Early Years
Tait was born on April 13, 1796, on his family's estate near Lynchburg, the fifth son of Caleb Tait, a miller, and Nancy Cooper Tait. His birthdate comes from his gravestone in Hollywood Cemetery, although his death certificate suggests the possibility that he was born a month earlier. Little is known about Tait's early years and education. By June 1814 he had joined the Lynchburg Rifles, a militia unit assigned to the 4th Virginia Regiment during the War of 1812. He rose from the rank of private to corporal before his service ended on February 9, 1815.
On August 4, 1818, Tait placed an advertisement in the Richmond Commercial Compiler in an attempt to sell, in exchange for cash or property in Richmond, 300 acres and a mill house in Campbell County, the fruits of his inheritance after his father's death in 1814. Tait may have moved regularly between Lynchburg and Richmond in these years, possibly in connection with a dry goods store operated by the Kyle family. By 1828 he had relocated to Richmond permanently and involved himself in the slave trade.
Slave Trade
While working with Wilkinson and De Ende, Tait also entered into a side agreement with an acquaintance from Lynchburg, Thomas Boudar. Eventually the two became partners, operating as Tait and Boudar. Tait acquired slaves for sale and relied on Boudar, who came from a French-speaking family, to arrange for their sale in markets such as New Orleans.
On February 14, 1834, Tait acquired a new lot, three blocks away, on the corner of Fifteenth and Cary streets, for $8,000, and built a new jail there. The property fronted Fifteenth Street and covered more than an acre. According to Trent, "It would be the largest lot connected to the slave trade in Richmond." In an advertisement in the Richmond Whig, published on December 11, 1834, Tait announced himself ready for business. "The buildings were erected upon an extensive scale, without regard to cost," Tait wrote, "my main object being to insure the safe keeping, and at the same time the health and comfort of the Negroes who may be placed thereat." On December 27, the ad was reprinted and ridiculed in the abolitionist newspaper the Liberator. "How tender a concern Bacon Tait appears to feel for the health and comfort of his prisoner," the editors wrote.
Profits rose and fell for Tait according to the vicissitudes of the slave market, but he seems to have been a smart investor. In 1837 he paid rent on a two-story brick home on Seventeenth Street that may have been used as a secondary jail, and late in the decade he hired Sidnum Grady to manage what came to be known as the Cary Street Jail. In about 1840 he hired Solomon A. Myers as Grady's assistant.
Family
Between 1843 and 1848 Tait fathered three girls and a boy, including twins, with Courtney Fountain, a free black woman who may have worked as a housekeeper. She was a close relative of the Reverend James Fountain, a free black man originally from Winchester and living in New York, who attended the National Negro Convention in Buffalo, New York, in 1843 and advocated an armed slave insurrection. Other Fountain relatives lived in Salem, Massachusetts. Tait and Fountain never married, but they presented themselves both on paper and in person as man and wife. Fountain's status as a free woman suggests that her situation with Tait was fundamentally different from that of the enslaved women who bore children for the Richmond slave traders Silas Omohundro, Hector Davis, and Robert Lumpkin.
On August 11, 1851, Tait resigned from the city council with plans to move his family to Salem. On July 6 of the next year he bought a two-and-a-half-story house there for $2,100, while still maintaining ownership of his slave-related operations in Richmond. On October 11, 1858, he manumitted the last of several slaves he owned, Henry Banks, for "good conduct." Banks had helped him operate the jail. It is unclear whether Tait's relationship with Fountain influenced his decision to free his slaves, although his biographer describes a marriage in which Tait focused more on his children than his wife.
Later Years
Tait's wealth survived the war, which was not the case for many traders, and his jail, situated near the James River and the railroad, was well placed for new commercial ventures. His longtime manager, Sidnum Grady, was unable to find work, however, and committed suicide in 1866. Courtney Fountain died in Salem on May 31, 1871, of inflammatory rheumatism, and Tait died on June 14 at the Richmond home of Solomon Myers. His death certificate cited "old age & softening of the brain." He was buried in Hollywood Cemetery two days later. Tait's will, written on March 14, 1861, divided his estate among his children, leaving the bulk to his twins. He did not acknowledge the children as his own or mention their mother.
