These documents are from the Fairfax (Virginia) Circuit Court Historic Records Center, the Library of Virginia, the Fairfax County Public Library’s Virginia Room and the National Archives.

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1. Inventory of property of James Burke, Silas’s father

2. Silas Burke purchases Fenton for $206

3. Newspaper ad: “Valuable Negroes for Sale”

4. Silas owned 14 people on the day he died

5. Silas buys his first human

6. Selling other people’s slaves

7. Burke household slave census

8. How many more were there?

9. Tax records show Silas’s teens and tweens

10. Silas asks a fellow judge for permission to separate a family

11. Slave sues Silas, Silas dodges court orders

12. Silas separates mother from “slave for life” son

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