A Great Escape

Siah Hulett, a 23-year-old enslaved carpenter whose cabin stood in the Great Quarters nearby, used a rare day off on May 18, 1862, to flee the plantation by rowing out to USS Monitor anchored in the James River, leaving behind his family, future wife, and community. As midnight approached, armed sailors on alert in hostile waters saw his boat, shouted challenges, opened fire when they heard no answer, missed, and Siah Hulett stepped onto the deck a free man. The next morning he enlisted in the U.S. Navy, becoming one of the first of more than 200,000 men who self-emancipated and fought for the United States, inspiring others. After the war, he married Eliza Tarrow, who had also been born into slavery at Shirley. They lived across the river at Bermuda Hundred and moved to Philadelphia in the 1870s. After his death, Eliza sought his veteran's pension under the name Siah Hulett, but because he had enlisted as Siah Carter rather than Hulett, the pension was rejected until affidavits, including one from their former enslaver's granddaughter, corrected the matter.

Virginia · United States