Time Line
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April 13, 1796 - Bacon Tait is born at his family's estate near Lynchburg.
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June 1814–February 9, 1815 - Bacon Tait serves in the Lynchburg Rifles, a militia unit assigned to the 4th Virginia Regiment during the War of 1812.
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September 2, 1814 - Caleb Tait, the father of Bacon Tait, dies.
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August 4, 1818 - Bacon Tait advertises in the Richmond Commercial Compiler the sale of 300 acres and a mill house in Campbell County, either for cash or exchange for property in Richmond.
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March 18, 1828 - Bacon Tait and thirty-seven enslaved people he intends to sell board the schooner James Monroe in Norfolk, bound for New Orleans.
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April 9, 1828 - Bacon Tait and his first shipment of thirty-seven slaves arrive in New Orleans.
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May 29, 1828 - Bacon Tait arrives back in Norfolk from New Orleans, having entered into a one-year slave-trading partnership with James P. Wilkinson and Henry De Ende.
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May–June 1830 - The slave trader Bacon Tait purchases three thirty-foot-wide lots on Wall Street, in the Shockoe Bottom district of Richmond.
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July 6, 1833 - Bacon Tait sells three lots on Wall Street, in the Shockoe bottom district of Richmond, to Lewis A. Collier. The structures are worth about $400.
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August 23, 1833 - Lewis A. Collier advertises in the Richmond Enquirer, referring to the slave jail he purchased from Bacon Tait.
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February 14, 1834 - Bacon Tait purchases a lot on the corner of Fifteenth and Cary Streets in Richmond for $8,000. He intends to build a slave jail there.
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December 11, 1834 - Bacon Tait announces in the Richmond Whig that his new slave jail is open for business.
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December 27, 1834 - The Liberator newspaper reprints and ridicules an ad for a slave jail operated by Bacon Tait, of Richmond.
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1837 - Bacon Tait pays rent on a two-story brick home on Seventeenth Street between Broad and Marshall in Richmond, which he may use as a secondary slave jail.
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ca. 1840 - Bacon Tait hires Solomon A. Myers as an assistant at his slave jail.
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1843–1848 - Bacon Tait, a slave trader, fathers four children with Courtney Fountain, a free black woman.
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1845 - Bacon Tait serves as a member of the Richmond Fire Association.
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1847 - By this year Bacon Tait is the second assistant foreman of Company Number 6 of the Richmond Fire Association.
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April 1847–August 11, 1851 - Bacon Tait serves on the Richmond City Council.
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November 1847 - Bacon Tait serves as a Richmond delegate to a convention tasked with evaluating how the Richmond and Ohio Railroad will connect Richmond to Lynchburg.
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October 11, 1858 - Bacon Tait manumits Henry Banks for "good conduct." There are no records of Tait owning any enslaved people after this.
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March 14, 1861 - Bacon Tait writes his will in Richmond. He divides his estate among his children, leaving the bulk to his twins. He does not acknowledge them as his own or mention their mother.
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October 27, 1863 - Bacon Tait confers his power of attorney to his daughter Constance R. Tait and authorizes her to sell his real estate in Salem, Massachusetts.
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September 26, 1865 - Bacon Tait's property in Salem, Massachusetts, is offered for sale at auction.
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1866 - Sidnum Grady, the longtime manager of a Richmond slave jail owned by Bacon Tait, commits suicide using laudanum.
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May 31, 1871 - Courtney Fountain dies in Salem, Massachusetts, of inflammatory rheumatism.
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June 14, 1871 - Bacon Tait dies at the Richmond home of Solomon A. Myers of "old age & softening of the brain." He is buried in Hollywood Cemetery two days later.
References
Further Reading
Cite This Entry
- APA Citation:
Wolfe, B. Bacon Tait (1796–1871). (2018, January 25). In Encyclopedia Virginia. Retrieved from http://www.EncyclopediaVirginia.org/Tait_Bacon_1796-1871.
- MLA Citation:
Wolfe, Brendan. "Bacon Tait (1796–1871)." Encyclopedia Virginia. Virginia Foundation for the Humanities, 25 Jan. 2018. Web. READ_DATE.
First published: June 23, 2017 | Last modified: January 25, 2018
Contributed by Brendan Wolfe, editor of Encyclopedia Virginia.