How an enslaved Revolutionary War spy named James Lafayette helped America win its freedom

NEW KENT COUNTY, Va. — A memorial stands silently along Route 249 right outside the historic New Kent County Courthouse. It is dedicated to an unlikely hero — an individual who engraved his name into the very founding of America.

James Lafayette was a man who was born into slavery in 1748 in New Kent County. During the Revolutionary War, he slipped behind enemy lines to spy on turncoat Benedict Arnold, Lord Cornwallis and British troops.

"It's beautiful. I love the monument," Stephen Seals said. "Etched in it is the James Lafayette, the one portrait that we know for sure it was him."

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Seals, a New Kent resident, knows more about James Lafayette than just about anyone in Virginia, if not the country. The VCU graduate and actor portrays James Lafayette at Colonial Williamsburg, where the interpreter shares 18th century stories of Lafayette with 21st century visitors.

"I am standing in the place where the story took place helping people to better understand the story," Seals said.

During the Revolutionary War, James met a foreign dignitary who altered the course of his life. French General Marquis de Lafayette, a confidant of General George Washington, asked James to risk everything for the American cause.

"Indeed, James had served as a spy, and in reality the less people who know you're a spy, the better the spy you are," Mark Schneider said. Schneider portrays General Lafayette at Colonial Williamsburg.

"And to tell them that I'm being asked to be a spy someone in the audience goes 'Wow,'" Seals said.

"And much of the information that he was able to extract from the enemies, encampments was vital in bringing us our victory at Yorktown," Schneider said. "I believe all the answers to the future are found in the past if we study our history."

Schneider admires the courage James shows when so much was hanging in the balance.

"James an enslaved man serve the causes of American freedom, even though he was enslaved. How can you not appreciate the sacrifice that was made by a man like that?" Schneider said.

Following the Revolution, General Lafayette, an ardent abolitionist, returned the favor and pressed for James to be freed from bondage.

"I promised that I would lend my voice, my right arm, my pen and my purse to bring about your freedom," Schneider said, portraying General Lafayette.

Newly freed, a grateful James adopted Lafayette as his last name.

"The things he did the things he went through. You can't write these things in their life," Seals said.

In 1824, the friends reunited in Yorktown during Lafayette's tour of America.

"Learning about someone like James Lafayette reminds us of all of the sacrifices that were made how far we have gone, but yet how far we need to go," Schneider said.

Ten years on, Seals still immerses himself in his hero from another era.

"This is his pension for a veterans pension from 1818," Seals said. "I didn't think the Colonial era would really help me understand my own identity. I could not have been more wrong."

This interpreter takes pride shouldering Lafayette's legacy.

"I don't think that I will ever find a job or position that will be nearly as meaningful and fulfilling as the work that I do now," Seals said.

James Lafayette is the Revolutionary whose bravery broke the chains of bondage while helping this nation forge independence too.

"To be able to use some of what I've gained from the ancestors to give them their voice it's great responsibility. But it's also a great honor," Seals said. "I don't want to be anywhere else. That's what it comes down to in the end."

If you have a story idea for Greg, email him at gmcquade@wtvr.com.