1. A large settlement in northwestern Connecticut. When Grimes first published his narrative in 1825, Litchfield was one of the state’s leading commercial and cultural towns.
2. Approximately seventy miles south of Washington, D.C., and bordered by the Potomac and Rappahannock rivers, with the Chesapeake Bay at its foot.
3. Benjamin Grymes, Jr. (1756–1804), a lieutenant and later captain in the Revolutionary War, was evidently a longtime neighbor and family friend of George Washington. See Liza Lawrence, The Vistas at Eagle’s Nest (Fredericksburg, VA: Fredericksburg Press, 1969), 7–8.
4. William Fitzhugh (1780–1830), Benjamin (1785–1828), and George Nicholas (1787–1853) were the sons of Benjamin Grymes and his wife, Ann Nicholas. Benjamin’s son by his “servant maid” has yet to be determined.
5. Probably William Gibbons Stuart, M.D. (1750–97).
6. William Hooe of King George, Virginia. The shooting was covered by the Virginia Gazette and Richmond and Manchester Advertiser on August 11, 1794.
7. Robert Galloway, a merchant in Fredericksburg.
8. Benjamin Grymes was acquitted of the murder of Robert Galloway on the grounds of insanity.
9. From the middle of the eighteenth century, the Short family owned “Machodoc Dam,” a large piece of land marked with stone monuments, bearing the name “John Short 1754” and bordering Eagle’s Nest.
10. Mary Fitzhugh Stuart was the wife of William Gibbons Stuart and the first cousin of Benjamin Grymes.
11. Colonel William Thornton (1745–1818), brother-in-law of William Gibbons Stuart, was present at the reading of Stuart’s will. Thornton was married to Martha Stuart, daughter of John Stuart.
12. The Montpelier estate was part of Culpepper County until 1833, when Rappahannock County incorporated Culpepper County.
13. Aylett Hawes (1768–1833) was a member of the Virginia House of Delegates from 1802 to 1806 and was a representative in the United States Congress from 1811 to 1817. He returned to his medical practice in Rappahannock County in 1817 and married Fanny Thornton, the eldest daughter of Col. William Thornton.
14. A set of persons each taking a turn of work in sequence in order to relieve the others.
15. Exodus 16:3: “And the children of Israel said unto them, would to God we had died by the hand of the Lord in the land of Egypt, when we sat by the flesh pots, and when we did eat bread to the full; for ye have brought us forth into this wilderness, to kill this whole assembly with hunger.”
16. A hame was a curved piece of wood that formed the collar of a draught horse. The hame strings are leather straps with buckles used to fasten the hames onto the collar.
17. A slave girl, “Betty,” appears in the 1798 inventory and appraisal of Doctor William G. Stuart’s estate. By that time, Col. William Thornton had already purchased William Grimes from Stuart.
18. A peck is equivalent to eight quarts or approximately nine liters.
19. Hominy is hulled and ground corn boiled with water or milk and often fried.
20. Hawes’s house was named the Hawthorn Plantation.
21. Probably a reference to the Great Coastal Hurricane of 1806 (August 21–23), which significantly damaged areas in the Carolinas and coastal Virginia.
22. Known as the “Mother County of the Northern Neck,” Northumberland is located on the coast of Chesapeake Bay, situated between the Potomac and Rappahannock rivers.
23. At the time of this narrative, an unincorporated village in Westmoreland Country, thirty miles southeast of Fredericksburg on the Rappahannock River.
24. The identity of Grimes’s mother is unknown. Grimes’s reference to his “brothers” may denote his white half-brothers, William Fitzhugh, Benjamin, and George Nicholas. Whether Grimes also had siblings from his biological mother is unknown.
25. Doctor Stuart’s widow became Mary Fitzhugh Stuart Fitzhugh by taking her cousin George Fitzhugh as her second husband.
26. Fredericksburg is fifty miles south of Washington, D.C., and fifty-five miles north of Richmond, Virginia.
27. Grimes’s half-brother Benjamin (1785–1828) was the middle son of Benjamin Grymes and his wife, Ann Nicholas.
28. A village twenty miles southeast of Fredericksburg, Virginia, incorporated in 1865.
29. Fredericktown is located on the Sassafras River in northern Maryland, approximately thirty miles northwest of Dover, Delaware.
