Dear George,

As a direct descendant of both Thomas Jefferson and Edward Coles, I am a perfect example of the complexities of life our founding fathers experienced, that all Americans experience, except that in my case it is a direct family experience. President Jefferson, slaveowner; Governor Coles, anti-slavery son of Virginia. Ultimately they became relatives through the marriage of my mother and father.

In 1819 Edward Coles left his family home 'Enniscorthy' in his beloved Albemarle County, Virginia, selling his possessions. In April, Coles and his slave Ralph Crawford managed the exodus of about 20 slaves, traveling in covered wagons to Brownsville Pennsylvania, where the group boarded boats for the trip down the Ohio River. Near Pittsburg, he informed his slaves they were free and that they could either leave or continue on with him. After arriving in Illinois, he gave to the head of each family 160 acres of land as a gift for their service.

In October, 1821, Edward Coles ran for and was elected second governor of Illinois on an anti-slavery platform. Three pro-slavery candidates also ran which split the electorate and allowed Coles a slim margin of victory...167 votes. In 1822, Governor Coles asked the General Assembly to ban slavery and enact laws protecting free blacks. Instead, the pro-slavery legislature presented the electorate with a referendum calling for a Constitutional Convention to make Illinois a slave state. On August 2, 1824, the Convention was defeated by a vote of 6,640 to 4,972. After the Convention was defeated and in this process he made many political enemies who emerged during his run for Congress; he was badly beaten.

However, controversy was not a stranger. Let us not forget the times...Edward was born into a slave-holding family. Yet while attending William and Mary College he developed his anti-slavery attitude resolving that 'he would not hold slaves or live in a state which upheld the institution of slavery.'

At the conclusion of his second term as Governor, after being sued for bringing his slaves to Illinois, and losing his home to fire, in 1832 Edward Coles went to Philadelphia and met and married Sally Logan Roberts. Ironically, many years later, their son Roberts Coles left Pennsylvania and became the Commander of Company I(2), The Green Mountain Grays of the 46th Virginia Infantry. Captain Roberts Coles was killed on the 8th of February, 1862, during the first days of the Battle of Roanoke Island. As a further irony, the attending Confederate surgeon turned out to be his cousin, Walter Coles, who is presently buried in the family graveyard at Enniscorthy.

Edward Coles is my paternal fifth-great-grandfather. My grandfather, father and I are all named for Captain Roberts Coles, his son. My mother is Thomas Jefferson¹s fourth-great-grandaughter. Further, Thomas Jefferson and Edward Coles were friends. In 1814, while private secretary to President Madison, he wrote to Jefferson regarding his views on slavery. Many believe Jefferson is responsible for the extension slavery in Virginia; as well, many believe Coles responsible for preventing Illinois from becoming a slave state. I do not think even Roger Wilkins can imagine some of the fire-side conversations which occur on a cold winter's night among members of my family.

Rob Coles (electronic mail, July 10, 2001)
http://www.meetthomasjefferson.com

Editor's Note: Roger Wilkins is the author of "Jefferson's Pillow: The Founding Fathers and the Dilemma of Black Patriotism."

Here is some of what Roger Wilkins mentions in his book on pages 136 and 137 with regard to Edward Coles:

"[J]efferson included a vile racist screed in his Notes on the State of Virginia and in his old age, as a leading sage of the nation, turned aside the pleas of his earnest and idealistic young friend Edward Coles, who begged him to take some dramatic step against slavery or at least denounce it forcefully.

....As noted above, Edward Coles, a young protege of both Jefferson and Madison, gave those two great Virginians a last chance, late in their lives, to get on the right side of history on the issue of slavery. Both declined, so Coles decided to act on his own. He moved to Illinois, where he educated and freed his own slaves and was ultimately elected governor."

"[Edward ] Coles and [Anthony] Benezet confound the simplistic thinking that many blacks fall into, which holds that virtually all whites of the founding generation both North and South were complicit in the slave trade, and that most of them benefitted from it. These two men were secular saints who, despite the fierce demands of their culture to the contrary, followed their consciencs and paid whatever price was required. The four founders from Virginia [George Washington, George Mason, James Madison and Thomas Jefferson] left massive legacies to the nation, but they were unable to figue out how to shake off the shackles of privilege. Thus, while Washington freed his slaves, thereby sending a powerful message of disapproval of slavery down through the generations and complicating his own legacy, he did not live a moment of his life without the buffer that slavery provided..."