16 Facts About Seth Woodroof

Seth Woodroof was an interstate trader who ran what the Lynchburg Museum called the "most active and infamous" slave pen in the city.

Seth Woodroof is believed to have been actively trading from approximately 1830 until the beginning of the American Civil War in 1861.

Seth Woodroof was the only child of Jesse Woodroof and Rhoda Pettyjohn, and a Virginian on both sides; Woodroof's family background is fairly well-attested, in part due to a later lawsuit involving his maternal grandfather William Pettyjohn's 1822 will.

Seth Woodruff's father Jesse Woodroof had a total of 12 children with four partners; Rhoda Pettyjohn, the second of Jesse Woodroof's four life companions, died in 1822.

Seth Woodroof worked as a slave dealer as early as 1830, when he was around 25 years old.

In 1832, Seth Woodroof was one of several commissioners appointed to manage the Harris Creek Manufacturing Company of Amherst County.

At the time of the 1840 census of Amherst County, Virginia, Seth Woodroof was the head of a household consisting of four enslaved people, namely a female aged 24 to 35, a girl under 10, and two boys under 10.

Seth Woodroof was involved in horse racing in the 1840s, possibly running horses named Camillus and Chance.

Seth Woodroof is believed to be referenced in a remarkable letter written in 1854 by an enslaved woman named Pen Taylor.

At the time of the 1860 US census, Seth Woodroof was listed as a resident of Lynchburg, Virginia.

Seth Woodroof lived with Supra C Woodroof, and 16-year-old mulatto laborer by the name of Am.

Seth Woodroof served on the Lynchburg city council immediately before and during the American Civil War, for the years 1858,1859,1860, and during the Confederate era of 1861,1862,1863,1864, and 1865.

In 1868, Seth Woodroof signed a letter supporting a Conservative Congressman named Robert Ridgway.

Seth Woodroof owned real estate worth $20,500 and personal wealth worth $18,000.

Seth Woodroof died in Lynchburg in 1875 at age 70 of an ulcer of the bowels.

Seth Woodroof sought from 75 to 150 between the ages of 10 and 25, later extended to 30.