His name was Sam. No middle name. No last name. Just plain Sam. For any traveler passing by the cotton fields on the outskirts of Huntsville. there was nothing to distinguish him from countless other slaves.
Simply another faceless slave. bent over in the hot sun picking cotton. A human chattel worth about five hundred dollars on the open market
But if the traveler had paused in his saddle long enough to take a good look at this particular slave. he would have seen the face of a man destined to become one of the most controversial people in our country's history. .
Although historians cannot agree on Sam's exact year of birth. most agree that it was probably around 1795. He was born in Southampton County. Virginia. on a plantation near Edom. owned by a planter named Peter Blow. .
Peter Blow actually owned two plantations. one near town. and the other. a large spread of 860 acres. about twenty miles away. near a community called Sweet Gum. As was common in the days of slavery. Sam was raised on the same plantation where his master lived. This was not an act of kindness; it was pure economics. Young slaves grew up to become adult slaves. and adult slaves were worth a lot of money. Infant mortality among slave children was high. so Blow. like most other planters of that day. kept the infants near the "big house" so he could constantly monitor their health. .
At the age of eight or nine. Sam was sent to Blow's other plantation. This farm was a typical cotton plantation. which meant that everyone had to work in the fields. Although children of that age were too young for much physical labor. they were nonetheless valuable at many chores. .
Southampton County had been the site of several small slave uprisings. and Sam undoubtedly heard stories of them as he labored in the fields. Many of Sam's fellow workers were from Africa and it was their stories of a long-lost freedom that inspired many of the young blacks. Ironically. on a nearby plantation just seven miles from where Sam labored. another slave also grew up listening to the same stories. This slave. named Nat Turner. would also end up in the history books. .
Peter Blow's father had been moderately successful as a cotton grower and plantation owner. Unfortunately. by the time Peter inherited the land. the already-poor soil had been depleted by years of continuous cotton growing. In 1814.1815. and 1816. young Peter had to borrow money to keep the plantations going. Not only was the soil practically useless by now. the price of Virginia cotton had plummeted to an all-time low. .
To compound his problems. Peter had acquired a habit of excessive drinking. Normally a well-spoken. quiet man. he became abusive when drinking. Unable to see his own faults as a poor businessman. he blamed his financial reversals on those around him. including his slaves. .
By early 1818. Blow's creditors were demanding payment. He reasoned that the best thing to do was to go somewhere and start over again. He had been hearing reports of new land down in a territory called Alabama. This land was supposed to be reasonably cheap and fertile for growing cotton. .
With a decision made. Blow began to sell off his Virginia holdings. Along with the land. he sold many of his slaves. Most of the money went to pay off creditors. He had no feelings for Sam the slave and therefore made arrangements to sell him also. .
When Sam's mother. Hannah. heard of the impending sale she implored Blow not to go through with it. Hannah was Blow's house servant and had been given to him by his father. Blow reversed his resolution to sell Sam. most likely because he realized he would need field hands when he got to Alabama. .
Books of Huntsville's early history are full of descriptions of new settlers migrating to Madison County. In one instance. probably typical of the Blows. a writer tells of a family moving from Virginia with "the husband walking in front of an ox-pulled cart heavily laden with all sorts of household goods. Following the cart came the slaves. herding all types of fowl. milk cows. goats and other farmyard beasts." .
On Oct. 5. 1819. Peter Blow purchased a quarter section of land from the United States Land Office for his new plantation in Alabama. Immediately. to be ready for the next planting season. he started Sam and the other slaves to clearing the land and erecting crude shelters against the oncoming winter. .
Ironically. this quarter-section of land is now the home of Oak-wood College. one of the most prestigious black colleges in the United States. When Oakwood College was founded. some of the students were housed in old log cabins that were originally slave quarters. Tradition has it that these cabins were some of the earliest buildings built on the grounds. If so. it is quite likely that some of the college students were housed in buildings that Sam helped build. .
Though now in a new land. Peter Blow's fortunes and disposition had not improved. He had not calculated how much time and money it would take to start a new plantation. His disposition was probably not helped any by Sam. The slightly built slave had become "careless in dress. had a swaggering walk and a tendency to gamble." none of which endeared a black slave to a white master. .
Whether it was the alcohol that Blow was consuming in prodigious amounts or Sam's troublesome behavior that caused Blow to begin to whip him. no one knows. Taylor Blow. Peter's son. in an interview with the St. Louis Dispatch. stated that one of his earliest memories was of being forced to watch while his father whipped Sam. .
