Existing comment:
Dangerfield Newby
1815-1859
"devoted to family"
Dangerfield Newby's owner-father freed his son after moving from Fauquier County, Virginia to Ohio. Years later, working as a blacksmith, Newby saved $1,000 to purchase his wife and the youngest of his six children from a Virginia slaveholder. In a series of letters to her husband in 1859, Harriet Newby had written about the children and of her "one bright hope... to be with you." She had pleaded with him to buy her as soon as possible, "for if you do not get me somebody else will." Dangerfield Newby's efforts to free his loved ones failed when the owner of his family increased the price. Newby soon joined the abolitionist John Brown. The oldest of Brown's met at the age of 44, friends described Newby as a "quiet man, quick tempered and devoted to family." Dangerfield Newby arrived at Brown's Maryland hideout in late August 1859, his wife's letters in hand. |