Excerpts of

William Syphax: A Pioneer 

in Negro Education in the District of Columbia

By E. Delorus Preston, Jr

[William] Syphax [1825-1891] was born shortly after the troublous days of the Missouri Compromise; he witnessed the growing hatred and sectional discords that resulted in the Compromise of 1850; he saw the devastating effects of the Kansas-Nebraska Bill, the Dred Scott Decision, the John Brown Raid, and lived through the hectic days of disunion, civil war and subsequent reconstruction.

Through it all he had an abiding faith in his people, and at every possible opportunity he evinced a manliness and a fortitude in his efforts to champion their cause. He was honest, courageous, thrifty in all his dealings and never descended from his lofty pedestal.

William Syphax was the offspring of a distinguished line. His grandfather, William Syphax, was a free Negro, who lived on Fairfax Street, in Alexandria, Virginia. The house in which he lived had at one time been the office of William Herbert, a leading citizen of Alexandria and a descendant of Carlyle.

He lived near the old bank of Alexandria and was constantly on the ground of the Carlyle House, over which the Braddock House was afterward built. the elder Syphax was well versed in the prophetical portions of the Scriptures, and ever and anon he was wont to stand on the street corners and preach his doctrines to passersby. He was quite a character in Alexandria and was "very industrious and much respected."

Charles Syphax [1791-1869], the only son of William, was a slave and he belonged to George Washington Parke Custis [1781-1857], who owned Arlington, Virginia, and its environs. When about ten years of age [1801] he accompanied George Washington Parke Custis to Arlington, where he grew up with Custus' daughter Mary, who later married Genereal R.E. Lee.

Syphax became enamored of one Maria Carter [1803-1886] while working as one of the "White House" servants whose duties were confined to the serving of meals in the Arlington Mansion, and they were married at Arlington by an Episcopal minister, about 1821. By this marriage Elinor was born 1823, and William 1825.

Charles, it seems, had considerable liberty, for although he was not freed until after the death of Custis, he was a member, in good standing, of a Baptist Church in Alexander, of which the Rev. Wm. Madden was pastor. Inasmuch as he belonged to the Custis family at Arlington, he was full of recollections of the early presidents and statesmen, and his memory was stored with anecdotes of those he met there, and who were in the habit of conversing with him.

He was was acquainted with George Washington and gave vivid accounts of Jefferson, Monroe, and others. It is said that during the Civil War, soldiers camped around his residence, too great delight in listening to his vivid descriptions of the past. he was well liked by all regardless of color and was considered a good Christian. He died in 1869 at the ripe old age of seventy eight.

On his mother's side William Syphax descended not only from a distinguished line but his ancestry savored very definitely of the plantation aristocracy of the South.

Maria Syphax was the daughter of George Washington Parke Custis and a maid of Martha Washington. George Washington Parke Custis, and he was lord of the Arlington estate of 1,110 acres.

In the treatment of his slaves Custis is said to have been as considerate as he was regarding any other class of human beings, and the glaring evils of iniquitous slavery were never apparent on his property. Each slave had a house apportioned him and a bit of ground, the produce of which he owned as "securely as if his title to the land he occupied was duly recorded in the records of the county courts."

Particularly was this true as regarded his female servants for whom he seemed to show an interest out of all proportion to those motives actuated by humanitarian impulses. He freed Louisa, the daughter of his servant Judith, on the 5th of April, 1803; John, the son of Judith; the children of Olney, in 1818. In our about 1826 Custis manumitted Maria, who at the time had two children, Elinor, six years of age, and William, "a baby boy." Her two children were freed along with her, though her husband, Charles, seems not to have received his freedom until after the death of Custis, who left a will manumitting all his slaves.

It is stated, however, that Custis recognized Maria as his child and gave her a piece of property on the Arlington estate. This piece of land constituted 15 acres off the northwest corner of the Arlington estate and "her white cottage was surrounded by tall trees and pleasant stretches of grassland and the place was beautiful as well as homelike."

It is also stated that "the family of Robert E. Lee inherited the respect for the blood of the former slave woman, and they (the wife of Robert E. Lee was the daughter of Custis and the half-sister Maria Syphax) confirmed the legacy of Custis by saying that the bit of land was hers although there was no deed to show the fact." William Syphax, therefore, came from a distinguished line.

Charles and Maria spent their entire lives on that plot of land and besides the two children previously mentioned eight others were born and reared there. They were Cornelius, Charles, Colbert, Shaulter, Austin, John, Ennis and Maria. All lived to maturity, and all except Shaulter and Austin had families.

The ever-increasing hatreds, part feuds and sectional discords over the slavery issue resulted in the Civil War, and the Arlington Estate was necessarily affected. Robert E. Lee took command of the Confederate forces while his family left the grounds. Federal troops occupied Arlington from the first days of the war and had many personal contacts with the Syphaxes.

