Richard Toler

Richard Toler said he was about a hundred years old when interviewed in Cincinnati. He was born on Henry Toler's plantation near Lynchburg, in Campbell County, Virginia, to George Washington Toler and Lucy Toler, and had two brothers. "Ah never had no good times till ah was free," he said. The enslaver held about 500 acres. Richard herded cows and calves and later hoed in the field. He said people were whipped constantly and that three or four were whipped to death while he was there. He himself ran away repeatedly, hiding in the woods whenever he thought a whipping was coming and telling them he would kill anyone who whipped him; he was never whipped.

The enslaved were not allowed books, money, parties or church. He learned the blacksmith's trade on the plantation and later worked as a blacksmith, stonemason and carpenter. He tried to enlist in the Union army but was rejected because of a hernia. He was twenty-one around the time of the war, and he walked fifty miles to vote for General Grant, voting for him in both elections.

He said he had seen Lee, Grant and Lincoln, as well as John Brown and the men hanged with him, and that he once told Lincoln he wanted to be free. After the war he moved to Cincinnati, where he worked as a blacksmith for thirty-six years. He married three times and had six children. He learned to read and write his name in night school after freedom, and attended the Methodist church.