Charles Stewart (ca. 1808-after 1884)

QA-38

Charles Stewart, horseman, was born into slavery near Petersburg and spent part of his childhood on Pocahontas Island. At about the age of 12 he was sold to William R. Johnson, one of the foremost figures in horse racing, then America's most popular sport. Stewart succeeded as a jockey, trainer, stable manager, and stallion man, affording him money and fame. Artist Edward Troye painted his portrait with the stallion Medley in 1832. Johnson sent Stewart to run a stable in Kentucky in 1837 and later sold him to Alexander Porter, U.S. senator from Louisiana. Stewart then supervised Porter’s highly regarded stables. Harper’s New Monthly Magazine published Stewart’s dictated memoir in 1884.

Department of Historic Resources, 2017

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References/Bibliographic Citation:

Charles Stewart, “My Life as a Slave,” Harper’s New Monthly Magazine, vol. 69, no. 413 (Oct. 1884), 730-738. Edward Hotaling, The Great Black Jockeys (Roclin, CA: Forum, 1999). Katherine C. Mooney, Race Horse Men (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2015). Pellom McDaniels III, “An Accidental Historian in Antebellum America: Edward Troye, Thoroughbred Horses, and Representations of African American Manhood and Masculinity,” Ohio Valley History, vol. 15, no. 3 (Fall 2015), 3-22. Elizabeth Kuebler-Wolf, “Stewart, Charley,” African American National Biography (Oxford University Press, 2008), 7:400-402. Alexander Mackay-Smith, “Ante-bellum Black Trainers and Jockeys,” National Sporting Library News Letter (Dec. 1979). Alexander Mackay-Smith, The Race Horses of America, 1832-1872: Portraits and Other Paintings by Edward Troye (Saratoga Springs, NY: National Museum of Racing, 1981). “Johnson, William Ransom,” www.ncpedia.org U.S. Census, 1870.