Rosetta

Rosetta was an individual enslaved by Alice Tyler Denison, one of John Tyler’s daughters with Letitia Christian Tyler. John Tyler gave Rosetta to Alice as a gift, which was a common practice among families who enslaved human beings.

Numerous articles mention the lawsuit which resulted in Rosetta’s emancipation. Following Alice’s death, her husband, Rev. Henry Denison, sent Rosetta on a journey from Kentucky to Virginia in 1855. On the trip to Virginia, Rosetta passed through Ohio, which was a free state. Despite rampant protest from supporters of the fugitive slave law, local abolitionists near Cincinnati advocated for Rosetta’s freedom and successfully secured it. [1]

Julia Gardiner Tyler scholar, Rebecca Lallier, believes Rosetta’s last name was Armistead. Rosetta Armistead may be the same Rosetta named in a letter in 1851. In the letter, Margaret Gardiner describes a “mesmerism” in which the Tyler family forced two enslaved persons to participate. [2] Rosetta most likely worked inside the house, and the articles describing her emancipation (if these are the same person) claims she was the nurse to Alice Tyler Denison’s daughter.

[1] Articles detailing her emancipation printed in The Liberator, Boston, MA, April 13, 1855; The Triweekly, Washington, DC, April 14, 1855; Richmond Dispatch, Richmond, VA, April 2, 1855; Anti-Slavery Bugle, Lisbon, OH, May 5, 1855; Kentucky Daily Courier, April 17, 1855; and Louisville Courier Journal, February 28, 1857 (Noting Rosetta has had a child, of unknown father).

[2] Julia Gardiner Tyler to Juliana Gardiner, 2 May 1851, Transcripts of Tyler Family Letters, Sherwood Forest Plantation Foundation, Charles City County, Virginia.