What We Know About John
John accompanied James Madison on at least two trips outside the state of Virginia, serving as Madison’s enslaved valet during the Confederation Congress, the 1787 Constitutional Convention and the 1788 Virginia Ratifying Convention.
John is presumably the same person mentioned in the will of James Madison Sr., James Madison’s father. Madison Sr. confirmed in his will that he had given nine of the people he enslaved to his son James, as an advance on his inheritance. The list included John, John’s mother Sinar, and John’s sisters and brother:
“I do hereby confirm to my son James a good right and title to the following slaves which I have heretofore given him to wit, Billy which he has since sold, Davy, Sinar and her children Dinah, Alice, Winney, Alexander, John and Amey and their future increase forever.”[1]
Madison’s father gave him a child named John, along with John’s mother Sinar and John’s other young siblings. Madison’s father confirmed this gift when he drew up his will in 1787. Courtesy of James Madison Papers, Library of Congress.
Madison Sr.’s will shows that he made similar gifts of enslaved people to his other sons and daughters, often near the time they were married. The younger James Madison was not yet married in 1787 when his father wrote the will. Possibly Madison Sr. transferred John’s family about the same time he gave his 21-year-old son his first tract of land at Black Level in 1772. The transfer appears to have taken place before 1782, since John’s name does not appear in Madison Sr.’s personal property tax records from 1782-1786.[2]
Travels with Madison: 1787
We first learn that John, now an adult, was attending Madison in Philadelphia during the Constitution Convention in a letter written by Madison to his father on July 28, 1787. The letter also implies that John had been with Madison since he left Montpelier the previous January.
Madison had set out from Montpelier on January 21, 1787, in order to attend the Confederation Congress in New York.[3] Madison later wrote to his father about an incident with John when they stopped over in Fredericksburg, perhaps on the first night of the journey.
“His misbehaviour in Fredericksbg. was followed by some serious reprehensions, & threats from me, which have never lost their effect.”[4]
We don’t know what John did that displeased Madison. It was typical of Madison, however, to respond by verbally chastising an enslaved person and making “serious reprehensions, & threats.” Paul Jennings, who was Madison’s enslaved body servant from 1817 to 1836, recalled, “I never saw him in a passion, and never knew him to strike a slave… Whenever any slaves were reported to him as stealing or ‘cutting up’ badly, he would send for them and admonish them privately, and never mortify them by doing it before others.”[5]
What kind of “threats” did Madison make to John? Perhaps he threatened to send John back to Montpelier, demoting him from a personal servant to a field hand. He may have threatened to take away an opportunity for something that John enjoyed. He may have threatened to sell John, a punishment that would permanently separate him from family members and friends in the enslaved community at Montpelier. Madison’s threats apparently struck a chord with John. Madison never again wrote that he was displeased with John.
Leaving Fredericksburg, Madison and John made stops at Mount Vernon[6] and Philadelphia[7] along the way to New York. If they followed Madison’s usual travel pattern, they probably picked up a stage coach or stage wagon in Fredericksburg, making the journey in stages from one larger city to the next. The “extreme badness of the weather” in early February made the last stage of the trip treacherous. For more than 40 miles after leaving Princeton, Madison wrote,
“we had a N. E. snow storm incessantly in our teeth. We met however with no misadventure, nor with any real difficulties except in passing some of the rivers some of which were clogged with Ice, and a half congealed mixture of snow & water which was more in the way than the Ice itself.”[8]
At the Constitutional Convention
Madison and John arrived in New York on February 9, 1787.[9] They left New York in early May 1787, so that Madison could attend the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia. While in Philadelphia, Madison tried to find out more details about Anthony, a young enslaved man who had escaped from Montpelier in June 1786, been apprehended June 1787, and immediately escaped again. In the same July 28, 1787, letter in which Madison told his father about John’s “misbehaviour” in Fredericksburg, Madison also shared his suspicions that John had not been truthful regarding Anthony’s whereabouts, noting,
“I have not communicated to John the suspicions entertained of him. Whilst he remains in my service it will be well for him to suppose that he has my confidence, and that he has a character staked on his good behaviour. He has been very attentive & faithful to me as yet, particularly since I left Virginia.”[10]
The earliest that John’s name appears in the historical record is in this letter from James Madison to his father, written on July 28, 1787, during the Constitutional Convention. Madison described John as “attentive and faithful” after he had reprimanded John for his actions in Fredericksburg. Courtesy of James Madison Papers, Library of Congress.
