What's in a name? Moses Grandy Trail

If Moses Grandy had lived in an era other than pre-Civil War Virginia and North Carolina, he might have been one of Hampton Roads' most prosperous businessmen. His fate was to be born a slave in Camden County, N.C., in the late 1700s and to come of age when there were few options for escaping the cruelties of bondage.

But he found a way, through hard work and a strong intellect, not only to endure but to prosper, buy his freedom and tell his life story to abolitionists, who used it to enlighten people about the evils of slavery.

His was a hard existence cutting timber and running boats along the snake-infested Great Dismal Swamp Canal. He also worked with white merchants bringing goods into port in Norfolk and Portsmouth. It was not uncommon for an owner to allow slaves to engage in private enterprise as long as the owner shared in the profits.

Grandy earned enough money to buy his freedom three times - the first two times his masters stole it and kept him in bondage. After finally being freed, he earned enough to buy the freedom of his wife and other relatives as well.

Eric Sheppard, a descendant and author of a 2003 book "Ancestor's Call," estimates that as of 1844 Grandy had spent about $3,000 to free himself and family members. In today's dollars, Sheppard wrote, that would be more than $50,000.

The details of Grandy's life and times are documented in an autobiography, "Narrative of the Life of Moses Grandy; Late a Slave in the United States of America," published in London in 1843.

"He was an extraordinary person," said Tommy L. Bogger, history professor and director of the Harrison B. Wilson Archives at Norfolk State University. His autobiography contradicted the racist view that blacks were simply "brutes," Bogger said. Grandy and others like him defied such stereotypes by undeniably showing they were "conscious thinking beings who could establish a way for themselves," Bogger said.

Grandy's legacy today includes numerous descendants, many of whom still live in southeastern Virginia. And it includes a relatively new, 2-1/2-mile, four-lane road in Chesapeake's Deep Creek section that the city named in his honor in 2006.

Moses Grandy Trail runs from Dominion Boulevard west to within feet of the canal where he labored almost two centuries ago.

Bill Bartel, (757) 446-2398, bill.bartel@pilotonline.com