Isabella and William D. Gibbons

Isabella's birth date, place of birth, and parents are unknown. About 1850 she was purchased by William Barton Rogers, a professor of natural philosophy (science) at the University, and was his family's cook until 1853, She apparently was taught to read by Mrs. Rogers. In the early 1850s she "married" William Gibbons, also an enslaved laborer owned by a university professor. They had four children; one was named Bella.[1][2]

In 1853 Rogers was replaced as professor of natural philosophy by Francis Henry Smith, and Gibbons was the cook for Smith's family until 1863.[3]^{:24 n. 7, 80}

She acted as nurse at the Confederate military hospital set up at the University.[4]

She and her husband got their freedom when General Philip Sheridan's troops reached Charlottesville, bringing the Emancipation Proclamation with them, on March 3, 1865 (see Liberation and Freedom Day).

She became a teacher at the Freedmen's School; its direct descendant is the Jefferson School.[1] Newspaper reports speak positively of her:

We have four teachers at Charlottesville, and Miss Anna Gardner has taken the more advanced pupils whom she is forming into a normal [teacher training] class. One of her pupils has also aided her in teaching, Mrs. Isabella Gibbins. Although the mother of several children, whom she must aid in supporting, she wishes to perfect her own education and become a teacher of her people. She is doubly precious to our hearts, as the devoted nurse of one of the noblest and best-beloved of our young officers, who died a prisoner in rebel hands.[5]

She received similar praise in 1867[6] and 1869.[7] The last reference to her as a Charlottesville teacher is from 1874.[8]

The only known writing of Isabella is the following letter, published in the journal of the charity providing support to schools for freedmen, the New England Freedman's Aid Society. In all the several references to her in this publication her name appears as Gibbins.

CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va., March 29, 1867.

DEAR LADY,—We have lived to see the fortieth Congress and to behold a change of affairs. The rebels begin to see the error of their way at last, and do all they can to better our race. They say the colored people are not only free but have a right to vote. Now let us be kind to them; they have been our slaves, and we must do something for them. It will not do to leave them to the care of those hated yankees. They will build them up as a tower against us. We must not do as we would like, but as we must, in this time of trouble, because the time that the Garrisons, the Sumners, and Stevens have been telling them about, has come, they will believe it if we do not take right steps in time. They are a good people, and so fond of their old masters, they will do what we want they should. Most of them love us, and have forgotten what happened while they were slaves. They know we are their friends.

This is a grand story for them to tell, but let us answer them. Can we forget the crack of the whip, cowhide, whipping-post, the auction-block, the hand-cuffs, the [manacles], the iron collar, the negro-trader tearing the young child from its mother’s breast as a whelp from the lioness? Have we forgotten that by those horrible cruelties, hundreds of our race have been killed? No, we have not, nor ever will.

If the Northern people who have given their life’s blood for our liberty are not our friends, where can we find them? O, God help us to love these people.

I am with the warmest regards,

Your servant,

ISABELLA GIBBINS[9]

The sentences with italic added were inscribed in the Memorial to Enslaved Laborers at the University of Virginia, in Charlottesville.

Her eyes, from the above photograph, were etched on the outside of the memorial.

Issbella's husband William Gibbons (1825–1890) was born into slavery in Albemarle County, Virginia.[2] His parents and first owners are unknown. In the 1840s, he was sold to Henry Howard, M.D., professor of anatomy and surgery at the University of Virginia, and he was then hired out to William McGuffey, who had married one of Howard's daughters. He served as butler.[11]^:239 His owner allowed him to preach to students, even though this was against the law in Virginia; He "later recounted that he had become a minister in 1844, although we know little about this."[11]^:240

"He was a general favorite with all classes, and no one had more friends than he."[12]

William was ordained a minister of the gospel in 1866; he was called a "lay minister" or "licentiate",[13]^:48 although the meaning of the latter term is unclear. Licentiate, a person with official permission to work in a particular profession.[14]In 1867 he accepted a call to the pulpit at Charlottesville's first Black church, the First Baptist Church of Charlottesville. As of early 1863, when the Emancipation Proclamation freed all the enslaved in Confederate territory, Black worshippers did not want any longer to be required to sit in the balcony of the First Baptist Church and to be outvoted routinely on issues of importance to them; they also felt that the minister discriminated against free blacks.[13]^:42–43 The Church split into Black and White congregations with the same name in the same building, although at first the Black church was required under Virginia law to have a White minister and white trustees, so the same minister led both congregations.[15] William was the church's first Black minister,[13]^:48 after the Union military government made Virginia laws temporarily irrelevant.

The Black church soon acquired its own home, the former Delevan Hotel, and was for a few years the Delevan Baptist Church. The school in which Isabella taught was housed in the church basement.

According to his obituary, William came to Washington in 1867 and the following year was installed as pastor of the Zion Baptist Church;[12] a different source says that William did not become minister in Charlottesville until 1870.[15] The published history of the First Baptist Church of Charlottesville states that "from the information available it is impossible to establish accurately the dates of all of the eleven pastors of the church between 1863 and 1914."[13]^:55 It reports Gibbons' pastorate ended in 1870, after "about two years" of service.[13]^:48–49

However, Isabella's sponsoring agency said in 1874 that it was in serious financial difficulty; they were closing schools and their monthly publication had become yearly.[8] The Delevan Hotel building, housing both Isabella's school and William's church, was condemned and torn down in 1876 and a replacement was not ready until 1884.[13]^{:49, 51} At the same time references to her as a teacher in Charlottesville disappear, references to William as a Washington pastor start to appear, so the couple may have moved to Washington about 1875, or the couple may have lived separately from 1870 to 1874.

He held his position at the Zion Baptist Church until his death in 1886. Under him the church grew from 200 to 1,700 members.[12] When he died in June 1886, 10,000 mourners attended his funeral, the Washington Post reported in a front-page story.[1] The National Republican estimated the crowd at 5,000, adding that "it was almost impossible to get within a block of the building".[16]

The entire board of the church accompanied his remains to Charlottesville,where he was buried in Oakwood Cemetery. After her death in 1890, Isabella's remains were also taken from Washington to Charlotteville, and interred there.