Lydia Broadnax

Lydia "Liddy" Broadnax (c. 1742 – c. 1820s) was an American free Black woman, former enslaved person, and businesswoman who lived in Williamsburg and later Richmond, Virginia.^[1][2][3][4] Some historians have suggested that Broadnax was a concubine of her former enslaver and later employer, Founding Father of the United States George Wythe.^{[5][6][7][8][9][10]} She was denied the right to testify in the trial regarding his murder because of her race.^{[11][12][13][14][15][16]}

Lydia "Liddy" Broadnax
Born	Lydia Broadnax ca. 1742 Williamsburg, Virginia, U.S.
Died	ca. 1820s Richmond, Virginia
Occupation(s)	Businesswoman and civil rights activist

Life

Lydia Broadnax was born into slavery around 1742. She was enslaved by George Wythe in Williamsburg, forced to work as a housemaid and cook for his household.^[17][18] She may have first been referenced in 1778 when Martha Jefferson noted that she "gave Mrs. Wythe's cook" eighteen shillings.^[19]

Wythe filed manumission papers for Broadnax on August 20, 1787, two days after his wife Elizabeth's death. She likely adopted her surname after gaining her freedom.^[2] Broadnax continued to work for Wythe as a paid servant. ^[20] Four years later, Broadnax accompanied Wythe as he moved to Richmond, where he had previously commuted four times yearly to handle the Chancery Court business.^[5] In addition, a young mixed-race youth, Michael Brown, born free in 1790, lived in Wythe's household.^[21][22]

By 1797, Broadnax owned her own home, where she and Brown lived, and operated a boarding house. Wythe took an interest in Brown, taught him Greek, and shared his personal library with him.^[23][5] In 1801, at Wythe's request, his friend President Thomas Jefferson intervened to ensure that Broadnax received repayment from a white man she had loaned money to.^[24]

See also: George Sweeney Trial

On May 25, 1806, Broadnax was likely poisoned by George Wythe Sweeney, who had poisoned the Wythe's household coffee with arsenic, intending to murder his great-uncle George Wythe to obtain his inheritance.^[25][12] Wythe and Brown died as a result of the poisoning.^[26] Broadnax survived the poisoning but was left almost completely blinded and in poor health. Because African American witnesses were not permitted to testify against white defendants in Virginia at that time, Broadnax was barred from presenting her evidence to the court during the George Sweeney Trial, where he was found not guilty and acquitted of all charges.^[11][27][28]

After George Wythe died in 1806, Broadnax contacted Thomas Jefferson for financial assistance. Jefferson sent Broadnax $50.^[29] Jefferson also borrowed a portrait of Wythe owned by Broadnax to have a copy made for his Monticello estate.^[11][30]

In 1819, Broadnax again sought Jefferson's assistance when William DuVal (Wythe's executor) sold her house in Richmond despite provisions in Wythe's will to provide for her after his death.^[1][11][31]

Relationship with Wythe

Some historians have regarded Broadnax as the possible concubine of Wythe and mother of Michael Brown.^{[5][6][7][8][9][10][32]} Historian Fawn M. Brodie, who linked Thomas Jefferson and Sally Hemings, has suggested that Broadnax was Wythe's lover and that Michael Brown was their son.^[33][5][34] Historian Bruce Chadwick also included this claim in his 2009 book regarding Wythe.^[7] In his 2013 book, The United States of the United Races, historian Greg Carter wrote that Broadnax "was likely [Wythe's] concubine."^[35]

This assertion was also recorded in the 1856 "Memoranda Concerning the Death of Chancellor Wythe," also known as the "Dove Memo," which was a statement of the recollections of Dr. John Dove of Richmond, Virginia, recorded by Thomas Hicks Wynne.^{[36][37][38][39]}

Historian Philip D. Morgan has noted that there is no documented gossip about Wythe and Broadnax when they were alive, unlike the case of Jefferson and Hemings, which was covered by newspapers and in individuals' letters and diaries.^[5]

Death and legacy

Broadnax died in the 1820s, leaving property and a half-acre lot to her free grandnephews.^[11] Her will was entered into the Court of Hustings in Richmond on February 26, 1827.^[40]

In his book The Two Parsons, author George Wythe Munford described Broadnax as "a servant of the olden time, respected and trusted by her master, and devotedly attached to him and his—one of those whom he had liberated, but who lived with him from affection."