Madison did not mention John in any of the other letters he wrote during the Constitutional Convention, so we don’t know exactly how John served Madison during what proved to be the most politically significant episode of his life. Was John attending to Madison’s clothes and shaving him, so that he was ready to make an appropriate appearance at the Convention each day? Did John go to a stationer to buy the ink and paper Madison used as he wrote his notes from the Convention each evening, while the debates of the day were still fresh in his mind?
Madison returned to the Confederation Congress in New York soon after the Constitutional Convention adjourned on September 17, 1787. Six months later, in March 1788, Madison and John returned to Montpelier so that Madison could take on his next challenge – persuading Orange County voters to elect him as a pro-Constitution delegate to the Virginia Ratifying Convention.[11] For John, returning to Montpelier meant a possible reunion with his mother Sinar, his sisters and brother, and other members of his community. John could hear their news, and tell them about his experiences in places they would likely never see. Madison and John remained at Montpelier for about ten weeks.
Virginia Ratifying Convention
Madison succeeded in his bid for election to the Ratifying Convention. He left Montpelier and traveled to Richmond, again accompanied by John. For most of the month of June 1788, delegates argued over whether Virginia should reject the Constitution, ratify an amended version, or ratify it as originally proposed. Madison’s reasoned arguments in favor of the Constitution ultimately won out over Patrick Henry’s impassioned objections to it. Virginia ratified the Constitution as written, but also recommended several amendments for consideration.[12]
On July 1, just before leaving Richmond to return to Congress in New York, Madison made a passing reference to John when writing to Madison’s father:
“I am just setting out Northwardly. John is so well as to be able to travel. I continue well myself.”[13]
Madison believed that John was well enough to travel from Richmond to New York, when he wrote this letter to his father on July 1, 1788. Courtesy of James Madison Papers, Library of Congress.
This indicates that both Madison and John had been ill during part of the time they were in Richmond. Madison wrote that he had been “confined to my room with a bilious attack” several days in early June, which had caused him to miss two sessions of the Convention.[14]
Since Madison told his father that John was “so well as to be able to travel,” it seems that Madison’s father was already aware of John’s illness. Had John had symptoms before he left Montpelier? Or did John become ill during the Convention, and did Madison relay that news to his father in another letter that does not survive? Madison later described John’s illness as “a consumption,” [15] a term used loosely for any disease that caused a person to waste away. It was often associated with tuberculosis. If John had tuberculosis, his symptoms might include night sweats, fever, a bloody cough, and weight loss.
It’s not clear how ill John became during the Convention. Was he sick in bed, or was he able to push through his fatigue for some time to continue laying out Madison’s clothes and running Madison’s errands? Did John carry messages to Madison’s doctor, or go to an apothecary to buy medicine for Madison’s intestinal complaint, at the same time his own cough was becoming more pronounced?
Return to New York
Madison and John stopped at Mount Vernon from July 4 to July 7.[16] George Washington, who had expressed to Madison his “real concern of your indisposition,” had invited Madison to break up the trip to New York with a few days’ rest at Mount Vernon. Washington advised, “Relaxation must have become indispensably necessary for your health, and for that reason I presume to advise you to take a little respite from business and to express a wish that part of the time might be spent under this Roof on your Journey thither. Moderate exercise, and books occasionally, with the mind unbent, will be your best restoratives.”[17]
Washington was unaware that it was John, not Madison, whose health was approaching a crisis.
On July 7 Washington recorded in his diary that “After dinner—Mr. Madison, and the Son of Mr. Lee went (in my Carriage) to Alexandria in order to proceed on to New York in the Stage tomorrow.”[18] Traveling by stage wagon or stagecoach, Madison and John made a short stop in Philadelphia (where both were indisposed)[19] before arriving in New York in mid-July.