On August 5, 1861, the Government had passed the Direct Tax Act. Inasmuch as Virginia was in "open rebellion" against the United States, the Federal Government realized the impossibility of collecting the taxes. The government then decided that when the civil authority in any State was so obstructed, due to the insurrection, as to prostrate the peaceful collection of the direct tax, that the tax apportioned should be charged or apportioned in each insurrectionary district upon all lands and lots of ground according to the enumeration and valuation of the last assessment preceding the breaking out of the War.

The Act was amended in 1863, and from November 21, 1863, to January 10, 1864, the sale of the Arlington Estate was advertised in a Virginia newspaper. on the 11th of January, 1864, the Arlington Estate of 1,100 acres was purchased by the Government for $26,100, and the cemetery began May 13, 1864, through the influences of General Meigs.

While all this was going on the Syphaxes were living on the little plot of land left Maria by Custis. There was no deed, record, will or document of any sort to show the right of possession and even had there been, the action of the Federal Government would have rendered such ownership null and void. Maria with her family, had lived there for upwards of fifty years, and now that the vast estate had been reduced to a waste and a camping ground for the Government's troops, the family began to bestir itself to maintain possession of its property.

William, who by this time had become prominent in Washington, came to his mother's rescue. Through his efforts the matter was brought to the attention of Congress, and with little delay and no debate the Bill for the Relief of Maria Syphax was passed.

On May 16, 1866, Senator Harris, from the Committee on Private Land claims, to which was referred the "memorial of William Syphax, praying to be confirmed in his title of land in the Arlington Estate (so called), Virginia, granted to his mother by the late George Washington Parke Custis" reported a bill (S. No. 321) for the relief of Maria Syphax. The bill proposed to release and confirm to Maria Syphax, her heirs and assigns, the title to a piece of land, being a part of the Arlington estate, upon which she had resided since about the year 1826.

The Bill for the Relief of Maria Syphax came up for a second hearing in the Senate May 18, 1806. Senator Morrill inquired of Senator Harris on what grounds the bill was placed. Senator Harris stated that the person named in the bill was a mulatto woman who was once the slave of Mr. Custis. He said

Senator Harris explained that "the title runs to this woman and her heirs." On June 8, 1866, the House advised the Senate that Bill S. No. 321 for the Relief of Maria Syphax had passed, without amendment. It passed the senate June 11, 1866, and was signed by President Andrew Johnson, June 12, 1866.

Very little information has been preserved about the early life of William Syphax. It is said that he came to Washington, D.C. at the age of eleven and attended private schools taught by an Englishman named Nutall, John T. Johnson and Enoch Ambush, also private schools in Alexandria. Whether he made daily excursions from Arlington to Washington, or returned to Arlington from Alexandria and Washington at certain definite intervals, is not clear in the writer's mind.

He made no effort to obtain his manumission certificate until he was quite a man, when, desiring to accompany Robert C. Winthrop to Boston as an attendant, he went to Alexandria "to get his papers.' He found, in the archives of Alexandria, the document which Custis had signed giving his mother her freedom and that of her daughter, Bertha Elinor, six years old, and one male infant. An octogenarian Quaker affirmed that the male child was the young Negro and he received his credentials." . . . .

Syphax took a prominent part in all movements and assumed leadership in many enterprises for the advancement of Negroes in the city of Washington along social, educational and religious lines. He was one of the founders of the Civil and Statistical Association (18500, the aim of which was the educational, moral and financial advancement of the Negroes of the District of Columbia.

He sponsored and secured the incorporation of Columbian Harmony Cemetery in 1889. Affiliating himself with the Nineteenth Street Baptist Church in 1857, he became a deacon there and thus functioned for a period of relatively 20 years. He was appointed copyist in the Interior department in 1851 at $720 a year, promoted July 14, 1874, to $900 a year and appointed to a clerkship at $1,000 a year October 31, 1885. He served under nine Secretaries of the Interior.

Seriously interested in the advancement of his people, Syphax had his first great opportunity in the passing of the act "Relating to Schools for the Education of Colored children in the cities of Washington and Georgetown in the District of Columbia," July 11, 1862. The act created a board of trustees of the schools for Negro children, specified their duties, term of office, etc., and empowered the Secretary of the Interior to fill vacancies and make appointments from residents "of the cities" at the expiration of the term of one of the trustees. William Syphax had long been thus interested.

Syphax became the first president of the Board of Trustees of the Colored Public Schools of Washington, D.C., serving from July 1, 1868, to June 30, 1871. It was in this capacity that he made his chief contribution, for he was a pioneer in the educational movement for the intellectual advancement of the Negroes of Washington, D.C., and did much to lay the foundation for the present school system now enjoyed by the Colored People in the District of Columbia.

Source: Journal of Negro History, Vol. XX (4) 1935, pp. 448-476.

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posted 29 June 2008