Victoria Short

According to a letter written by Julia Gardiner Tyler, Victoria Short was an enslaved woman born at Sherwood Forest on July 14, 1846. When Victoria was six months old, John and Julia Tyler presented Victoria to their son, David Gardiner “Gardie” Tyler, who was just two days older than Victoria, as his Christmas present:

“His gums sometimes somewhat annoy him and I expect he must soon have teeth cutting through. Louisa’s child, which is two days the younger, has nearly four- that is, two are entirely through and two others about to cut. Her name is Victoria Short and is formally presented to D. Gardiner Tyler as his Christmas present.” [1]

Dr. Ted DeLaney, Professor of History Emeritus at Washington & Lee University, discusses this troubling event in his 1995 dissertation on Julia Gardiner: “Julia did not attempt to discover how [Louisa] felt about the matter. After all John Tyler owned both Louisa and Victoria Short, and he had the authority to transfer ownership to whomever he wanted. The gift of a slave child was a measure of John Tyler’s authority over the maternity of both black and white women at Sherwood Forest.” [2]

Julia refers to Victoria as “Louisa’s child” in this letter, which may mean she was Louisa’s daughter or grandchild. However, Victoria lists her parents as Jerry and Martha Short on her marriage certificate in 1865, suggesting that Louisa was probably not Victoria’s mother. Victoria married Simon Brown, and the two had a number of children together in the Virginia Beach area. [3]

A woman named Victoria Shorts appears in Freedmen’s Bureau records between 1865-1872 for Norfolk, Virginia. In another record from the Freedmen’s Bureau records for Princess Anne County, Victoria Shorts’ name is beside an entry for a “child not named yet.” Their birthplace is recorded as Charles City and their former owner is listed as John Tyler. [4]

Victoria and Simon Brown appear in the 1870 and 1880 censuses for Princess Anne County, Virginia. [5]

[1] Julia Gardiner Tyler to Juliana Gardiner, 28 Dec. 1846, Tyler Family Papers, Group A. Special Collections Research Center, College of William & Mary.

[2] DeLaney, Theodore Carter. “Julia Gardiner Tyler: A nineteenth-century Southern woman” (1995). Dissertations, Theses, and Masters Projects. Paper 1539623870.
https://dx.doi.org/doi:10.21220/s2-54a7-qw80.

[3] Virginia Marriages, 1785-1940, retrieved from FamilySearch.org, https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:XR4N-SFJ?from=lynx1UIV7.

[4] Freedmen’s Bureau Ration Records, 1865-1872, retrieved from FamilySearch.org, https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:Q2QL-FMBQ?from=lynx1UIV7. Virginia, Freedmen’s Bureau Field Office Records, 1865-1872, retrieved from FamilySearch.org, https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:FP21-9YS.

[5] 1870 U.S. Census, Princess Anne County, Virginia, retrieved from FamilySearch.org, https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:MFGQ-1MV. 1880 U.S. Census, Princess Anne County, Virginia, retrieved from FamilySearch.org, https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:MCR9-7XG?from=lynx1UIV7.