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“. . .My negro woman named Agnes.”

In July 1858, William Hawkins of Henrico County was dying. He set down his will, and the matter-of-fact way in which he directed the sale of his three enslaved persons to settle his estate is chilling.

Following are the terms of his will:

“I, William Hawkins of the county of Henrico and state of Virginia being of sound mind but infirm in body do make and publish this as my last will and testament hereby revoking all others.

First, I give to my wife Nancy Ann Hawkins for and during her natural life the house and lot in the county of Henrico in which I now reside I also leave to her for her natural life my negro woman named Agnes.

Secondly, at the death of my wife Nancy Ann Hawkins I desire my executor hereinafter named to sell the said house and lot and negro woman Agnes and to divide the proceeds thereof equally between my children Susan Newell, Julia A. Dansey, both of the county of Henrico Joseph J. Hawkins, now a resident of New York, and William W. Hawkins of the county of Henrico. If one of my children should die before the division takes place leaving issue I wish the portion of such to pass to such children [word illegible].

Thirdly, at my death or as soon thereafter as convenient, I desire that my executors shall sell my two negro boys named John Jones and James, brothers, and after paying all my debts and the expenses of administration out of the proceeds of sale I desire them out of the said proceeds to pay to Selina Virginia Murray the sum of $200 and to Emma Jane Murray the sum of $200 and to Mary E. Frensley the sum of $300 and if there should be any balance then remaining from the sale of said negro boys I wish such balance to be equally divided between the said Selina Virginia Murray, Emma Jane Murray, and Mary E. Frensley.  If either Selena Virginia or Emma Jane Murray should die before the sale of the said negroes then I wish the portion of the one dying to go to the survivors, and if the said Mary E. Frensley should die before the said sale, then I wish her portion to be equally divided between Selina Virginia Murray and Emma Jane Murray.“

Source: Will of William Hawkins, July 13, 1858. Virginia, U.S., Wills and Probate Records, 1652-1900 (Henrico County), http://www.ancestry.com, accessed January 30, 2024.

Ragtime in Richmond

Harry Kollatz wrote a delightful book in 2008 which he called Richmond in Ragtime. Full of fascinating stories of the time, the clever title with the alliterative ring to it perfectly defines the time period about which he was writing — the early 1900s. Today, we think of ragtime with its jerky, syncopated rhythms as cheery, lively music, but some people in that first decade of the twentieth century were less than impressed, perhaps because of the genre’s Black roots. The Richmond Times newspaper in 1900 wrote about ragtime as “musical slang … as demoralizing in its field as slang phrases to language. (The music is) coarse and sometimes borders on the obscene. It is a good thing for people to sing, and we have nothing to say against good popular music, but ragtime is to be discouraged. It does not have a refining influence.”

The Wednesday Club of Richmond, a musical organization of “high character,” according to the Times, was instead presenting “high-class” music that exerted “a wholesome and powerful influence throughout the community.” In so doing, the Club was influencing musical taste in Richmond in such a way that ragtime soon, the Times predicted, would become a thing of the past.

The Times was fighting a losing battle. Even by the time of the Times article, “Ragtime was everywhere …,” a Library of Congress article notes, “–in sheet music, piano rolls, phonograph records, and ragtime piano playing contests, as well as in music boxes, vaudeville theaters, and bordellos. Publishing houses churned out piano rags and ragtime songs at a furious pace.” The musical form would not fade until around 1917 when it began to be replaced by another controversial form of music: jazz. 

(Sources: “Rag-Time Music,” Richmond Times, April 28, 1900; Library of Congress, “History of Ragtime,” https://www.loc.gov/item/ihas.200035811/, accessed December 26, 2023.)