Edward Diggs

enslaved gardener at Evermay, a Federal-style mansion located on Rock Creek in Georgetown, Washington, D.C. Edward was likely born in Maryland during the American Revolution. Nothing is known of his parents or other family members, or of his early life.

Unlike most enslaved people, Edward Diggs has long been memorialized. A newspaper notice published on May 31, 1810, by Edward’s enslaver, Samuel Davidson (ca. 1747-1810), Evermay’s builder and first owner, issued a warning against trespassers on the property. The notice reads, in part: “EVERMAY PROCLAIMS: Take care, enter not here, for punishment is very near…This is to forewarn, at their peril, all persons, of whatever age, sex, color or standing in society, from trespassing on the premises… My man, Edward [emphasis added], who resides on the premises, has my positive orders to protect the same from all trespassers as far as in his power, with the aid of the following implements, placed in his hands for that purpose, if necessary, viz. Law, when the party is worthy of that attention and proper testimony can be had – a good cudgel, tomahawk, cutlass, gun and blunderbuss, with powder, shot, and bullets – steel straps and grass snakes. It is Edward’s duty to obey my lawful commands – In so doing on this occasion, I will defend him at all risques & hazards.”

Before Samuel Davidson moved him to Evermay, Edward had been enslaved to Dr. William Thornton (1759-1828), the first Architect of the Capitol. Samuel Davidson’s daybook reveals that he purchased “Negro Edward” on July 6, 1809 from Thornton for $600. The bill of sale states that “negro slave man Edward, calling himself Edward Diggs,” described as 26 or 27 years of age and six feet tall, should be held by Samuel Davidson “as a slave for life.” The latter clause is vitally important to Edward’s story. In the first few decades following the American Revolution, some District of Columbia residents began the practice of gradual manumission of enslaved people in their wills and bills of sale. These documents recorded a fixed number of years the enslaved were bound, and after that time, would be freed. Thornton’s bill of sale to Davidson, however, ensured that Edward could never be manumitted.

Thornton had purchased Edward from the estate of Dr. Gustavus Richard Brown (1747-1804) of Charles County, Maryland. Brown was one of the doctors who attended George Washington at his death at Mount Vernon on December 14, 1799. In Brown’s 1804 inventory, Edward was listed as a “negro man,” 26 years old, and described as a “gardner,” valued at $300. Neither a record of the estate sale, nor a certificate of importation for Edward, has been found; however, in 1805, Thornton used “Ned a gardner purchased at the sale of the property of the late Dr. Brown Port Tobacco and Joe a Boy who waits on me” as collateral for a loan from Edward Edelin (unknown – 1834), a wealthy Maryland planter. “Ned” and “Edward” are likely the same person – “Ned” is a diminutive of Edward, and both were described as gardeners. The mortgage also likely explains Davidson’s entry in his “Evermay” expense account for “Searching Clerks office for W. Thornton’s title to Edward, $1.75.” For Edward, he had no say in any of these transactions, and he could have been sold at a moment’s notice. 

Based on expenses detailed in his account books, daybook, and letters, Samuel Davidson was quite preoccupied with his garden at Evermay, and first sought white gardeners to work the grounds. In an 1807 letter to a friend, Davidson wrote that he wished the gardener to “[understand] the culture of a garden, with its borders and embellishments, Fruit and ornamental Trees, Flowers, Hedges, etc...– Nursery, Orchard, and Clover Patches.” With such high expectations, Edward Diggs likely came recommended to Davidson, and he would have felt intense pressure to meet his enslaver’s demands. Unlike the White gardeners Davidson employed, Edward could not quit, or break a contract. If he did not meet Davidson’s expectations, Edward could have been physically punished or sold, repeating the traumatic cycle of separation and displacement inherent in the institution of slavery.

While one cannot pretend to understand the relationship between Edward and Davidson, it does appear that Davidson approved of, or trusted, Edward’s labor as the gardener at Evermay. After Edward was moved to Evermay, Davidson made several purchases for Edward’s use: a fruit basket, hay rake, hoe, two garden rakes, narrow axe, hatchet, iron dung fork, and an iron hay fork. Additionally, Davidson gave Edward $28.50 “at different periods, to furnish summer clothing and provisions for himself and family,” and he also recorded that Edward held in his own account “$19.98, being the proceeds of the Garden,” indicating that Edward had some financial independence. Edward seems to have been well-trusted by Samuel Davidson, not only to work the garden, but as the May 1810 newspaper notice implies, Davidson armed Edward with firearms and other lethal deterrents against trespassers, and he granted Edward some independence and autonomy.

Details of Edward’s familial ties are unknown. Previous historians of Evermay believed that Edward Diggs and an enslaved woman at Evermay, Sophia Shorter were married, based on entries for provisions in Davidson’s daybook (such as the “and family” entry referenced above), and the fact that one of Sophia’s two children was named Edward. Samuel Davidson – who provided commentary on nearly every person in his account books – never referred to Sophia Shorter as Edward’s wife. Geographically, it was unlikely that the two knew each other before moving to Evermay: Edward was enslaved in Charles County, Maryland, before being brought to the District of Columbia in 1804 or 1805, and Sophia and her children were enslaved by Robert Sewall, a planter, in Prince George’s County, Maryland, before Samuel Davidson purchased them in 1809. Questions remain as to Edward’s family, whether they were indeed Sophia, Eliza, and Edward, or a separate family altogether living elsewhere in Georgetown or Maryland.

Edward Diggs was enslaved to Samuel Davidson for just over one year. After Davidson’s death on July 30, 1810, Edward was inherited by Lewis Grant Davidson (ca. 1779-1832), Samuel Davidson’s nephew and the heir to Evermay. Unfortunately, after the May 1810 newspaper notice of Edward’s presence on the Evermay estate, he disappears from the records. In the 1820 census, Lewis Grant Davidson had six enslaved people in his household in Georgetown, but none were counted in the category of a male enslaved person, age 26 to 44, or categories for persons older than 44, which is where Edward, if alive and still at Evermay, should have been counted. In 1817, Georgetown cabinetmakers J. and R. Easter billed Lewis Grant Davidson for a coffin and flannel lining for Davidson’s “man” – it is possible that this unnamed man was Edward Diggs.