30. Several letters dated from 1814 to 1818 written between Thornton and Thomas Jefferson survive, but there are no published records of this visit to Monticello.
31. Some owners allowed their slaves to work at a trade outside the master’s home. Once paid, the slave was expected to turn over part or, more frequently, all of his wages to his master. In the nineteenth century, to be given one’s time also meant to be dismissed from a job or freed from a contract.
32. At the time, the second largest city in Georgia, located in the eastern part of the state.
33. Located twenty-five miles south of Richmond.
34. Job 5:19: “He shall deliver thee in six troubles: yea, in seven there shall no evil touch thee.”
35. Located 350 miles southwest of Petersburg, Virginia, in the center of South Carolina, Columbia became the state capital in 1786.
36. A variant of coverlet, a bedspread.
37. One of the earliest plantations in Savannah. The land for Bonaventure was granted to John Mullryne, an English colonel, in the 1750s. He operated the plantation until 1850. The next owner, Capt. Peter Wiltberger, converted the land into a now-famous cemetery.
38. The biblical punishment for a criminal who has violated one of the Mosaic laws (Deuteronomy 25: 2–3).
39. A business partner in Burroughs and Sturges, a successful cotton and commission firm, Oliver Sturges owned a third interest in the steamship Savannah, which was the first vessel to cross the Atlantic Ocean under her own steam in 1819.
40. Doctor Lemuel Kollock (1766–1823) was one of Savannah’s foremost physicians.
41. Reverend Henry Kollock (1778–1819), cousin of Dr. Lemuel Kollock, was pastor of Independent Presbyterian Church in Savannah from 1806 to 1819.
42. Phillip David Woolhopter was the founder and editor of the Columbia Museum, a Federalist newspaper in Savannah. He later partnered with Gurdon Isaac Seymour to form the Columbia Museum and Savannah Advertiser from 1797 to 1802.
43. Located on the Vernon River, eight miles southeast of Savannah. After the Civil War, White Bluff became the home of many ex-slaves from the plantations of St. Catherine’s Island.
44. Located on the Georgian coast, in McIntosh County, between Savannah and St. Mary’s River. The town had been noted for its abundant production of cotton, rice, and indigo until a fire in 1813 and a hurricane in 1814 devastated the area’s plantations.
45. A small barrier island located off southeastern Georgia.
46. A cask containing approximately thirty-five gallons of provisions.
47. Edward Fenwick Campbell was the brother of Maria Campbell (wife of Dr. Lemuel Kollock).
48. Edward Telfare, a loyalist in the American Revolution, was the governor of Georgia in 1786 and again from 1790 to 1793.
49. Harriett T. Campbell and Mrs. Noble Wimberly Jones.
50. A round hole made by a diamond saw.
51. Archibald Stobo Bulloch was a Savannah alderman (1812–14) and the son of Archibald Bulloch (1730–77), Georgia’s first state president.
52. In 1770, the Georgia legislature created the “Savannah Watch” an appointed group of white male citizens responsible for patrolling city streets in an effort to prevent slave escapes and revolts.
53. A walking stick or cane made from the stem of various climbing palm plants.
54. Probably Mrs. Archibald Stobo Bulloch (Mary DeVaux), daughter of John and Sarah Jones Glenn.
55. A British man-of-war captured and brought into the Savannah port by the American sloop-of-war the Peacock in May 1814.
56. The James Monroe was not a U.S. Navy vessel. It was commissioned as a privateer in the War of 1812. As late as the spring of 1815, Captain Skinner’s ship was still actively seizing prizes off the coast of France and Spain, unaware of the truce ending the war. Later that spring and summer of 1815, Captain Skinner took the James Monroe on two training voyages in Nova Scotia. Grimes may have met Captain Skinner on the James Monroe sometime after September 1815; but more likely, he was aboard the ship in 1814 when it visited the port of Savannah as a regular merchant vessel.
