The Rise and Fall of a Life
A free black man named Roger Lewis fell for a Pamunkey Indian young woman, Miranda Brisby. Roger was much older than Miranda. Miranda’s parents were not happy but, if there is one thing I have learned about pioneer black lawyers, that one thing is love is colorblind and will not be denied try as one might. And so Roger and Miranda became intimate and a baby body was born in August 1836. Alas, the little boy never knew his father who would die within two years of his son’s birth.
Miranda’s parents were beside themselves with the whole situation. To express their displeasure, the boy was stripped of his father’s surname. The youngster would be named William H. Brisby and carry into his adult life the Pamunkey name of his mother’s family. He would grow up in New Kent County, Virginia but off the reservation.
Little is known about the childhood of Brisby.
We pick up his life story in 1859.
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Brisby was called to enterprise and ambition. He was an early version of wise elders I recognized from junior and senior high school in Black Enterprise Magazine.
As a young adult, Brisby worked on construction of local railroad tracks. He saved his wages (a promising sign for a free black man in the 1850s) and bought a set of blacksmith’s tools. He reached out to a fellow partner of ambition and enterprise. Together, the two set up a blacksmith shop at Talleysville, New Kent County in 1859. And like the great entrepreneur Reginald Lewis who would buy out his law firm partners in 1972 on his way to black enterprise history, Brisby bought his partner’s tools in 1860 so that Brisby would have total equity control of the business.
On January 29, 1860, Brisby bought the lot where his shop was located.
In 1861, he purchased 23 acres of land in the area.
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The Civil War changed everything for Brisby. New Kent was 35 miles from Richmond, the new capital of the Confederacy.
In the Spring of 1862, the Confederate government began drafting free blacks into service work on fortifications. Conscription was a common threat for free blacks in the Confederacy. Rather than work on fortifications around Fort Sumter, my wife’s great great grandfather fled his native South Carolina on a blockade runner for New York City and then the safe haven of Bermuda where he waited out the War.
Brisby cut a deal with the Confederates. In exchange for providing services to the Confederate calvary, Brisby would not be drafted into work on fortications. Brisby was a deal maker.
Little did the Confederates know much of a Unionist Brisby was!
As late as 1860, Brisby could not read or write due to state law against education of blacks. Brisby signed his name with an “x” like my Grandma’s Grandfather Daniel Brown (1833 - 1885). Bitter and resentful of his ignorance under the slave regime, Brisby threw his energies, resources and efforts into helping as many Union prisoners of war and fugitives from slavery as Brisby could. Brisby “carried Union prisoners through the rebel lines at the risk of his life and took them in a boat to Yorktown to the Union lines.” And not just Union POWs.
Brisby would travel in his cart to Richmond, the capital city teeming with Confederates. On the sly and at night, Brisby would pick up fugitives on the run from their masters. He would say to the fugitives “lie down in the cart.” I will cover you with something. We will leave under cover of the night.
This was risky business during war time. On two occasions, Confederates arrested Brisby on suspicion of helping prisoners of war and fugitives. Thrown into Castle Thunder, the authorities could not prove their case and Brisby was released.
What I love about this story is the raw nerve, the courage in the moment. Brisby continued traveling back to Richmond time and time again to rescue people. He only had his cart and God’s grace of the night. Brisby helped more than 100 people through Confederate rebel lines to freedom. Harriet Tubman only rescued 70 slaves and her name is known throughout the Western world.
Where is the Hollywood movie for William H. Brisby?
While besting Harriet Tubman under war conditions behind enemy lines, Brisby taught himself to read and write. He could sign his signature by 1863. And by the end of the war, he was interested in the law.
One day in May 1864, Union Major General Philip H. Sheridan came upon Brisby’s property. Brisby now owned 179 acres of land. The Union soldiers ransacked the place. Brisby returned from Richmond and “found Union troops occupying the area. Union soldiers had confiscated his property, including fodder, tools, boats, cows, pigs, and horses, dismantled his shop and carried off the lumber for firewood and construction.”
Brisby could not believe his eyes! All gone!
Brisby went to Major General Sheridan and showed testimonials from three Union officers. They all declared how Brisby had helped them escape from the Confederates. These were times of war and one was at the utter mercy of an invading army. As an act of mercy and conscience. Sheridan ordered his troops to release three cows back to Brisby.
That was it…three cows.
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When the Civil War ended, Brisby saw opportunity and seized it. He could now read and sign his name which was a tremendous source of power. Remember around 5 percent of Black Americans could read at this time.
Brisby entered public service like a man on a mission. He was elected to the Constitutional Convention as a delegate from New Kent County. Brisby run for the Virginia House of Delegates and won by 19 votes. In the election held on July 6, 1869, there were 533 eligible white voters and 592 eligible black voters in New Kent. Brisby took office on October 5, 1869. In one of his first votes as a House Delegate, Brisby voted “Yea” on ratification of the 15th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. The 15th Amendment guaranteed black Americans the right to vote.
