ENTRY

James D. Barrett (1833–1903)

SUMMARY

James D. Barrett represented Fluvanna County at the Convention of 1867–1868. Barrett, most likely enslaved before Emancipation, became involved with politics after the American Civil War (1861–1865). He and the county’s African American voters showed an independent streak during elections for delegates to the convention that created a new state constitution. A public meeting nominated Abraham Shepherd, a white conservative and the county’s court clerk, instead of Barrett. He ran anyway and won by a clear majority of Fluvanna’s black voters. Outside of politics, he worked as a pastor and helped organize Thessalonia Baptist Church in 1868. Barrett married twice and died in 1903.

Barrett was born in April 1833 in Louisa County, the son of Wilson Barrett and Lucy Barrett. He and his parents left no traces in the antebellum public records, and an observer just after the Civil War stated that he had been a slave. The historian Luther Porter Jackson later wrote that Barrett was free before emancipation, but his absence from public records makes slave status more likely. Sometime before the war he married Clarissa M. Spotswood, and they had three sons and three daughters, of whom the eldest was born about 1858. As a slave or otherwise, Barrett learned the shoemaker’s and carpenter’s trades and, in his first appearance in Fluvanna County’s records, he was taxed in 1866 as the owner of a horse valued at $50 and other property valued at $40.

Fluvanna County Courthouse

Barrett soon became a leader and political activist in Fluvanna County. He was an excellent speaker who participated in the Union League’s efforts to educate and organize blacks to seek their rights as citizens. On April 17, 1867, Barrett and two other African Americans represented the county at the Union Republican Convention in Richmond. When an election for delegates to a state constitutional convention was set for October 22, 1867, Barrett made known his candidacy. On September 28 at the courthouse in Palmyra he spoke at a crowded public meeting called to nominate a candidate to be Fluvanna’s delegate. The chair selected two whites and two blacks from each of the county’s six magisterial districts and, after caucusing, the committee recommended Abraham Shepherd, a white conservative and the clerk of the Fluvanna County Court. The meeting approved the nomination and adjourned, but Barrett immediately announced that he would run anyway. About one hundred more blacks than whites voted in the election, and he carried the county by fifty votes.

Barrett did not play a prominent role at the convention. He served on the Standing Committee on Education and usually voted with the Radical majority but opposed controversial measures designed to disfranchise former Confederates. An observer stated that Barrett was honest and spoke well but could not read or write. His signature on his pay vouchers as a delegate suggests that he had, in fact, acquired at least some level of literacy, and he was described as literate in subsequent censuses.

Barrett evidently did not seek public office again, but he remained prominent in his community near Fork Union. He probably developed his talent as a political orator through preaching. He helped to organize the Thessalonia Baptist Church in 1868 and served as its pastor for many years. In April 1879 he conveyed three-quarters of an acre of his land to the church as a permanent site for its place of worship. In addition Barrett organized a beneficial society through the church. Members made small monetary contributions in return for assistance in time of need, and they named it the Barrett Humane Society in his honor. In the 1890s he also served as pastor at the Byrd Grove Baptist Church.

Clarissa Barrett died of consumption on November 30, 1891, and Barrett married Lizzie Myers on September 4, 1892. They had no children. Barrett died in 1903 and was buried at the Thessalonia Baptist Church’s cemetery.

MAP
TIMELINE
April 1833
James D. Barrett is born in Louisa County, the son of Wilson Barrett and Lucy Barrett. Most likely he is enslaved.
ca. 1858
The eldest child of James D. Barrett and Clarissa M. Spotswood Barrett is born.
1866
James D. Barrett appears in Fluvanna County records as the owner of a horse valued at $50 and other property valued at $40.
April 17, 1867
James D. Barrett and two other African Americans represent Fluvanna County at the Union Republican Convention in Richmond.
September 28, 1867
At a meeting at the Palmyra courthouse to nominate a candidate to be Fluvanna County's delegate to a state constitutional convention, James D. Barrett states his intent to run. He is not nominated, but runs for election anyway.
October 22, 1867
James D. Barrett is elected by fifty votes to serve as Fluvanna County's delegate to the constitutional convention in Richmond despite not being nominated by the Republican Party.
December 3, 1867—April 17, 1868
James D. Barrett, a representative from Fluvanna County to the constitutional convention, serves on the Standing Committee on Education and usually votes with the Radical Republican majority. He opposes a plan to disfranchise former Confederates.
1868
James D. Barrett helps to organize the Thessalonia Baptist Church near Fork Union and serves as its pastor for many years.
April 1879
James D. Barrett conveys three-quarters of an acre of his land to the Thessalonia Baptist Church near Fork Union as a permanent site for its place of worship.
1890s
James D. Barrett serves as pastor of the Byrd Grove Baptist Church.
November 30, 1891
Clarissa M. Spotswood Barrett, wife of James D. Barrett, dies of consumption.
September 4, 1892
James D. Barrett marries his second wife, Lizzie Myers.
1903
James D. Barrett dies and is buried at the Thessalonia Baptist Church's cemetery near Fork Union.
FURTHER READING
  • Hitchcock, William S. “Barrett, James D.” In Dictionary of Virginia Biography, Vol. 1, edited by John T. Kneebone, et al., 356–357. Richmond: Library of Virginia, 1998.
  • Jackson, Luther Porter. Negro Office-Holders in Virginia, 1865–1895. Norfolk, Virginia: Guide Quality Press, 1945.
  • Lowe, Richard G. “Virginia’s Reconstruction Convention: General Schofield Rates the Delegates.” Virginia Magazine of History and Biography 80, no. 3 (July 1972): 341–360.
CITE THIS ENTRY
APA Citation:
Hitchcock, William & Dictionary of Virginia Biography. James D. Barrett (1833–1903). (2020, December 07). In Encyclopedia Virginia. https://encyclopediavirginia.org/entries/barrett-james-d-1833-1903.
MLA Citation:
Hitchcock, William, and Dictionary of Virginia Biography. "James D. Barrett (1833–1903)" Encyclopedia Virginia. Virginia Humanities, (07 Dec. 2020). Web. 07 Jun. 2023
Last updated: 2021, December 22
Feedback
  • This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.