1855 Richmond VA Stampede (January)

On Saturday night, January 27, 1855, a "serious stampede" rocked Richmond, Virginia. Five enslaved people, among them Bob, Joe, and Linsey, escaped for "parts unknown," armed with $1,500 in cash taken from one of their slaveholders. Indeed, Bob, the enslaved man who fled from the slave trading firm of Jones & Slater had "enjoyed their fullest confidence," and was entrusted with making regular bank deposits for the slave traders. Another of the five who was identified was a man named Joe, claimed by slaveholder George E. Sadler. There was also Linsey, an enslaved man held by slaveholder R.H. Dickinson. Not long after, Linsey was captured in Lancaster county, Virginia and taken back to the slave pens of Jones & Slater. He claimed that he did not know of Bob and Joe's whereabouts, and their fate remains uncertain.