William Hyden – Prince William County’s “12 Years a Slave"

“Notice: Was committed to the jail of Prince William County, on the 9th day of December last . . . as a runaway, who calls himself William Hyden. . . He has no papers whatsoever. If there be any owner, he is requested to come forward as the law requires and take him away.”

Thus read the newspaper notice published on March 7, 1836. The story of free African American, William Hyden, and how he ended up in the Prince William County jail, was recounted by Bill Backus, preservation curator for Historic Prince William County, in a recent Tuesday Explorers program presented by AARP Virginia.

Backus subtitled the program “12 Years a Slave” because of similarities between Hyden and Solomon Northup, another free African American who was captured and sold into slavery in 1841. After finally achieving freedom 12 years later, Northup wrote a book detailing his ordeal, which was made into a major motion picture in 2013.

Unlike Northup, little is known about Hyden. At the beginning of the Civil War, Prince William County’s courthouse was abandoned and subsequently ransacked by Union soldiers. The courthouse itself was demolished in 1863, and it is estimated that about 50 percent of its documents were destroyed. After the war, anything remaining was gathered in no real order. Some documents were also sent to Richmond.

Thanks to digitalization of these documents, said Backus, a single handwritten document, a petition for his freedom, provides about 95 percent of what researchers know about Hyden.

Hyden is believed to been born about 1813 in New York City to a white mother and an African American father. About 1827, Hyden moved to Ohio, probably to work along the river. He later decided to return to New York, for some reason travelling through Virginia. Backus speculates he was following the Potomac River and made a rest stop in Prince William County.

In the early 1800s, Virginia required free African Americans to carry and present freedom papers, which Hyden didn’t have or know he needed. As a result, he was arrested as a runaway and thrown in the jail in Brentsville, which was the county seat at the time.

Backus explained that the definition of race varied from state to state in the 19th Century. The first African American slaves arrived in Virginia in 1619, and up to the end of the American Revolution, slaves were found in all states. After the Revolution, the concept of slavery challenged Americans’ core beliefs, especially in the North.

By 1789, slavery was abolished in most New England states but still existed in New York, New Jersey, and Delaware. New York underwent a gradual emancipation, with total abolition by 1825.

Following the Revolution, laws passed in Virginia permitting slave owners to manumit or free their slaves, but freedmen were required to leave Virginia within 12 months. Many Northern states, however, discouraged migration. Since most of the free African American population was centered in the South, many chose to stay, which they could do with court permission. They were required to always carry their freedom papers with them.

Ohio became a popular destination for many free African Americans because of work along the Ohio River. By the early 1800s, the population of Cincinnati was about 10 percent African American. But as competition for jobs increased, so did racial tensions, and race riots in 1829 led to a reduction in the African American population. New laws imposed more restrictions on African Americans. Backus suspects these tensions prompted Hyden’s move from Ohio back to New York.

Since Hyden didn’t have freedom papers on him when he was apprehended, he was jailed at Brentsville. Authorities were required to recoup the cost of incarceration, so they placed a newspaper notice for him to be claimed by his owner. But, of course, Hyden was free, and no owner could claim him.

The clerk and sheriff suspected Hyden was a free man, as he claimed, but they were required to comply with the law. The handwritten document that provided information about Hyden, said Backus, was his petition for freedom filed by the clerk and sheriff. Backus also noted that, at the time, if a person petitioning for freedom appeared white, they were presumed free. But if the person appeared African American – and Hyden was mixed race and thus legally assumed African American in Virginia – they were presumed a slave.

The court subsequently appraised and put Hyden up for auction, and he was sold for $450, or about $10,000 in today’s dollars. Although not specifically documented, said Backus, it is presumed he was sold in Alexandria, which was an epicenter of slave trade.

But the slave trader refused to pay the $450, so Hyden remained a burden and cost to the court. He was subsequently sent to auction several more times, in Fredericksburg and Richmond, before returning to Brentsville. Because of his light skin, traders were unwilling to purchase him, for fear he would escape and be able to “pass” as white.

After about two years, Hyden managed to escape the Brentsville jail, and at this point his story goes cold. Backus said there is no additional information about where he went, or whether he changed his name.

Unlike Solomon Northup, Hyden was not actually enslaved, but like Northup, Hyden’s story, said Backus, “allows exploration of 19th Century race issues and free African Americans.”

This program is available on AARP Virginia’s YouTube channel. For more information about upcoming AARP Virginia Tuesday Explorers events, visit https://states.aarp.org/virginia/tuesday-explorers