Pilot of the Patriot
Cesar Tarrant’s birthplace is not recorded, nor are the names of his parents. When Tarrant’s enslaver, Robert Hundley, died in 1765, he was purchased by Carter Tarrant, who owned fifty acres near the head of Hampton Creek. It is likely that Tarrant, then about twenty-five, was already a skilled pilot, for his new enslaver, involved in shipping, paid more than the usual price for an enslaved man. Virginians of African ancestry, both enslaved and free, served as crewmen and pilots in the colony’s busy maritime trade. Sometime before the Revolution, Cesar Tarrant married Lucy, who was enslaved by a neighbor, John Rogers.
When the Revolution began, Tarrant chose to serve in the Patriot forces. His reasoning is not known, but his decision eventually led to freedom for himself and multiple family members.
Between December 1775 and July 1776, Virginia’s Committee of Safety established a small navy, purchasing and outfitting boats, including the Patriot. The Virginia Navy’s role was to defend the state’s coasts and merchant ships from British warships and raiders and to seize prizes if possible. At least seventy-two Virginians of African descent, enslaved and free, enrolled in the state navy. Of the seven pilots appointed, four were enslaved, including Tarrant.
Tarrant’s boat, the Patriot, is described as a tender and a schooner. Other enslaved Black men serving on the Patriot alongside Tarrant included Pluto, Jack Knight, “Captain” Starlins, Cuffee, and David Baker. In autumn 1778, a small Virginia flotilla was cruising off the Virginia Capes when it sighted a British privateer, the Lord Howe. The Virginia ship Dragon disguised herself as a target by hiding her guns and slackening her sails. The Lord Howe closed to investigate. Discovering that the Virginians were armed, the Lord Howe fired a broadside and ran. Captain Richard Taylor gave chase in the Patriot. About an hour before dusk, the Patriot, with Tarrant steering, caught up with the Lord Howe. Outgunned by the privateer’s eight four-pounders, Taylor nevertheless chose to give battle, as he later explained, “in consequence of the great injury to trade from the number of British cruzers plying off the coast.” With Tarrant at the helm, the Patriot rammed the Lord Howe, a spar crashing through one of the privateer’s windows. A party from the Patriot attempted to board the Lord Howe. One Virginian was killed and eight others wounded, including Taylor and William Jennings. When the other Virginia ships failed to come to his aid, Taylor withdrew.
Tarrant was also at the helm when the Patriot captured the brig Fanny, laden with stores intended for British troops.
According to a surviving pay statement, Tarrant apparently remained in naval service at least until 1783. It is not clear whether he was allowed to keep some or all of his pay or whether it went to his enslaver, Carter Tarrant. By the war’s end, Cesar Tarrant may have been serving with the French fleet, as the undermanned and outgunned Virginia Navy was almost entirely destroyed by Benedict Arnold on the James River in 1781.
After the war, Virginia emancipated enslaved veterans who had served as substitutes for their enslavers. Cesar Tarrant was apparently not a substitute for Carter Tarrant, for he remained in bondage in spite of his exemplary record.
Freedom
Carter Tarrant died in 1784, and Cesar Tarrant was willed to Carter’s wife, Mary Tarrant. On November 14, 1789, the General Assembly passed an act to purchase the freedom of Cesar Tarrant. It is not clear who initiated the action. In any case, “in consideration of which meritorious services it is judged expedient to purchase the freedom” of Tarrant, a “proper person” was authorized to negotiate a purchase price with Mary Tarrant. Jack Knight and Pluto, Tarrant’s shipmates on the Patriot, also received postwar manumissions.
In 1791, a group of white pilots from Elizabeth City County petitioned the General Assembly to license Black pilots with proven skills. This petition may have been on Tarrant’s behalf, since the petitioners included William Jennings, a veteran of the battle with the Lord Howe, and relatives of Mary Tarrant. It suggests that Tarrant continued to work as a pilot after the war.
Tarrant’s wife, Lucy Tarrant, and their children were still enslaved by John Rogers. In 1793, Rogers freed Lucy Tarrant and her fifteen-month-old daughter, Nancy. One of the witnesses was shipbuilder George Hope. The financial details of the manumission are not specified. The Tarrants’ other children, Sampson and Lydia, remained enslaved.
On April 15, 1793, Tarrant purchased a lot (later given the address 118 Eaton Street) in a section of Hampton where river pilots lived. He was one of the first Black landowners in Hampton.
Tarrant died in Hampton in 1797, with two of his children still enslaved. His will, dated February 19, 1797, left all his property to his wife, Lucy Tarrant. Upon her death, he directed that his property be sold, with half of the proceeds going to Nancy and half toward his daughter Lydia’s freedom. In his will, Tarrant asked the court to “see Justice done my children,” but Lydia remained enslaved for twenty-five more years. Lucy Tarrant was finally able to buy Lydia’s freedom from the Rogers family in 1822. Lydia herself left a child, Sampson, in bondage. His fate is unknown.
Virginia continued to reward Revolutionary veterans and their heirs with grants of land in Kentucky and Ohio well into the nineteenth century. In 1831, Thomas Green petitioned the state on behalf of Tarrant’s daughter Nancy Tarrant. Several of Tarrant’s shipmates submitted affidavits in support of the petition. Navy veteran James Burk (or Burke) testified that he was “was well acquainted [with] Caesar Tarrant Pilot of the Boat Patriot in the Virginia State Navy … Said Caesar during the Action between Comodore Taylor and a British Privateer at the mouth of the Cape of Virginia steered the Patriot during the whole of the action, and behaved gallantly.” William Jennings testified that Tarrant served “until the capture of York Town and behaved gallantly during all his service in the Revolutionary War.” On August 1, 1831, Lieutenant Governor Peter V. Daniel approved an unspecified amount of bounty land for Tarrant’s heirs, and on March 14, 1833, Nancy Tarrant was awarded 2,666 2/3 acres in Ohio. She sold the land and used the proceeds to free other family members. On January 8, 1839, she bought the freedom of her husband, Jim Bailey, from George Hope. Nancy Tarrant died in 1843. The terms of her will freed her niece Louisa and Louisa’s son, George. Their liberation was, at least in part, a long-delayed result of Tarrant’s service in the Patriot cause.
Tarrant’s home was destroyed in 1861 when Confederate troops burned Hampton during the American Civil War (1861–1865). In 2018, Jefferson Davis Middle School was renamed Tarrant Middle School in honor of the Revolutionary hero.
