There is no evidence that the Randolph People had knowledge of their potential manumission. However, John had convoluted ideas of slavery, at times professing sympathy for their plight. According to the Chicago Tribune, he once claimed that the greatest speech he ever heard came from a Black mother on the auction block.6 Like his cousin Thomas Jefferson, he continued to hold captive hundreds of Black people on the plantation. He would lose nothing in this gesture, as their freedom was granted only by his death. In 1833, he called for his physician, a Quaker by the name of Dr. Joseph Parrish, to come to his bedside at the City Hotel in Philadelphia. Randolph had been on his way to Russia from Baltimore, as he was recently appointed Minister to the imperial nation. However, he fell ill and never reached his destination. Despite Parrish’s efforts, Randolph’s health continued to decline. According to court testimony, Randolph requested emancipation for all his slaves and cried out “Remorse! Remorse!,” just before he died at 11:45 AM on May 24th, 1833.7
During the next thirteen years, Randolph’s family battled Dr. Parrish and Wlliam Leigh, John’s lawyer, in the courts. Meanwhile, those who became the Randolph Freedpeople remained in captivity, until the judge’s final decision.
1. Nick Thompson, “The History that Surrounds Us, Part 1” Piqua Daily Call, May 28th, 2014.
2. Frank F. Mathias, “John Randolph’s Freedmen: The Thwarting of a Will,” Journal of Southern History, vol 39, 1973.
3.. Accounts vary on the subject of John Randolph’s wills. In some, he is purported to have written only two wills, ignoring the one
written in 1819. Others recall wills in 1821, 1832, and 1833. Unfortunately, a fire during the Civil War destroyed the original documents and only newspapers and court cases referencing the wills survive. An article by Frank. F. Mathias published in The Journal of Southern History lists one such case, titled Coalter’s Executors et. al. v. Bryan and Wife et. al. Another commonly recycled misconception suggests that all three wills demanded release of his slaves.
4. “Randolph’s Will,” The Long Island Star, Brooklyn, NY: July 30th, 1835
5. Department of the Interior, “Virginia SP Roanoke Plantation,” National Register of Historic Places Inventory – Nomination Form, July 24, 1973.
6. Roscoe Simmons, “The Untold Story,” The Chicago Daily Tribune, Chicago, IL, March 20, 1949.
7.“Last Illness of John Randolph,” The Tennessean. Nashville, TN: August 18th, 1835.