Dangerfield Newby: A real-life Django Unchained?
In the fall of 1859, radical abolitionist John Brown led a raid on the federal arsenal at Harper’s Ferry, (now West) Virginia. The plan: To arm local slaves with the weapons from that arsenal and start a slave rebellion that would ripple across the South, prompting the ultimate destruction of the United States system of slavery. With him, Brown brought 21 fellow anti-slavery activits, including 5 African-Americans. One of the first men to die in the raid was Dangerfield Newby, a former slave seeking both the destruction of slavery and the freedom of his still-enslaved wife.
Born ca. 1815 to a white father and a black, enslaved mother, Newby was later freed by his father. Going into the raid, Newby carried letters with him from his wife, Harriet, who was still enslaved in Virginia. In the letter, she pleaded with her husband to purchase her freedom and spoke of the difficult conditions in which she lived. Apparently, Harriet’s current owner was in need of money, and had set a $1,000 price-tag on her and a child. Harriet implored Newby to hurry, before someone else purchased her first.
Did Quintin Tarantino partially base Jamie Foxx’s character from Django Unchained (2013) on Newby? I’ll ask him when I see him…
For more on Dangerfield Newby and the John Brown raid, see the Library of Virginia, “African-American Trailblazers in Virginia History.”
