Whence I Came

"There lived....a people who had the moral courage to stand up for their rights and thereby they injected a new meaning into the veins of history and of civilization."      ---------Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.  In 1835 Hanover County, Virginia, a woman simply named Betty filed suit in forma pauperis to fight for her and her children's liberties.  In a world where Betty had no rights under the bondage of slavery, the court abstract for Betty's suit presented a woman's fight to keep her family together.  What initially drew my eye to this suit was that somehow my Thurman family was involved Betty's battle.  I feared digging further into the suit and learning something about my Thurman that I really didn't want to know.  And yet, I couldn't get Betty and her brave heart out of my mind.  I had to know Betty's story and the fate of her children. According to the official court record , Betty was the property of William Gooch, a white, land...

A few years back, I came across the below 1778 Virginia Gazette advertisement while researching my Thurman family.  This Revolutionary War era ad created more questions for me than answers.  I couldn't help but wonder why "Mr. John Thurman", a young man originally from rural Hanover County, was acting on behalf of Dr. William Pasteur , the eminent 18th century Williamsburg surgeon and apothecary.  Pasteur's Beaverdam Creek plantation, mentioned in the ad, was comprised of 700 acres on the north side of the James River.  Today, there is a historic home known as Mount Bernard which proudly stands on a small portion of the original plantation which maintains sweeping views of the James River valley.  According to a historic survey of the property prepared by the Virginia Department of Historic Resources , it is believed that Mount Bernard was built upon an 18th century foundation - the time frame of the below subject ad.    1778 Virginia Gazette...