, Edy, and Martin are mentioned in the will. Beloved wife, Rebecca, was remembered with three fellows (male slaves), three wenches (female slaves), four house servants, and her choice of a carpenter and all the offspring from these people. It was the wish of John Coles that the remaining slaves (those not mentioned specifically) be divided equally among his seven youngest children.1 The share for youngest son Edward was carefully specified. The father ’s testament was the initial act in a story of slavery and freedom that would play out for more than twenty-five years: “Item I give unto my Son Edward Coles the tract of land Containing seven hundred & eighty two acres I bought of Frances Mereweather on Rockfish River in Amherst County to him & his heirs for ever.”2 The Rockfish Plantation house still sits among hills just west of Pilot Mountain, about twenty PART ONE 18 miles west and south of Enniscorthy. The property is halved by the north fork of the Rockfish River. These days, the Rockfish is hardly a creek—not much more than a trickle, really. Two hundred years ago, it was navigable for small boats and gave irrigation to the plantation and water access for tobacco markets downriver via the James to Richmond. In February 1784, John Coles had purchased 782 acres in the Rockfish Valley from Frances Meriwether. Payments in cash were made 1February 1784and again exactly one year later, and the deal was finished off with the transfer of ten bushels of corn and a bull. The property came with a log house that had been Frances Meriwether’s home. In all likelihood, it had been built by Frances’s father, Thomas M. Meriwether, and may have been the area’s claim house referred to as early as 1735.3 Due to some small miracle, the house still stands (in 2011 ) perched on the tip of a rounded ridge, a knoll looking down on rich bottom land of the Rockfish Valley, house and knoll together point east down the valley toward sunup.4 Various parts and pieces were added to the original house during the early 1800s, probably by John Coles II or one of his sons. A new living area and bedrooms were added on the west, kitchen, dining, and other bedrooms on the east.5 Coles’s house at Rockfish Plantation. Photo by the authors, 2001. Used with permission of Michael McConkey. MAN Of PROPERTY 19 Landscape at Rockfish Plantation. Photo by the authors, 2001. Used with permission of Michael McConkey. During the twentieth century, electricity, updated plumbing, and white vinyl siding have brought the building in line with its neighbors. For all that, the building has not changed much in almost ten score years. Where the new bits fit imperfectly, one can still see hints of Meriwether’s cabin. Today, a visitor can head down the stairs to the basement and look to one side to see logs and chinking where brickwork and lathing have fallen away. The basement room under the oldest part of the house has a small, stone fireplace at one end. The floor was, until very recently, of dirt hard-packed. The fireplace in this tiny basement room gave precious warmth and a means to cook. Fertile river bottomland makes up more than half of the plantation given to Edward Coles by his father; hills suitable for grazing make up much of the rest. It was an operating farm in the Coles family for more than twenty years before Edward took possession of it. John Coles...