Frank Padget

In memory of Frank Padget, a coloured slave who during a freshet in James River in January 1854, ventured and lost his life by drowning in the noble effort to save some of his fellow creatures, who were in the ...

Frank Padget Water Tragedy

Heavy rains in late Jan. 1854 left the James

River and the treacherous Balcony Falls in

full flood. On 21 Jan., the canal boat Clinton

and its passengers became stranded in the

raging waters. Frank Padget, a skilled

boatman and slave, led four other men ...