Snowden: A Plantation in Buckingham County, Part II

The road to Snowden. Photo by Joanne Yeck.

Need to catch up? Click here: Snowden: A Plantation in Buckingham County, Part I

Snowden and the American Revolution

Randolph Jefferson’s personal involvement in the American Revolution was brief when he joined General Thomas Nelson’s Corps of Light Dragoons in 1778, however, later in the rebellion, Snowden played an important role.

Just prior to his marriage on July 30, 1781 to his cousin Anne “Nancy” Lewis, Randolph Jefferson came to the aid of the Revolutionary cause.

On June 1, 1781, several men from Buckingham County helped remove military stores from Scott’s Ferry to New London in Bedford County. While Randolph Jefferson did not join them, he loaned the services of one of his slaves and volunteered 20 bushels of oats, 2 barrels of corn, and 38 lbs. of bacon for the guards, as well as a wagon for removing the military stores. The provisions were later valued at £3.18.6.

Beginning in June, the 3rd Regiment of Light Dragoons camped at Snowden for over a month. Randolph eventually claimed the use of his pastures for seventy-three head of cattle for forty-seven days. Feed included seventy-six feet of tops and 600 bundles of fodder which fed seventy-three beeves for twenty days and an additional eight head of cattle for thirty days. This claim alone totaled £6.11.0.

Capt. Presley Thornton of the Continental Army, among the men encamped at Snowden, wrote certificates for donated goods. His presence is a tangible reminder that during the summer of 1781, Randolph Jefferson enjoyed not only troops on his plantation, but also the company of officers. The events of the summer of 1781, particularly the successful protection of military stores at Scott’s Ferry, proved to be a definitive moment in the war. From that turning point on, it was a march towards Yorktown and victory for the Continental Army. Along with other patriotic citizens of Buckingham County, Randolph Jefferson and the fields of Snowden rose to the demands of the day.

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My book, The Jefferson Brothers, is currently discounted at Braughler Books. Click here to learn more and download a PDF of Chapter 1: The Jefferson Brothers

Coming Next: Snowden: A Plantation in Buckingham County, Part III