Slaveholders Listed on this Page
- Blackstone, James (Enslaved persons listed: Two un-named slaves)
- Boyd, William (Enslaved persons listed: Two un-named slaves, Andrew, Millie, Ben, Prissie, Samuel, Alexander)
- Breading, Nathaniel (Enslaved persons listed: Sam)
- Laughlin, John (Enslaved persons listed: One un-named slave)
- Phillips, Ann (Enslaved persons listed: Sue)
- Phillips, Theophilus (Enslaved persons listed: Sue, Hana)
- Reed, Thomas (Enslaved persons listed: Unnamed female)
- Stephens, Elizabeth (Enslaved persons listed: Bess)
- Stephens, Levi (Enslaved persons listed: Bess)
- Stouffer, John (Enslaved persons listed: Ned)
Enslavement Data
- Slaveholder Name: Blackstone, James
City or Township: Tyrone Township
County: Fayette County
Occupation: Farmer
Notes: The History of Fayette County, by Franklin Ellis (1882) notes on page 545:
James Blackstone came hither from the Eastern Shore of Maryland shortly after Col. William Crawford and his comrades found their way into Yohogania County, Virginia, as the region of which Fayette County is a part was then called. Mr Blackstone married before he left Maryland and brought his family and some negroes with him and settled in what is now Tyrone township on the farm recently owned by Ebenezer Moore.
- Enslaved Person's Name: Not known
Sex: Not determined
Age: Not determined, but born prior to 1780.
Date of Birth: Not known, but prior to 1780.
Status: Slave for life
Description: "negro"
Notes: One of "some negroes" brought to Tyrone Township by Blackstone from Maryland.
Date of Record: Township history written in 1882.
Source: History of Fayette County, by Franklin Ellis, Philadelphia, L H Everts and Company, 1882.
- Enslaved Person's Name: Not known
Sex: Not determined
Age: Not determined, but born prior to 1780.
Date of Birth: Not known, but prior to 1780.
Status: Slave for life
Description: "negro"
Notes: One of "some negroes" brought to Tyrone Township by Blackstone from Maryland.
Date of Record: Township history written in 1882.
Source: History of Fayette County, by Franklin Ellis, Philadelphia, L H Everts and Company, 1882.
- Slaveholder Name: Boyd, William
City or Township: Bullskin Township
County: Fayette County
Occupation: Farmer, Justice of the Peace
Notes: Died in 1812. The History of Fayette County, by Franklin Ellis (1882) notes on page 488:
WILLIAM BOYD came from Virginia some time about the close of the Revolution, making the journey to his new home on the west border of Bullskin on pack horses. He brought with him several slaves and six negro children were registered as being born to these slaves from 1795 to 1809, namely, Andrew, Millie, Ben, Prissie, Samuel and Alexander, but of their subsequent history nothing can be here said.
- Enslaved Person's Name: Not known
Sex: Female
Age: Not determined, but born prior to 1782.
Date of Birth: Not known, but prior to 1782.
Status: Slave for life
Description: "slave"
Notes: One of "several slaves" brought to Bullskin Township by Boyd at the close of the Revolution.
Date of Record: Township history written in 1882.
Source: History of Fayette County, by Franklin Ellis, Philadelphia, L H Everts and Company, 1882.
- Enslaved Person's Name: Not known
Sex: Not determined
Age: Not determined, but born prior to 1782.
Date of Birth: Not known, but prior to 1782.
Status: Slave for life
Description: "slave"
Notes: One of "several slaves" brought to Bullskin Township by Boyd at the close of the Revolution.
Date of Record: Township history written in 1882.
Source: History of Fayette County, by Franklin Ellis, Philadelphia, L H Everts and Company, 1882.
- Enslaved Person's Name: Andrew
Sex: Male
Age: Not determined, but born between 1795 and 1809.
Date of Birth: Not known, but after 1795.
Status: Slave to the age of 28 years
Description: "negro child"
Notes: One of six "negro children born to slaves brought to Bullskin Township by Boyd at the close of the Revolution.
Date of Record: Township history written in 1882.
Source: History of Fayette County, by Franklin Ellis, Philadelphia, L H Everts and Company, 1882.
- Enslaved Person's Name: Millie
Sex: Female
Age: Not determined, but born between 1795 and 1809.
Date of Birth: Not known, but after 1795.
Status: Slave to the age of 28 years
Description: "negro child"
Notes: One of six "negro children born to slaves brought to Bullskin Township by Boyd at the close of the Revolution.
Date of Record: Township history written in 1882.
Source: History of Fayette County, by Franklin Ellis, Philadelphia,L H Everts and Company, 1882.
- Enslaved Person's Name: Ben
Sex: Male
Age: Not determined, but born between 1795 and 1809.
Date of Birth: Not known, but after 1795.
Status: Slave to the age of 28 years
Description: "negro child"
Notes: One of six "negro children born to slaves brought to Bullskin Township by Boyd at the close of the Revolution.
Date of Record: Township history written in 1882.
