September 4, 2023
New Dominion Podcast
Supervisor Tom Coen (I-George Washington) is a veteran educator representing the George Washington District for Stafford County. Deuntay Diggs (I) is a veteran deputy for Stafford County and a VMI graduate. If you are looking for a debate where two gentlemen can disagree without being disagreeable, then this is the debate you have been waiting for.
LOCAL HISTORY: Old Fredericksburg Jail
By Matt Kelly
GUEST WRITER
Tucked away behind its more famous neighbor, the Renwick Courthouse, the old jail seldom generates any interest for passersby. Little significant research has been done on it, and it is not a stop on any of the city’s historic tours. Yet it is one of the more interesting and unique buildings downtown.
Fredericksburg’s first recorded jail was built in 1741. It is believed that the earlier jails were located on the courthouse lot, in the area of the current building. The city’s fifth jail was built on the current site in 1852, at the same general time as the construction of the Renwick Courthouse.
There are no doubt many interesting stories to be uncovered about the old jail. Retired National Park Service Historian John Hennessy recently uncovered two stories that merit further attention. One documented a hanging in October 1899 and the other, an attempted lynching in May 1904.
In the October 8, 1889, edition of the Fredericksburg Free Lance, it was reported that Paul Keyes, referred to in the story as, “a colored quack doctor,” was convicted by an all-white jury of assaulting a young girl and was sentenced to hang. His attorney, A. H. Dickenson, unsuccessfully attempted to have the sentence reduced to life imprisonment. The May 28, 1889, edition of the Free Lance printed Mr. Keyes’ statement in which he denied ever seeing the girl and professed his innocence up to the time of his execution. None of the stories found to date on the trial elaborate further on the case against Keys.
Reported in the May 17, 1904, edition of the Daily Star, Charles A. Blandford an African American had been placed in the jail “on a serious charge.” In the early morning hours of the following day a crowd assembled outside the jail with the intent of removing Blandford from the jail and lynching him. The story notes that officers Chichester, Hall, and Richardson intervened to disperse the crowd, having at one point to discharge a pistol into the air. Richard Wheeler and Richard Hicks were arrested for attempting to break into the jail, while Turner Stevens was later identified as assisting with the break-in. The final disposition of the case against these men and the charges against Mr. Blandford require additional research.
The current “old” jail was built in 1928, using reinforced poured concrete. A cinder block addition was added in the 1940s. Its foundation incorporated parts of the city’s fourth jail built in 1805, which is still visible along the back alley. It was the city’s sixth jail and remained in use until 1968 when the first regional jail opened. It continued to be used as the police Department headquarters until it was moved in the 1970s.
I recently had the opportunity to tour the building as a member of the working group tasked with determining a future use for the Renwick Courthouse, the Wallace Library, and the old jail. Here are some of the photos I took during the tour. From what I have learned about this building in a very short time, I know I will be circling back to do a deeper dive into the history of the city’s jails.
A Labor Day Reflection
by Martin Davis
FOUNDER AND EDITOR
If it is true that capitalism has created more opportunity for more people than any other economic system in world history, it’s equally true that it’s delivered considerable pain – economic and psychological – to the people without whom capitalism could not produce the wealth it does. America’s laborers.
These are hardly new observations.
In the 19th century, as industrialization was quickly changing Europe, three great thinkers were growing alarmed by the damage it was doing to the workers on whose labor capitalism was growing.
Emile Durkheim, who was the first to connect the sharp rise in suicides to industrialization in European countries, warned against the sense of alienation capitalism creates in workers. Max Weber pointed his finger at Protestantism as the culprit in launching a economic system that not only destroyed the lives of workers, but compounded that problem by making them feel as if it’s their fault for their inability to advance economically.
But the most observant critic of capitalism was Karl Marx, who saw in this new economic system a series of inequalities that he believed would destabilize the world economy. As has been noted, Marx was a better diagnostician of the ills of capitalism than he was physician who could cure its ills.
In the now-going-on two centuries since these early critics of capitalism, there has been progress.
We take for granted today the many things that organized labor made possible – the 40-hour work week, employer-sponsored health insurance, guaranteed vacation, unions, paid holidays, and more. And there’s evidence that laborers are coming back into vogue.
As E.J. Dionne noted in the Washington Post:
Workers and organized labor are cool again. Young Americans are the country’s most pro-union generation. Labor has poll ratings most politicians only dream about, and the Biden administration is making workers’ pay, benefits and rights its calling card.
Labor may be cool again, however, it’s no time to celebrate. For laborers are struggling as much today as they were in the Gilded Age, and they face a daunting future.
We need not cite national statistics to prove the point. The evidence is all around us.
In Fredericksburg, almost half the population is ALICE – Asset Limited Income Constrained, Employed. That is, families that are working but are unable to meet their basic needs on their combined incomes. How is that possible?
Minimum wage has not kept up with inflation. At $15 an hour, the minimum wage may sound attractive, but it’s simply not enough to sustain a family. Add to that the reality that many minimum wage jobs do not come with full-time positions (which would include benefits), and the difficulties of surviving on such a small amount of money is compounded.
Housing supply and prices are making living harder. For 40 years, Virginia hasn’t had nearly enough new-housing starts to meet the rapid rise in demand the state now faces. The result? Home prices that continue to climb to levels that have priced too many families out of the housing market. Even though the housing market is expected to cool this year, home prices are expected to continue to climb, according to Forbes.
College is out of reach for more Americans. College has long been seen as the best path out of poverty into the middle class. But the rising cost of college (up 59% from 2000 to 2019, according to USAFacts) has put college out of range for those who need it most. Tuition at Mary Washington University, for example, tops $14,000 a year. That’s a price that will keep many who could attend from attending. There are many reasons for this rapid rise, but placing blame doesn’t solve the problem.
These are just three of the factors working against the poor, which increasingly includes many in the middle class.
E.J. Dionne is right – this Labor Day, there is reason for hope that laborers are taking back some control of their lives.
But given how far we as a nation have fallen, it’s just a drop in the proverbial bucket.
The greatest problem we have? We have sacrificed the common good, for every individual’s right to pursue the greatest good.
The truth is, we work best when we work together, and share equitably in the wealth that we generate.
This Labor Day is a good time to remember capitalism’s early critics; appreciate the problems they raise; and begin to work for the common good, so that capitalism might survive well into the next century.
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-Martin Davis, Editor
