Randolph Plantation, Scandal at Bizarre, and Israel Hill

Randolph Planation and Scandal at Bizarre

At the corner of E. Second and N. Main Street, once stood the planation home for the Randolphs, a notorious family that rose and fell with the antebellum tobacco economy and founded the town of Bizarre. A prominent founding family in Virginia, the Randolph family gained their wealth in tobacco sales, owned hundreds of slaves, built mansions, and produced generations of statesmen and generals, including Thomas Jefferson, John Marshall, and Robert E. Lee, whose mothers were all Randolphs. Most notably, however, was Anne Cary “Nancy” Randolph, whose claim to fame began with a family scandal at Bizarre in the late 1790s.

Nancy moved to Bizarre with her sister, Judith, and her sister’s husband, Richard Randolph (also the sisters’ cousin). Almost as soon as Nancy arrived in Bizarre, visitors began to suspect that she and Richard were too fond of one another. By 1792, Nancy unexpectedly began to gain weight, causing suspicion. It was 30 miles northeast of Farmville (now at 145 Ampthill Rd, Cartersville, VA), however, at the Glentivar House, when Nancy’s screams awoke the household, only to be suddenly silenced. The next morning, they discovered blood stains on the staircase and bedclothes and in a shingle pile outside: the corpse of a white baby.

Israel Hill

Israel Hill on the Appomattox was a community made up of freed slaves who lived, married, and did business with white members of Prince Edward County. Thomas Jefferson had himself condemned slavery, but he never believed that whites and blacks could live together, it was his nephew, Richard Randolph (the same one involved in the scandal), who challenged this. Richard Randolph inherited his father’s property upon his death and planned to free the slaves in his will after debts were paid. When Richard Randolph died early – around 26 years old – his wife, Judith Randolph, freed the slaves and deeded over 25 acres to the families 10 years later. Calling their settlement Israel Hill, being their promised land, the community developed commercial businesses in blacksmithing, dairy or tobacco farming, carpentry, and general store management.

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References

Text:

Alan Pell Crawford, “A House Called Bizarre,” Washington Post, Nov 26, 2000. https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/travel/2000/11/26/a-house-called-bizarre/4ea73982-5c3c-4599-9086-ea209464a666/

“Site of the Randolph House,” Historical Marker Project, Sept 20, 2014. https://www.historicalmarkerproject.com/markers/HMK7D_site-of-the-randolph-house_Farmville-VA.html

More information: Francis Biddle, “Scandal at Bizarre,” American Heritage, vol. 12, no. 5, Aug 1961. https://www.americanheritage.com/scandal-bizarre

“Israel Hill on the Appomattox,” Prince Edward County Virginia. http://www.co.prince-edward.va.us/israelhill.html

Images:

Michler, N. (Nathaniel), "High Bridge and Farmville (1865)," Library of Congress, 1865, https://www.loc.gov/item/99439136/.

O'Sullivan, Timothy H., "Farmville, Va., vicinity. High bridge of the South Side Railroad across the Appomattox," Library of Congress, 1865, https://www.loc.gov/item/2018666731/.