Jacob

Documented History

Jacob was a 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. In the settlement of the estate, he went to the household of Sedwick’s son George W. Sedwick, who inherited his father’s farm.

While no record of Jacob’s role on Sedwick’s farm has come to light, 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.

Speculations

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 Jacob and Charles were listed with identical valuations. It is possible that they are the twin brothers enumerated in 1850. If this is the case, Jacob may be the twenty-three-year-old man enumerated in the household of George W. Sedwick in 1860.

Connections

Alexander, Charles, Charles Daniel, Daniel, Emily Jane, Isaac, Jane, Martha, and Suey Frances were enslaved along with Jacob in Benjamin Sedwick’s household at the time of Sedwick’s death in 1857. Upon the settlement of Sedwick’s estate, Charles Daniel went to George W. Sedwick’s household as well.

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, George W. Sedwick, 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.