“Call us men and brethren, and all the tears shed in the past will be forgotten”

Riddle me this. What is the connection between an African American sheriff and postmaster in Essex County, Virginia, a Freedmen’s Bureau teacher in Tappahannock, and a Black Civil War veteran from Philadelphia? (Spoiler alert! They were all named George Stephens).

As a Library of Virginia volunteer, I research and draft biographies for the Dictionary of Virginia Biography (DVB). Although every biography project starts with a name, no two research journeys are alike, depending upon the availability of vital records and documentation, validity of historical sources, and conflicting accounts. Uncovering the “real” George Stephens would take a number of unusual twists and turns, leading to a surprising ending.

I was asked to research the life of George Stephens to determine if he was a candidate for a DVB entry. The file I was given on George Stephens was painfully thin, filled with an 1869 newspaper clipping reporting that “George B. Stevens, negro, qualified last week . . . as sheriff of Essex County. This the first and only negro sheriff in Virginia.” A second piece of paper suggested that Stevens, with a different surname spelling, had served in the Civil War.¹ If Stephens was the first African American sheriff in Virginia, as well as a Union soldier, it would certainly be a historical footnote worth documenting—but was it true?

A microfilm search of the Essex County order books confirmed that in 1869 “George E. Stephens negro has duly qualified as Sheriff of this County.”² A review of the Essex County deed books for 1869 further confirmed that “George E. Stephens, who has been by Major George R. S. Canby, Commanding First Military District of Virginia, appointed Sheriff of the County of Essex.”³ Additionally, Essex County’s Record of United States Appointments of Postmasters lists a George E. Stephens as postmaster between December 4, 1868, and October 18, 1869.

A further search of Virginia Chronicle, the Library of Virginia’s digital newspaper archive, introduced two additional puzzle pieces. An article published in the Richmond Daily Dispatch on December 21, 1869 (less than four months after his appointment as sheriff), announced that “Stephens, the negro sheriff of Essex county, has resigned.” And on  March 15, 1870, the Daily Dispatch accused the Essex County comptroller, a “Philadelphia negro (George E. Stephens)” with robbing mail, embezzling State funds, swindling citizens, and “six weeks ago, left for parts unknown.”⁴ While this information validated that a George Stephens was both the sheriff and postmaster of Essex County, it raised other questions. If he was from Philadelphia, what led him to Essex County, Virginia? And what was the reason for his brief tenure?

A search of Ancestry.com for a George Stephens from Philadelphia yielded a surprising result—numerous Freedmen’s Bureau monthly reports listing George Stephens as a Freedmen’s teacher in Essex County, Virginia, from 1867 to 1870. Letters exchanged between Stephens and Reverend Ralza M. Manly, the Bureau’s Superintendent of Education for Virginia, reflect his accomplishments and struggles in educating the newly-emancipated. In 1868, Stephens wrote that “The hostility of a large class of people both colored and white, the ignorance and indifference of the mass of the colored population . . . to say nothing of my own straightened circumstances, have at times almost overwhelmed me. Had it not been for the assistance of the Bureau I should certainly have failed.”⁵

Research to this point substantiated that a George E. Stephens had been a Freedmen’s Bureau teacher, sheriff, and postmaster in Essex County, Virginia. A search of Civil War databases also confirmed that a George E. Stephens from Philadelphia had enlisted in the 54th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry Regiment in 1863 and had been discharged in 1865 as a second lieutenant. This George Stephens not only fought bravely for the United States but also served as an embedded war correspondent for the New York Weekly Anglo-African newspaper. His published letters are a testament to the courage and sacrifice made by Black soldiers in the face of prejudice, such as his description of the “hellish storm” the 54th endured at the battle of Fort Wagner: “The rebs withheld their fire until we reached within fifty yards of the work, when jets of flame darted froth from every corner and embrasure  . . . we fought them one hour before we were re-enforced; and when the 3rd New Hampshire, which as presumed to be our re-enforcements [reached us], they, to a man, emptied their rifles into us.”⁶

George E. Stephens—soldier, teacher, postmaster, and sheriff—four historical figures, same name. Same person? I was still missing a verifiable connection between the soldier from Philadelphia and the teacher/postmaster/sheriff in Virginia. Additional context was needed, and ultimately provided, by a book entitled A Voice of Thunder: The Civil War Letters of George E. Stephens, edited by Donald Yacovone. Secondary sources such as A Voice of Thunder, as well as journals and historical articles, are often excellent sources for answering these questions.

Yacovone wrote that after the Civil War Stephens returned to Philadelphia but was soon inspired to “provide freed people with the education that slavery had denied them.” Stephens announced that he had “determined to remove there [Virginia] as soon as I can get ready, and cast my lot and fortunes or misfortunes . . . in the old Dominion.”⁷ This was the missing link between all four biographical threads; in 1867, George Stephens left Philadelphia for Virginia, traveling through the same killing fields he had trod as a soldier, to teach the newly-freed.

Stephens encountered the same daunting challenges faced by hundreds of other Freedmen’s Bureau teachers; the hostility of white citizens, the lack of schoolhouse facilities and materials, the struggle for funding, and strong cultural differences between Northern and Southern African Americans. Although Stephens made progress in educating his students, by 1869 he was in financial distress; acquiring the sheriff and postmaster positions were likely efforts to improve his finances. Complaints from other teachers that he was neglecting his duties led Stephens to resign from these positions, promising Manly he would “devote more fully my time and services to the cause of education.”⁸ But with Congress’s refusal in 1869 to recharter the Freedmen’s Bureau or continue any funding for schools, Stephens was cut off from any source of financial support.

In February 1870 Manly received a letter from another Bureau teacher, Kate Elliott, writing that “Sir, I am very sorry to inform you that Mr. Stephens left here on the 16 of last month and has never ben Seen nor herd from since. . . . It is thought that Mr Stephens has ran off from dept [debt] we have ben looking for him all since he left.”⁹

One question remains unanswered. How did George Stephens, a free Black man who risked his life on the battlefield and eloquently championed the case for equal rights as a journalist, come to be labeled as a “defaulter” and a “scalawag”? Although dedicated to securing equality for Black Americans, he confronted the painful reality in Virginia that “despite compromise, war, and struggle, the Negro is not free.”¹⁰ Worn down by the obstacles to teaching, and abandoned financially by the Freedmen’s Bureau, he likely had no choice but to leave Virginia and his debts behind. After a quiet life in Brooklyn, New York, he died in 1888. While George E. Stephens did not reside in Virginia long enough to qualify for a DVB entry, he left a legacy of using both pen and sword to challenge racism and advance the cause of Black freedom.