As I return to ‘tug on the Thread’ of the EJI (Equal Justice Initiative) Reflection Room, to another random pick from my list of “those unknown to me”, I come upon the name Samuel Spottford Clement. Initial research yields a single, solitary source on his life, his “MEMOIRS OF SAMUEL SPOTTFORD CLEMENT Relating Interesting Experiences In Days of Slavery and Freedom”. Steubenville, Ohio, The Herald Printing Co. April 1908. Even after reading this autobiographical work in it’s entirety, I am left to think that there is far more to this man than what’s on the surface.
“I, Samuel Spottford Clement was born in Pittsylvania County, Virginia, November 13th, 1861, on a farm owned by James Adams. My father was born within the borders of the same county, on a farm owned by James Clement, who owned five hundred negro slaves. My mother was born on a farm owned by Edward Franklin six miles from the Court House, now called Chatten, Virginia.” After the death of Edward Franklin, he, his mother and two brothers were sold to Dr. D. Ward. On April 12, 1865, The Wards stood on the fronts steps saying “Tell all the darkies not to work this morning.” After gathering the slaves he read from the newspaper “General Lee today has surrendered to General Grant; you are as free as the birds that fly in the air.” His Father accepted a tenant agreement across the Stanton River; built a cabin and gathered his family to begin their freedmen’s life.
As a small boy his mother sent her three sons to summer school. By age 14, Samuel worked on the farm of Captain Begg’s by day and taught school at night. “Mr. Beggs had an out house that no one lived in and he let me have it for school purposes.” He averaged 25 scholars every evening and was paid 25 cents per month per student. By age 19 he carried mail between Lynchburg and the Springs, a distance of eleven miles; for three years at $10.00. Both his brothers Thomas and John had made their way to Wayland Seminary, Washington, D. C.
From working the Coal Mines of West Virginia, to his first steamboat sighting in Charleston where he found no work, he took his first passage on the W. M. Chancellor; bound for Pittsburg. Now skilled at Mining, he worked to build many Tunnels and Bridges throughout the Pennsylvania and Ohio Shenandoah Valley. He settled in Steubenville, OH where the work was steady and married in 1890.
10 yrs has passed since seeing his mother. His train home was due to stop at “Harper’s Ferry, that historical spot where John Brown started the great wheel a-rolling that ultimately freed 4,500,000 of human slaves.” Arriving at Harper’s Ferry at 2 am, the train wrecked eight miles this side of Martinsburg, WV. The train ran into Harper’s Ferry at 10 am and out at 2 pm. “That gave me ample time to walk over this sacred spot. I made a visit to the Colored College [Storer] on the hill; also to the little brick structure where John Brown stood and defied the powers of this country for a cause that proved to be right. I also viewed the Maryland Heights, the Virginia Heights, and the West Virginia Heights, three States within a stone’s throw of each other. From Harper’s Ferry I went to Charleston, where the martyred John Brown gave up his life that the American Negro might be free.” Upon arrival at Forest Station where his Father met him, he found his mother sick with pneumonia and buried her on this trip.
In 1895, he stepped out against five white men, and against his wife’s wishes, to run for Constable in Steubenville and was declared the first negro elected in the county by the popular vote of the people. His determination in carry out his arrest warrants and deliver his prisoners made him a folk hero. He was sent to Columbus, The Circuit Court of Ohio to bring back two colored men prisoners one charged with the highest crime known to the law. It troubled many to send a black man to deliver two black men. The Warden said “You are the first black man that ever handcuffed a man inside of this Annex and took him out five days prior to his execution in the history of this state.”
Perhaps it is the excellence of his Memoirs as so well spoken among the rare genre of Slave Narratives. Could be his experience as a day worker in the carving out of the oldest and most rugged terrains of the early years of building a united states; —‘The Shenandoah Valley’, Virginia, West Virginia, Pennsylvania, Ohio… the “Great Black Way”. The path known to Harriet Tubman and all fugitives, which led toward the crests of the Alleghenies and the gateway of Harper’s Ferry.–“the black belt” of slavery where there were massed in 1859 at least three of the four million slaves”; (Du Bois); into which Samuel Spottsville Clement was born just 2 years later. One has but to glance at the mountains and swamps of the South to see the Great Black Way. Here, amid the mighty protection of overwhelming numbers, lay a path from slavery to freedom.
Perhaps his power in history lies beneath his County ELECTED “Lawman” ability to speak and know by name most all of the highest of order White Men in the State of Ohio as he earned their respect AND VOTE as “Constable Samuel Spottsville Clement”. And to think that if he had not left ‘His AUTOBIOGRAPHY’…history would never know this ‘Black Man BORN a Slave’.
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