Nathaniel Venable owned Slate Hill Plantation, where Hampden-Sydney\u2019s founders held their first meeting.\u00a0 His office, now known as \u201cThe Birthplace,\u201d sits on campus today, behind Atkinson Hall.\u00a0 Venable\u2019s will shows that he owned eleven slaves at the time of his death in the early 1800s, including \u201cBetsey, Frank, John, Old Will, Billy Hand, Garden Dick, and Yellow Dick.\u201d\u00a0 Because Venable had several sons, brothers, and grandsons, tracing slave names and ownership through the family becomes confusing.\u00a0 However, an African American family by the name Venable still lives in the Mercy Seat Community near Worsham, Virginia, which neighbors Hampden-Sydney\u2019s campus, and Mr. Clem Venable III recently retired from a long career with Hampden-Sydney\u2019s Buildings and Grounds crew.\u00a0 An interview with Mr. Venable revealed that he knew little of his family\u2019s origins, but when asked about any relation to the Venables of Slate Hill or of Venable Hall fame, he mentioned that there could be a connection there \u201cfrom the slave days.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Research into early trustee meeting minutes showed that Samuel W. and Richard N. Venable, Nathaniel\u2019s sons, were placed on a committee to draw a plan for a new library, and to engage \u201cworkmen\u201d to build it.\u00a0 Richard N. Venable and his wife Mary Morton had several children.\u00a0 Their son Richard (1806-1844) married Magdelena McCampbell and the two named their son Richard Morton Venable (1839-1910).\u00a0 Richard M. Venable graduated from Hampden-Sydney in 1857, became a Major in the Confederate Army and a trustee of the college, and the dormitory called Venable Hall is named in his honor. 1855 birth records at the local courthouse list Richard M. Venable\u2019s slave, Sukey, giving birth to a boy named Clem.\u00a0 The 1870 census lists a free fourteen-year-old Clem Venable, living in Prince Edward County with his parents, Robert and Susan (perhaps \u201cSukey\u201d for short), and working as a domestic servant.\u00a0 Because early and accurate records on African Americans are few and far between, after this record it is difficult concretely to trace this Clem Venable to Clem Venable III, who lives in the area today; however, it seems highly unlikely that the names and location would be a simple coincidence.\u00a0 There is little doubt that Clem Venable III is indeed connected to the Venables of Slate Hill, and very directly related to the Venable for whom Venable Hall is named.\u00a0 Notably, on Mother\u2019s Day of 2009, Clem Venable IV walked across a stage in front of Venable Hall during his graduation from Hampden-Sydney, likely the first graduate of the college who is descended from a slave family affiliated with its earliest days.<\/p>\n
For more information about Slate Hill click here.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\t\t