Lydia Broadnax
Lydia "Liddy" Broadnax ( – ) was a free Black woman, former enslaved person, and businesswoman who lived in Williamsburg and later Richmond, Virginia. Broadnax has been regarded by some historians as the possible concubine of her former owner and later employer, Founding Father of the United States George Wythe. She was denied the right to testify in the trial regarding his murder because of her race. Life Lydia Broadnax was born into slavery around 1742. She was enslaved by owner George Wythe in Williamsburg, working as a housemaid and cook for his household. She may have first been referenced in 1778, when Martha Jefferson noted that she "gave Mrs. Wythe's cook" eighteen shillings. Wythe filed manumission papers for Broadnax on August 20, 1787, two days after his wife Elizabeth's death. It is likely that she adopted her surname after gaining her freedom. Broadnax continued to work for Wythe as a paid servant. Four years later, Broadnax accompanied Wythe as he moved to Richmond, where he had previously commuted four times yearly to handle Chancery Court business. In addition, a young mixed-race youth, Michael Brown, born free in 1790, lived in Wythe's household. By 1797, Broadnax owned her own home, where she and Brown lived and also operated a boarding house. Wythe had taken an interest in Brown, taught him Greek and shared his personal library with him. In 1801, at Wythe's request, his friend President Thomas Jefferson intervened to ensure that Broadnax received repayment from a white man she had loaned money to. On May 25, 1806, Broadnax was likely poisoned by George Wythe Sweeney, who had poisoned the Wythe's household coffee with arsenic with the goal of murdering his great-uncle George Wythe to obtain his inheritance. Wythe and Brown died as a result of the poisoning. Broadnax survived the poisoning but was left almost completely blinded and in poor health. Because African American witnesses were not permitted to testify against white defendants in Virginia at that time, Broadnax was barred from presenting her evidence to the court during the George Sweeney Trial, where he was found not guilty and acquitted of all charges. After George Wythe's death in 1806, Broadnax was in contact with Thomas Jefferson to ask for financial assistance. Jefferson sent Broadnax $50. Jefferson also borrowed a portrait of Wythe owned by Broadnax in order to have a copy made for his Monticello estate. In 1819, Broadnax again sought Jefferson's assistance when William DuVal (Wythe's executor) sold her house in Richmond, despite provisions in Wythe's will to provide for her after his death. Relationship with Wythe Broadnax has been regarded by some historians as the possible concubine of Wythe and mother of Michael Brown. Historian Fawn M. Brodie, who linked Thomas Jefferson and Sally Hemings, has suggested that Broadnax was Wythe's lover, and that Michael Brown was their son. Historian Bruce Chadwick also included this claim in his 2009 book regarding Wythe. In his 2013 book, The United States of the United Races, historian Greg Carter