As a delegate, Brisby opposed public school segregation based on race and voted against the public funding of public education as a result.
Brisby also served as a member of the New Kent Board of Supervisors from 1871 to 1881.
Clearly, Brisby had been “one of the most prominent” Unionists in New Kent during the Civil War. He now became one of the most influential people in New Kent as he served as Justice of the Peace from 1870 to 1910. For forty years, Brisby tried black and white defendants in New Kent County! Brisby was the public face of the law in this southern Virginia county.
To be real about the matter, one kept on the good side of William H. Grisby if one lived in New Kent County. It did not matter if one was black or white or red.
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At this point, the Indian presence in New Kent County, Virginia bears reflection. There has always been an Indian presence in Virginia dating back for centuries. I received my first traffic ticket while driving to the Pamunkey Indian reservation in New Kent as a high school senior in 1979. In our part of Virginia, we were aware of the Pamunkey as part of life across the James River.
Although Brisby’s mother was Pamunkey and he bore a Pamunkey surname in life, Brisby had some unresolved issues with his Pamunkey heritage. He did not grow up on the reservation, so one could argue he grew up distant from his people. I oftentimes feel this way since my junior high school in Chester, Virginia was 96% white. My love for Sting and the Eagles comes naturally to me, not jazz so much although I am reluctant to engage in caricatures and stereotypes. Must include that disclaimer and qualifier.
Remember the dastardly federal troops under General Sheridan? Well, Brisby wanted his property back, or at least compensation. Can’t blame the man. In 1871, Congress created the Southern Claims Commission so that claimants could apply for and receive compensation for property take by the Union forces during the War. Well, you know our Brisby was on the case with his application.
Brisby had to offer testimony in support of his compensation claim. Brisby declined and refused to acknowledge his Indian ancestry at all. See William H. Brisby Testimony, July 19, 1877 Indian Claims.
Why would Brisby deny his Indian ancestry in public? Could it be that there was no social power in claiming Pamunkey heritage after the Civil War? Was it easier to claim black identity and call it a day? Was it too complicated to explain to Congress, well, my father was a free black but I never knew my father and my mother was Pamunkey and I have a Pamunkey surname but ignore that little detail…etc., etc. etc. Did growing up off the reservation distance Brisby from his people? Who were his people if one grew up in a Pamunkey home off the reservation? How did people on the reservation perceive Brisby? Was Brisby accused of not acting Pamunkey?
The speculations are endless. Enjoy and savor the possibilities, dear readers.
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Brisby was an awful family man. I have to come out and say it. He was a dreadful, dreadful man.
When the 19-year-old Ann Rebecca Cumber, scion of a well-regarded free black family from long ago, married the most eligible House Delegate for New Kent, did she marry for status and prestige and security? I wonder. People marry for all sorts of reasons, regardless of the age and times. Ann married the Honorable William H. Brisby on November 4, 1869. They had 8 children together.
And it was a Marriage Story.
Brisby was hyper strict around the home. He was violent with his family. He drove his sons out of the house.
Ann who deserved better in life and marriage recognized her mistake. In February 1892, she left William and took his younger sons. Ann called it a day and moved to Richmond. William, enraged, had power over black and white defendants but not his abused wife and sons at home. He filed for divorce claiming desertion. Ann died in 1894 before the divorce was finalized.
Brisby’s daughter never, ever, forgave her father for the loss.
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Strangers on the street may respect one as Justice of the Peace. But do you respect yourself when you are alone at night in an empty house?
In 1885, Brisby went into debt with his brother to buy a steam sawmill. It was a dumb idea and continued to lose money over the years. The entrepreneur of the 1860s had lost his touch.
Brisby turned not to Ann for support. He turned to alcohol. He trusted untrustworthy white men. I mean, he was the Big Man in New Kent, right? The Justice of the Peace?
The spiral downward gathered up steam (no pun intended).
He sold property to fight off creditors.
In 1907, the aging Brisby lost the last of his property at a public auction.
In 1908, he sold his money-losing sawmill for $150. (Back in 1878, he had received $793 from the federal government for appropriation of his property by Sheridan’s troops.)
As part of the sale arrangement, Brisby agreed to work for the new owner. Brisby was 72 years old.
Brisby developed dementia. His new wife and Brisby moved in with his daughter who hated Brisby’s guts.
In July 1916, the family *(read daughter I suspect) committed Brisby to Central State Hospital in Petersburg, Virginia. The black hospital housed the mentally ill and deficient, people whose minds were gone. I know of the place.
On November 16, 1916, William H. Brisby passed away at Central State. It is unclear whether his daughter made burial arrangements.
What is the purpose and meaning of life if we lose all at the time of our ending?
Such an interesting story. I didn’t see that ending coming! This is what people are like, and as you keep pointing out, blacks are people who are just as complex and different as white people. Thanks for sharing these short biographies. We hear and read so much about slavery, and the “helplessness” of blacks. We need to learn more about who they really were, and many of them were truly amazing and inspirational!