Burkley Bullock
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Name
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Burkley Bullock
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Given Name
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Burkley
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Family Name
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Bullock
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Alternate Name
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Berkley
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Birth Date
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1834
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Death Date
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1908-01-23
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Sex
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Male
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Description
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Burkley Bullock (circa 1834 - January 23, 1908) was a man who was born into slavery in Louisa County, Virginia. At that time, he was claimed in ownership by white enslaver Colonel John R. Jones. Burkley was the son of Abraham and Cynthia Bullock and the brother of John, Albert, Robert, and Martha. In 1855, Col. Jones trafficked and sold Burkley to white enslaver and University of Virginia professor Socrates Maupin for $1,205.
During the Union Army's occupation of Charlottesville in 1865, Berkley stole one of Maupin's horses and, with his family, sought freedom. Bullock had a history of freedom seeking. In the MS version, draft no. 1, of "Negro in Virginia", formerly enslaved Horace Tonsler recalls, “Yes, I know of a case of runaway slave, Berkeley Bullock...One day we was drivin’ up de road an’ he showed me de very road he used when he fust ’scaped. Dis road led to Bath County. He said he traveled at night by de moonshine. Said he would feel ’round de trees an’ whichever side de moss grew on, he knoed dat was de north direction. Den he said he boarded a stage dat went as far as de Ohio River. He aimed to get ’cross.… Bullock was still on de stage when it go to de Ohio River. Dey caught him dere fo’ he could make it cross de river.”
Burkley was the husband of Mary Ann Washington (d. 1889), and then Harriet Fleming, and fathered ten children. As a free man he invested in real estate, became a businessman, and founded the Ivy Creek Baptist Church (Union Ridge Baptist Church). He is buried in the Daughters of Zion Cemetery.
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Spouse of
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Mary Ann Washington
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Harriet Fleming
