Ferguson was born free and of mixed-race ancestry in February 1810, probably in Richmond. His parents' names are not recorded. Ferguson learned the barbering trade, probably by beginning as a porter boy, whose duties usually included shining shoes and making lather. On April 7, 1831, in Henrico County, he married Harriet F. Crump, a free woman of color. Both had learned to read and write and signed their names on legal documents. They resided in Richmond's Jefferson Ward and had three sons and three daughters before her death on January 9, 1854.
Early in the 1850s Ferguson was one of more than a dozen free black barbers working in Richmond, a profession that placed him among the elite of free black society in the city. He owned three slaves by the time he reached age twenty-two, and throughout his life he held several slaves who worked probably in his barbershop or as domestics. In addition to shaving clients and cutting and dressing hair, antebellum barbers performed simple medical procedures, including the bloodletting techniques of cupping and leeching. Ferguson's barbershop, which included a three-story brick dwelling insured in 1851 for $4,200, was located near the Exchange Hotel on Franklin Street. His clientele likely consisted of prosperous white businessmen, which placed him in a position to foster business relationships with prominent whites.
Ferguson challenged his legal status as a free person of color on the basis of an act the General Assembly had passed in 1833. This law provided that a court, when presented with satisfactory evidence, could grant a certificate that would lift from free blacks and mulattoes certain legal disqualifications, which lawmakers purposefully left vague. On July 11, 1853, Ferguson petitioned the Richmond Hustings Court for such a certificate. He argued that because he, his wife, and their children each was less than one-quarter black, as defined by a state law passed in 1785, their legal disqualifications should be removed. The court agreed and recorded "that they are not negros."
Ferguson died at his residence on June 8, 1859. He was buried in the Henrico County cemetery owned by the Burying Ground Society of the Free People of Color of the City of Richmond, of which he had served as an officer. The cemetery, later renamed Cedarwood Cemetery, became one of the Barton Heights cemeteries in Richmond. As Ferguson had directed, the white lawyer who had represented his son the previous year became executor of his will. By 1860 Ferguson's family had moved in with his eldest daughter, who had married a white artisan.
Time Line
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February 1810 - John E. Ferguson is born free, probably in Richmond.
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April 7, 1831 - John E. Ferguson and Harriet F. Crump marry in Henrico County.
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March 1844 - John E. Ferguson makes the first of a series of real estate investments in Richmond.
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December 1844 - John E. Ferguson sells a lot in Richmond for $1,208.
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1850 - John E. Ferguson buys a lot in Rocketts, Richmond, for $300.
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1851 - John E. Ferguson's barbershop, on Franklin Street in Richmond, is insured for $4,200.
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July 11, 1853 - John E. Ferguson receives a certificate that lifts from him and his family certain legal restrictions that come with being black.
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1854 - John E. Ferguson and Sheriff Thomas Walker Dosell buy a lot on Main Street, Richmond.
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January 9, 1854 - Harriet Crump Ferguson, the wife of John E. Ferguson, dies.
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December 1854 - John E. Ferguson stabs a man during a confrontation in Richmond.
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January 2, 1855 - The commonwealth's attorney in Richmond declines to prosecute John E. Ferguson as a white man.
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August 20, 1858 - William Ferguson is arraigned in Richmond for violently assaulting a free black man.
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1859 - By this year John E. Ferguson owns a dozen properties in Richmond valued at $6,300.
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June 8, 1859 - John E. Ferguson dies at his home in Richmond. He is buried in what became Cedarwood Cemetery.
References
External Links
Cite This Entry
- APA Citation:
Tucker, C. J., & the Dictionary of Virginia Biography. John E. Ferguson (1810–1859). (2019, February 12). In Encyclopedia Virginia. Retrieved from http://www.EncyclopediaVirginia.org/Ferguson_John_E_1810-1859.
- MLA Citation:
Tucker, Christopher J. and the Dictionary of Virginia Biography. "John E. Ferguson (1810–1859)." Encyclopedia Virginia. Virginia Humanities, 12 Feb. 2019. Web. READ_DATE.
First published: August 21, 2018 | Last modified: February 12, 2019