Draft:Gilbert Hunt

A photograph of Gilbert Hunt, taken in 1860

Gilbert Hunt was an African-American blacksmith and former enslaved person who lived in Richmond, Virginia in the early-nineteenth century. Hunt was born into slavery in Northeast Richmond where he was owned by a number of unidentified masters. His blacksmithing skill was widely acknowledged and exploited until he purchased his own freedom in 1829. Before then, Hunt gained notoriety in Richmond due to his bravery during the Richmond Theatre Fire and the Virginia State Penitentiary fire, having risked his life to save the lives of others. He was considered a local hero, and this reputation stayed with him until his death.

After purchasing his freedom, Hunt emigrated to Liberia, returning after only eight months. On resettling in Richmond, he began advocating against the Liberian project. Soon after, he became a deacon of Richmond's First African American Church: a position he used to advocate his views on Liberia. In his old age, Hunt's life story was recorded in a slave narrative, Gilbert Hunt, the City Blacksmith. The publication of this narrative was prefaced on garnering financial support from the Richmond community, off which he lived until his passing in 1863. This narrative remains the primary source for information on Hunt's life.

Early Life and enslavement

Believed to be born between the years of 1775 and 1782, Gilbert Hunt was born into slavery in Northeast Richmond. As a young man, Hunt worked in a tavern outside of Richmond called the Piping Tree, owned by an unidentified master. When the youngest daughter of this master was to be married, Hunt accompanied the family to Richmond, where he began to learn carriage-making alongside her husband. After some time, Hunt was sold to a second master, having become an adept carriage-maker and worker of iron goods. He served this master for some five years until the man's death. He was sold to his final master soon after, who he worked for during the War of 1812. His master's shop was commissioned to produce guns, cannon balls, horseshoes, and other iron war-goods. In this time, Hunt's master served in the US Army and ran his master's blacksmithing shop with a substantial degree of autonomy. In his slave narrative, Hunt described his relationship with this final master as 'loyal and caring', built on mutual respect and trust. It was with the money Hunt raised during the war, and on the impetus of his master's goodwill toward his service, that he was able to purchase his freedom soon after.

During his time as a slave, Hunt also played a vital role in rescuing several Richmond residents during two major fires. On December 26th, 1811, the Richmond Theatre caught fire. Hunt rescued individuals stuck inside by retrieving a ladder and placing it against the theatre, beneath a second-storey window. Along with the ladder, Hunt was tasked with catching women who were dropped from a second window by Dr. James D. McCaw. On August 8th, 1823, a second fire occurred at the Virginia State Penitentiary. After the theatre fire, Hunt had become a volunteer for Richmond’s fire brigade. He assisted the captain of the fire brigade in using buckets of water to create a path through the enflamed block of the prison. Thanks in part to Hunt’s bravery, none of the 244 prisoners died. Hunt noted in his slave narrative that, ironically, he had to make handcuffs for all the prisoners the next day.

Life in Liberia

In 1829, having purchased his freedom for $800 (equivalent to ~$25,000 USD today), Hunt relocated to Liberia. Along with 159 freed African-American Virginians, Hunt left for west Africa on a ship called 'Harriett' on February 9th, 1829. They arrived in Monrovia on March 24th of that year. It was popular at this time for free African Americans to settle in the colony, which had been established by the US for that purpose. One of the earliest and most respected settlers was a Virginian, named Lott Carey, and another Virginian, Jack Lewis, hosted Hunt on arrival.

During his time in Liberia, Hunt was confronted by the prevalence of the slave trade, in which African-American Liberians participated. This was brought to his attention when he encountered a vessel of recently captured Africans heading from Monrovia to Cuba. In his biography, he recounted the way in which ‘They were all securely ironed to prevent their escape, and put up in stalls and fed, like cattle, on wheat bran.’ Hunt described ‘the cruelty with which they were treated’ as ‘ma(king) my heart sick’. Hunt returned to Virginia after only eight months in Africa, where he began advocating against the Liberian project. This criticism of Liberian colonisation was polarising at the time, as many African Americans saw the colony as aspirational, while white supremacists supported it as a means of depopulating the freed population of North America.

