Fortune
An enslaved man at Seclusion plantation in Lawrence County, Alabama — personal servant and coach driver to the Donnell family. He died in February 1859, and his enslaver raised an eight-foot granite stone over him. The stone speaks; Fortune’s own words do not survive.
Life in brief
Fortune was enslaved at Seclusion, the Donnell family’s plantation in Lawrence County, Alabama — the family whose papers sit at the center of this project’s Tennessee State Library & Archives pull. Documented He served as personal servant and coach driver. Documented He died in February 1859. Documented His enslaver had an eight-foot granite tombstone raised over his grave, inscribed: “Fortune… Died February, 1859… To the virtues and excellencies of a faithful [servant] this testimony is erected by his mas[ter].” Documented
The stone is a strange kind of evidence. Eight feet of granite is not what enslaved people usually got — it marks a man his enslaver wanted remembered, on the enslaver’s terms. “Faithful servant” is the language of the people who owned him, not of Fortune himself. This page keeps both truths in view: the stone proves he lived and was valued, and it proves nothing about what Fortune thought of the arrangement. Documented
Records
Enslaved at Seclusion Documented
Fortune is enslaved at Seclusion plantation, Lawrence County, Alabama, held by the Donnell family — serving as personal servant and coach driver.
Died Documented
Fortune dies, per the inscription on his tombstone.
The granite stone Documented
An eight-foot granite tombstone is raised over Fortune’s grave: “Fortune… Died February, 1859… To the virtues and excellencies of a faithful [servant] this testimony is erected by his mas[ter].” The stone survives in the accounts of Harrison & Cape and the ADAH Limestone Legacy.
Newspaper account Documented
A Birmingham News-Age-Herald clipping, quoted in Harrison & Cape (chapters 13.5/14), carries the story of Fortune’s stone.
Donnell descendant letter Documented
A letter from a Donnell descendant to Mrs. E. M. Cape, circa 1972, discusses Fortune — the family memory, a century after his death, still carrying his name.
Limestone Legacy Documented
The Alabama Department of Archives and History’s Limestone Legacy, Vol. 20 No. 4, records Fortune and his stone.
Kinship
The Donnell family of Seclusion
The Donnell family held Fortune at their Lawrence County plantation, Seclusion. The family’s papers (THS 296, Tennessee State Library & Archives) are an active research target. Documented
“Fortune Donnell”
A separate burial under a concrete headstone carries the name “Fortune Donnell” — but the source has not been read firsthand, and the two Fortunes are kept apart until it is. Under investigation
Fortune’s family
No record names Fortune’s parents, spouse, or children. The stone names no one but him. Unresolved
Places
What the record doesn’t say
The silence ledger for Fortune
- No record gives Fortune’s birth date, birthplace, or age at death. He enters the written record only at its end.
- No record names Fortune’s family — no parents, no spouse, no children. The eight-foot stone names no one but him.
- Everything written about Fortune was written by the people who enslaved him or their descendants. “Faithful servant” is their language, and this page does not mistake it for his.
- No record says what Fortune thought of his position, his enslaver, or the stone. His own words do not survive.
- A separate “Fortune Donnell” burial under a concrete headstone has been reported, but the source has not been read firsthand — the two are kept separate until it is.
- The Donnell family papers at TSLA (THS 296) may hold more on Fortune and on Seclusion’s enslaved people generally; that pull is still in progress.
Sources
- Alabama Department of Archives and History, Limestone Legacy, Vol. 20 No. 4 (October 1998).
- Harrison & Cape, chapters 13.5/14 — quoting a 1949 Birmingham News-Age-Herald clipping on Fortune’s stone.
- Butch Walker post, citing Cotton Was King, Vol. III.
- Donnell descendant letter to Mrs. E. M. Cape, c. 1972.