Henrico Black History Month Spotlight – Aggy
In honor of February as Black History Month, the Henrico Citizen will spotlight (on each weekday during the month) an important current or former Black resident of Henrico whose life has helped shape the county.
An enslaved woman known only as Aggy left behind a powerful legacy in Henrico County — one that historians now recognize as an early chapter in America’s long struggle for civil rights.
Likely born in about 1750 in Virginia, Aggy lived at Turkey Island Plantation along the James River in Varina, a vast estate owned by the prominent Randolph family. She served as a house servant to planter Ryland Randolph, and records suggest she may have lived inside the plantation’s main house, nicknamed the “Bird Cage.” Historians have speculated that Aggy and Randolph shared a close and possibly intimate relationship, though he never legally acknowledged a wife or children.
When Randolph died in 1784, his will shocked many contemporaries by granting freedom to Aggy and her two young children, Sylvia Anderson and Alexander Philip, while directing that they receive household furnishings, personal effects, and financial support to relocate to England. According to historians, these provisions were unusually generous for the period, suggesting Randolph intended to secure a stable future for the family.
But Randolph’s wishes were never honored. Family members managing the estate ignored the will, keeping Aggy and her children enslaved and withholding their inheritance. The decision forced Aggy into a lengthy and dangerous legal struggle within a system designed to deny enslaved people autonomy.
Help arrived from local Quaker attorney and abolitionist Robert Pleasants, who supported her effort to challenge the estate in court. While still enslaved, Aggy became a named complainant in a chancery lawsuit filed in Henrico County. In 1790, the court issued a decisive ruling: Aggy and her children were to be emancipated and granted their freedom under the terms of Randolph’s will.
Her fight did not end there. Records show Aggy continued appearing in court as she pushed to secure her legal rights and enforce the decree. Her final documented appearance came on Aug. 18, 1801, when she at last obtained full legal liberty. After that moment, she and her children vanished from the historical record.
Today, Aggy is remembered as a pioneer of early civil rights efforts in Virginia. A Henrico historical marker along New Market Road commemorates her freedom suit and her determination to hold powerful landowners accountable under the law.
Her story has also been brought to wider audiences through interpretations at Colonial Williamsburg Foundation, where historians say Aggy’s life illustrated the complex intersections of race, power and justice in the early republic.
