I’m No Longer a First-Generation Law Student…Due to Slavery

I debated writing this article for almost two years because it requires me to share an intensely personal journey. It is a journey through how the evils of slavery affected my family, and how I still feel the effects to this day. And it is a journey that implicates the University of Virginia, and its Law School, in a dark period of American history. But in the face of increasing efforts by the Trump Administration to gut diversity, equity, and inclusion (“DEI”) programs across the country, I felt people had to understand that the tendrils of slavery still reach out and grab us to this day. Plus, I’m deep into that 3LOL life, so what is the worst that could happen?

In 2022, I began researching my family tree. I more or less knew what to expect—I am a biracial man, and like most Black Americans once you go back far enough in your family tree you discover someone owned your ancestors.[1] So I wasn’t terribly surprised to discover two white slaveholders on my Black father’s side of the family: Matthew Whitaker Ransom and Thomas Williams Mason. But I was absolutely shocked to learn that both men were associated with the University of Virginia School of Law.

Matthew Whitaker Ransom

Matthew Whitaker Ransom was born on October 8, 1826, in Warren County, North Carolina. He attended the University of North Carolina for his undergraduate and law degrees, and served as the North Carolina Attorney General and in the state General Assembly. At the outbreak of the Civil War, Ransom became a general in the Confederate Army and fought in several battles, including Seven Pines, Antietam, Petersburg, and the Battle of Boone’s Mill, before surrendering at Appomattox.

After the war, President Andrew Johnson issued Matthew Ransom a full pardon, restoring his political and legal rights.[2] In 1872, he was elected to the United States Senate to represent North Carolina, where he served until 1895 when President Grover Cleveland nominated him as the Ambassador to Mexico. If you’re wondering how he managed to make ends meet while working in public service, don’t worry. Ransom “owned several thousand acres of land” and “employed a large number of negros.” He died on October 8, 1904 and was buried on his plantation, Verona.

It is actually Matthew Ransom’s legitimate son, Matthew Ransom Jr., that I cared about. Matt Jr. attended the University of Virginia School of Law from 1873-1875. He was close friends with Richard T.W. Duke Jr. and the Duke family, who owned the land UVA eventually built the Law School on.[3] I only found out that Duke Jr. and Matt Jr. were friends because, during a class in the Albert and Shirley Small Special Collections Library, I opened Duke’s diary to a random page and he wrote about hanging out with Matt Jr. in the U.S. House of Representatives.[4]

Thomas Williams Mason

Thomas Williams Mason was born on January 3, 1839, in Brunswick County, Virginia. He attended the University of Virginia School of Law from 1858-1859. In September 1860, he married Elizabeth “Betty” Marshall Gray and moved to his wife’s plantation, Longview, in Jackson, North Carolina. During the Civil War, he served as a lieutenant and aide-de-camp to General Robert Ransom, Matthew Ransom’s brother. Mason surrendered with Matthew Ransom at Appomattox in April 1865 and returned to Longview.

After the war, Mason practiced law and from 1877-1885 served as the presiding judge of the Northampton County inferior court. He served several terms in the North Carolina state legislature and ran unsuccessfully for U.S. Senate and Lieutenant Governor of North Carolina. He died in April 1921.

To be honest, I still do not know fully what to make of all this. When I was accepted to UVA Law, I did not know that my ancestors had attended.[5] Now I walk around the Law School on the same land my enslaver ancestors used to walk. UVA Law Professors John Minor and James Holcombe educated the same man who went back to his plantation and fathered my great-great grandmother. It’s a weird feeling. It’s just a weird space to be in, and I have to be in it every day.

As this article comes to a close, I guess what I want to leave you with, dear reader, is the understanding that history is all around us. And as Black History Month comes to a close, I want you to understand the greater context within which everyone at this law school lives and studies.

[1] And the person who owned your ancestor also became your ancestor through the systemic sexual exploitation of female slaves, as the founder of this very University can attest.

[2] Truly the worst President in American history.

[3] https://slavery.law.virginia.edu/susl/node/257.

[4] To this day it’s still the freakiest thing to ever happen to me.

[5] Probably would have been an amazing “Why UVA” admissions essay.