This is the story of a girl named Esther, who was born in Virginia between 1795 and 1800. Her story is notable because documentation about her life exists across three generations of her enslavers and provides a sketch of her surroundings and whereabouts. Although records do not illuminate many details about her life, they have noted that she existed, she was a person, she had a family, and she mattered.
Esther—who is not, at first, recorded with a last name, first appears in the records in 1815, when she would have been 15 to 20 years old. She is listed on an inventory of possessions at the death of Joseph Birch—her enslaver. Joseph was a large landowner in Arlington who lived in an area once known as Birch’s Cross Roads, then later Ball’s Cross [X] Roads, and today Ballston. Among the items on the account are listed “spoon moulds,” “sheep sheers,” one bible, one pistol, and nine “negro” people, including Esther (also a woman named Monarchy). Her value is listed as $385 (roughly $7,700 in 2024 dollars).
At Joseph’s death, she was among the enslaved people who were sold to “J Birch,” or John Birch, Joseph’s son. John was also a large landowner in Arlington, who lived in a house “adjoining the Arlington Estate,” or “Lee’s place” (today’s Arlington House at Arlington National Cemetery), eventually purchasing 58 acres of land in what is now Rosslyn—including the land where the Iwo Jima Memorial and Netherlands Carillon now stand.
Though not mentioned by name, the 1830 census suggests Esther’s presence—John Birch, her enslaver at the time, is listed as owning four enslaved people, including one person of Esther’s age (she would have been 30 to 35). The 1850 census hints at her as well, as John Birch is listed as owning one 55-year-old enslaved female, and Esther would have been 50 to 55 years old.
After John Birch died in 1854, Esther appeared three times in financial accounts for his estate and other records, showing that the Birch family was continuing to enslave her and pay her expenses for a third generation. These records show that in 1855, cash was paid to the executors of John Birch for “expenses of attending a negro woman.” In 1856, the Estate of John Birch recorded that it paid cash to a man named Robert Harrison, a farmer who lived near Ball’s Cross Roads (and whose wife’s maiden name was Birch) for “board and clothing” for “Hester” (presumably, Esther), who would have been 56 to 61 years old, “a blind slave belonging to John Birch, deceased.” Likewise, in 1857, records show cash paid for “one years board” for “Hester,” again described as a “blind slave [who] belongs to the estate of John Birch, deceased.”
Two of John’s children, Randolph and Henry Birch, placed an ad in the Alexandria Gazette on December 28, 1859, to try to sell some of the enslaved people they inherited from their father—Emmanuel, Robert, Allen, Simon, and Elizabeth and her two children; the Birches do not appear to try to sell Esther. As of January 1860, no one had purchased these individuals; Simon, Elizabeth, and two others appear later in history, but what happened to Emmanuel, Robert, and Allen—and who they were in relation to Esther—is unknown.
Esther doesn’t appear in the records again until 1870, and when she does, she uses the last name Walker and is living with several people from the Walker family—who may have been her family members all along. How did she get there?
By 1862, Randolph and Henry Birch were listed as Washington, DC residents, and thus, on April 16 of that year, when President Abraham Lincoln signed a bill ending slavery in the District of Columbia, all the enslaved people the Birches inherited from their father were freed. Part of the act enabled former slaveowners to apply for compensation for the loss of their property—that is, the people they enslaved. Slaveowners had to file a petition with the DC government that stated their loyalty to the Union and listed the number, value, physical characteristics, and occupational skills of their enslaved persons. Randolph Birch submitted a petition, plus an “annexed statement” to the Circuit Court of the District of Columbia, that lists four of the seven people he and Henry tried to sell earlier—“Elizabeth Walker, Lewis, & Andrew her children, Simon Walker”:
- Elizabeth Walker, 26 years old, “dark color, 5 feet, 7 inches high,” valued at $1,500 ($46,000 in 2024 dollars); also “very black color, five feet eight inches high”
- Lewis Walker, 12 years old, “bright Mulatto, 4 feet, 6 inches high,” valued at $1,000 ($31,000 in 2024 dollars); also “four feet 10 inches high”
- Andrew Walker, 9 years old, “bright Mulatto,” valued at $800 ($25,000 in 2024 dollars); also “four feet high”
- Simon Walker, 22 years old, “dark color, about 5 feet 6 inches high, stout built” with a “slight defect in his leg, which was stiff,” valued at $600 ($18,000 in 2024 dollars); also “chestnut color, five feet five inches high, walks [a] little lame”
He described each person as “sound and healthy.”
