Ann Brooks: Piecing Together a Life Hidden by History

The case of Ann Brooks gives us a look into the lives of enslaved people who sued their owners for their freedom. Ann Brooks was an enslaved woman born in 1811 who sued her enslaver Oliver P. Finley and the administrator of his estate for unlawfully enslaving her. Brooks sued on the basis that Finley had emancipated her mother Clara years earlier. Her case is important because it survived hundreds of years and gives us insight into the lives and determination of the people whose voices were left out of history. Stories like Ann’s were left out of historical records, untold, or forgotten because they weren’t deemed important. Ann’s story can teach us about the injustices of slavery, the risks enslaved people took to challenge their freedom, and the strength they displayed in pursuing their freedom despite the obstacles.

Ann Brooks was an enslaved woman born around 1811 to a Multiracial woman named Clara who was described as “Mulatto.” In 1805, Clara’s enslaver James Stewart (sometimes spelled “Stuart”) sold her to Oliver P. Finley under an agreement that after seven years Clara would be set free. Finley later fulfilled this promise by legally emancipating Clara in 1817. Despite this, her daughter Ann continued serving the Finley family for years after her mother’s emancipation. This was because Ann was born during her mother’s seven-year contract and was not a part of the original agreement. In her freedom suit, Ann argued that she should not have been considered enslaved after Oliver P. Finley granted her mother freedom.

In 1833 Ann filed a freedom suit against William D. Nutt, the administrator of Finley’s estate. She stated that Nutt had no legal right to claim ownership of her and that she was entitled to her freedom. In the case, Ann presented both her mother’s emancipation papers and the original 1805 agreement as evidence. This case centered on a complicated legal question: whether a child born to an enslaved woman during a temporary contract should remain enslaved or share her mother’s right to freedom. During this time enslaved status was based on the mother’s status.¹

On page six of Ann’s case, the records show that Ann’s lawyer tried to use a statement in place of a special verdict. The text says the law had already decided that the child goes to the person who owns the permanent, absolute right to the mother after the temporary period ends.

By that ruling, Ann shouldn’t have been enslaved by Finley or his administrator, William Nutt. Despite all the evidence Ann presented, the jury ruled against her and for the defendant William D. Nutt in October 1834.²

And who was holding her in bondage if Oliver P. Finley had died in February 1831? These discoveries force us to reconsider what happened to Ann Brooks after 1834 and whether she ultimately lived as a free woman despite losing her case in court. Because of this we are left with the most important question of all: What happened to Ann Brooks?

To find out exactly what happened to Ann and her daughter we must look at everyone who played a role in her suit and life.

Clara Brooks
Clara Brooks was Ann’s mother. When I first examined Ann’s case, I noticed her mother was mentioned by first name only as Clara. I later discovered and found the original record where she is listed as “Clara Brooks” and notes she was emancipated by Oliver P. Finley on April 3, 1817. Before this Clara Brooks was sold to Oliver P. Finley in 1805 in a 7-year contract to be set free at the end of it. After 1817 there isn’t much more information to find out about Ann’s mother but what we do know is that this one act of freedom propelled the rest of Ann’s life.

William D. Nutt 
William D. Nutt was the administrator of Oliver P. Finley’s will. He was also a known enslaver and emancipated many enslaved people throughout his lifetime.

Oliver P. Finley
Oliver P. Finley was a sailor and captain of a ship. He often went between the Americas and England. In 1816 he bought a home in what is now known as Old Town Alexandria for $6,000. Using a basic Google search and cross reference with newspaper articles found in Virginia Chronicle, it’s very likely that the building in which Finley owned is: 208 North Royal Street. It can still be visited today and is protected under the Historic Alexandria Foundation. This is the house in which I suspect Ann spent most of her enslavement. Two newspaper articles gave me my starting clues. The first was an article stating the sale of Finley’s debts and it states he lived opposite Mr. Jonah Thompson. After further investigation I confirmed that Mr. Thompson lived in Old Town and owned many residences across from Oliver P. Finley. I looked at another article stating that Oliver P. Finely owned a home on the west side of Royal Street. Then, Lydia Neuroth, project manager of Virginia Untold, helped me find an insurance policy that Finley took out in 1823 that provides a description and sketch of his property.⁴ A street view image of 208 N Royal Street confirms a three-story brick residence as indicated in the insurance policy sketch. Beyond his home in Old Town, Oliver P Finley also owned several businesses in England and Overseas. He died at sea enroute from Greenock (Scotland) to Charleston in February 1831. After his death his personal belongings were sold off to pay off debts.⁵

