Charles

Documented History

Charles was an adult resident of Page County, Virginia, in 1857; he is listed as one of ten enslaved individuals in an inventory of the estate of Benjamin Sedwick taken on 1 July of that year.

While no record of Charles’s role on Sedwick’s farm has been located, it is virtually certain he was involved in agriculture. The agricultural schedule of the U.S. census for 1850 gives a sense of the size of the farm and its activity; it comprised 160 acres of improved land and thirty-three acres of unimproved land near the south fork of the Shenandoah River, with livestock that included seven horses, seven cows, one ox, eleven cattle, nineteen sheep, and seventeen pigs. That year, 500 bushels of wheat, 530 bushels of corn, fifty bushels of oats, fifty pounds of wool, thirty bushels of potatoes, four bushels of sweet potatoes, orchard products worth $10, 100 pounds of butter, twelve tons of hay, and three bushels of hops were produced.

Charles went to the household of Sedwick’s daughter Harriet Ann Shenk in 1857, and presumably continued to be involved in agriculture.

Speculations

Charles is described as a man in 1857, suggesting he may have been born before 1845.

Twin enslaved boys of thirteen were enumerated in Benjamin Sedwick’s household in 1850. On the inventory of his estate in 1857, the enslaved men Charles and Jacob were listed with identical valuations. It is possible that they are the twin brothers enumerated in 1850. If this is the case, Charles appears to have left the Shenk household prior to 1860.

Alternatively, Charles may be the man of 54 listed as the only enslaved person in Samuel H. Shenk’s household in the 1860 census.

Charles Daniel’s name may reflect a family relationship with Charles or Daniel, or both.

Connections

Alexander, Charles Daniel, Daniel, Emily Jane, Isaac, Jacob, Jane, Martha, and Suey Frances were enslaved along with Charles in Benjamin Sedwick’s household at Sedwick’s death in 1857. Suey Frances also went to the Shenk household when Sedwick’s estate was settled, although by 1860 only one enslaved man was enumerated in that household.

Sources

Page County, Virginia, Will Book G, Last Will and Testament of Benjamin Sedwick, page 54; digital image, Ancestry.com, “Virginia, Wills and Probate Records, 1652-1983.”

Page County, Virginia, Will Book G, “Inventory and appraisement of the personal property of Benjamin Sedwick decd., of Page County, Virginia July 1st. 1857” page 94; digital image, Ancestry.com, “Virginia, Wills and Probate Records, 1652-1983.”

Papers of the Strickler Family, 1791-1898, Accession No. 7489, Special Collections, University of Virginia Library, Charlottesville, Va., “Estate Account of Benj. Sedwick dec’d with Harrison Strickler Exor.”

1850 U.S. census, Page County, Virginia, agricultural schedule, District 49, pages 341-342 (stamped), Benjamin Sedwick, owner; digital image, Ancestry.com, “U.S., Selected Federal Census Non-Population Schedules, 1850-1880”; citing National Archives and Records Administration microfilm publication T1132.

1850 U.S. census, Page County, Virginia, slave schedule, District 49, unpaginated, Benjn. Sedwick, slaveowner; digital image, Ancestry.com, “1850 U.S. Federal Census - Slave Schedules”; citing National Archives and Records Administration microfilm publication M432.

1860 U.S. census, Page County, Virginia, slave schedule, District 4, page 11, Samuel H. Shenk, slaveowner; digital image, Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com), “1860 U.S. Federal Census - Slave Schedules”; citing National Archives and Records Administration microfilm publication M653.