James Twyman was a slave owner who lived in Madison County, Virginia. Upon his death, he freed all his slaves. The twenty males and seventeen females would become known as the Burlington 37.
Twyman knew his recently freed slaves could not remain in Virginia. He not only freed them, he also made arrangements for them to be moved to Ohio, a free state. Not all of them made this move. Five would remain in living in Virginia. Noah, Winney, and Joe were too old and frail to make the journey, so Twyman made arrangements for them to remain in Virginia.
Three other slaves, Jenny, Amanda and Frances Ann, would,also remain in Virginia. Twyman had left the mother, daughter and granddaughter $18,000 in a trust for their years of service. The newly freed people made a 400 mile trip to their new home. A nephew of Twyman and three other white men accompanied the group to protect them from trouble makers.
In the fall of 1849, the former slaves settled on a farm in Burlington, Ohio. The 640 acres had been purchased from Isaac Frampton. Twyman had left them $10,000 as well as farming equipment and livestock to make their new life in a free state easier. Descendants of Burlington 37 live and thrive in Lawrence County to this day.