Peter Hall 

Peter Hall is one of three enslaved people mentioned in President Tyler’s will: “I give and bequeath to my wife all our horses and carriages along with my man Peter Hall as her coachman and any one of the boys she may select the footman or outrider…” [1]

John Tyler gave Peter to Julia as her coachman to replace an aging enslaved man named Burwell in 1855: “The President has relieved me of old Bundle [Burwell] and given me Peter for a gardener and coachman.” [2]

Peter Hall had a child named James Hall with Minerva, a woman enslaved by the Major family at Oak Hill Plantation, located across the road from Sherwood Forest. [3] Although Oak Hill and Sherwood were relatively close, Peter and Minerva’s relationship indicates that the Tylers contributed to the separation of families under the institution of slavery.

Peter Hall may have been literate, since the Major Family Papers located at the Rockefeller Library in Colonial Williamsburg contain a letter signed by Peter Hall to a cousin defending his wife Minerva. [4]

[1] Transcript of the last will and testament of John Tyler, 10 Oct. 1859, Transcripts of Tyler Family Papers, Sherwood Forest Plantation Foundation, Charles City County, Virginia.

[2] Julia Gardiner Tyler to Margaret Gardiner, 12 Nov. 1855, Transcripts of Tyler Family Papers, Sherwood Forest Plantation Foundation, Charles City County, Virginia.

[3] Entry for James Hall and Harriet Ann Harrison, Genealogical Databases: Charles City County Marriage Database, Richard M. Bowman Center for Local History, Charles City County, Virginia.

[4] Charles City County Historical Society Newsletter, No. 11, June 1997, p. 11.