Commemorating Freedom By Remembering Its Thwarting

Site of Runaway Slaves' Jailings, Executions Is Recognized

Amid the triumphant tales of liberation connected to the Underground Railroad, the secret network used by slaves to navigate passage north, were stories of what happened to those caught trying to escape.

Landon, an imprisoned runaway slave, was convicted in 1839 of setting fire to Prince William County's jail -- though no witnesses saw him start the blaze -- and sentenced to death. William Hyden, a free black man, was unjustly jailed as a "runaway" for nearly a year before he escaped.

These and other cases can be traced to the Brentsville Courthouse Historic Centre, which has been added to the National Park Service's National Underground Railroad Network to Freedom, Prince William officials announced last month. The Park Service's program recognizes sites that tell "the story of resistance against the institution of slavery in the United States through escape and flight," according to the Park Service's Web site.

Brentsville, once the seat of government in Prince William, is the latest site in Virginia to be added to the list, which includes the Loudoun County Courthouse.

The Brentsville site -- five buildings, four of which have undergone nearly $2 million in restoration over the past 10 years by the county's Department of Public Works -- highlights perhaps the biggest impediment black people faced when struggling for liberty: the law of the land.

"The laws were written differently to work against freed blacks and slaves," said Rob Orrison, manager of the Brentsville site. "These buildings served as the county government center, and for a government based off of freedom and liberty, these buildings were also used to exhibit a kind of justice we today don't consider very just."

Although a panel of at least five magistrates was required to hear a white person's case, only one was required in cases of slaves and freed blacks, Orrison said. Slaves' trials were often rushed, with death sentences imposed relatively liberally, and slaves were almost always prohibited from serving as witnesses to events.

Next to the courthouse stands the jail that housed the county's runaways from the 1820s to 1860s. The interior is dilapidated and musty, its walls stripped of layers of plaster to expose thick timbers that surrounded former jail cells. Holes where cell bars were remain in the oak beams, and iron bars shield the window in a former cell on the second floor.

"They would have put the runaway slaves upstairs, because they were a flight risk," Orrison said.

In one exposed section of wall outside an upstairs room, two wooden beams are missing, perhaps because of the fire allegedly set by Landon, Orrison posited.

In that case, three witnesses testified to Landon's guilt. The fire began in the room adjoining his, Orrison said. A piece of burned cloth found in a hole in a floorboard was used against him as evidence. On April 4, 1839, he was sentenced to death by hanging.

For less severe sentences, there was a whipping post in front of the jail, which housed black and white prisoners. Slave auctions were also held on the grounds, sometimes for the county to recoup the expense of catching and housing runaways.

When a death sentence was issued, a gallows would be erected in the northwest corner of the courthouse property, Orrison said. According to an 1875 account in the Alexandria Gazette, the structure was built of heavy pine posts, with the platform 7 1/2 feet aboveground and seats arranged for the press "within the enclosure surrounding this scaffold."

Orrison said he hopes the excitement of being named to the Underground Railroad list will spur donations to fund the restoration of the jail, an important link to the county's past.

"It's in bad shape," Orrison said. "It's deteriorating pretty fast. . . . Our long-range goal is to return that jail to its 1822 configuration. It completes the story for us."