George Washington Fields (1854-1932)

January 02, 2016 
/ Contributed By: Euell A. Dixon

George Washington Fields

George Washington Fields

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George Washington Fields was born into slavery in Hanover County, Virginia, on April 25, 1854. He was one of 11 children of Martha Ann Berkley and Washington Fields. Of the children, one died in infancy, three were sold off, and one was a runaway. Fields and the others grew up on Clover Plain Plantation in northeastern Virginia.

In July 1863, during a battle between Union and Confederate soldiers on the plantation, Fieldsโ€™ mother escaped along with him and five other siblings. After a few months of travel, they reached the safety of Fortress Monroe near Hampton, Virginia.ย  Fortress Monroe was one of the first Union-occupied fortifications that received escaping slaves.ย  Those who arrived in 1861 and 1862 were labeled “contraband,” and their status as free people was disputed.ย  By the time Fields and her children reached the fort, they were granted freedom by the Emancipation Proclamation since Hanover County was still in Confederate hands.

The family settled in Union-occupied Hampton. Fieldsโ€™ father arrived the next year, followed soon afterward by four siblings whom slavery had earlier dispersed. This was a rare occurrence, and an entire enslaved family was reunited as free people.

Fields intermittently pursued a public education in Hampton from his 1863 arrival through 1875 while working as a culler on an oyster boat, a hack driver, and as a steamboat waiter. Finally, in 1875, with his younger sister Catherine’s encouragement, he enrolled at Hampton Normal and Agricultural Institute at the age of 21. Three years later, in 1878, he graduated and headed north for full-time work. A series of menial jobs at famous resorts and as a manservant for prominent families led to a position from 1881 through 1887 as a butler for the governor of New York, Alonzo B. Cornell. While in Cornellโ€™s employment, he continued to educate himself through tutors and schools, studying everything from French to medicine. He settled on law as a career, and as was customary at the time, he read law with a local attorney.

Fields intended to attend Yale University Law School to complete his legal training. However, his employer, Alonzo Cornell, the eldest son of Cornell University’s founder, Ezra Cornell, persuaded him to enroll in the soon-to-be-opened Cornell Law School. In the fall of 1887, Fields arrived in Ithaca, New York, and three years later, he graduated as a member of the school’s inaugural class and its first African American graduate.

Fields returned to Hampton to practice law, joining his older brother, who was an attorney and state senator. Fields took the Virginia bar exam before three judges and was admitted to the Virginia bar in April 1891 at the age of 37. Fields was also active in politics, representing Elizabeth City and James City in the Virginia House of Delegates from 1889 to 1890.

On November 28, 1892, Fields married Sarah (Sallie) Haws Baker, also a graduate of Hampton Institute. Together, they had two children: a boy who died in infancy and a girl.

In 1896, Fields lost his eyesight. He continued, however, to be active in civic organizations, serving on the board of the Weaver Orphan Home in Hampton and as a Trustee of the Third Baptist Church in the city and Superintendent of its Sunday School.ย  Before his death, Fields wrote “Come On, Children”: The Autobiography of George Washington Fields, Born a Slave in Hanover County, Virginia. The original, unpublished manuscript was recently found in the Hampton University Archives.

On August 19, 1932, George Washington Fields died at the Dixie Hospital in Hampton after a brief illness. He was survived by two sisters, Maria and Catherine, his daughter, Inez C. Fields Scott, and his wife, Sallie, who passed away on December 19, 1944.

About the Author

Author Profile

Multiple business owner Euell Dixon (formerly Nielsen) was born on November 3, 1973, in Sewell, New Jersey. The youngest daughter of scientist and author Eustace A. Dixon II and Travel Agent Eleanor Forman, Euell was an early reader and began tutoring at The Verbena Ferguson Tutoring Center for Adults at the age of 13. She has owned and operated five different companies in the past 20 years including Show and Touch, Stitch This, Get Twisted, Dimaje Photography, and Island Treazures.

Euell is a Veteran of the U.S. Army (Reserves) and a member of the Order of Eastern Star, House of Zeresh #103. She is also the 3rd Historian for First African Presbyterian Church, the nationโ€™s oldest African American Presbyterian church, located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Additionally, Euell is also a photographer, storyteller, fiber artist, and a historical re-enactor, portraying the lives of Patriot Hannah Till, Elizabeth Gloucester, and Henrietta Duterte. Euell has been writing for Blackpast.org since 2014 and was given an award from the site in 2016 for being the only African American female who had almost 100 entries at the time. Since then, she has written over 300 entries. Euell currently lives in St. Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands.

CITE THIS ENTRY IN APA FORMAT:

Dixon, E. (2016, January 02). George Washington Fields (1854-1932). BlackPast.org. https://www.blackpast.org/african-american-history/george-washington-fields-1854-1932/

Source of the Author's Information:

Kevin M. Clermont, โ€œThe Indomitable George Washington Fields: From Slavery to Attorneyโ€ (CreateSpace independent Publishing Platform, 1st edition, June 9, 2013); Hanover County Historical Society, โ€œNutshell: An Historical Background,โ€ http://www.hanoverhistorical.org/nutshell.html;ย  Robert Francis Engs, โ€œFreedom’s First Generation: Black Hampton, Virginia, 1861-1890โ€ (Fordham University Press, 2004).

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