History Thursday: 307 Fauquier Street
Home was owned by Collin Williams, one of just six Black property owners in Fredericksburg in 1863.
By Adele Uphaus
MANAGING EDITOR AND CORRESPONDENT
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When Collin Williams bought this house in 1863, he was one of only six Black property owners in Fredericksburg—even though free Blacks accounted for 10% of the city’s population.
During his lifetime, Williams, described as a “free mulatto man” who worked as a shoemaker, purchased and emancipated his own father, and saw his son involved in what could easily have been a life-threatening clash between law enforcement and Black youth in 1872, according to research conducted in 2018 by Janet Waltonen for the Historic Fredericksburg Foundation’s marker program.
When he died in 1874, Williams—who never learned to read or write—was able to leave property to his widow and nine children, providing them and his grandchildren with some stability in a time when Black people had to live “behind the veil,” as W.E.B. DuBois wrote and Waltonen quotes.
“Their story is a testament to how Black southerners found a way through a system that denied them their most basic rights,” Waltonen wrote.
The building that stands at 307 Fauquier Street today was most likely built in 1824 by Thomas Seddon, who owned the lot.
Seddon was Director of the Farmer’s Bank of Virginia and was a member of the committee that welcomed and celebrated General Lafayette when he visited Fredericksburg in 1824.
Seddon rented the building, which was divided into two residents, to two tenants for $25 each, according to Waltonen’s research.
In 1846, Thomas Knox bought the lot and building. Knox was one of 18 citizens of Fredericksburg to be arrested by Union general John Pope and imprisoned in Old Capital Prison in Washington, D.C. for six weeks.
Knox sold 307 Fauquier Street to Collin Williams in two installments in 1863 and 1864, during the height of the Civil War. The chain of title shows payment of $625 in 1863 and $612 in 1864. Waltonen notes that purchase in installments was “an uncommon arrangement” and “had to have been prearranged” between Knox and Williams.
Williams was born in 1830 in Falmouth. His father, Collin Sr., was enslaved but Waltonen suspects that his mother was free—Virginia law passed in the 1600s stated that children of Black women were born enslaved or free depending on the status of their mother, and Collin Jr. was certainly free by 1850, when he is included in the Census.
His life still would have been constrained, Waltonen writes. Free Blacks were required to register with the Clerk of Court and carry papers with them, and Fredericksburg’s Common Council passed a law in 1845 stating that “any free Negro or mulatto” found on city streets after 9 p.m. could be arrested and taken to the Mayor or justice of the peace and inflicted with “not less than five nor more than 30 lashes at the public whipping post.”
It was also illegal for free Blacks to purchase enslaved people unless they were immediate family members—but that didn’t prevent Williams from being able to free his father.
Williams was able to purchase his father from Council member and bank director Douglas Gordon for just $5, “a nominal sum that may reflect the regard Gordon held for one or both Williamses,” Waltonen writes.
Williams emancipated his father 10 years later.
“Know all men by these present that I, Colin Williams of the Town of Fredericksburg, have manumitted, emancipated and set free … my Negro man named Colin Williams … bought by me from D.H. Gordon … and I hereby do declare him … to be entirely liberated from Slavery,” the 1858 deed of emancipation reads.
Because he could not read or write, Williams signed the deed with an X.
Williams, his wife, Susan, and their nine children lived in 307 Fauquier Street and combined the two tenements into one residence.
In 1872, when their third son, also named Collin, was 17, he was involved in a “potentially explosive racial situation” that was written up in the Fredericksburg Ledger and heard by the Mayor’s Court, Waltonen writes.
A white police officer, James Taylor, struck Robert Scott, an African American boy, with his cane, and when the boy’s mother “interfered,” according to the article, he “turned upon her, using violent language and threatening her life.” A “gang” of young men, including the younger Collin Williams, declared that “it was wrong to strike a woman” and that they would “murder Taylor.”
Luckily, the situation didn’t escalate further, and Williams and the other young men only had to pay a fine.
The older Williams died in 1874, leaving 307 Fauquier Street to his widow and children. They moved to south Princess Anne Street and rented it to tenants as an additional source of income along with their jobs as domestic servants. The family was active in Shiloh Baptist Church (Old Site).
In 1911, the surviving siblings conveyed the property to the youngest brother, Charlie. He was a chauffeur and his wife, Leila, was a teacher at a “colored” elementary school located at the corner of Wolfe Street and Princess Anne Street. They had eight children who grew up in 307 Fauquier Street—five of whom went on to serve in the U.S. Army during World War II.

Charlie Williams sold the house to Charles Harris in 1930. Harris owned Harris’s Garage in the 1300 block of Princess Anne Street, which was advertised as staying open all night. He was a veteran of World War I, serving as an infantry sergeant, and is described in his obituary as “a longtime Fredericksburg Negro leader.” He is buried in Arlington National Cemetery.
The next owners of 307 Fauquier were two sisters, Hannah and Sophie Washington, who according to a 1932 article in the Free Lance-Star were related to John Washington, “the Immigrant,” who crossed the Rappahannock River to freedom during the Battle of Fredericksburg.
The Washington sisters opened “The Little Tavern” in the building. According to the 1933 Fredericksburg business directory, they served lunch and “afternoon tea in the garden.” Before buying the building, they had rented it and operated the Little Tavern Lending Library of “new popular books” out of it, according to the Free Lance-Star article.
In 1947, the Washington sisters sold the property to Eva Pierson, who worked for 37 years as assistant executive secretary for the Kenmore Association.
The home was a rental property for most of the period between then and 1990, when it became owner-occupied again.
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