57. Benjamin Burroughs, business partner with Oliver Sturges (Grimes’s sixth master).
58. A carpenter who specializes in constructing doors, cabinets, stairs, and other permanent woodwork.
59. Luke 23:31: “For if they do these things in a green tree, what shall be done in the dry?”
60. A colonnaded veranda.
61. A nineteenth-century glassmaker’s term for a beer, cider, or porter bottle.
62. A two-wheeled carriage drawn by a single horse.
63. Francis Harvey Welman (1780–1861), a Bermuda native, was a resident and merchant in Savannah.
64. The Casket was built in Newbury, Massachusetts, and enrolled at port on April 22, 1815. It frequently traded in Savannah and, on each occasion, carried a cargo of cotton.
65. In 1760, the port of New York began enforcing quarantines on incoming vessels. In 1801, Tompkinsville, Staten Island became the formal quarantine location for ships and passengers coming into New York.
66. In the nineteenth century, “packet-boat” referred to various-sized ships designed to transport mail, goods, and passengers on regularly scheduled routes.
67. New Haven, Connecticut, is approximately halfway between New York City and Boston on the coast of the Long Island Sound.
68. Abel Lanson, brother of William Lanson, was a prominent African American landowner and businessman in New Haven. The Lanson brothers owned a livery stable and were important hostlers in New Haven in the 1820s.
69. “Judge Clay” may refer to Henry Clay (1777–1852), a U.S. senator from Kentucky.
70. Yale College and New Haven Law School, which later became Yale Law School in 1824.
71. Providence, one hundred miles north of New Haven, is the capital of Rhode Island.
72. Newport, thirty-five miles south of Providence, is on the Rhode Island coast.
73. New Bedford, Massachusetts, thirty miles northeast of Newport, was a major whaling port in the nineteenth century.
74.The New Bedford Mercury reported that Elizabeth Bly was the victim of this break-in and attack. William Grimes was deemed a suspect on account of his supposed desire for “revenge for some trivial cause.” The Mercury claims that Grimes was arrested for the crime but was later acquitted by “Justice Williams” because of insufficient evidence. When Bly testified that she feared further bodily harm, Grimes was again arrested and placed in the Taunton Jail. Later he was acquitted a second time. There are no extant official court records of this case.
75. Located in Taunton, Massachusetts, twenty-three miles north of New Bedford and twenty miles northeast of Providence.
76. Norwich, Connecticut, is fifty miles southwest of Providence.
77. New London is fifteen miles south of Norwich on the Connecticut coast.
78. Tapping Reeve, brother-in-law of Aaron Burr, established the nation’s first recognized law school in his home in 1774. The Litchfield Law School educated many of the young nation’s leaders, including two vice presidents and many congressmen. Litchfield, Connecticut, is forty-five miles north of New Haven.
79. A light two-wheeled, one-horse carriage.
80. Oliver Wolcott, Jr. (1760–1833) was a native of Litchfield and was educated at Yale College and Litchfield Law School. He later served as governor of Connecticut from 1817 to 1826.
81. Litchfield County court records report that the case of William Grimes v. Horace Johnson was filed on May 29, 1819, but not settled until January 14, 1820. The court found in favor of Grimes and ordered Johnson to pay him thirty dollars for the sale of a diseased mare.
82. Clarissa Caesar (1799–1868) was the daughter of Trial and Timothy Caesar. Her father served in Humphrey’s all-black militia during the Revolutionary War.
83. David C. Sanford (b. 1798) practiced law in Litchfield and New Milford, Connecticut. He was later elected Superior Court Judge in New Milford. Seth P. Beers (b. 1781) attended Litchfield Law School (1803–05) and then practiced law in that town.
84. Charles Denison was an attorney in New Haven.
85. A small sleigh, usually drawn by a single horse.
86. David Daggett (1764–1851) graduated from Yale College and practiced law in New Haven. He served as Justice and then as Chief Justice on the Connecticut State Supreme Court (1826–32; 1832–34) and as major of New Haven (1828). As an advocate for states’ rights and African colonization, Daggett publicly opposed both emancipation and education for African Americans. In 1831, he helped draft a local resolution against the formation of a “negro college” in New Haven.