Colonial Williamsburg tells the stories of 18th-century African Americans, including interpreters in programs portraying Lydia Broadnax.^{[2][41][42][43]} She is also featured in the organization's "Living History" series and the "Lydia in Liberty for Lydia Broadnax" stage play.^[44][45][46]

Broadnax is a featured character in the stage play The Death of George Wythe" by Ron Larson.^[47]

Actress Harriott Lomax portrays Broadnax in "Bought and Sold in Williamsburg" in the episode "Unearthing Secret America" for Scientific American Frontiers (Season 13, Episode 1).

References

1. McKnight, Andrew Nunn (1994). "Lydia Broadnax. Slave and Free Woman of Color". Southern Studies. 5 (1 & 2).
2. "Lydia Broadnax | Slavery and Remembrance". slaveryandremembrance.org. Retrieved February 14, 2023.
3. Fradin, Dennis Brindell (January 1, 2002). The Signers: The 56 Stories Behind the Declaration of Independence. Bloomsbury Publishing USA. ISBN 978-0-8027-8849-8.
4. White, William. "Historic sites and your students." Social Education 74.2 (2010): 74-75.
5. Philip D. Morgan, "Interracial Sex in the Chesapeake", in Sally Hemings and Thomas Jefferson: History, Memory and Civic Culture, Eds. J.E. Lewis and P.S. Onuf. Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia, 1999, pp. 55–60.
6. Gordon-Reed, Annette (August 25, 2009). The Hemingses of Monticello: An American Family. W. W. Norton & Company. ISBN 978-0-393-33776-1.
7. Chadwick, Bruce (2009). I Am Murdered: George Wythe, Thomas Jefferson, and the Killing That Shocked a New Nation. Wiley. ISBN 978-0-470-18551-3.
8. Bailey, John (May 1, 2013). Jefferson's Second Father. Pan. ISBN 978-1-74334-214-5.
9. Meacham, Jon (November 13, 2012). Thomas Jefferson: The Art of Power. Random House Publishing Group. ISBN 978-1-4000-6766-4.
10. Franklin, Maria. "Rethinking the Carter's Grove slave quarter reconstruction: a proposal." politics 796 (1993): 7.
11. "Founders Online: Lydia Broadnax to Thomas Jefferson, 2 June 1819". founders.archives.gov. Retrieved February 14, 2023.
12. . Archived from the original on February 19, 2008. Retrieved December 1, 2007.
13. "The Mysterious Death of Judge George Wythe". HistoryNet. December 11, 2008. Retrieved February 14, 2023.
14. Browne-Marshall, Gloria J. (January 1, 2021). She Took Justice: The Black Woman, Law, and Power – 1619 to 1969. Routledge. ISBN 978-1-000-28355-6.
15. Taylor, Jaquelin Payne (November 1, 2011). Love and War: The Eventful Life & Times of Polly & John Marshall. iUniverse. ISBN 978-1-4620-5695-8.
16. Powell Jr, Lewis F. "George Wythe." J. Sup. Ct. Hist. (1990): 25.
17. Evans-Hylton, Patrick (June 10, 2019). Classic Restaurants of Coastal Virginia. Arcadia Publishing. ISBN 978-1-4671-4017-1.
18. Elizabeth City County Personal Property Taxes, 1783
19. Colonial Williamsburg: The Official Guide. Colonial Williamsburg. December 8, 2014. ISBN 978-0-87935-265-3.
20. Manumission Papers, August 20, 1787
21. Bruce Chadwick, "The Mysterious Death of George Wythe", American History, on History.net, February 2009, pp. 36–41
22. Gable, Eric. "Maintaining boundaries, or 'mainstreaming' black history in a white museum." The Sociological Review 43.S1 (1995): 177-202.
