Robert
Pleasants
Born in Curles Neck, Henrico, Virginia
Ancestors 
Son of John Pleasants
and Margaret (Jordan) Pleasants
Brother of
Mary Jane (Pleasants) Burton, Anne (Pleasants) Atkinson, John Pleasants Sr, Dorothy (Pleasants) Briggs [half], Martha (Plesants) Suddreth and Samuel Pleasants
[spouse(s) unknown]
[children unknown]
Died
at about age 79
[location unknown]
Profile last modified
| Created 16 Mar 2020
This page has been accessed 208 times.
Biography
Robert Pleasants (1722-1801) was a Virginia plantation owner, tobacco merchant, and Quaker abolitionist. He lived at Curles Neck in Henrico County.
In his will, Robert Pleasants provided for a school for African-American children on the property inhabited by his own former slaves. Pleasants "had tenanted out many of these families upon a Tract of Land near him which he left in his Will for their use in manner following. vizt. a School was opened in which the Children of the Tenants were to be instructed and the rents which the parents were bound to pay was to go to the support of it."5 The community's "Gravelly Hill School" is considered to be the first school for free blacks in Virginia.6
"During the 1790s, [Chief Justice John] Marshall was involved in a few cases in which he represented slaves pro bono, often trying to win the freedom of mixed-race individuals. In one such case, he represented Robert Pleasants in a case to emancipate about four hundred slaves; Marshall won the case in the Virginia High Court of Chancery, but that court's holding was later reversed by the Virginia High Court of Appeals."
Research Notes
" The Appellate Court decreed that all slaves not subjected to creditor claims and where not above the age of 45 and their children born after the mother had already reached 30 years old were free. In addition, the court decreed that all slaves above 30 and under 45 years old were also free. Finally Court stated that all slaves under 30 and those born before their mother turned 30 were to continue as slaves until they reached the age of thirty and then they too would be free."[1]
Sources
- ↑ Wythepedia: The George Wythe Encyclopedia accessed 03-25-2022 Pleasants vs Pleasants
- https://www.monticello.org/site/research-and-collections/robert-pleasants
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Pleasants
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Marshall
See also:
- Hardin, William. "Robert Pleasants (1723–1801)" Encyclopedia Virginia. Virginia Humanities, (22 Dec. 2021). Web. accessed 25 Mar. 2022 Robert Pleasants
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