Siah Carter: The Life and Times of Josiah Hulett Carter USN

By Thomas T. Wiatt

Siah Carter was born a slave on a Virginia Plantation on the banks of the James River. In 1862, he stole a small boat and rowed his way to freedom. Siah made it all the way to the US Naval ironclad the Monitor and was inducted into the US Navy. He was one of the first runaway slaves to join the US Military during the Civil War.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Lulu.com
• Release date: Jun 4, 2023
• ISBN: 9781447742920

Book preview

Chapter 1

The Shirley Plantation

To a Virginian, history is a personal experience

The Shirley Plantation of Charles County, Virginia, is

located between Richmond and Williamsburg on the north

bank of the James River. This river begins its journey to the sea way up in the mountains of Virginia and flows through the state capital of Richmond and eventually into a body of brackish water called the Hampton Roads.

The James is arguably America’s most historic river. Native Americans had lived along its banks for thousands of years before the continent’s first permanent English colony was established on its banks at Jamestown in 1607. The first democratically³ elected legislative body in America was established at Jamestown in 1619. The first enslaved Africans in America were brought to these shores in that same year.

The James River has also seen many historical naval engagements and supported several shipyards where many advancements in naval warfare have occurred.

The Shirley Plantation also has an illustrious history. Dating back to 1614 it is the oldest active plantation in the Commonwealth of Virginia and the oldest family-owned business in North America. The construction of the present mansion, called the Great House, was completed in 1738.

Even today, the mansion is a magnificent sight and even seems to be too proud to sit on the property where it resides.

The mansion has a Georgian⁴ style structure with neoclassical Doric⁵ columns supporting a pediment. The rear

of the Great House faces the James River where the river makes a short turn to the north, giving the rear of the home a western view of a sunset that illuminates the muddy river with a variety of colors.

The home and its separate buildings were built with a Flemish⁶ style red brick. The separate buildings, such as the kitchen, laundry room and two L shaped barns, also housed the more privileged enslaved people in the above living quarters. These buildings were geographically in front of and to the side of the main house in a Queen Anne⁷ style.

This mansion was the birthplace of Anne Carter, the mother of Confederate General Robert E. Lee. The Carter family were descendants of Robert King Carter, a colonial governor of Virginia and a powerful influence in Colonial American politics. Other descendants ⁸ of King Carter include U.S. presidents William and Benjamin Harrison, Virginia senators Harry F. Byrd Sr. and Jr. and explorer Richard Byrd. The Carter family were considered to be Virginia aristocrats.

For the Carters to maintain these buildings and this 2000+ acre agricultural estate, a profitable crop was required. The main cash crop of the Shirley Plantation during the 17th century was tobacco. There was a great demand for tobacco in Europe during this period. Plantations in the American colonies, like Shirley, supplied the English empire with an abundance of tobacco. After about 1816, wheat was added to the list of profitable crops at Shirley. In addition to these crops, the plantation had a beautiful flower garden of a riot of colors.

The cultivation of tobacco and wheat were labor intensive and cost prohibitive unless produced in large quantities. In order to keep the cost down and the production

quantity up, a cheap and economical labor force was required. In addition to pulling tobacco, picking cotton, and plowing the fields, this forced labor also included house cleaning, childcare, cooking and other skills.

The first labor force consisted of white indentured servants. This was typical at Shirley as well as in the rest of the English colonies. A few decades later, indentured servants were people of various races who were contractually obligated to become laborers for a specified period of time in exchange for debt repayment, food, lodging, transportation to the colonies, and the teaching of a trade. Indentured servants were brought from Africa, the Caribbean islands, Scotland, Ireland, and England. This early 17th century work force also included some enslaved Africans. By the 1650s, the work force at Shirley consisted entirely of enslaved people of African descent. The Carter family preferred buying enslaved people that came from Senegambia in present day Gambia.

These Africans were stereotypically taller and stronger than the people from other parts of the continent.⁹

The transition from European indentured servants to African slaves was typical all through the American English colonies. By the time of the American Revolution (1775– 1783), the status of enslaved people had been institutionalized as a racial caste system exclusively associated with people of African ancestry. During and immediately following the Revolution, when the colonies became a nation, abolitionist laws were passed in most of the Northern states.

John Hulett and Molly Saunders were among the enslaved on the Shirley Plantation during the period of the 1830s. They were married, at least in their own minds, for there was no such thing as a legal marriage¹⁰ between enslaved couples in Virginia at that time. They already had two children, named Martin and Sarah, when Molly gave birth to a third child. This child, a son, was born on October 4, 1839¹¹ and was named Josiah Hulett (called Siah).

As a child, Siah would have worked with his mother and with the other enslaved women planting garden crops. As he grew older, Siah would have been working harvesting the main plantation crops but found time to become a skilled carpenter. Siah and his labor were the property of Hill Carter,¹² who not only owned Shirley Plantation, but everything and everyone who worked there.

Hill Carter

Chapter 2

Hill Carter

God forgive us, but ours is a monstrous system

Hill Carter was a retired US Navy seaman, having

become a midshipman at age 16, and was an active participant in the War of 1812. He served aboard the US Navy ship the sloop-of-war¹⁴ the Peacock during this conflict with the British from 1812 to 1814. He was described during the war as the little red-headed midshipman with his cutlass between his teeth and was said to have fought manfully.

Hill Carter returned to Shirley from New York to take control