23. Rev. Charles A. Goodrich, "George Wythe", in Lives of the Signers to the Declaration of Independence, New York: William Reed & Co., 1856, pp. 364–372, accessed 6 April 2011
24. Bailey, John (May 1, 2013). Jefferson's Second Father. Pan. ISBN 978-1-74334-214-5.
25. Kappman, Edward W., ed. (1994). Great American Trials. Detroit, MI: Visible Ink Press. pp. 75–77. ISBN 0-8103-9134-1.
26. Wolfe, Brendan. "Wythe, The Death of George (1806)". Encyclopedia Virginia. Retrieved February 14, 2023.
27. "Were Jefferson and Broadnax Suspects in the Murder of George Wythe?". HistoryNet. February 9, 2016. Retrieved February 14, 2023.
28. Aitken, Robert; Aitken, Marilyn (2007). Law Makers, Law Breakers, and Uncommon Trials. American Bar Association. ISBN 978-1-59031-880-5.
29. "Lydia Broadnax - George Wythe's slave". www.slaveryandremembrance.org. Retrieved February 14, 2023.
30. "Founders Online: To Thomas Jefferson from Lydia Broadnax, 9 April 1807". founders.archives.gov. Retrieved February 14, 2023.
31. Jefferson, Thomas (March 6, 2018). The Papers of Thomas Jefferson: Retirement Series, Volume 14: 1 February to 31 August 1819. Princeton University Press. ISBN 978-1-4008-9047-7.
32. Brophy, Alfred L. University, court, and slave: Pro-slavery thought in southern colleges and courts and the coming of civil war. Oxford University Press, 2016.
33. Brodie, Fawn McKay (1974). Thomas Jefferson: An Intimate History. W. W. Norton & Company. ISBN 978-0-393-31752-7.
34. Smith, John L. (December 5, 2013). "Murder of a Declaration Signer (Part 2)". Journal of the American Revolution. Retrieved February 14, 2023.
35. Carter, Greg (April 22, 2013). The United States of the United Races: A Utopian History of Racial Mixing. NYU Press. ISBN 978-0-8147-7250-8.
36. Bailey, John (May 1, 2013). Jefferson's Second Father. Pan. ISBN 978-1-74334-214-5.
37. ""Memoranda Concerning the Death of Chancellor Wythe" - Wythepedia: The George Wythe Encyclopedia". lawlibrary.wm.edu. Retrieved February 14, 2023.
38. "Chapter 28: "Chancellor Wythe's Death"; an excerpt from The Two Parsons by George Wythe Munford (1884)". Encyclopedia Virginia. Retrieved February 14, 2023.
39. Denham, James M. (July 15, 2015). Florida Founder William P. DuVal: Frontier Bon Vivant. Univ of South Carolina Press. ISBN 978-1-61117-467-0.
40. James City Personal Property Taxes, microfilm
41. "Crossing the Invisible Line". www.colonialwilliamsburg.org. October 2, 2020. Retrieved February 14, 2023.
42. Hoffer, Peter Charles (December 12, 2005). Sensory Worlds in Early America. JHU Press. ISBN 978-0-8018-8392-7.
43. Shaffer, Marguerite S. "Selling the Past/Co-Opting History: Colonial Williamsburg as Republican Disneyland." American Quarterly, vol. 50, no. 4, 1998, pp. 875–84. JSTOR, JSTOR 30042175. Accessed 14 Feb. 2023.
44. "Reflections on 'Created Equal'". www.colonialwilliamsburg.org. July 2020. Retrieved February 14, 2023.
45. "Mr. Wythe's Cook — Past & Present Podcasts : Colonial Williamsburg Official Site". podcast.history.org. Retrieved February 14, 2023.
46. Handler, Richard; Gable, Eric (1997). The New History in an Old Museum: Creating the Past at Colonial Williamsburg. Duke University Press. ISBN 978-0-8223-1974-0.
47. Larson, Ron (2003). The Death of Meriwether Lewis and Other Plays. iUniverse. ISBN 978-0-595-29460-2.