Burwell Colbert
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Burwell Colbert (December 24, 1783 – 1862), also known as Burrell Colbert, was an enslaved African American at
Monticello Monticello ( ) was the primary residence and plantation of Thomas Jefferson, a Founding Father, author of the Declaration of Independence, and the third president of the United States. Jefferson began designing Monticello after inheriting l ...
, the
plantation Plantations are farms specializing in cash crops, usually mainly planting a single crop, with perhaps ancillary areas for vegetables for eating and so on. Plantations, centered on a plantation house, grow crops including cotton, cannabis, tob ...
estate of the third
President of the United States The president of the United States (POTUS) is the head of state and head of government of the United States. The president directs the Federal government of the United States#Executive branch, executive branch of the Federal government of t ...
,
Thomas Jefferson Thomas Jefferson (, 1743July 4, 1826) was an American Founding Fathers of the United States, Founding Father and the third president of the United States from 1801 to 1809. He was the primary author of the United States Declaration of Indepe ...
. There he served an important role in the day-to-day operation and maintenance of the Jefferson estates, including
Poplar Forest Poplar Forest is a plantation and retreat home in Forest, Virginia, United States, that belonged to Thomas Jefferson, Founding Father and third U.S. president. Jefferson inherited the property in 1773 and began designing and working on his ret ...
, as
butler A butler is a person who works in a house serving and is a domestic worker in a large household. In great houses, the household is sometimes divided into departments, with the butler in charge of the dining room, wine cellar, and pantries, pantr ...
, personal valet,
glazier A glazier is a tradesperson responsible for cutting, installing, and removing glass (and materials used as substitutes for glass, such as some plastics).Elizabeth H. Oakes, ''Ferguson Career Resource Guide to Apprenticeship Programs'' ( Infoba ...
, and painter. He was the son of Betty “Bett” Brown, the second child of Elizabeth “Betty” Hemings, the
matriarch Matriarchy is a social system in which positions of power and privilege are held by women. In a broader sense it can also extend to moral authority, social privilege, and control of property. While those definitions apply in general English, ...
of the Hemings family in the United States. He was held in high esteem by President Jefferson as a "faithful servant" who was "absolutely excepted from the whip." When Jefferson died on the night of July 4, 1826, Colbert was counted among those at the bedside of the former president. According to
Edmund Bacon Edmund Bacon may refer to: * Sir Edmund Bacon, 2nd Baronet, of Redgrave (c. 1570–1649), English MP for Eye and for Norfolk in 1593 and 1625 * Sir Edmund Bacon, 2nd Baronet, of Gillingham (c. 1660–1683), see Bacon baronets * Sir Edmund Bacon, 4 ...
, chief overseer at Monticello for nearly two decades from 1806 to 1822, "Mr. Jefferson had a large number of favorite servants, that were treated just as well as could be. Burwell was the main, principal servant on the place." Jefferson was also said to have had "the most perfect confidence" in his servant Colbert. As such, he was one of two artisans at Monticello who brought particular distinction to themselves in both the operation of the estate and the life of the master of Monticello, Thomas Jefferson. He and his cousin John Hemings were exceptional in that they were given a regular annual allowance of $20 per year, and permitted to go down to the
Charlottesville Charlottesville, colloquially known as C'ville, is an independent city in Virginia, United States. It is the seat of government of Albemarle County, which surrounds the city, though the two are separate legal entities. It is named after Quee ...
stores and pick out the clothing they wanted. No one else was given this privilege. This is notable because enslaved African Americans were typically given a predetermined allotment of rudimentary clothing and foodstuffs by their owner, and had no freedom of choice in the matter. Colbert was ultimately given his freedom in Jefferson's will, and bequeathed the sum of $300 for the purchase of tools necessary to continue working in his trade. He had married his first cousin Critta Hemings with whom he became father to eight children. In 1819, Critta died at only thirty-six years of age. Several years later in 1834, Burwell married Elizabeth Battles, a free woman of color with whom he had three daughters. In freedom, Colbert worked as a glazier and painter at the
University of Virginia The University of Virginia (UVA) is a Public university#United States, public research university in Charlottesville, Virginia, United States. It was founded in 1819 by Thomas Jefferson and contains his The Lawn, Academical Village, a World H ...
, of which his former master Jefferson had been the founder in 1819. Jefferson, after naming Colbert his "faithful servant", the first of only five enslaved persons freed by his will, he names the second and third "good servants" as John Hemings and Joe Fossett. John was the 11th child of Elizabeth Hemings, a son by a white laborer Joseph Neilson who had worked in the house. Burwell Colbert and Joe Fossett were two of her grandsons. Colbert's freedom was immediate while John and Joe's was to happen only one year after Jefferson's death. For only these three, Jefferson made these additional provisions:
''"...it is my will that a comfortable log-house be built for each of the three servants so emancipated on some part of my lands convenient to them with respect to the residence of their wives, and to Charlottesville and the University, where they will be mostly employed, and reasonably convenient also to the interests of the proprietor of the lands; of which houses I give the use of one, with a curtilage of an acre to each, during his life or personal occupation thereof."''
While freedom was a valuable gift, one Jefferson seems only to have granted to males, these three had been especially profitable. At age 16, Fossett was reported to be the third most profitable nail maker. Fully skilled, he was allowed to keep one-sixth of the money earned from his labor. Sharing earnings with enslaved persons was also unusual but Jefferson was then keeping 5 times that amount. They were or would, in a year, be free. Unable to marry, their common law wives and children would not. Thomas Jefferson died freeing these three while still expecting them to "mostly be employed" in Charlottesville at the university he had founded. So long as they didn't leave, during their lifetimes a log cabin was provided with an acre of land convenient to where they would work, and to where wives, children and children not yet born were to stay enslaved. Antebellum Virginia law dictated that each child born to a free man and an enslaved woman creates another slave for her owner. Until these freedmen could purchase freedom for each family member they hoped to keep close, they were head of no household and lacked any leverage which would normally prove beneficial seeking employment or negotiating future pay.


