No First Name For Mr. Sledd Who Murdered a Slave in 1811

It's not really a surprise when records leave out one key piece of information. But it certainly is frustrating. It is even more frustrating when the individual committed a crime that appeared in several contemporary newspapers of the era, all of which apparently copied the item from the original newspaper in which it appeared. Newspapers copying items from other newspapers (and indicating the source) was a common practice in the early 18th century.

I first learned of the 1811 slave murder when searching for references to my Sledd family on  Genealogybank. The vast majority of  Sledd references before 1850 in  Genealogybank refer to this murder--which was not what I was actually looking for. A search of GoogleBooks located the reference below (which has been mentioned before on this blog). Unfortunately none of the online references provides the first name of Mr. Sledd and "new" (at least to me) newspaper references to the incident fail to provide a first name for Mr. Sledd.

This is not the first time I've written about the 1811 slave murder. But now I've given up on locating an online reference to his complete name.

A London publication provides a summary of the incident which parallels the contemporary newspaper accounts.

 The entry on page 160 which discusses the incident appears below.


Sources indicate that the records of the Virginia State Penitentiary do not go back far enough to mention this specific incarceration. Chancery court records for Bedford County, Virginia, are online at the Library of Virginia, but those are not criminal records and those records to not contain a reference to the court case.

This is a case where online materials may not answer my question and it looks like I need to access materials in the Bedford County Courthouse or the Library of Virginia in order to answer my question as to which Sledd man is referred to in these documents. It is also possible that the full name of Mr. Sledd is listed in local newspaper accounts of the incident.

One More Sledd Slave Incident Account

Searches for more on the Sledd who murdered a slave in Bedford County, Virginia around 1810 located an additional reference on GenealogyBank from a newspaper in Pennsylvania. Apparently a politician in South Carolina was going to introduce a bill regarding the "murder of negro[s]." Whether this bill was precipitated by the Sledd incident I'm not certain, but it could not have been the only incident. 

I'm still working on locating the first name of this Sledd individual. I think that I've about exhausted online references and it's time to go to offline sources for more on this story. The newspapers on Genealogybank.com have been extremely helpful, but there are times where other sources need to be utilized. This is one of those times.

Date: Monday, March 4, 1811  

Paper: Washington Reporter (Washington, PA) --obtained on 

Genealogybank.com

Date: Monday, March 4, 1811  

Paper: Washington Reporter (Washington, PA) --obtained on 

Genealogybank.com

I had to split this reference up into two images for posting here. Apparently the Library of Virginia has records of the penitentiary, but records of individual prisoners do not go back this early. Local court records and local newspaper accounts are probably my best bet for additional information. The description of the beating is quite detailed in this newspaper account, including the application of a pepper and tobacco mixture to rub into the wounds.

Stay tuned.

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Reminder--we don't include complete citations on blog posts--just our personal preference. Complete citations are always included in Casefile Clues or you can learn about citations in Elizabeth Shown Mills' Evidence Explained. We always do include enough background information in blog posts that readers can find our original sources.If you think we don't, please fire off an email to me at mjnrootdig@gmail.com 

Sledd Slave Articles

Last night's post on the 1811 "Sledd Slave Incident" got me searching  on  Genealogybank for additional references to the incident besides the one I had first stumbled upon. 

A search for keywords "sledd bedford slave" in 1811 on  Genealogybank located only four references as shown:

It appeared that these articles were pretty much "copy and paste"  jobs from the original article. I'm not certain what was the "original" article (Genealogybank doesn't have everything), but the earliest one on Genealogybank was from 21 January 1811. I need to obtain newspapers closer to Lynchburg during this time period to hopefully obtain more information.

Date: Monday, January 21, 1811  

Paper: Commercial Advertiser (New York, NY) obtained on  Genealogybank  

In thinking of places to help me determine just exactly what Sledd this was, there might be court records (particularly criminal) against him or his name may be mentioned in the estate records of Henry Davies as  Sledd was renting the slave from the Davies estate. 

Which Sledd Killed a Slave in 1811?

Searches yield things that one never expects. I was looking for references to members of the Sledd family in Virginia before 1820 using  Genealogybank  and came upon several references to the death of a slave at the hands of man named Sledd from the vicinity of Bedford County, Virginia.

 "Mr. Sledd" who was sentenced to two years in the Virginia penitentiary for the death of a slave in 1811. Apparently Sledd sought to "punish" his slave in such a manner that resulted in her death.

A summary of the incident is contained here:

La Belle Assemblée, Volume 3, page 161--obtained on Google Books

The title page for this item appears below:


In all honesty, I didn't obtain this first on Google Books. I was actually looking for references to Sledds in Virginia before 1820 using    Genealogybank and several references to this incident were all that I was able to locate. This item appears to have been copied verbatim from some of the newspaper accounts of the incident which are also in digitized newspapers  on  Genealogybank. 

I'm working on putting together a few snippets of the newspaper accounts for a future blog post.

This reference only lists the man as "Sledd," not indicating which "Sledd" it is. I'll have to determine what connection this man has to my own Sledd family which had moved to Kentucky by this date. Most likely this will be done with census and other local county records. I will be going through the references to the incident on  Genealogybank  to determine if any mention Sledd's first name.

A discovery of a not-so-pleasant part of our past.