James M. Stewart
James M. Stewart was born on October 30, 1780 to Thomas and Betty Stewart. Thomas Stewart owned many properties in the Northern Virginia area with his business partner Robert Mease. Sometime between 1789-1796 Thomas Stewart died and Betty Stewart remarried Stewart’s business partner Robert Mease. When Mease passed away on March 1, 1803, James M. Stewart inherited all of his personal property which included six enslaved people: Spencer – 21, Clara – 32, Robert – 9, Daniel – 5, Sarah – 6 months, and Betty – 12. Shortly after inheriting them, James M. Stewart sold Clara and Sarah to Oliver P. Finley under the circumstances that after 7 years Clara would be emancipated. Clara was the first of many enslaved people James M. Stewart emancipated. Beginning in 1805 right up until his death in the late 1860s James M. Stewart emancipated upwards of ten enslaved people, many of whom I believe were a part of the Brooks family.⁶

In collecting more research, I found there was more to the Brooks family than I originally thought. While I couldn’t find much on Spencer or Robert (listed above) I have a good idea of what happened to the rest of Ann’s family.

Here is what we know about the Brooks individuals emancipated by James M. Stewart directly.

Daniel Brooks
I found Daniel Brooks listed in the “Arlington County (Va.) Register of Free Negroes, 1797-1841” and the “Alexandria County Deed Books 1829-1831.” Both sources confirm that he was emancipated by James M. Stewart on June 15, 1833, only a month after Ann was emancipated.

Betty Brooks
Betty Brooks was emancipated by James M. Stewart on January 8, 1814, in Alexandria Virginia.

David Brooks
David Brooks was emancipated by James M. Stewart on May 7, 1831, in Alexandria, Virginia. I also found David and Betty’s names in the Freedman’s Cemetery website under additional resources: “Slave Manumissions in Alexandria Land Records, 1790-1863” alongside Ann and her daughter.

Sarah Brooks
Unfortunately, Sarah Brooks was never emancipated because she was sold to Oliver P. Finley permanently. Unlike Clara, the deed stipulated that Sarah was sold “as a slave for life to Oliver P Finley.”

Ann Ophelia Brooks
The final “Brooks” in our story is Ann Ophelia Brooks, Ann’s daughter. I was unable to find much information about her outside of her connection to her mother. I do know that she was emancipated alongside her mother in 1833 by James M. Stewart, hopefully gaining her freedom.

From reviewing these other individuals with the surname “Brooks” we learn that the Brooks family was owned by James M. Stewart, who appears to have emancipated everyone in the family before he died.⁷

Outside of her freedom suit, Ann appears many times in other historical records. I first found Ann after Google-searching her name. She was listed in this Friends of the Freedmen’s Cemetery website. The Friends of the Freedmen’s Cemetery is an organization founded in 1997 for the purposes of preserving, commemorating and researching a little-known Civil War-era African-American burying ground in Old Town Alexandria.⁸ On their website, they make available several resources related to Alexandria’s African American community which is where I found the deed documenting Ann’s emancipation. This told me that James M. Stewart emancipated Ann and her daughter in 1833 and under further investigation I found proof of that in the “Deed Book U-2, 1832-1834, Alexandria County, Virginia” digitized through Memorializing the Enslaved in Arlington database. I suspected that Ann Brooks was probably recorded in records related specifically to burials in the Freedmen’s Cemetery. Sure enough, I found a death record entry for an “Anne Brooks” aged 20 years old who passed away in August 1867. Her mother was also listed as “Anne Brooks.” The age and dates don’t align for this individual to be Ann Ophelia, but the mother could be the same Ann Brooks who sued for her freedom in the 1830s. The Freedmen’s Cemetery burial records are recorded in the “Gladwin Record” which is housed at the Library of Virginia and digitized through Virginia Untold.⁹

Although many questions about Ann Brooks remain unanswered, the records that survive allow us to piece together parts of the remarkable story about a woman who challenged her enslavement in an effort to secure a future for herself and her daughter. While we may never know exactly what happened to Ann after 1834, what we do know is that she left behind something even more valuable: her voice. Without these records Ann’s story and her fight would have been forgotten in a part of history that rarely appears outside of archives. But because of her I was able to take fragments of a case and turn it into the story of a woman who fought for her freedom in a time of uncertainty. The more I researched and wrote about Ann’s story, the more I realized that figuring out her ending was never the point. The best part of Ann’s story is that we are the ending. While we may never know what happened to Ann after 1834, what we do know is that she left behind a legacy for us all to follow. Her story allowed us to create a world she could have only imagined for us and for future generations to come. Ann’s story does not simply end with a special verdict or an unanswered question, it continues through us. Every time we tell her story, learn from her experience, or remember her fight for freedom we become a part of the ending she couldn’t write for herself.