Notes

In 1805 President Jefferson wrote in his farm book regarding Burwell Colbert that he "paints and takes care of the house." In his will of 1826, Thomas Jefferson wrote of Colbert: "I give to my good, affectionate, and faithful servant Burwell his freedom, and the sum of three hundred Dollars..." In his 1860 memoir, Monticello overseer Edmund Bacon expressed his regard for faithful Burwell saying, "Mr. Jefferson gave him his freedom in his will, and it was right that he did so." The other two slaves made free by Jefferson's will, though never acknowledged in its text, were his children, Madison and Eston, his youngest with Sally Hemings. His will named both boys as apprentices of John Hemings to be free only when they turned 21. Jefferson made a request for the Virginia legislature to confirm his bequest only for these two. This formality would help them travel. The absence of any money for trade tools that John received, no cabin and no spot of land anywhere to live, ensured these two would go. By comparison, the appreciation Jefferson felt for Burwell Colbert is seen.


Further reading

* Pierson, Hamilton W., ''Jefferson at Monticello: The Private Life of Thomas Jefferson From Entirely New Materials''. Freeport, NY: Books for Libraries Press, 1862. Note: This work includes the memoir written by Edmund Bacon himself two years previously entitled ''Mr. Jefferson’s Servants''. * Gordon-Reed, Annette, ''Thomas Jefferson and Sally Hemings: an American controversy,'' W. W. Norton & Company, 2009. , 97803933377612009 * Gordon-Reed, Annette, ''The Hemingses of Monticello: An American Family,'' University of Virginia Press, 1997. * Rinaldi, Ann, ''Wolf by the Ears,'' 1993.


References


External links


PBS Frontline ''Slave's Story''
* ttp://classroom.monticello.org/kids/resources/profile/73/Middle/Burwell-Colbert-an-enslaved-butler/ The Monticello Classroom: Burwell Colbert, an enslaved butler {{DEFAULTSORT:Colbert, Burwell 18th-century American slaves 1783 births 1862 deaths Year of death uncertain Jefferson family Hemings family People from Monticello 19th-century American slaves People who were enslaved by Thomas Jefferson