Monday, July 6, 2020

St. Julien and Bacchus White


Francis Taliaferro Brooke

     Francis Taliaferro Brooke and his twin brother John were born at "Smithfield" in Spotsylvania County on August 27, 1763. During the American Revolution, Francis and John enlisted in Harrison's Regiment of Artillery and were commissioned as lieutenants. Francis first served with General Lafayette and then was an orderly on the staff of General Nathaniel Greene. After the Revolution, Francis studied law and was admitted to the Virginia bar in 1788. He practiced law for a few years in what is now West Virginia and then worked as a lawyer in Essex County. He was elected to the House of Delegates in 1794 and moved to Fredericksburg two years later. He won election to the Virginia Senate in 1800. He served in that body until 1811, when his fellow senators elected him to the Virginia Supreme Court of Appeals, a post he held for the remaining forty years of his life. Francis was an intimate friend of George Washington, corresponded with Thomas Jefferson and frequently hosted Henry Clay at his home.



St. Julien, 1930s (Library of Congress)

     In 1796, Francis T. Brooke purchased 220 acres of the Belvediera property from the estate of William Daingerfield, located on what is now Route 2 a few miles southeast of Fredericksburg. In 1804 he built his home there, which he called St. Julien. This would be his home until his death in 1851, and then the home of his son Frances Edward Brooke and his family until 1874.

Fredericksburg News 7 March 1851

     Francis Edward Brooke was born at St. Julien in 1813. He married Gabriella "Ella" Brockenbrough Ambler in Richmond in November 1837. They made their home at "Mill Farm," the Ambler place in Louisa County. After the death of his father in 1851, Francis appears to have divided his time between Mill Farm and St. Julien. The 1860 census shows that St. Julien had by then grown to 680 acres. Francis owned 46 slaves and had a net worth of $122,000, making him one of the wealthiest men in Spotsylvania County.
     One of the slaves in the Brooke household was Bacchus White, who was born in 1852. As a child, Bacchus understood that he would one day belong to Francis's daughter, Catherine Ambler Brooke, who was a couple of years older than Bacchus. In 1939, Bacchus was interviewed by WPA writer Susan Knox Gordon. He remembered with fondness his brief time with "Kathie": "I remember so well one day she took me and one of the other children, put us in the dining room, put me in the Master's place, and put the other child in the old Missus's place. She then went out and brought in the old Missus to see what was at her table. Miss Kathie would then stand and laugh." Catherine Ambler Brooke died on August 25, 1858 at the age of eight.

Fredericksburg News 27 August 1858

     Another memory from those days involved Francis Edward Brooke: "I remember how old Master used to come out in his Prince Albert coat with long tails getting ready to go to town in his gig. He would come over to the [slave] quarters and we would catch hold of the tails of his coat and go back to the house swinging on his coat tails."
     "Old Master had a grist mill and a blacksmith shop, and in the blacksmith shop they used to make everything for the farm on the place. My uncle was the blacksmith. I have seen two boys going to the field, one going and one coming back from the blacksmith shop with a plow point on his head. They always toted things on their heads."
     "Mr. Friend, pastor of Grace [Episcopal] Church, white folks' church, christened me [this church was located in Caroline County at the intersection of Routes 2 and 610]. I intended to be an Episcopalian, but I never did. That day and time the colored people didn't have a colored church, so they always went to the white church, Round Oak [Baptist Church in Caroline County], and there was a place reserved for them."
     "I remember so well after the War, when I was living with my father, we used to take two bushels of corn on our backs and walk seven miles to town, without ever taking them off their shoulders. We would get what we wanted for the corn, and then we would go back home. We didn't think nothing of that. We would wade right through Massaponax Creek, didn't think it was nothing. Then walk home seven miles."

Ella Brockenbrough Ambler Brooke (Ancestry)

     Francis Brooke and his wife Ella died within two weeks of each other in 1874--he on May 15 and she on May 30.

Fredericksburg Ledger 22 May 1874

Fredericksburg Ledger 6 June 1874

     Bacchus White married Susie Williams in 1882. They moved to Fredericksburg by the turn of the century and lived for a time on Wolf Street. They later bought a house at 512 Amelia Street. In 1900 Bacchus was working as a butler; in 1910 he was employed as a laborer. By 1920 he was working as a cook on the local steam boats. He later owned a restaurant on William Street.
     When Bacchus was interviewed by Susan Knox Gordon in 1939, he was employed as a servant at Kenmore. This undated photograph shows him seated in the kitchen at Kenmore:


     Susie Williams White died some time during the 1920s. Bacchus then married Lucinda Thornton, who lived until 1946.

Bacchus White


     Bacchus White died at his home on Amelia Street on July 16, 1954. For the last two days of his life he was attended by his neighbor, Dr. R.C. Ellison, who signed his death certificate. Bacchus is buried in Fredericksburg in the Shiloh Baptist Cemetery (Old) on Monument Avenue.

Obituary of Bacchus White

Sources:

Weevils in the Wheat: Interviews with Virginia Ex-Slaves. University of Virginia Press, 1976.





1 comment:

  1. What an excellent, well written story; a superb description of life in the late 1800s, as I remember my grandfather told me how he walked six miles to pick corn, and carry it back to Fredericksburg (4 miles) the next day to sell (20 miles total walking and a days work picking and shucking corn, just to sell two bushels).

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