Source: History of Fayette County, by Franklin Ellis, Philadelphia, L H Everts and Company, 1882.
- Enslaved Person's Name: Prissie
Sex: Female
Age: Not determined, but born between 1795 and 1809.
Date of Birth: Not known, but after 1795.
Status: Slave to the age of 28 years
Description: "negro child"
Notes: One of six "negro children born to slaves brought to Bullskin Township by Boyd at the close of the Revolution.
Date of Record: Township history written in 1882.
Source: History of Fayette County, by Franklin Ellis, Philadelphia, L H Everts and Company, 1882.
- Enslaved Person's Name: Samuel
Sex: Male
Age: Not determined, but born between 1795 and 1809.
Date of Birth: Not known, but after 1795.
Status: Slave to the age of 28 years
Description: "negro child"
Notes: One of six "negro children born to slaves brought to Bullskin Township by Boyd at the close of the Revolution.
Date of Record: Township history written in 1882.
Source: History of Fayette County, by Franklin Ellis, Philadelphia, L H Everts and Company, 1882.
- Enslaved Person's Name: Alexander
Sex: Male
Age: Not determined, but born between 1795 and 1809.
Date of Birth: Not known, but after 1795.
Status: Slave to the age of 28 years
Description: "negro child"
Notes: One of six "negro children born to slaves brought to Bullskin Township by Boyd at the close of the Revolution.
Date of Record: Township history written in 1882.
Source: History of Fayette County, by Franklin Ellis, Philadelphia, L H Everts and Company, 1882.
- Slaveholder Name: Breading, Nathaniel
City or Township:
County: Fayette County
Occupation: Judge, Businessman
Notes: 1751-1821. Nathaniel Breading was justice of the peace and President Judge in Fayette County. As a businessman, he helped develop trade between western Pennsylvania and New Orleans by sending a flat boat downriver each year loaded with flour and whiskey.
He served as lieutenant in Capt. Joseph Wright's company of the Pennsylvania Line during the Revolutionary War and served in the commissary at Valley Forge in the winter of 1777-78. Breading served on the Supreme Executive Council for Pennsylvania and was a member of the 1790 convention to write the Pennsylvania Constitution. He also was one of two Fayette County representatives at the state convention to ratify the U.S. Constitution in 1787. (Biographical info from Find a Grave, https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/122062678/nathaniel-breading.)
Sources: History of Fayette County, Pennsylvania, Franklin Ellis, Philadelphia: L.H. Everts & Co., 1882; Nelson's Biographical Dictionary and Historical Reference Work, Vol. 1, Henry Elliot Shepherd; Genealogical and Personal History of Fayette County, Pennsylvania, Vol. 1, John Woolf Jordan and James Hadden, eds., 1912.
- Enslaved Person's Name: Sam
Sex: Male
Age: Not stated, described as a "Man"
Date of Birth: Not known.
Status: Jailed suspected runaway slave
Description: "Negro Man"
Notes: Sam was jailed in Pittsburgh in July 1789 as a suspected runaway slave. He told the jailor that he belonged to Nathaniel Breading in Fayette County. Below is the text of the jailor's advertisement:
Pittsburgh, July 17, 1789.
COMMITTED to the jail of Alleghany county, on the 14th instant, a Negro Man, who calls himself SAM, says he belongs to Nathaniel Breading, who live on Delaps creek, in Fayette county. This is therefore to notify his said master, that unless he releases him before the 20th of August next, he will on that day be sold for fees.
ANDREW ROBINSON, Jailer
Date of Record: 17 July 1789
Source: Pittsburgh Weekly Gazette, 18 July 1789, page 3.
- Slaveholder Name: Laughlin, John
City or Township: Springhill Township
County: Fayette County
Occupation: Farmer
Notes: Died in 1800. The History of Fayette County, by Franklin Ellis (1882) describes Laughlin's slaveholding in beneficient terms, falling for the then popular notion that slaveholding was socially acceptable as long as slaveholders were kind and generous to the people they enslaved. Ellis notes on page 726:
Laughlin was a bachelor, a farmer of some enterprise, and employed slave labor almost exclusively...He had been an excellent master to his slaves, and in his will left to each one a substantial reminder of his thoughtful care. Laughlin was not only a kindly-disposed and gentle master to his servants, he was an earnest and faithful worshipper at the Dunlap's Creek Church, despite the fact that he was not a member thereof.
- Enslaved Person's Name: Not known
Sex: Not determined
Age: Not determined
Date of Birth: Not known.
Status: Slave for life
Description: "slave"
Notes: One of several slaves owned in Springhill Township by Laughlin.
Date of Record: Township history written in 1882.
Source: History of Fayette County, by Franklin Ellis, Philadelphia, L H Everts and Company, 1882.
- Slaveholder Name: Phillips, Ann
City or Township: Springhill Township
County: Fayette County
Occupation: Widow
Notes: Wife of Theophilus Phillips.
- Enslaved Person's Name: Sue
Sex: Female
Age: Not determined
Date of Birth: Not known, but prior to 1780.
