Unlike the other property-owning African Americans who lived in antebellum Harrisonburg, there is still a possible trace of the Strother family in the city's historical landscape. In June 1860, William Strother owned two homes along North High Street. One stood at the southeast corner of North High Street and Elizabeth Street, and the other at the southeast corner of North High Street and Wolfe Street; this structure likely still stands.

 

At the time of the 1860 census, the Strothers had probably just moved into the house near Wolfe Street. Months earlier, William Strother had itemized a list of his real estate and recorded that he was in the process of demolishing the "old home" at the site, making way for a new structure. William, who worked as a well-digger, lived in the new home with his 54 year old wife Mary, his two sons Archibald, age 23, and William, age 17, as well as daughters Jane, age 19, and Keal, who was 6 years old. William passed on his trade to his two sons who also worked as well-diggers.

 

William was born into slavery about 1797 in Virginia. He was from a bi-racial background and blind in his left eye. For the first several decades of his life, William was known as Billy Carpenter and owned by George Carpenter. The Carpenters were a German family, originally known as the Zimmermans, and George Carpenter was a veteran of the American Revolution. When George Carpenter died circa 1828, he emancipated William in his will. Much like Jacob Spangler, William faced the risks of having to leave the state due to his newfound emancipation and petitioned the state legislature for permission to remain in Harrisonburg.

 

William's petition, which was written for him by attorney David Steele, reveals detailed information about the lives of enslaved people in antebellum Harrisonburg. According to William, he was married to an enslaved woman who was owned by Colonel John Kenney, a prominent Harrisonburg attorney. William noted that his wife was "upwards of 60 years of age," decades older than himself, and that Kenney refused to sell her her freedom. The details of William's marriage show that much as in other parts of the South, enslaved people in Harrisonburg married slaves owned by different families. William's petition shows that as a slave, he was essentially "rented" by Carpenter to people all over Harrisonburg to dig wells, construct cisterns, build ponds, or do roadwork, and he may have met his wife through his mobility within the city.

 

William's petition also contains details about the personal processes that were a part of emancipation. Specifically, his petition shows how William created a new identity after gaining his freedom. According to Harrisonburg residents who signed his petition, William had previously been known as Billy Carpenter. Evidently, within a year of his manumission, he changed his name to William Strother, choosing, unlike Jacob Spangler, not to retain his former owner's surname. Many people born into slavery were given diminutive nicknames, such as Billy, by their owners as first names. This was a way to permanently characterize them as "child-like" and enforce notions of supposed paternalism among slave-owners. In changing his first name from Billy to William, William Strother created a new identity for himself as a free man. It is unknown why he chose the surname of Strother. To read the original copy of William's petition, or a transcription of the text, please click the two links located at the lower right hand corner of this page.

 

Fortunately for William, the Virginia legislature granted his exemption to remain in Harrisonburg. Several months after he received permission to remain in the city, on April 21, 1830, William purchased a half-acre of property at the corner of North High Street and Elizabeth Street from Benjamin and Elizabeth Graham for $1. Interestingly, the Grahams sold an adjacent half-acre of property to a free black man named William Bundy the same day, also for the token amount of $1. The Grahams were from a prominent Harrisonburg family and noted that the full acre of land was pasture that Benjamin had inherited from his father's estate. Their motivations behind essentially giving the property away to two free African Americans are a mystery. On this lot, William built his first home, which he later sold to Augustus Hopkins.

 

By the late 1830s, William's first wife, with whom he had no children, passed away. Judging by the 1837 birth date of his eldest child, he remarried prior to that time. William was evidently successful at his occupation as a well-digger, and in July 1856 he purchased two additional houses near his own for $350 from a local white family. Following this transcation, William sold his original home to Augustus Hopkins, moved into one of his new dwellings, and sold the other to the prominent Harrisonburg judge, John C. Woodson. Two years later, he bought another half-acre of land, this time from Augustus Hopkins, at the corner of North High Street and Wolfe Street. It was on this lot that William built another new house in 1860, after removing an older structure that stood on the property. This is the home that may still stand today.

 

William died sometime from 1866-1872, and his family became embroiled in the same court case over the Wolfe Street property that the Hopkins family found themselves in, due to the fact that both Augustus Hopkins and William both died before paying off the mortgages on their adjacent properties. The family of the man who initially sold the entire lot demanded that both the Hopkins and Strother families leave the land, and that it be auctioned to pay off their debts. According to court records, William's daughter Jane moved into the home on the property in May 1873, and refused to vacate the premises. After years of litigation, the county court ruled against the Hopkins and Strother families, and the property, along with its "dwelling house," was sold in August 1876 for $162.50. Strother's other home, which he purchased in 1856, was torn down by the early twentieth century, but a map drafted in 1877, as well as successive Sanborn Fire Insurance maps, strongly suggest that the building currently standing at the southeastern corner of North High Street and Wolfe Street is the house built by William Strother circa 1860. This is a unique physical reminder of Harrisonburg's property-owning African American population from the antebellum era.