Slaves of Elisha Dodson Sr, Pittsylvania, Virginia

Date: [unknown] [unknown]
Location: Pittsylvania, Virginia, United States
Surnames/tags: Slavery Black_Heritage Dodson

This page's purpose is to record the enslaved people owned by Elisha Dodson Sr, and attempt to connect them to their families.

Slaves

As outlined in his Deed document dated April 27, 1791, Elisha Dodson Sr made gifts of many of the people he enslaved to his family members and associates.^[1] The deed document references Dodson's sons, Presley and William Dodson as sharing the divided land (i.e., generally one son got the land on the north side of the Toby creek and the other received the land on the south of the Toby creek). The document also names the rest of Elisha Dodson Sr's children Margaret the wife of Railey [Rawleigh] Dodson, Lydda the wife of John Waller, Ruth the wife of Jesse Dodson, Sarah the wife of Thomas Dodson, Jemimah the wife of Joshua Hardey & Elisha Dodson Jr. The deed directed that "Slaves & move able estate to be equally divided between all the afore named children."

There were no valuations or ages listed for each enslaved person. Two of them, Harry and Aggy, were specifically referenced (Harry with John Waller, and Aggy with Elisha Dodson Jr).

The names of those enslaved were:

• Simon
• Harry
• Sam
• Winny
• Milley
• Lettey
• Cresia
• Suckey
• Aggy
• Eve

Research Notes

Some of the names of the enslaved appeared in other estates and wills of other members of the Dodson family: Simon, Harry and Winny.

The name Simon apeared in the 1816 inventory of Enoch Dodson, who was Elisha Dodson's nephew. Elisha Dodson's 1791 will in Pittsylvania Virginia referenced an enslaved male, also named Simon.^[1] Could this be one person, or two different enslaved men named Simon Dodson? This is a 25-year difference, between 1791 and 1816, but if the Simon in Elisha's 1791 will was a young man, he certainly could have been alive in 1816. More research needs to be done to determine if this Simon was enslaved by both Enoch and Elisha, or to determine if there were two enslaved males named Simon in different Dodson households at different times.

The name Harry, although a repeat, appears to be a different enslaved male than the Harry mentioned in documents for Thomas Dodson Sr and Greenham Dodson. But these documents were from the 1740s. Elisha Dodson's enslaved Harry was named in a 1791 deed document. If the 1739 Harry was still enslaved by Dodsons in the 1790s, he would have been an old man.

The name Winny appeared in the documents of Thomas Dodson Jr, Elisha Dodson (this profile) and Lazarus Dodson. It appears she spent themajority of her life enslaved by members of the Dodson family.

Sources

1. ↑ ^{1.0 1.1} Pittsylvania County, Virginia Deeds, Wills No. 9, 1791-1794, pages 11, 12, & 13. Probate: "Virginia, U.S., Wills and Probate Records, 1652-1900"
   Pittsylvania > Deeds and Wills Book, Vol 9, 1791-1794; Deeds and Wills Book, Vol 10, 1794-1797 > image 18 of 598
   Ancestry Sharing Link - Ancestry Image (accessed 16 August 2023)