Lucy Goode Brooks
13th September, 1818,
In 43AD, four legions of the Roman army, plus auxiliary troops and a bunch of elephants, about 40,000 men in total, under the command of Aulus Plautius, assembled on the shores of Gaul and prepared to invade the island of Britannia.
Britain was a strange and alien place, full of swarthy and aggressive locals, mysterious cults, fog-filled forests, witchcraft, black magic and monsters. It still is. People from continental Europe still stand on the shoreline and stare in confusion at the inhabitants of the island, wondering what the hell they are thinking. Half the people in Britain look around them and think the same. Nobody trusted the British back then and nobody trusts them now, least of all other Britons.
When Caligula tried to invade a few years before, his men had simply refused to go any further. Caligula ordered them to collect seashells as booty and then went home. This time, Plautius’ men were equally reluctant, but this invasion was huge and had cost a lot of money and resources. And the elephants were restless. This time there was no option but to push on. With the hearts of the men wavering in the face of the terror of the dark island, the emperor Claudius sent for his best man to convince them.
Tiberius Claudius Narcissus came and spoke to the army, urging the men to be brave and to push forward. He reminded them what the emperor and the empire expected of them. he told them. He rallied them with a Churchillian speech of fire and gusto and, renewed and filled with courage, the invasion began.
What’s remarkable about Narcissus was not only had Claudius sent him, rather than come himself, but Narcissus was not a soldier, a politician or even had any official position within the system. He was Claudius’ former slave.
That a former slave like Narcissus could become so powerful that he could act as the emperor’s right-hand man was matched by the staggering fortune he amassed whilst doing so. He was one of the richest men in the history of the Empire and whilst comparative figures are hard to come up with, he was Elon Musk level rich.
It’s one of the strange dichotomies with Roman slavery that whilst a slave had the lowest social standing possible, alongside prostitutes, gladiators and actors, a freedman could rise up the social rankings in a way that wasn’t available to any other class of people. A pleb was always a pleb, but a freedman could become the gatekeeper to kings.
None of this excuses the horrors of Roman, and indeed all, slavery. But the history of enslaved people is littered with examples of people who have risen above the appalling treatment meted out to them and shown the potential they always possessed. People like Lucy Goode Brooks.
Lucy Goode Brooks was born into bondage in 1818 in Virginia. As an enslaved woman, her life was shaped by the harsh realities of American slavery, yet her resilience and deep sense of humanity carried her through the oppression she faced. Brooks would go on to become a central figure in the movement to create and sustain support systems for African Americans, especially children, in the post-Civil War era. Her work with orphans in Richmond, Virginia, had a lasting impact on the African American community and continues to be felt today.
Brooks’ early life as an enslaved person was marked by the severe limitations of slavery. Little is known about her childhood, but like most enslaved women, she would have been subjected to a life of hard labor and the constant threat of being separated from her family. Family separation was one of the most devastating aspects of slavery, and Brooks experienced it firsthand when her mother was sold away when Brooks was still a young girl. This experience would haunt her, instilling a fierce desire to prevent similar suffering in others.
In 1839, Brooks married Albert Royal Brooks, a free Black man, which was rare but not unheard of during this time. Marriages between free Black people and enslaved individuals were legally precarious. While Albert was free, Lucy and their children remained legally enslaved, a situation that placed the entire family in constant danger. Despite these challenges, Lucy and Albert built a family and worked hard to protect it from the constant threats posed by the institution of slavery.
Albert Brooks was a successful businessman in Richmond, and through his efforts, he was able to purchase the freedom of Lucy and some of their children. However, due to the legal and financial constraints of the time, they could not free all their children, which deeply troubled Lucy. The heartache of knowing some of her children were still enslaved weighed heavily on her, and this sorrow propelled her into a life of activism after the Civil War.
With the conclusion of the Civil War and the emancipation of enslaved people in 1865, the social landscape of Richmond changed dramatically. While the end of slavery was a monumental victory, the aftermath left many African Americans in precarious situations. Thousands of formerly enslaved people were now free but faced poverty, a lack of education, and the absence of basic civil rights. In addition to these challenges, the war had orphaned many children, both Black and white. It was during this chaotic period that Lucy Brooks made her most significant contributions.
One of the issues Brooks became most concerned with was the plight of African American orphans. In post-war Richmond, Black children who were orphaned or abandoned were often left to fend for themselves, with little to no institutional support. Many of these children were taken in by white-run orphanages, but they often faced neglect and mistreatment in these facilities. The absence of a support network specifically for African American children was glaring, and Brooks resolved to change this.
In 1867, Lucy Brooks and several other women founded the Friends' Asylum for Colored Orphans in Richmond, a pioneering institution that provided care and education for Black orphans. The orphanage was one of the first of its kind in Virginia and a critical resource for the community. Brooks and her co-founders were determined to provide not only food and shelter for the children but also education, which they saw as the key to ensuring the next generation's success in a society that was still deeply hostile to Black people.
The founding of the Friends' Asylum for Colored Orphans was not an easy task. Brooks and her collaborators had to overcome considerable opposition, including the lack of financial resources and the pervasive racial prejudice of the era. Yet, despite these obstacles, they managed to establish a permanent home for the orphanage by 1871. The institution operated for several decades, and though it eventually closed, its legacy continued. It later merged with other organizations and laid the groundwork for subsequent Black charitable efforts in Richmond and beyond.
Lucy Brooks' work with orphans reflected her deep sense of compassion and commitment to justice. She understood, from her own experiences as an enslaved woman and as a mother, the importance of family and the devastating consequences of separation. Her efforts ensured that countless African American children were given a chance at life when they might have otherwise been abandoned or left without care. Brooks’ work was a reflection of the broader efforts of Black women during Reconstruction, a time when African American women took on leadership roles in their communities, despite being excluded from the formal political process.
Brooks also became involved in the educational and religious life of her community. The Friends' Asylum was closely associated with Richmond's Black churches, particularly the First African Baptist Church, where Brooks was an active member. Churches like First African Baptist were central to the life of freed African Americans, serving not only as places of worship but also as community centers, schools, and political hubs. Brooks’ faith and her connection to the church were central to her identity, and they fueled much of her activism.
Lucy Goode Brooks died in 1900, but her legacy lived on through the institutions she helped build and the lives she touched. Her work with the Friends' Asylum for Colored Orphans was just one part of a broader movement during the Reconstruction era in which African Americans, particularly women, took the lead in building new lives and communities after the end of slavery. Brooks’ story is a reminder of the resilience and determination of those who survived slavery and who worked tirelessly to ensure that future generations would not suffer as they had.
The importance of Lucy Goode Brooks’ contributions extends beyond her lifetime. Her efforts to care for orphaned children reflect a broader, often overlooked aspect of post-Civil War Black activism: the work done by women to support and sustain their communities. While men often took center stage in the political arena, women like Brooks were quietly organizing, building institutions, and creating the infrastructure that would support African Americans in the difficult years after emancipation.
Lucy Goode Brooks' life and legacy stand as a testament to the strength of the human spirit and the power of community-driven activism. Her work ensured that the most vulnerable in her community, the children, had a chance of a better life. In the face of overwhelming adversity, Brooks showed that compassion, determination, and a commitment to justice could create lasting change.