An Unbound History
In Virginia land records and libraries, a former Washington Post reporter discovers a complex story of freedom, slavery, and an unlikely alliance that saved her family during the Civil War
By Ricardo Sandoval-Palos
Bobbi Bowman stood out as a reporter and editor in newsrooms like the Washington Post, the Detroit Free Press, and as managing editor of the Observer-Dispatch in Utica, New York.
A student of World War II, she has twice stood on Omaha Beach in Normandy, France, with D-Day heroes during anniversaries of the invasion.
And, after a 40-year career, she earned a place in the National Association of Black Journalists Hall of Fame.
It should have been enough to fuel a happy retirement.
Instead, Bowman started an online newspaper. Instead, she enrolled in George Mason University as a graduate student in history. And, instead, she’s embarked on an ambitious literary quest.
She’s piecing together a detailed account of how her great-great-grandfather, William Williamson, bought his freedom in 1842 and bought property in Virginia, only to lose it to a pre-Civil War law that required freed slaves to leave the state or return to slavery. Williamson fought that law, petitioning Virginia lawmakers. But the efforts failed and in 1854 he sold his land for $5 to a neighbor named Thomas Rosser.
Williamson then fought to remain a free man in Virginia. But by 1859, with tension throughout the South building toward war and the local sheriff about to arrest Williamson, Rosser “bought” him instead. This way, Bowman said, Williamson avoided being sold off to an unknown owner. This also allowed Williamson to stay close to his land and to his enslaved wife and children. Williamson died soon after the war, but with Rosser’s help, Williamson’s widow reclaimed the family’s land.
“My illiterate great-great-grandfather was among fewer than 100 slaves who had filed a petition with the Virginia General Assembly to allow them to stay in Virginia as free men,” Bowman said. “They were fighting a Virginia law, passed in 1806, requiring free blacks to leave Virginia a year after they were freed from slavery. If they remained, they would be sold back into slavery.”
Bowman’s research has become a story of discovery, which you can read more about here, and here.
“I am writing to show how slaves, who could neither read nor write, fought back against slavery,” Bowman said. “They fought in small ways, and they fought in large ways.
Recently, she put down her text books for the narrative writing class she’s taking, set aside the archives of deeds and family stories, and spent some time talking about what has to be the most active retirement in journalism today.
palabra.: What drove you to take on this story?
Bowman: I found this story by accident when an electric company made me mad. A local Virginia power company wanted to expand a right-of-way on land willed to my sister and me by our parents in Campbell County, Virginia. The power company wanted to pay us nothing for land that would allow them to make millions.
We have deep roots in Campbell County, so I drove to the Campbell County courthouse to look at the original deed for the right-of-way to see if it could give us any leverage with the power company. It didn’t.
Now, as a young reporter at the Washington Post, I was taught that courthouses brim with great information. You should always go fishing in courthouse records. So I started searching deed books for my mother’s maiden name. I know more about my mother’s family than my father’s family.
I was shocked to find my great-great-grandmother’s name in the index to deeds.
palabra.: What do you hope your research will show?
Bowman: [I want to] show the complicated relationships between black people and white people ... Thomas Rosser, a white man who owned 14 slaves, bought my great-great-grandfather to save him from the slave auction block before the Civil War. At the time, my great-great-grandpa owned 100 acres of land, which he also sold to Rosser so he could stay close to his family. (Freed slaves had to choose: leave Virginia or return to slavery.) Rosser could have sold him and the land. But after the Civil War, after great-grandpa had passed away, Rosser sold the deed back to my great-great-grandmother for $5, the original price of the land.
palabra.: It must be difficult. Describe the barriers you've encountered?
Bowman: There have been the usual barriers of trying to find ancestors who were silenced because they were slaves. They had no birth records, no death records, no letters, no pictures, no addresses. Nothing. They were not counted in the census. They were property to be bought and sold, or given away as gifts. Therefore, you find them mentioned in passing in deeds and wills and mortgages.
palabra.: What has been the single most important database or archive that you've used?
Bowman: The Library of Virginia … has combed through its files, which go back to the 1600s, to find documents mentioning the enslaved. The library has organized that information by county. When I visited the library in 2018, they handed me two pages listing all the documents they had about enslaved people in Campbell County. At the bottom of the first page, it stated they had the court case brought against William Williamson, who was fighting to keep his freedom. I knew that was my great-great-grandfather.
palabra.: What's the best advice you have for other journalists who want to take on this kind of historical reporting?
Bowman: The names! You have to know who your folks are. Talk to your oldest relatives. Ask for the names of their grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins.
Then, web searches. For example, search for “Library of Virginia,” “African American History.” Here you can search for ancestors in 20 record categories. Remember to search for nicknames. My great-great-grandfather is listed as both William Williamson and Billy Williamson.
Then, you must decide between online versus on-site. You can start your search online, but you should visit libraries and courthouses in person. We are journalists, after all. Not everything is online. Finally, another important area are the deeds, wills and assessments of estates. These records are often the best places to find enslaved ancestors. Because they were property, they were listed in wills as gifts to family members. When slave owners died, each enslaved person was listed individually by value. Here again, you need to know who owned your ancestors. Many formerly enslaved people took the name of their masters.
palabra.: Is there a mystery you hope to solve?
Bowman: I want to know the reason for this incredible bond of trust between William Williamson and Thomas Rosser. They were not related to each other.
—
