Battle of Chancellorsville • Tour the Battlefield • Monuments & Markers • The Armies
The Chancellor Slaves wayside marker is at Stop 3 on the Chancellorsville Battlefield Auto Tour. It is next to the ‘Civilians in the Crossfire‘ marker and looks over the ruins of the Chancellor House.
Lookin past the wayside markers to the foundations of the Chancellor House, with Plank Road in the background.
Text from the marker:
The Chancellor Slaves
Their names are unrecorded, their labors are rarely noted. No images of them survive. But slaves outnumbered Chancellor family members when Frances Chancellor moved into this house in 1861. Likely only a few of the 20 slaves owned by the Chancellors occupied the house itself. Most probably lived in cabins scattered across the Chancellors’ 300 acres of farmland. The slaves’ overseer James Moxley lived at Fairview, a quarter mile to the southwest.
When the Union army arrived at Fredericksburg in spring 1862, hundreds – perhaps thousands – of Spotsylvania’s 6,000 slaves escaped into Union lines. The Chancellor slaves were among those who fled. By May 1863 only one slave remained with the family: a young girl whose mother had left months earlier. When the house caught fire and the Chancellors fled, they left the girl behind – her fate unknown. Most likely she passed into Union lines – to freedom.
From the caption for the photo on the upper right:
Many of Spotsylvania’s slaves worked the fields and lived in modest quarters like those shown here.
Location of the Marker
The marker is at the end of a paved trail about 200 feet south of the parking area for the Tour Stop. It looks over the foundations of the ruined Chancellor House. (38°18’34.3″N 77°38’04.6″W)
(go to main Stop 3 page)
(go to the main Chancellorsville Battlefield Auto Tour page)