The enslaved of Appomattox County hold a unique place in the history of the United States of America. No other enslaved community witnessed the surrender that brought the Civil War to its dramatic beginning of the end on April 9, 1865.
There were Appomattox enslaved who prepared the parlor of Wilmer Mclean for the monumental meeting between General Robert E. Lee and General Ulysses S. Grant. Much has been said about Lula Mclean’s infamous doll, “the silent witness” to the surrender but history for the most part has been relatively silent regarding what Wilmer’s house enslaved both witnessed and felt on that momentous day.
Mclean’s cook Betsy Love Stewart and her daughter Lucy witnessed the beginning of the Civil War in their masters’ backyard in Manassas, Prince William County, Virginia on July 21, 1861 in the First Battle of Bull Run and the end of the Civil War in their masters’ front parlor at Appomattox Court House on April 9, 1865 at about 3:00 pm.
The significance of the Appomattox Enlaved Community, considering what happened here on April 9, 1865, has all but been lost in history and deemed irrelevant even by their descendants who for the most part “know not their names,” yet their names can easily be found in history if one puts forth the intellectual curiosity to seek them in history. Those who seek their names in history will inevitably uncover both their names and at least fragments of their stories.
It is my sincerest hope that my research, writing and storytelling will create in those I encounter an insatiable appetite to discover and analyze their own family stories and then connect their personal histories with local, national and world history. Both individual and collective relevance can be obtained and maintained through knowing our history. Our history is our story.
For the vast majority of African Americans our written family story begins with the first post- Civil War Census, the 1870 Unites States census. A minority of African Americans will discover family lines that were born free or emancipated prior to 1865.
My personal journey to discover my own family historical relevance has been among the most exhilarating experiences of my life. My search for historical relevance has been an ongoing process for the last 18 years and I continue to discover new information.
Several years ago, I took on a project to research every family that makes up the Jesus Center Church family in Appomattox County, Virginia. Discovering the names and stories of the ancestors of the people I pastor in Appomattox was one of the most rewarding experiences I have had as a pastor. As fate would have it, I discovered two families in our congregation that were R. B. S. to me (“related by slavery”) which means some of our family lines came from the same Pittsylvania County, Virginia plantation. To say we were shocked by this revelation would be a gross understatement.
In 2014, I was asked by Ora McCoy, a representative of The Carver Price Legacy Museum in Appomattox, Virginia to participate in a collaborative effort to include Appomattox African American History in the Sesquicentennial Commemoration of the April 9, 1865 surrender of General Robert E. Lee to General Ulysses S. Grant. The Appomattox Court House National Historical Park was determined to showcase Appomattox African American history in one of, if not the most, highly anticipated events of the entire National Park Service, The 150th–April 9, 1865-April 9, 2015.
Prior to my participation in the planning process on how to include Appomattox African American history in the 150th event, the planning team had decided to tell the story of Hannah Abbitt Reynolds, the only civilian casualty in the final battle that led to Lee’s surrender on April 9, 1865. Hannah Reynolds’ story would be told through a living history presentation entitled Foot Steps to Freedom. Hannah would have a second funeral during the 150th in prime time and I was asked to do her eulogy.
I felt an enormous responsibility and conviction that I needed to give Hannah Reynold’s story my best research effort if I was going to discover and present her story with as much historical authenticity and sensitivity as possible. My Hannah Reynolds’ research struck “historical gold” in 2014 when Lewis, one of the librarians at the Jones Memorial Library in Lynchburg, Virginia suggested I look at the 1865 Death Records for Appomattox County. I remember Lewis saying, “Here she is” as he fined turned the focus on the microfilm viewer. Yes, there she was! But not only was Hannah there, her “husband” was also there! Then came the blockbuster historical revelation. Hannah had not died on Sunday April 9, 1865 as previously assumed, when she was struck by Confederate artillery, she died three days later, on Wednesday April 12, 1865. Hannah was fatally wounded while she was a enslaved but “before” she died, she was free. On April 9, 1865, eight months before the powerful words of emancipation were ratified in the Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, Samuel H. Coleman reported Hannah’s death and in so doing states that he is her “former owner.” Both former slaves and former masters in Appomattox, knew in their hearts, if not their minds, that “slavery and involuntary servitude, except as punishment for a crime”, had been abolished on Sunday April 9, 1865 around 1:30 pm.
Samuel H. Coleman’s decision to document Hannah’s death, when many deaths of this period were not recorded, could have very well been an acknowledgment on his part of both the historical significance and the extenuating circumstances surrounding her death. Whatever the reason, Coleman’s decision to document Hannah’s story catapulted her story from what could have been a mere footnote in history to her story being told in every major newspaper in the United States and some newspapers around the world during the 150th Commemoration of the Surrender.
