Matilda (also Marilda) was an enslaved worker who lived and worked at Tuckahoe during the Allen period. She was born sometime around 1852 to Mahala and Spy Boyd. Her siblings were Henrietta, Chaney, Armistead, Robert, Thomas, and Margaret.
Though the majority of the enslaved workers were field hands, Matilda is not specified as such on any of the Allen records from 1850-59. It is certain that she would have still worked but perhaps she was doing other tasks and not required to labor in the fields until she was a little older. (We do see this pattern of omission of occupation of several other children on the Allen accounts and it seems that they were not listed as field hands until around the age of 10 or 11).
Matilda lived in the South Cabin which still stands along Plantation Street. After the Civil War, a number of the Boyds stayed in the Goochland area but it is unknown if Matilda was among them.