During this time. Sam met and began courting a young woman who was a slave on a nearby plantation. They were soon married. Whether they were legally married or merely "jumped over the broomstick" is not known. All records and memories of this marriage are lost in the mist of time. Nothing indicates what her name was or whether their union produced children. .
Most slave families were close and there is no reason to believe that Sam's was any different. When one of his younger brothers died. Sam. for some unexplained reason. perhaps affection. began using his name. Now. instead of Sam. he insisted on being called Dred. .
By 1821. Peter Blow finally realized he was not cut out for the life of a cotton grower. A few miles west of Huntsville. in Florence. fortunes were being made. The new town had attracted investors such as Andrew Jackson. James Madison. John Brahan. and LeRoy Pope. The more Blow heard about the new settlement. the more he became determined to move there. .
Short of cash. as usual. Blow borrowed $2.000 from John Jones of Huntsville until he could sell his property. As security. he put up his land and slaves. Fortunately for Blow. a buyer by the name of James Camp soon came along and purchased the land for $5.000. enabling him to repay the loan. .
While Blow was preparing to move. Sam. now known as Dred. was caught in a moral dilemma that had faced his people since the beginning of slavery: Obey the law of the land. move with his master. and leave his wife. or....? There was no other choice. Some historians have claimed that Dred tried to run away during his sojourn in Huntsville. but no proof was ever offered. .
In the end. Dred moved to Florence with his master. Peter Blow. and his wife remained in Huntsville. They would never see one another again. .
At first. prosperity smiled on Blow. He gave up the idea of being a cotton planter and opened a hotel bearing his name in Florence. The Peter Blow Inn was evidently a leased building. since there is no record of purchase. .
In his 1876 memoirs. Judge William Basil Wood identified the inn as one of Florence's early hotels and wrote that Dred served in this establishment as the hosteler. or keeper of the horses. for the guests. .
Taylor Blow. Peter's son. held a deep affection for the slave now known as Dred. Though much of this affection probably stemmed from the natural relationship that occurs when two people grow up together. one must wonder how much of it was caused by a mutual disliking of the elder Blow's drinking and abusive nature. .
For the first time. it appeared that Peter Blow was going to be a success. His inn had become a popular gathering place for travelers and by 1827 he had grown prosperous enough to buy two town lots in downtown Florence. The first was purchased Feb. 28. 1827. from the trustees of the Cypress Land Co. Less than a month later. he bought the adjoining lot from Patrick Andrews. Today. a parking garage and a church occupy the lots. .
Florence. like other boom towns. began to temporarily decline after its first spurt of prosperity. By 1829 Blow had decided to again seek his fortunes elsewhere. This time his sights were set on St. Louis. Mo.. the great gateway to the west. .
At 53. he no longer had the grandiose visions he had as a young man. Now he was satisfied to become the proprietor of a men's boarding house. He owned five slaves. including Dred. and employed them in his new business. .
Within two years Blow had run up large debts and was forced to close the hotel. Though the town was full of single men looking for a place to sleep. he just was not a business person. Suddenly. on June 23.1832. Peter Blow took sick and died. .
When his creditors heard of his death. they all demanded payment from the estate. The slave named Dred. being probably the most valuable property that Blow had owned. was seized and sold to satisfy the creditors' claims. .
He was purchased for five hundred dollars by Dr. John Emerson. who was about to enter the military. Over the next decade. Dred traveled with Emerson. as his body servant. to numerous outposts throughout the West. At one such post. soldiers after observing Dred's small build (he was only 4 feet 11 inches) began to jokingly compare him with General Winfield Scott. a veritable giant of a man who stood well over six feet. The nickname stuck and Sam. the slave who had changed his name to Dred while living in Huntsville. became known in our history books as Dred Scott. .
In 1846. Dred Scott filed a petition in the Missouri court at St. Louis. In his suit. Dred maintained that as he had lived in states and territories where slavery was illegal. he was therefore no longer a slave. His case would drag on in court for almost 10 years. capturing the imagination of every man. woman and child in the country. .
The decision handed down by the Supreme Court. called the Dred Scott Decision. ruled against Dred and served to inflame the al-ready hostile tension between the North and the South. .
Most historians agree that the Dred Scott Decision helped to put the country on the collision course that led to the Civil War. .
Dred Scott died on May 4. 1858. in St. Louis. On the preceding day. in a town 120 miles away. Abraham Lincoln and Stephen Douglas resumed their arguments of the Dred Scott Decision in the fourth of their historic debates. Lincoln's arguments in this debate were a major factor in his winning the Presidency of the United States.
