Yardley Taylor facts for kids

Yardley Taylor (1794-1868) was a Quaker who worked against slavery and made maps.

This map of Loudoun County, Virginia, was made by Yardley Taylor in 1853.

Yardley Taylor (born December 12, 1794 – died February 20, 1868) was an American expert in trees (an arborist) and a land surveyor. He was very involved in the abolition movement in Virginia, working to end slavery.

Early Life and Work

Yardley Taylor was a member of the Society of Friends, a religious group known for their peaceful beliefs and opposition to slavery. He lived in Goose Creek, Virginia, which was a Quaker community.

Taylor ran a business that focused on growing plants and trees. He also worked as a land surveyor for Loudoun County, Virginia, and delivered mail in rural areas.

He and his wife, Hannah Brown Taylor, had eight children. They lived on their farm called Evergreen, near Goose Creek village.

In 1853, Taylor wrote a book called Memoir of Loudoun County. Because he knew so much about the roads, paths, and landowners in Loudoun County, he created a very detailed map of the area in the same year. You can see this map online: detailed map.

Fighting Against Slavery

Yardley Taylor began working against slavery as early as 1824. He became the President of the Manumission and Emigration Society of Loudoun. His brother, Henry S. Taylor, was the secretary.

Taylor published letters and articles in local newspapers. These writings shared information about the Society's goals to end slavery. In August 1827, he organized a three-day "Anti-Slavery Convention" at the Goose Creek Meeting school house.

Helping Enslaved People Gain Freedom

The Manumission and Emigration Society worked to encourage slave owners to free the people they enslaved. The Society also collected money to buy enslaved men and women. After they were freed, the Society helped them move to states where slavery was illegal or to Liberia in Africa. Many Quakers and other people who opposed slavery supported this effort.

However, these "colonization" efforts became less popular over time. Many freed Black people did not want to leave their homes and families in America. Also, buying enslaved people and paying for long ocean trips was very expensive.

The Harry Case

In 1828, Taylor faced legal trouble for helping an enslaved man named Harry try to escape. Harry was caught while traveling north. Police found a letter from Taylor to another Quaker, Jonathan Jessup, who lived in York, Pennsylvania. In the letter, Taylor asked Jessup to help Harry. He explained Harry's difficult situation and that his owners planned to sell him to someone far away in the Deep South. Taylor had also given Harry a handwritten list of towns and distances to York, which was found when Harry was captured.

Yardley Taylor admitted to helping Harry try to escape. He paid a fine. We do not know what happened to Harry after he was captured.

The Kitty Payne Case

Hannah Brown Taylor (1795-1880) was Yardley Taylor's wife. She supported anti-slavery causes.

In 1845, Kitty Payne and her three children were freed by their former owner. Payne moved her family to Pennsylvania, where she worked as a laundress. But on July 24, 1845, slave catchers kidnapped Payne and her children. They were forced into a wagon to be taken back to Virginia and sold into slavery again.

Yardley Taylor, along with other Quakers from Pennsylvania and Virginia, raised money for Kitty Payne to hire a lawyer. The court case took place in Rappahannock County, Virginia. The court ruled in favor of Payne, and she and her children regained their freedom. This was a very rare event: it was the only recorded court decision in the Southern states where a formerly enslaved person won a case against a white person claiming to own them.

Public Opposition

In 1857, someone wrote a political broadside (a printed poster) about Taylor. This poster was put up around Loudoun County. It was a long message criticizing Taylor, especially his work against slavery. It called him the "chief of the local abolitionist clan" and "president of the underground railroad."

People believe the author was James Treyhern, a Loudoun County resident who supported slavery. Treyhern had attended a meeting in Goose Creek in 1856, where Taylor and other anti-slavery Quakers were present. That meeting became very chaotic when they discussed slavery. One young Quaker even had to leave Virginia for his own safety.

During the Civil War

During the American Civil War, the Confederate authorities did not trust the Quakers in Loudoun County. They often raided Quaker farms. The Union Army also sometimes distrusted them.

In November and December 1864, during an event called the "Burning Raid," General Ulysses Grant ordered his troops to take livestock, destroy crops, and burn barns in the region. The Taylors lost barns and property in this raid. Even with these personal losses, Yardley Taylor continued to support the Union side.

After the War

In June 1865, after the war ended, Yardley Taylor wrote a letter to Francis Pierpont, who was the Union-appointed Governor of Virginia. In his letter, Taylor explained how important it was to give voting rights to Black men. He pointed to the British West Indies islands of Barbados, Jamaica, and Trinidad as examples where Black citizens had voting rights.

Yardley Taylor died in 1868. An old newspaper, the Alexandria Gazette, mentioned his death on March 18, 1870. It said he died at age 75 from "a cold contracted while carrying shingles up a ladder to shingle his house." He was buried in the Goose Creek Meeting Burial Ground in Lincoln, Virginia, next to his wife, Hannah, and many other Taylor family members.

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