Dangerfield Newby (Villard, 1910)

Dangerfield Newby, colored, was born a slave in 1815, in Fauqier County, Virginia. His father, a Scotchman, freed his mulatto children. Newby’s wife, from whom he received the touching letters given in the text, was the slave of Jesse Jennings, of Warington, Virginia. She and her children were “sold South” after the raid, but it is said that she subsequently lived in Ohio. The shot that gave Newby his death-wound cut his throat from ear to ear, the missile being a six-inch spike in lieu of a bullet. Newby was six feet two inches tall, a splendid physical specimen, of light color.