Edward (also known as Ed or Edwin) Smith was an enslaved man who lived and worked at Tuckahoe during the Wight and Allen period. He is thought to have been born between 1829 and 1831 and worked in the fields at Tuckahoe. He first appears in the inventory contained in the will of Edwin Wight in April 1850 alongside Wallace and Generac Smith (presumed brothers). By 1858 it seems he had started a family with Ellen Anderson who was the cook and her children (Daniel, Jane, Dilsey, Jordan, and Nancy) took his name. The couple also had three more children (Harriet, Wallace who died in infancy, and Andrew).
Ed and his family lived in the North Cabin which still stands along Plantation Street. In 1858, their family of 9 was recorded as having 5 blankets among them.
After the Civil War, it seems that some of the Smith family stayed in the area. The 1870 census lists both Ellen and Ed Smith in Goochland County. He was recorded as a farm laborer and she was listed as “keeping house”.
