Douglas B. Chambers, -_Murder at Montpelier: Igbo Africans in Virginia_
(University Press of Mississippi, 2005) is a very intriguing study of
the African community at the Madison family estate during the 18th
century and the first decades of the 20th century. It closes with a set
scene of the funeral of former president James Madison, one that with
weeping slaves has been adduced as evidence that Madison was a kind
master, but Chambers points out that the enslaved men and women there
that day knew that one unavoidable consequence of Madison's death was
that their families would be broken up, which was a different, or
additional, reason for weeping.

Brent Tarter
The Library of Virginia
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