About Michael Harriot
OUR ORIGIN STORY
On Thursday, May 23, 1861, Frank Baker, James Townsend, and Shepard Mallory orchestrated the greatest heist in American history.
Working as forced laborers leased to Virginia’s 115th Confederate militia, the enslaved trio stole a small boat from the spot where Colonial Virginia Governor Sir George Yeardley and Supply Officer Abraham Peirsey negotiated a dirt-cheap price for “20 & odd” enslaved Africans in 1619. The self-emancipated men rowed the skiff to Union-occupied Fort Monroe and presented themselves to Union officer Major General Benjamin Butler.
Confederate Col. Charles Mallory was furious. His neck red with anger, Mallory demanded that Butler return the hijacked human chattel, and charged the Union army with looting.