Known Information
Ralph N Dickinson reported the birth of child for Eliza, who he enslaved in Louisa County in 1862.
Sources
Ancestry.com. 1860 U.S. Federal Census – Slave Schedules [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2010.
Original data:United States of America, Bureau of the Census. Eighth Census of the United States, 1860. Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, 1860. M653, 1,438 rolls.
Virginia, Slave Birth Index, 1853-1866. Database. FamilySearch. https://FamilySearch.org : 6 October 2020. Citing City Court Sheriff, Richmond.
“Virginia, Freedmen’s Bureau Field Office Records, 1865-1872,” database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:S3HT-6XB7-Z3?cc=1596147&wc=9LML-4WP%3A1078517502%2C1078517501 : 25 June 2014), Louisa Courthouse (assistant subassistant commissioner) > Roll 104, Contracts, May 1865-Sep 1866 > image 205 of 314; citing NARA microfilm publication M1913 (College Park, Maryland: National Archives and Records Administration, n.d.).
In 1860, Ralph N Dickinson reported the enslavement of two people: a 17 year old female and a 35 year old male; he “hired them” from Ann Dillard of Spotsylvania, County.
During the Civil War, an enslaved woman by the name of Eliza gave birth to two children: a daughter in 1862 and a son, named William in Mary 1864. They were reported by a R(alph) N. Dickinson and recorded in what is known as the Virginia Slave Birth Index.
After the Civil War, no longer enslaved, Eliza Minor negotiated a contract with Dickinson with the help of a local agent of the Freedmen’s Bureau, formed by the federal government to aid refugees from the war, especially in the areas of education, employment and health care.
This contract made this day between Eliza Minor of the the one part and Ralph N Dickinson of the other part, witnessed that the said Eliza Minor agrees to hire herself and daughter Fanny, eight years old, to work during the year eighteen hundred + sixty six to do all kinds of work usually done by hands of her class faithfully and the said Eliza Minor further agrees to loose all time in case of sickness and to deduct from her wages in proportion in consideration of the labor being faithfully performed by the said Eliza Minor the said Ralph N Dickinson agrees to pay the said Eliza Minor thirty dollars and give her daughter Fanny one dress and one Chemise and let her cultivate half acre for garden Eliza Minor’s son to fence in the garden. Eliza Minor further agrees to do her part of the work necessary to be done on Sunday.
Labor Contract between Eliza Minor and Ralph N Dickinson
Ralph N Dickinson lived near Duckinghole Creek in Louisa County, Virginia, south of the North Anna River. His property was known as “Woodbine”. He married twice, first to Judith Harris who died of consumption, and then to Evelina Mansfield who outlived him. He was a Justice of the Peace in 1870.
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