William Gardner | |
|---|---|
| Born | Billey 1759 |
| Died | 1795 [1] at sea, en route to New Orleans |
| Occupation(s) | Slave Indentured servant Merchant's agent Merchant seaman Shipping agent |
| Known for | enslaved person who grew up with an American founder and was later freed |
| Spouse | Henrietta |
| Parent |
|
William Gardner (born Billey, 1759 - unknown) was an enslaved man born into the family of James Madison in Montpelier, Virginia, to a man likely named Tony. Madison's father gave Gardner to the young Madison as a companion when Madison was a child.
Named Billey, Gardner was with Madison from 1780 to 1783 in Philadelphia for the Continental Congress. Madison considered selling Gardner to buy philosophy books in 1782, the same year that Gardner attempted to run away. As Gardner had previously tried to get away, opposed returning to Montpelier, had been actively exposed to ideas about liberty and populations of free black people, and whose servitude was legally questionable, Madison opted to sell Gardner into indentured servitude for a seven-year term.
Upon the end of his term, Gardner became a merchant's agent who worked for notable American colonial figures, including Madison and Thomas Jefferson. As a free man, Gardner married Henrietta and started a family. His wife worked as a launderer.
Gardner's route to freedom highlighted a problem among American Revolutionary War supporters. It demonstrated a fear of enslaved and Native American uprisings and mass attempts at running away as a result of the colonies' rebellion from Great Britain, which was based on a philosophy that men who are not represented in their governance are enslaved (No taxation without representation).
Gardner was born in 1759 in Montpelier, Virginia, enslaved by the family of James Madison, who was an 8-year-old at the time. He was called Billey. [2] His father might have been an enslaved man named Tony. [3] James Madison Sr. gave Gardner to Madison, and Gardner became a constant companion to Madison in his youth. [4] When Madison went to Princeton University, Gardner was left behind and another slave, Sawney, accompanied him instead. [4]
In 1777, the Pennsylvania General Assembly passed An Act for the Gradual Abolition of Slavery, the first law of its kind in the Western Hemisphere. The law provided that after March 1, 1780, any child born to an enslaved woman would be considered free after twenty-eight years of enslavement. The law also banned the sale of enslaved people in Pennsylvania. [2] People could only be sold for set terms of no longer than seven years. [5] Two years later, in 1780, Virginia's legislature also passed a law to allow Virginian enslavers to emancipate the people they enslaved. [2]
Gardner traveled with James Madison to Philadelphia in 1780, where Madison was serving in the Second Continental Congress. [2] Madison was short on cash in 1782 but wanted to acquire philosophy books, including Thomas Hobbes's Leviathan . In trying to acquire these books, he considered selling Gardner to pay for them. [2] Pennsylvania laws prohibited this. [2] That year, Gardner also attempted to escape his enslavement but was recaptured. [6]
Gardner was 23 years old in 1783 when Madison was preparing to depart Philadelphia as the Continental Congress ended. [2] Gardner had been with Madison for three and a half years in the city; he was exposed to liberty, freedom, and philosophy and he saw free Black people daily. [2] [4] [7] Gardner did not want to return to Virginia. [8] [9] Madison and his father worried that they could not force the enslaved Gardner back to Virginia because he could potentially foment rebellion. Madison said in a letter to his father, "I have judged it most prudent not to force Billey back to Montpelier, Virginia even if it could be done." Madison went on to say, "I am persuaded his mind is too thoroughly tainted to be a companion for fellow slaves in Virginia." [2] [7] [8] Madison considered options related to Gardner, including smuggling him out of Pennsylvania and then selling him where slavery was legal, such as the south or the Caribbean. But in a letter to his father, Madison expressed trepidation regarding this, saying he could not "think of punishing him by transportation merely for coveting that liberty for which we have paid the price of so much blood, and have proclaimed so often to be the right, and worthy of pursuit, of every human being." [2] Madison ultimately decided to sell Gardner into seven years of indentured servitude. [5] [10] Had Madison not done so, Gardner would likely have earned his freedom through Pennsylvania's emancipation laws. [7] [11]
Virginians in Philadelphia, including Martha Washington, would likely have been aware of Madison's dilemma regarding Gardner's emancipation. These situations worried many enslavers, who feared enslaved and Native American rebellions and their mass attempts at escaping as a result of the Colonies' rebellion with Great Britain, was based on a philosophy that men who are not represented in their governance are enslaved. [5] [10]
Following his sale, Billey changed his name to William Gardner. At the end of his period of indentured servitude, Gardner became a merchant's agent, shipping agent, and merchant seaman. [12] [13] [14] [11] As a merchant's agent, Gardner would handle business for several well known historical figures, including James Madison and Thomas Jefferson. [13] When Madison needed to buy some plows, Jefferson organized the purchase by giving Gardner $34.70 to acquire them. [6] Gardner married a woman named Henrietta and raised a family in Philadelphia. [12] [13] Later, Gardner's wife would work as a clothes launder and would clean Thomas Jefferson's clothes weekly when he was in the city. [8] [12] [13] Gardner never returned to Montpelier. [15]
James Madison was an American statesman, diplomat, and Founding Father who served as the fourth president of the United States from 1809 to 1817. Madison was popularly acclaimed the "Father of the Constitution" for his pivotal role in drafting and promoting the Constitution of the United States and the Bill of Rights.
Dolley Todd Madison was the wife of James Madison, the fourth president of the United States from 1809 to 1817. She was noted for holding Washington social functions in which she invited members of both political parties, essentially spearheading the concept of bipartisan cooperation. Previously, founders such as Thomas Jefferson would only meet with members of one party at a time, and politics could often be a violent affair resulting in physical altercations and even duels. Madison helped to create the idea that members of each party could amicably socialize, network, and negotiate with each other without violence. By innovating political institutions as the wife of James Madison, Dolley Madison did much to define the role of the President's spouse, known only much later by the title first lady—a function she had sometimes performed earlier for the widowed Thomas Jefferson.
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Martha "Patsy" Randolph was the eldest daughter of Thomas Jefferson, the third president of the United States, and his wife, Martha Wayles Skelton Jefferson. She was born at Monticello, near Charlottesville, Virginia.
Edward Coles was an American planter and politician, elected as the second Governor of Illinois. From an old Virginia family, Coles as a young man was a neighbor and associate of presidents Thomas Jefferson and James Monroe, as well as, secretary to President James Madison from 1810 to 1815.
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Ambrose Madison was an American planter and politician in the Piedmont of Virginia Colony. He married Frances Taylor in 1721, daughter of James Taylor, a member of the Knights of the Golden Horseshoe Expedition across the Blue Ridge Mountains from the Tidewater. Through her father, Madison and his brother-in-law Thomas Chew were aided in acquiring 4,675 acres in 1723, in what became Orange County. There he developed his tobacco plantation known as Mount Pleasant The Madisons were parents of James Madison Sr. and paternal grandparents of President James Madison.
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Paul Jennings (1799–1874) was an American abolitionist and author. Enslaved as a young man by President James Madison during and after his White House years, Jennings published, in 1865, the first White House memoir. His book was A Colored Man's Reminiscences of James Madison, described as "a singular document in the history of slavery and the early American republic."
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