Augusta County

Biographies of Emancipated Slaves

• Thomas & Nancy Jefferson
• Hardy Shaw
• Mary Blackburn
• Joseph Walker
• Richard & Marshall Washington
• Henry Carter

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Biography: Thomas and Nancy Jefferson

Thomas and Nancy were both native Virginians who resided in Staunton in the early 1860s. Before he was emancipated “by the proclamation of Presdt. Lincoln,” Thomas belonged to Robert J. Hope, a wealthy Staunton merchant. Nancy’s antebellum status is unknown although she may also have belonged to Hope.

After the conflict, Thomas and Nancy claimed compensation for services rendered and property lost in the war. The claim noted that three barrels of flour and one hog had been taken by Union soldiers. The Jeffersons also requested reimbursements for nursing services Nancy provided a Union soldier for seven weeks. The claims commission compensated the couple for the flour and hog but declared the nursing claim outside its jurisdiction.

Unhappy with this result, the Jeffersons claimed their loyalty was “indisputable as we are colored persons.” They argued that their house had been turned into a hospital for the soldier only “because he was woun[d]ed at our door, and the Confederates would have strip[p]ed and murdered him . . . had he not been cared for by us.” It would, they suggested, “only be an act of Justice to pay us.”

In an attempt to emphasize her loyalty, Nancy noted that from “the beginning of the war I sympathized with the Union and not with the rebellion.” Although she “had no vote” and was “a colored woman,” she supported the Union cause. Thomas, meanwhile, declared that the was “a Colored man & a Union man.”

After the war, Thomas operated a tavern in Waynesboro. In the 1870 census, he reported that he owned $300 in real estate and $700 in personal property, making him one of only a small number of black property owners in Augusta County.