Ledger Book of Silas Omohundro Jr.
*Silas Omohundro Jr. was born on this date in 1807. He was a white-American slave trader.
Born in Albemarle, Virginia, his father was Richard Omohundro Sr., and his mother was Edith Seay. Omohundro ran a slave trade business from what is now 15th Street in Richmond, VA. As a chattel slave trader, he engaged in the direct buying and selling of enslaved people, including those he and other traders referred to as “fancy,” a label that indicated that they were to be sold for sexual purposes.
Although never legally married, Omohundro had children with at least three different women, including Louisa Tandy and Corinna Hinton, whom he enslaved. He is said to have married Corinna Hinton about 1833. They were the parents of at least one daughter. He lived in Richmond, Henrico, Virginia, United States in 1850. Those who knew him weren’t aware of the family secret. “They thought she was his white wife, “they did not know that she was of African descent and therefore his slave property.
Omohundro Jr. often referred to Corinna as “my woman,” a phrase commonly used for enslaved concubines. In the 19th century, he extended the luxurious life of a white family to his enslaved family through education and other gifts. From 1851 to 1861, Omohundro recorded in his account book the incarceration of at least 1,900 people at a profit of $6,250.57.
He died on July 8, 1864, in Richmond, Virginia, at age 56 and was buried in Hollywood Cemetery, Richmond, Virginia. By his death, he had accumulated property in Richmond, a farm in Henrico County, and more than $33,000 worth of real estate in Pennsylvania.
