Comments of
Thomas Almond Ashby
(1848-1916)
on Slaves and Slavery
Though not a resident or native of Luray or Page County, Virginia, Thomas Almond Ashby (1848-1916) was the grandson of Luray native, Mann Almond (1791?-1883). Mann Almond was also a Page County slave-owner and, during his lifetime, T.A. Ashby would have known his grandfather, even visiting him in Luray in his youth. Thomas Almond Ashby, son of Elizabeth Mann Almond Ashby (1826-1892), also seems to have taken a penchant for writing in later years. Following her marriage with Thomas Newton Ashby (1819-1878) in 1842, Elizabeth Mann Almond Ashby moved to Front Royal where Thomas Almond Ashby was born on 18 November 1848.
Ashby graduated from Washington College (now Washington & Lee) in 1870 and then, three years later, graduated from the University of Maryland with his medical degree. Within four years of graduation from medical school, Ashby married Mary C. Cunningham in 1877. In 1880, Thomas Almond Ashby was listed as a physician in Baltimore, Md. with his wife Mary and a daughter, Mary E. (born ca. 1879). Also living in the household at the time were his mother and brother William R. (age 16) as well as two mulatto servants, Alice Lee (28) and Lizzie Randolph (17) and one black servant, Mary Smith (age 9).
A practicing obstetrician until his death, Almond was also known for teaching at the University of Maryland as well as helping to establish the Women’s Medical College of Baltimore, the first institution for the medical education of women in the South. Ashby also helped to found the Maryland Medical Journal of which he served as editor until 1888. Taking after his grandfather’s literary abilities, Ashby wrote at least four books including a gynecology textbook (1903), A Hurried Trip through Europe (1911), Life of Turner Ashby (1914), and The Valley Campaigns (1914).
His work in The Valley Campaigns is a first-class recollection of one of the most fascinating times in America’s history. Having lived through the war as a non-combatant and a teenager, Ashby’s recollections are a valuable resource when considering life in the Shenandoah Valley at the time, especially considering his personal insight on slavery (covered heavily in the Chapter 1 and Chapter 27) and the roles of women in years before, during and shortly after the Civil War. For those interested in reading the book, it can be found online in its complete form at the University of North Carolina’s “Documenting the American South” website http://docsouth.unc.edu/ashby/menu.html.
Thomas Almond Ashby died in Baltimore, Maryland on June 27, 1916.
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