87. A store that sells small wares.
88. In the nineteenth century, Yale College stewards provided food for the commons and cleaned student rooms.
89. Yale tutors were usually recent graduates pursing professional studies. They typically held this teaching position for a few years before moving on to advanced work in their chosen fields.
90. Reverend Samuel Merwin, a pastor in the interdenominational United Society, married William Grimes and Clarissa Caesar on August 18, 1817.
91. Probably a “scrimmage,” meaning a fight or tussle.
92. Stephen Twining graduated from Yale in 1795 and practiced law in New Haven. He was also a steward of Yale College from 1819 to 1832.
93. Although there is no extant record of this fight in Yale president Timothy Dwight’s minutes (he became ill shortly after this period and died in February 1817), contemporary college rules confirm that students were prohibited from sending anyone to the commons to remove food or property without the permission of a professor, a tutor, or the president himself.
94. To satisfy the requirements of the New England Settlement Act of 1796, one had to prove financial independence for a period of six years or more. Such proof provided the legal right to settle in a town.
95. “Coming upon the town”: becoming dependent on public support. Town selectmen, after obtaining a warrant, had the authority to remove from the town anyone who could not prove a legal “settlement.” The selectment could also impose a weekly fine on the offender.
96. A small community five miles northwest of New Haven.
97. William H. Thompson, originally from Litchfield, was a merchant from Savannah, who acted as Welman’s emissary designated to secure payment from Grimes for his freedom.
98. This is likely Benjamin Burroughs, partner of Oliver Sturges.
99. William H. Thompson.
100. Oliver Wolcott, Jr., governor of Connecticut, 1817–1827.
101. San Francisco ship passenger lists suggest that Clarissa Grimes, along with a daughter and son-in-law, may have sailed on the Winfield Scott from New York via Panama and Acapulco to San Francisco, arriving on April 28, 1852. Although Clarissa lived in San Francisco for many years, city directory addresses in both San Francisco and New Haven show that she and her children traveled freely between the two cities. The California Grimeses maintained their ties to William Grimes. After Clarissa’s death in San Francisco in 1869, her body was transported to New Haven, where she was interred with her husband in the Grimes family plot at the historic Grove Street Cemetery.
102. Bridgeport is on the Connecticut coast, twenty miles south of New Haven.
103. Stratford is five miles north of Bridgeport.
104. Norwalk is thirteen miles south of Bridgeport.
105. Monroe, Connecticut, is fourteen miles north of Bridgeport.
106. Nathan Smith (1770–1835), United States senator and prosecuting attorney for New Haven County from 1817 to 1835. Along with Daggett, Smith publicly opposed the development of a “negro college” in New Haven.
107. Grimes may be referring here to his occupation as a “Lottery Policy Dealer,” as is noted in the United States census for the city of New Haven in 1860.
108. Stratford, Connecticut, is sixteen miles south of New Haven, on the Long Island Sound. Stratford Point refers to the lighthouse built in 1822 at the mouth of the Housatonic River.
109. A central commercial street in downtown New Haven.
110. Reverend Harry Croswell (1778–1858) was rector of Trinity Episcopal Church in New Haven from 1815 until his death in 1858. In the early 1840s, the African American population of Trinity, led by Alexander Crummell, left the church to form St. Luke’s Episcopal Church. Favoring the move, Croswell offered the use of Trinity’s parish property.
111. Probably Savannah native Joseph Clay Stiles (1795–1875), the pastor of South Church in New Haven in 1853.
112. Long Island Sound is an estuary between the coast of Connecticut and Long Island.
113. The steamer Lexington burned and sank in Long Island Sound on January 13, 1840, killing 150 passengers.
114. A likely reference to the “Dyke Causeway,” which crossed the mouth of West Creek in New Haven.
115. Lockwood Sanford, wood engraver, conducted business in Room 12 of the Mitchell Building on Chapel Street in New Haven.
116. Henry M. Wells, a daguerreotypist, operated a business in the Mitchell Building on Chapel Street. After Wells created the image of Grimes that appears in his 1855 narrative, Sanford engraved it in wood.