Time as Deacon and Church controversies

In the 1840s, the First African Baptist Church agreed to honour Hunt as a deacon of the church. This new position granted Hunt the opportunity to offer prayers, counsel the grievance committees, attend judicial cases, and participate in deliberations on who could receive financial assistance from the church. His time as a deacon was marked by controversy. In 1842, he was charged for inciting a brawl with another church member, Abel Jefferson. After this, he tendered his resignation. Although this resignation was accepted, Dr. Robert Ryland, the church’s white minister advised the deacons against dismissing Hunt. In 1844, the congregation re-elected Hunt as a deacon.

On February 8, 1847, Hunt was given a summon to arrive in the Richmond Hustings Court on the charge of “selling by retail ardent spirits to be drunk at the places where sold, without licence”. On the day of the court procedure, Hunt did not attend the hearing. Another order was issued on September 15, which he again avoided. The charges were dropped in May 1848.

On January 23, 1848, Hunt was amongst a group of twenty free black Richmonders who established the Union Burial Ground Society. The society built a cemetery and offered free African Americans the opportunity to obtain burial lots for $10, which could then be used to inter free or enslaved African-Americans.

Later life

In his later life, Hunt owned two slaves. These were believed to be family members who Hunt was attempting to help, as a new Virginian law obliged all newly freed slaves to leave the state within a year of their freedom. This practice was commonplace at the time. The elderly Hunt gained attention in local papers as a figure connecting present Richmond to its past. The Penny Post and the Richmond Whig described him as a hero and advocated for his financial support. The Richmond Daily Dispatch questioned ‘Shall we neglect him in his old age, when the arm which defended, and the hand which saved our fathers and mothers are palsied with age?’ In 1859, Philip Barret interviewed Hunt to raise funds through the publication of a slave narrative: a popular genre at the time. This became 'Gilbert Hunt, The City Blacksmith'. Hunt passed away four years later on April 26th, 1863.

Gilbert Hunt, the City Blacksmith

The titlepage of Gilbert Hunt, the City Blacksmith

Gilbert Hunt, the City Blacksmith is a biographical pamphlet written in the slave narrative form, published in Richmond, Virginia in 1859. It narrates the life of Gilbert Hunt, a former enslaved person and blacksmith who came to notoriety in early-nineteenth century Richmond. The biography was transcribed by 'Philip Barret', a pseudenym for a man named Thomas Ward White, and it was prefaced on raising funds for the elderly Hunt. It describes Hunt's experiences of slavery, his role saving lives in the Richmond Theatre Fire of 1811, his brief time living in colonial Liberia, and his later years. Since publication, the pamphlet has become the subject of scholarship that seeks to discern the account's veracity.

Style and Purpose

Gilbert Hunt, the City Blacksmith is an example of a slave narrative, a form of biography popularised in the nineteenth century. Typical of the genre, the biography narrates the life of an enslaved person, Gilbert Hunt. As the people who were subjects of such biographies were often illiterate, it was commonplace for the text to be attributed to another author, responsible for transcribing the subject’s testimony during interviews. In the case of Gilbert Hunt, the City Blacksmith, this process was conducted by a Richmond reverend named Thomas Ward White, writing with the pseudonym that appears on the pamphlet’s titlepage, ‘Philip Barret.’

Gilbert Hunt’s slave narrative is unusual to the genre, owing to its purpose. The production of slave narratives in the decades prior to the Civil War (1820s - 1860s)  was characterised by concerted efforts to engender support for abolitionism. These biographies, such as Solomon Northup’s Twelve Years a Slave, consisted largely of detailed descriptions of the harshness of life as an enslaved person. In contrast, Gilbert Hunt’s biography focuses little on his enslavement, often describing the experience favourably, and instead much of the text narrates his life after achieving freedom. The text is prefaced not on garnering sympathy for the abolitionist movement but on raising funds to assist the elderly Hunt in his old age. For this reason, it appeals to a local Richmond readership who knew of Hunt, rather than to the more national audiences sought by other contemporary examples of the form.