Madison’s health had improved by the time he wrote to his father on July 27, but John’s had not:
“Since my arrival here I have been perfectly free from my bilious symptoms, and enjoy at present my usual share of health. John continues to be sick and is in very low plight indeed. Altho’ he walks about, I think his thorough recovery extremely doubtful. He was so ill in Philada. and my stay there so short that these circumstances added to my own indisposition at the time, prevented my taking any steps with regard to Anthony.”[20]
Apparently Madison had intended to make further inquiries about Anthony, whom the Madisons still believed might be in Philadelphia, although a year had passed since any reports of Anthony’s whereabouts. John’s health was now becoming a serious concern. Madison may have been overly optimistic when he assumed that John would be well enough to stand the trip from Richmond to New York, given that John fell “so ill” in Philadelphia and continued in a “very low plight” after arriving in New York. John was not confined to bed (“he walks about”), but Madison was seeing ominous signs that made him doubt John could make a complete recovery.
Madison’s mind remained focused on the progress of the Constitution. In the same letter he informed his father, “After a very tedious discussion, the Constitution has been ratified by the Convention of this State [New York]. … The Convention of N. Carolina has not been heard from since it met. Congress are at present making the arrangements for putting the Government into operation.”[21]
With eleven states having ratified, the old Confederation Congress was making plans to transfer governance to the new Congress, the first to be elected under the Constitution.
“John Continues to Decline”
John’s health seemed to worsen during the summer. On August 18, Madison used the term “consumption” for the first time to describe John’s illness, in a letter to Madison Sr.:
“I have had no opportunity of doing any thing as to Anthony, since my last. John continues to decline. I think he is in a consumption, and will not stand it very long.”[22]
In Madison’s view, John’s prognosis had become more dire. Even a partial recovery seemed unlikely now. John was wasting away (“in a consumption”) and probably did not have long to live.
John’s health was declining and he seemed to be wasting away, when Madison wrote to his father on August 18, 1788. Courtesy of James Madison Papers, Library of Congress.
Three weeks later, on September 6, Madison again wrote to his father about John. Madison was still trying to learn where Anthony had gone and whether John had been truthful:
“I have not yet been able to determine whether Anthony is still in Philada. I am inclined to believe he is not. Indeed some circumstances wd almost tempt me to think he never has been there. On this supposition John must have practised a gross deception on us. He could have no motive for this unless it were a spite to Billey, which I fancy he entertained. But the deception could hardly promise a gratification that would prompt it.”[23]
It’s unclear whether and how John deceived Madison and his father. Perhaps it was John who planted a false story that Anthony was in Philadelphia. Madison seemed to believe that John’s only possible motive would be to make trouble for Billey Gardner, perhaps by creating a suspicion that Billey was harboring the fugitive Anthony, who may have been his brother. (Gardner, formerly enslaved by Madison, was now in Philadelphia, likely still in short-term servitude.) What had Madison observed that would give him the impression that there was ill will or rivalry between John and Billey? How well did Madison really understand the personal relationships among members of the enslaved community? What if, instead of throwing suspicion on Billey, John was simply trying to divert attention away from Anthony’s actual destination?
Madison continued his letter with a brief update on John’s condition:
“He is still very sick, and his recovery not very probable.”[24]
“John Will Not Accompany Me”
In late October, the Confederation Congress recessed. Madison planned to visit friends in Philadelphia and Mount Vernon, then to return to Montpelier and run for election to the House of Representatives in the First Congress. If he won the election in February 1789, Madison would return to New York as a Congressman. If he lost – which seemed a strong possibility – he would not be coming back to New York. What would he do about John?
