At the age of 97, William Isaac Johnson told the story of his life to a Works Progress Administration (WPA) interviewer recording the stories of former slaves in the 1930s. Although his advanced age at the time may have affected his memory of specific events, his story is nonetheless a fascinating one. Johnson was born on February 14, 1840, in Albemarle County, Virginia. As a young boy, he helped to tend to the sheep and cows on his owner Nancy Johnson's estate. In 1858, she hired him out to a man named Brooks, who made him serve as his butler. The following year, Nancy Johnson reclaimed him and put him to work on her estate in Goochland County.

When the Civil War broke out, Johnson later recalled, all the men in his owners' family enlisted in the Confederate army, leaving him to tend to Nancy and her 2 daughters. He claimed that one of Nancy's sons--"William, my own young master"--took Johnson with him in 1863 to act as his "servant and horseman" in camp. In July 1864, his "young master" took part in Jubal Early's attack on Washington, D.C. Confederates captured a group of Union soldiers who spoke to Johnson about "slavery and freedom" and encouraged him to escape to Union lines. While pretending to run an errand for his master, Johnson and five other men snuck through Confederate picket lines and escaped to Washington. Sent to Boston, William enrolled in the quartermaster corps of General Benjamin Butler’s army. Although he recalled serving in a particular regiment, he most likely served in an unattached quartermaster capacity behind Union lines. Johnson remembered serving in the Petersburg and Danville campaigns, but he “never took part in any active fighting ’cause I was always busy behind the lines keeping the rations in readiness.” 

After the war, Johnson returned to Goochland and reunited with his family. In the mid-1860s, he moved to Richmond, where he learned the bricklaying trade and eventually opened his own contracting company. He married Hannah L. Johnson in 1880, and they had five children together: Mary A., born circa 1881; Helen F., born circa 1883; Rosalie, born circa 1886; Alice B., born circa 1890; and William I. Jr., born circa 1891. After a long career as a respected contractor, Johnson retired from active work in 1932 after losing his leg to an infection. Johnson was very proud of his post-war success, in particular the college education he secured for his children. He belonged to several fraternal organizations, including the Odd Fellows, Masons, Good Samaritans, St. Luke, and Ideals. He is the only Albemarle County-born Civil War soldier to give testimony to the WPA Slave Narrative Project, and his interviewer described him as “an affluent-retired building contractor, [who] despite his 97 years of adventure in life, faces the future with strength, vigor, and alert mind and a modern outlook on life.” Johnson died of arteriosclerosis on January 1, 1938, and is buried in East End Cemetery in Richmond. His wife Hannah, who passed away on December 14, 1933, is buried beside him.

Image: William and Hannah Johnson with their children (courtesy of Tonita Guydon)

Documents:

WPA Slave Narrative Testimony of William I. Johnson