As my preparation for delivering Hannah Reynolds’ eulogy in enslaved dialect methodically proceeded, I fully embraced the task of identifying any descendants Hannah may have had. Finding none, I turned my attention to researching Hannah’s “husband”, Abram Reynolds. By reversing the standard genealogical practice of tracing the present to the past, I hoped I could find Abram’s descendants by tracing his family from the past to the present. To my utter surprise Abram’s descendants were well known by me. They still lived in the same house that was one block away from the Lynchburg, Virginia house that I had grown up in during the 1960’s. As my paper research inched closer to intersecting with the house I had identified as the home of Abram Reynolds’ descendants, to my disappointment no Abram descendants came to the door because no one was at home. I asked the postal worker who was about her business of delivering the mail, if the person I was trying to locate lived in the house that I pointed out to her. She told me she could neither confirm nor deny the occupants identity, but told me the family I sought lived in the area. Confirmation would have to wait for another day, while I wrote and prepared to deliver Hannah’s Eulogy in enslaved dialect.
As I continued to prepare, I experienced something so astonishing that it almost defies believability. My plan was to portray Fleming Johnson, the only documented enslaved/former enslaved preacher in the 1870’s United States Census for Appomattox County, as Hannah’s eulogist. Since Hannah’s husband Abram was an eye witness to what happened to her the day before, the day of and three days after she was fatally wounded when she died, I wrote her grieving husband into the script. The person I would ask to portray Abram Reynolds was one of my former Appomattox County High School students, Nicolas Elliott, a Virginia High School League State Acting Champion and a Virginia Commonwealth University trained actor. Nicolas agreed to portray Abram in the Footsteps to Freedom living history program.
Three days before the Hannah Reynolds funeral, I decided to attempt one final time to find Abram’s descendants. This time my genealogy paper research enabled me to both identify and locate Abram’s descendants who had never heard of him and were shocked when I informed them that The National Park Service would be featuring their family’s story in the much-anticipated National Sesquicentennial event at Appomattox Court House National Park. As we talked the unbelievable, the improbable, maybe even the miraculous was revealed. Nicolas my designated Abram Reynolds’ actor, was the half-brother of Abram Reynold’s 4th great grandson. Abram’s 4th grandson was also an actor. Nicolas and Abram’s grandson have the same father. Their father is not related to Abram but their father married Abram’s 3rd great granddaughter. Nicolas and I both agreed that having Abram’s 4th great grandson portray Abram in the Hannah Reynold’s funeral would be a historical classic. Abram descendants would be in attendance at The Footsteps to Freedom living history program on Saturday, four days after I found them. These astonishing revelations were far beyond the realm of coincidental in my opinion they were divine.
On the day of Hannah’s funeral, Nicolas had a work conflict and had to reluctantly bow out. Abram’s 4th great grandson for unknown reasons, chose not to participate. Because I had included the Abram character as only a support actor, my anxiety level was only a 20 on a scale 1-10; it could have been even worse. I forced myself to focus on the task at hand. My character, Preacher Fleming Johnson, had to seize the moment. So much was at stake because this was a national event. Ernie Price, the Chief of Education and Visitor Services at Appomattox Court House National Park and the chief architect of African American participation in this once in a lifetime event, never asked for my script, something which he certainly had the right, the authority, and the responsibility to do. Ernie chose to trust my professional judgment and my unwavering pursuit of historical accuracy and excellence.
With a prayer and much hope, Preacher Fleming Johnson stepped out on a National stage and singing a familiar African American spiritual hymn from the movie Glory, “Oh my Lord, Lord, Lord, Lord” Hannah.
It all somehow miraculously came together. Hannah’s casket, Hannah’s pallbearers, Hannah’s family and friends on stage beautifully attired in period clothing. Hannah’s body being carried off into the sunset on a horse drawn wagon, the presence of the U.S.C. T’s (United States Colored Troops) which could easily have been viewed as a type of Hannah honor guard. A long line of newly freed enslaved mourned their way down Stage Road through the Court House Village toward the home of Hannah’s “former” owner Dr. Samuel H. Coleman where in all likelihood her body lies in an unmarked grave. Then just when we thought the Footsteps to Freedom living history program had reached its pinnacle of inspiring, we were taken to yet another summit of inspiration above and beyond our previous place of ascension. The lighting of 4,600 luminaries that represented the 4,600 enslaved who were emancipated in Appomattox County on April 9, 1865 was breathtaking against the pitched black backdrop of the night. As far as one could see for miles in both directions along the Stage Road there were flickering lights of emancipation, flickering footsteps of and to freedom indeed.
It has been said that the more things change, the more they remain the same. One hundred and fifty-five years after emancipation, a case could be made that despite progress in race relations, African Americans as a whole continue to have to take footsteps of and to freedom against the pitch-black backdrop of racial bias and inequality, even though our 150 years of steps should have gained for us our freedom and equality at birth.
Dr. David Blight, the renowned and distinguished Professor of American History at Yale University’s assessment of “The Footsteps to Freedom” presentation was “It was the best that I have ever seen”. Ernie Price, the Chief of Education and Guest Services at the Appomattox Court House National Park was the National Recipient of the 2015 Freedman Tilden Award, the highest award given in the National Park Service for excellence in interpretation, for his exemplary leadership in “The Footsteps to Freedom Program.”