On October 29, Madison wrote from New York that he had “expected by this time to have been in Philada.” but had been detained. He noted,
“John will not accompany me, nor probably have much further connection with any corporeal beings; though he enjoys the fallacious hope of being soon recovered, and is fondly persuaded that some little transitory & variable symptom is the only obstacle to it.”[25]
Although John still held out hope for recovery (or was at least putting on a brave face), Madison clearly believed that John was not long for this world. Remembering how difficult the trip from Alexandria to New York had been for John four months earlier, Madison may have doubted that John could survive a return journey to Virginia.
It is unknown what arrangements Madison made for John at this point. They had been staying at Dorothy Ellsworth’s boarding house at 19 Maiden Lane. A 1790 bill from Mrs. Ellsworth shows that it was her practice to charge separately for board for Madison and for a “Servent.”[26] Possibly she would have been willing to continue having John as a boarder in servants’ quarters after Madison departed.
What was it like for John to be left in New York? How did Madison explain his decision to travel back to Montpelier without him? John may have agreed that he was too weak to travel while still believing he would eventually get better. Did Madison let John think that he could travel back to Montpelier once he recovered?
Madison left New York on November 6 or 7, visited in Philadelphia until mid-December, and stayed with Washington at Mount Vernon from December 19 to Christmas Day.[27] He wrote to his father that he planned to take the stage from Alexandria to Fredericksburg, and requested that an enslaved laborer meet him in Fredericksburg with a riding chair to transport his luggage to Montpelier. In his usual detached manner, Madison observed,
“No horse need be brought for a servant, John having been left in N. York given over as incurable, and no other having been engaged.”[28]
How much longer did John live after Madison left him in New York? Madison had been writing since August that he didn’t think John could hold out much longer. At what point did John realize that his consumption was “incurable” and he was going to die? What was it like for John to face his last days or weeks far from his family and familiar surroundings, unable to say final goodbyes to his mother Sinar or siblings Dinah, Alice, Winney, Alexander, and Amey?
John is not mentioned again in any of Madison’s surviving letters. Did Madison receive news of John’s death while still at Montpelier? Did he find out more details when he returned to New York the following March as a newly-elected Congressman from Virginia?
Madison wrote to his father in December 1788 that he had left John in New York, believing his condition to be “incurable.” Courtesy of James Madison Papers, Library of Congress.
A Complicated Relationship
At times Madison distrusted John, suspected him of deceit, reprimanded him, and was less than transparent in his dealings with John. At other times Madison considered John to be “attentive and faithful.” Madison relied on John and depended on his labor – an economic relationship that was enforced by Madison’s actual or implied threats of punishment.
John may well have participated in a cover-up in order to help Anthony achieve freedom, casting his loyalty with a fellow member of the enslaved community. Yet John also continued to serve Madison, whether traveling alongside him through a blizzard, or tending to Madison’s personal needs through two of the most important chapters in his political career: the Constitutional Convention and the Virginia Ratifying Convention.
While John may have had a unique behind-the-scenes view as Constitutional history unfolded, he was more than a spectator. John’s labor – while forced – provided the support that Madison depended on, as he focused on founding a new structure of government.
Whether or not it was his choice, John had made his own contributions to the establishment of the new Constitution. In his own way, John too was a Founder.
References
[1] James Madison Sr., Will dated September 17, 1787, James Madison Papers, Library of Congress, Washington, DC, accessed December 8, 2021, MRD-S 20954, Montpelier Research Database.
[2] Personal Property Tax Records for James Madison, Sr., 1782-1786, Orange County, Virginia, Tax Records, Library of Virginia, Richmond, Virginia, accessed December 13, 2021, MRD-S 43968, Montpelier Research Database. Thanks to Montpelier researcher Lydia Neuroth for this observation.
[3] Papers of James Madison, ed. William T. Hutchinson & William M. E. Rachal, Vol. 9, 1786-1787; xxiv.
[4] James Madison to James Madison Sr., July 28, 1787, James Madison Papers, Library of Congress, Washington, DC, accessed December 8, 2021, MRD-S 10780, Montpelier Research Database.
[5] Paul Jennings and John Brooks Russell (editor), A Colored Man’s Reminiscences of James Madison (New York: George C. Beadle, 1865), December 13, 2021, MRD-S 23434, Montpelier Research Database.
