Davis was born into slavery near Norfolk, probably about 1814. According to family tradition, he was the son of a white ship's captain and an enslaved woman of mixed African and American Indian descent, neither of whose names is recorded. He learned to read and write, probably before adulthood and before he was transferred or sold to the Armistead family, of Point Comfort, in Elizabeth City County. There Davis nearly killed an abusive white plantation overseer with a knife, but other slaves restrained him, and he eventually became the overseer. Davis's widowed owner later permitted him to work as a pleasure-boat operator and allowed him to keep most or all of his earnings. He was deeply religious and became a well-known Baptist exhorter among the enslaved people in and near Elizabeth City County.
About 1837 Davis married Nancy Moore, a slave of mixed-race ancestry who at the time had one son. They had four sons and two daughters. Their marriage had no legal standing, and all of their children were born into slavery. Nancy Davis was supposed to be manumitted according to the terms of her owner's will, but following the owner's death, his son refused to free her. William Davis spent $1,800 of his savings to hire attorneys to sue for her freedom. The case reportedly dragged on for more than a decade until 1859, when it was decided in favor of Davis's wife, but the local judge refused to enforce the ruling.
Davis served as the pastor at the First Baptist Church of Hampton in 1865, but he had a reputation of insisting so firmly on what one of his grandsons referred to as puritanical conduct that he eventually lost his congregation. He preached or spoke at several meetings of African Americans during the first winter following the Civil War and on January 1, 1866, at what was reportedly Hampton's first public celebration of the end of slavery. Both during and after the war Davis was a tireless promoter of education for freedpeople. The school at his church had about 225 pupils in November 1865. He later claimed credit for establishing Hampton Normal and Agricultural Institute (later Hampton University) because his request that the American Missionary Association send a new teacher for local black children had resulted in the arrival of Samuel Chapman Armstrong, who founded the institute. Davis desired a more rigorous curriculum than the institute offered during its early years.
Davis's wife died in 1890, probably late in February according to a family bible, although the death register gives a date of March 19. Their grandchildren, both those who knew him when they were young and those who were born too late to remember him, grew up with constant reminders of his character and standing in the community and his commitment to education. With his white hair and beard, Davis resembled an ancient patriarch. He always dressed well, carried himself with the utmost dignity, and insisted that whites address him formally as Mr. Davis. His grandchildren and later descendants included numerous distinguished educators, scholars, artists, and other professionals who credited his example for their success. Davis died in Hampton on November 19, 1904.
Time Line
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ca. 1814 - William Roscoe Davis was born enslaved near Norfolk.
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ca. 1837 - William Roscoe Davis and Nancy Moore, a slave of mixed-race ancestry, marry. They will have four sons and two daughters in addition to Moore’s one son, all born enslaved.
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1859 - After a decade-long court battle, Nancy Moore, William Roscoe Davis’s wife, is declared free in accordance with her owner’s will. The local judge refuses to enforce the ruling.
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1861 - William Roscoe Davis and his family are some of the first slaves to seek refuge at Fort Monroe after the U.S. Army’s occupation.
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September 1861 - William Roscoe Davis speaks to soldiers and escaped slaves at Fort Monroe.
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1862 - William Roscoe Davis meets the abolitionist Henry Ward Beecher in New York and becomes a salaried speaker throughout the North, collecting donations for enslaved refugees.
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1865 - William Roscoe Davis serves as the pastor at the First Baptist Church of Hampton, eventually losing his congregation due to a reputation for strictness.
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Winter 1865–1866 - William Roscoe Davis preaches or speaks at several meetings of African Americans.
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November 1865 - The school at First Baptist Church of Hampton, where William Roscoe Davis is the pastor, has about 225 pupils.
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January 1, 1866 - William Roscoe Davis speaks at Hampton’s first public celebration of the end of slavery.
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December 3, 1867–April 17, 1868 - William Roscoe Davis serves as the doorkeeper for Virginia’s Constitutional Convention.
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1870–1880 - William Roscoe Davis serves as the official keeper of the Old Point Comfort lighthouse.
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1871 - William Roscoe Davis purchases the house and ⅞-acre lot where he lives in Hampton.
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1872 - William Roscoe Davis adds to or replaces his residence in Hampton.
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Late 1800s - The Norfolk Union Baptist Association continues to list William Roscoe Davis as an ordained minister although it is not clear if he held another pulpit after the First Baptist Church of Hampton.
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March 19, 1890 - William Roscoe Davis’s wife, Nancy, dies according to the death register. However, the family bible suggests a date probably late in February.
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November 19, 1904 - William Roscoe Davis dies in Hampton.
References
Further Reading
External Links
Cite This Entry
- APA Citation:
Harbury, K. E., & Tarter, B., & the Dictionary of Virginia Biography. William Roscoe Davis (d. 1904). (2019, January 16). In Encyclopedia Virginia. Retrieved from http://www.EncyclopediaVirginia.org/Davis_William_Roscoe_d_ca_1904.
- MLA Citation:
Harbury, Katharine E., Brent Tarter and the Dictionary of Virginia Biography. "William Roscoe Davis (d. 1904)." Encyclopedia Virginia. Virginia Humanities, 16 Jan. 2019. Web. READ_DATE.
First published: May 5, 2015 | Last modified: January 16, 2019
Contributed by Katharine E. Harbury, Brent Tarter, and the Dictionary of Virginia Biography. Brent Tarter is founding editor of the Dictionary of Virginia Biography.