Eliza Black

The earliest mention of Eliza is in a letter from February 1846, when Julia Tyler wrote about the marriage of Eliza to a man named Alexander Black:

“In my next letter I will try and give Margaret an account of Eliza’s wedding, who is now Mrs. Alexander Black. It happened on Saturday night and was the greatest frolic,—such a feast, and such an excellent parson as Taz made—and such fiddling and dancing, playing on the bones and triangle. It was very grand in the eyes of the company, which numbered very large.” [1]

About twenty years after Eliza’s marriage in 1846, Eliza likely fled Sherwood during the Civil War with five of her children, her nephew, two men, and a free Black woman. In a letter from 1862, Julia wrote that she had entrusted her “maid and seamstress” with the key to her children’s closet, and this enslaved woman successfully manipulated the Tylers to flee with some of those clothes in hand. Julia wrote the following to the U.S. Commanding Officer:

“…two men, a woman with her five young children, the eldest a boy of fourteen, the youngest a child in the arms, and a boy, her nephew, also of fourteen—with a free Negro, in whom charity alone…for her friendless condition, had induced me to give a home, left my service secretly in the night, on Saturday last, the women carrying with them, besides their own property, much valuable clothing stolen from my own and my children's wardrobe, in which the slave woman, as my supposed faithful maid and seamstress, was entrusted with the key, and had always access. They were missed in the morning of Sunday last and traced to the river shore, where it was discovered they had stolen two boats belonging to my neighbors... The utter want of principle on the part of the women in particular, not only in their betrayal of my confidence but in their committal of theft, leads me to hope you will think it proper, if not to return them to me, at least to arrest and punish them according to their desserts…” [2]

Although Julia does not name the individuals who escaped from bondage in this letter, and we therefore cannot be certain to whom she refers, Eliza Black and her family match the description best based on available information. Records from the Freedmen’s Bureau in 1865 list Eliza Black, Ellen Black, Joseph Black, Mary Black, and Thadious Black as persons dependent on government rations at Fort Monroe, Virginia. Their former residence is listed as Charles City County and their former owner is listed as John Tyler. Unfortunately, the Freedmen’s Bureau records do not include the ages of each person, nor do we know the relation between these individuals. Their common last name and place of origin, however, suggests some familial connection. The Freedmen’s Bureau records suggest that this branch of the Black family successfully fled from Sherwood Forest during the Civil War. [3]

The 1870 census for Elizabeth City County (now part of Hampton) lists Eliza Black as the head of her household. On this record, her age is listed as 40 and her occupation is “seamstress,” which matches Julia Gardiner Tyler’s description of the enslaved woman who escaped from Sherwood Forest. The 1870 census also lists Allen (age 14), Ellen (age 4), Henry (age 23), and Thadeus (age 18) under Eliza Black’s household. [4]

Lastly, a woman named Eliza is listed as the mother of a child named Thomas, born in 1854, according to the Charles City County Birth Register, although this could very well be a different Eliza. [5]

[1] Julia Gardiner Tyler to Juliana Gardiner, 10 Feb. 1846, Tyler Family Papers, Group A. Special Collections Research Center, College of William & Mary.

[2] Julia Gardiner Tyler to Commanding Officer, U.S. Forces at Jamestown and Williamsburg, 30 May 1862, Transcripts, Sherwood Forest Plantation Foundation, Charles City County, Virginia.

[3] The Freedmen's Bureau in Virginia, Names of the Destitute Freedmen Dependent Upon the Government in the Military Districts of Virginia, edited by Elizabeth Cann Kambourian, Heritage Books, Bowie, MD, 1997.

[4] 1870 U.S. Census, Elizabeth City County, retrieved from FamilySearch.org, https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:MFLR-1TV.

[5] Transcript of Charles City County Birth Register, Richard M. Bowman Center for Local History, Charles City County, Virginia.