Contents

Chapter I - His Early Life

Gilbert Hunt says he was born circa. 1780, raised within a locale owned by his wealthy master in King William County. Learning artisanship in Richmond, he is sold twice over the course of a few years, subsequently toiling as a blacksmith under his last master for the War of 1812. As both his master and family evacuate, he is entrusted with looking after the premises. Upon their return, he relinquishes control. Hunt sentimentally cherishes them for their benevolence and describes how valiantly he would have defended their property.

Chapter II - The Burning of the Penitentiary

Now a firefighter, Hunt describes the scene of a fire at the Virginia State Penitentiary. He is sympathetic to the prisoners’ plight despite referring to them pejoratively. With the aid of his captain, they are able to rescue the prisoners one by one. The last prisoner rushes back to his cell to get his Bible, an action which stands out to Hunt. He says that perhaps that Bible was a childhood gift from his mother. Hunt spends the following day making handcuffs for the prisoners, much to his dismay as he expresses pity for their condition.

Chapter III - His Visit to Africa

At this point in his recount, Hunt is embarking on his long-awaited voyage to Liberia in Africa, arriving on the 17th of March. He remarks on the beauty and richness of the country’s geographical features. Venturing further, he is taken aback at the intellectual and cultural etiquette of the people. Later on, he laments the treatment of slaves who are being transported to Cuba. Witnessing the tattered state of a fellow blacksmith, he notes that Africans are not the barbarians they are purported to be. He returns to America in November. The chapter ends with a lighthearted anecdote from Hunt, in which he describes being conned by African natives into giving them his tobacco (bestowed by his captain) upon arrival. Defeated, he demands himself that he be taken back to Virginia.

Chapter IV - The Visit of Lafayette

Recalling Marquis de Lafayette’s visit to Richmond in 1824, Hunt extols the soldier as a figure of humility. This is taken as a quintessential encounter in his life. Hunt’s purchase of freedom at over $800 and his membership at the Baptist Church for half a century are also mentioned to be of significance.

Chapter V - The Burning of the Richmond Theatre

In a retrospective of the Richmond Theatre Fire, Hunt’s selflessness in saving others is commemorated, enshrining his legacy. Two sources are excerpted to provide a broader context, before Hunt’s own recount. After returning from church service, he is alarmed by the announcement of the theatre catching fire. His wife’s mistress pleads for him to rush to the building and potentially save her daughter. He notices a Dr. James McCaw at one of the top windows, who yells for him to catch the women as he drops them, he immediately obliges. As they finish, the flames catch up to McCaw, prompting him to jump. Hunt rushes to his aid, taking him away to safety before the building collapses. The next day, he revisits the scene and witnesses the catastrophic aftermath. Having never found his mistress, he presumes her deceased. Concluding his memoir, he is silent and teary-eyed.

Scholarly reception

Historical scholarship engaging with the text has sought to understand the truthfulness of Hunt’s narration. Corroborating sources attest to much of what is considered in the earlier parts of the biography. Contemporary newspapers celebrate Hunt’s integral role in the 1811 Richmond Theatre Fire and a commemorative stone bearing his name was incorporated into the structure of the Richmond Monumental Church, built on the site. Hunt’s description of colonial Liberia is also consistent with other accounts from the time that he lived there.

The biography’s description of Hunt’s later life contains inconsistencies with the historical record. Namely, the text describes Hunt as impoverished, and it is toward ameliorating the elderly man’s economic hardship that the pamphlet was prefaced. In spite of this, census records from the time of publication indicate that the man had considerable assets, making it unlikely that he was in need of any financial assistance.

Gilbert Hunt, the City Blacksmith also omits points in Hunt’s life that paint the figure in a poor light. In 1842 the man was charged by Richmond Police with assaulting a congregant at the First African Baptist Church where he was deacon. This evidence of violent behaviour suggests that the assessment of his character as “meek” given by the biography is unlikely. Also, In 1847 he was charged with the unlicensed sale of alcohol, for which he avoided making a court appearance until the charges were dropped the following year.