In 1866, records from the U.S. Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands, commonly known as the “Freedmen’s Bureau” (created in 1865 to assist in the political and social reconstruction of post-war southern states and to help formerly enslaved people make the transition from slavery to freedom and citizenship) show an “Esther Walker,” blind, living near the Aqueduct Bridge (which carried the Alexandria canal that started in Old Town Alexandria and went through Arlington, over the Potomac River to Georgetown, and north through Maryland—today’s C&O Canal). She needed $3.00 in groceries and $2.00 in clothing. In 1867, Freedmen’s Bureau records again show Esther Walker, blind, still living near the Aqueduct Bridge, seeking $2.00 for clothing.
In 1868, records from the Freedman’s Bureau show that Simon Walker, who would have been about 28, applied for assistance and is recommended as a “fit subject for the village”—referring to Freedman’s Village at today’s Arlington National Cemetery, one of many such villages, or refugee camps, for formerly enslaved men, women, and children. When he was 29, he is shown in a government roster as a dependent at Freedman’s Village.
Finally, the story of Esther and the story of the Walkers come together clearly. In the 1870 census from Arlington Township in Alexandria County, Esther Walker, 70, born in Virginia, recorded as “blind” and “at-home” (not working), is living with her “inferred son,” Simon Walker. Simon is listed as 28 years old (he could be 29 or 30), “at-home,” with Esther as his “inferred mother”—though she is old enough to be his grandmother. Also living in the same household is Andrew Walker, 12, whose occupation is listed as “canal hand” and could, based on his age, be Esther’s great-grandson; and Louisa Walker, 30, “domestic servant”—family relation unknown. Though Elizabeth and Lewis seem to have disappeared from the records, they and Simon could have been Esther’s children or grandchildren. Who Esther’s husband/partner and Simon’s father/grandfather was is unknown.
The only clue about what happened to the family is that in 1875 and 1885, Simon Walker—maybe Esther’s son, maybe her grandson, age 35 and 45 years old, respectively—is recorded in the DC Directory as living in Northwest DC, working as a laborer.
Sources:
1830 Census for John Birch, Schedule of Free Whites and Slaves, Alexandria County, District of Columbia, Ancestry.com
1850 Census for John Birch, Slave Inhabitants in Alexandria County, Ancestry.com
1857 (December 5). Jacob and Lucy Birch guardianship papers, Alexandria County, Ancestry.com
1866 Freedmen’s Bureau records, National Museum of African American History and Culture, https://nmaahc.si.edu/explore/freedmens-bureau
1866, 1867 U.S., Freedmen’s Bureau Records, 1865-1878, Ancestry.com
1870 Census for Esther Walker, Arlington Township, Alexandria County, Ancestry.com
1875, 1885 DC City Directory, Ancestry.com
1875 Estate of John Birch records U.S., Southern Claims Commission Allowed Claims, 1871-1880, Ancestry.com.
John Birch, Virginia, U.S. Wills and Probate Records, 1652-1900. Account Books #2, p. 224-227, Ancestry.com
John Birch, Will Book 8, 47, Virginia, U.S., Wills and Probate Records, 1652-1900, Ancestry.com
John Birch, Will Book 8, 48, Virginia, U.S., Wills and Probate Records, 1652-1900, Ancestry.com
John Birch, Will Book 7, 328, Virginia, U.S., Wills and Probate Records, 1652-1900, Ancestry.com
John Birch Inventory, 1855, Will Book 7, 89-92, Virginia, U.S., Wills and Probate Records, 1652-1900, Ancestry.com
Randolph Birch Slave Petition, District of Columbia, U.S., Slave Owner Petitions, 1862, Ancestry.com
Thomas, J. (2020, March 29). Birch Family Collection: Part of Arlington’s Oldest Family. Arlington Historical Society, https://arlingtonhistoricalsociety.org/2020/03/birch-family-collection-part-of-arlingtons-oldest-family/