Status: Slave for life
Description: "negro woman"
Notes: Slave of Theophilus Phillips, willed to his wife Ann in 1789.
Date of Record: Will of Theophilus Phillips, 1789.
Source: Wills: Theophilus Philips, 1789: Fayette County, PA.
- Slaveholder Name: Phillips, Theophilus
City or Township: Springhill Township
County: Fayette County
Occupation: Farmer
Notes: Husband of Ann. Elected to the state legislature in 1789. Died while en route to Philadelphia.The History of Fayette County, by Franklin Ellis (1882) notes on page 763:
Mr. Phillips enjoyed the respect and confidence of all who knew him and was often called to fill public positions. It was near his residence that the courts of Monongalia County, Virginia, were held in the last half of the eighteenth century. The buildings have long been demolished and nothing but the foundations of them remain to mark the site. To the left of the New Geneva and Springhill furnace roads, via Morris Cross Roads and about two hundred yards from the same, on a long knoll with direction northeast, stood the Phillips residence with many outbuildings, including shop, negro quarters, still house and stables.
- Enslaved Person's Name: Sue
Sex: Female
Age: Not determined
Date of Birth: Not known, but prior to 1780.
Status: Slave for life
Description: "negro woman"
Notes: One of several slaves owned in Springhill Township by Phillips. Willed to his wife Ann in 1789.
Date of Record: Township history written in 1882. Will of Theophilus Phillips, 1789.
Source: History of Fayette County, by Franklin Ellis, Philadelphia, L H Everts and Company, 1882. | Wills:
Theophilus Philips, 1789: Fayette County, PA.
- Enslaved Person's Name: Hana
Sex: Male
Age: Not determined, but described as a "negro boy."
Date of Birth: Not known, but prior to 1789.
Status: Not determined
Description: "negro boy"
Notes: One of several slaves owned in Springhill Township by Phillips. Named as property in his will in 1789.
Date of Record: Township history written in 1882. Will of Theophilus Phillips, 1789.
Source: History of Fayette County, by Franklin Ellis, Philadelphia, L H Everts and Company, 1882. | Wills: Theophilus Philips, 1789: Fayette County, PA.
- Slaveholder Name: Reed, Thomas
City or Township: Georges Township
County: Fayette County
Occupation:
Notes:
- Enslaved Person's Name: Not recorded
Sex: Female
Age: Not determined
Date of Birth: Not known, but prior to 1791.
Status: Slave for life
Description: "Negro wench"
Notes: Willed to his wife Elizabeth in 1791. Excerpt from will: "I give and bequeath in the following manner (vis) all my household furniture and negro wench and one mare and two cows give to my said wife Elizabeth her heirs and assignees while she remains a widow."
Date of Record: Will of Thomas Reed, 10 May 1791. Will probated 18 April 1794.
Source: Will of Thomas Reed, Fayette County, Georges Township, Will Book 1, page 26.
- Slaveholder Name: Stephens, Elizabeth
City or Township: Washington Township
County: Fayette County
Occupation: Widow
Notes: Wife of Levi Stephens
- Enslaved Person's Name: Bess
Sex: Female
Age: Not determined
Date of Birth: Not known, but prior to 1780.
Status: Slave for life
Description: "Negro woman"
Notes: Willed to his wife Elizabeth in 1808. Excerpt from will: "Second I give and bequeath unto my beloved wife Elizabeth during her natural life the use, rents, profits, benefits and interest of the land, meadows orchards sugar camp and other premises which have of late been in my immediate occupancy, also a sufficiency of timber land for the plantation to keep the premises in complete repair also the Negro woman, named Bess, the eight day clock, all the grain gathered or growing."
Date of Record: Will of Theophilus Phillips, 1808.
Source: Will of Levi Stephens, 1808: Washington Township, Fayette Co.
- Slaveholder Name: Stephens, Levi
City or Township: Washington Township
County: Fayette County
Occupation: Farmer
Notes: Born in 1744. Husband of Elizabeth.
- Enslaved Person's Name: Bess
Sex: Female
Age: Not determined
Date of Birth: Not known, but prior to 1780.
Status: Slave for life
Description: "Negro woman"
Notes: Willed to his wife Elizabeth in 1808.
Date of Record: Will of Theophilus Phillips, 1808.
Source: Will of Levi Stephens, 1808: Washington Township, Fayette Co.
- Slaveholder Name: Stouffer, John
City or Township: Bullskin Township
County: Fayette County
Occupation: Farmer
Notes: Husband of Barbara.
- Enslaved Person's Name: Ned
Sex: Male
Age: Not determined, but described as "boy."
Date of Birth: Not known, but after 1780.
Status: "a 28 year servant"
Description: "Negro Boy"
Notes: Willed to his son John Stouffer in 1820, with the stipulation that Ned "wait upon his present Mistress my said wife Barbara as long as she shall remain a widow."
Date of Record: 2 June 1820. Recorded 1822.
Source: Will of John Stouffer (Sr), 2 June 1820. Book 1, p. 222. Recorded 1822.
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