[6] George Washington, diary entries for January 25 and January 26, 1787, Founders Online, National Archives.
[7] Papers of James Madison, ed. William T. Hutchinson & William M. E. Rachal, Vol. 9, 1786-1787; xxiv.
[8] James Madison to Eliza House Trist, February 10, 1787, James Madison Papers, New York Public Library, New York, New York, accessed December 13, 2021, MRD-S 39337, Montpelier Research Database.
[9] Papers of James Madison, ed. William T. Hutchinson & William M. E. Rachal, Vol. 9, 1786-1787; xxiv.
[10] James Madison to James Madison Sr., July 28, 1787, James Madison Papers, Library of Congress, Washington, DC, accessed December 8, 2021, MRD-S 10780, Montpelier Research Database.
[11] Papers of James Madison, ed. William T. Hutchinson & William M. E. Rachal, Vol. 10, 1787-1788; xxvi-xxv.
[12] Ralph Ketcham, James Madison: A Biography (Charlottesville: UVA Press, 1990), pp. 253-69.
[13] James Madison to James Madison Sr., July 1, 1788, James Madison Papers, Library of Congress, Washington, DC, accessed December 9, 2021, MRD-S 21345, Montpelier Research Database.
[14] James Madison to Tench Coxe, June 11, 1788, James Madison Papers, Library of Congress, Washington, DC, MRD-S 21320, Montpelier Research Database.
[15] James Madison to James Madison Sr., August 18, 1788, James Madison Papers, Library of Congress, Washington, DC, accessed December 10, 2021, MRD-S 21372, Montpelier Research Database.
[16] George Washington, diary entries for July 4, July 5, and July 7, 1788, Founders Online, National Archives.
[17] George Washington to James Madison, June 23, 1788, Princeton University Library, Princeton, New Jersey, accessed December 14, 2021, MRD-S 39238, Montpelier Research Database.
[18] George Washington, diary entry for July 7, 1788, Founders Online, National Archives. Madison’s traveling companion was William Lee, the son of Thomas Lee of Stratford Hall. Ralph Ketcham, James Madison: A Biography (Charlottesville: UVA Press, 1990), pp. 269.
[19] James Madison to James Madison Sr., July 27, 1788, James Madison Papers, Library of Congress, Washington, DC, accessed December 10, 2021, MRD-S 21358, Montpelier Research Database.
[20] James Madison to James Madison Sr., July 27, 1788, James Madison Papers, Library of Congress, Washington, DC, accessed December 10, 2021, MRD-S 21358, Montpelier Research Database.
[21] James Madison to James Madison Sr., July 27, 1788, James Madison Papers, Library of Congress, Washington, DC, accessed December 10, 2021, MRD-S 21358, Montpelier Research Database.
[22] James Madison to James Madison Sr., August 18, 1788, James Madison Papers, Library of Congress, Washington, DC, accessed December 10, 2021, MRD-S 21372, Montpelier Research Database.
[23] James Madison to James Madison Sr., September 6, 1788, James Madison Papers, Library of Congress, Washington, DC, accessed December 10, 2021, MRD-S 21380.
[24] James Madison to James Madison Sr., September 6, 1788, James Madison Papers, Library of Congress, Washington, DC, accessed December 10, 2021, MRD-S 21380.
[25] James Madison to Eliza Trist, October 29, [1788], The Gilder Lehrman Collection, Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History, New York, New York, accessed December 10, 2021, MRD-S 33917, Montpelier Research Database.
[26] James Madison, Account with Dorothy Elsworth, [August 31, 1790], James Madison Papers, Library of Congress, Washington, DC, accessed December 17, 2021, MRD-S 21734, Montpelier Research Database.
[27] George Washington, diary entries for December 19, December 20, and December 25, 1788, Founders Online, National Archives.
[28] James Madison to James Madison Sr., December 18, 1788, James Madison Papers, Library of Congress, Washington, DC, accessed December 10, 2021, MRD-s 21446, Montpelier Research Database.
Senior Research Historian
