Eda Randolph (abt. 1826 - aft. 1880)

Born about 1826 in Roanoke Plantation, Charlotte County, Virginia, United States

Descendants

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Biography

Eda Randolph is a part of US Black heritage.

Eda Randolph was born a slave on US Senator John Randolph of Roanoke's tobacco plantation about 1826 in Charlotte County, Virginia.

Education

Though Senator Randolph is noted by white scholars for educating his slaves in spite of Virginia anti-literacy laws, neither Eda nor her husband Nero could read.^[1]

Residences

• 1820-1846: Roanoke Plantation near Saxe, Charlotte County, Virginia
• 1850: Spring Creek, Ohio with his wife Eda and the White family (Susan, Richard, Fountain, and Jerum)
• 1860; Census Place: Piqua, Miami, Ohio; Page: 49; Nero, Eda, Fountain and Isen.

Slave Owner

US Senator John Randolph of Roanoke

"Randolph Slaves"

Eda Randolph's entry in the 1846 "inventory" of slaves to be manumitted:

No. 226

Name Edy

Complexion Black

Height 5ft 1in

Age 20 years

Flesh marks, etc. (none)

Her family also in the list are husband Nero (#225) and son Fountain (#227.)

This list is available at the Piqua Public Library in Piqua, Ohio.

Manumission and Resettling in Ohio

Two out of three of John Randolph of Roanoke's three wills manumitted all of the people he enslaved, and provided at least 10 acres of fertile Ohio farmland for every man over 40 years of age. When he passed away in 1833, his brother immediately contested the will. For the next 13 years, the plantation workers remained enslaved while the case was tied up in the courts. Finally, in 1846, the case was won and, with it, freedom for the now former slaves and their descendants.

John Randolph's cousin, William Leigh, was the executor of the will. He arranged for the purchase of over 3,000 acres of fertile Ohio farmland in Mercer County and the transportation for all 383 now free men, women and children to the new settlement. The journey was about 500 miles. Wagons were procured, but many ultimately walked.

After the arduous journey to their promised land, they were greeted by an armed, racist mob of white settlers who refused their settlement. The man Leigh had hired to escort them to Ohio and secure their land from local contacts, Mr. Cartwell, was taken into custody. He tried to negotiate with the white Mercer County settlers, but they refused.

The freedmen of Roanoke would never see the land they were owed, nor the profits of the resale of the land. Instead, they departed Mercer County and scattered into smaller communities across Ohio where they could find work, black settlements, or white settlers willing to welcome them.

Research Notes

Is Fountain White in the 1850 census her son Fountain Randolph? He's the right age. Order seems to indicate he is instead the son of Susan and Richard White. Raymoure-1 08:12, 10 April 2019 (UTC)

Sources

1. ↑ 1850 federal census

• 1850 United States Federal Census Year: 1850; Census Place: Spring Creek, Miami, Ohio; Roll: M432_711; Page: 319B; Image: 20
• 1860; Census Place: Piqua, Miami, Ohio; Page: 49;
• Humphrey, Jim and Rich Wallace. Shelby County Historical Society. "Randolph Slaves" February 1997
• Piqua Public Library, Archives & Special Collections. "Randolph Slave List."
• Troy Historical Society. "Inventory of Slaves in the John Randolph Will" partial transcription