The Great Fresh (Flood) of 1771

Excerpt from Thomas Jefferson-From Boy to Man by Jayne D'Alessandro-Cox

Chapter 31 The Great Fresh of 1771

and

3-page article from the Virginia Cavalcade in Autumn 1951,  May 1771 - The Great Fresh of 1771

Journal entry from Thomas Jefferson-From Boy to Man, Chapter 31:

I will never forget the devastating spring we experienced in 1771. The previous winter was particularly cold. Creeks and tributaries froze, and the below freezing temperatures lasted well into early spring, until the first 10-12 days of May when we experienced torrential rains, which deluged the central Blue Ridge Mountain region. The destructive flooding from the great fresh and the continuous rain inundated the lowlands of all Virginia Rivers east of the Alleghenies. The land runoff had nowhere to go but over the banks, as the rivers could not handle the runoff fast enough. 

The spring fresh of 1771 produced the worst flood waters in Virginia history, and in some areas around Scott’s Landing, 40-45 feet above the mean level of the James River. For 60 hours, the James River rose continuously, as much as 16 inches per hour. Property losses were disastrous in the Piedmont, as well as in the Tidewater area. It was estimated that 4-6,000 hogshead of stored tobacco had been destroyed, and more than half of that year’s spring crop of seedlings had suffered the same fate in the fields along the James and low lying plantations along the shore.

Father’s gristmill at Shadwell was swept away in what was said to be, “the greatest flood ever known in Virginia.” Rich top soil along the James River was washed away and buried under 10-12 feet of sand overlaid with rocks, hundreds of livestock were killed, buildings along the rivers were destroyed, crops were lost, and people drowned. Almost all the dugout canoes used for commerce and transportation along the river for the past 30 years were destroyed in the deluge, as well as all the tobacco warehouse sheds. As a result of the flash flood, there were very few large trees left for rebuilding the dugout canoes, which severely endangered the future of Virginia’s tobacco trade.

~

The following is pulled from an even more detailed, 3-page article that appeared in the Virginia Cavalcade in Autumn 1951:

"In the spring of 1771 the lowlands of all Virginia rivers east of the Alleghenies were inundated by destructive floods. This unexpected tragedy was probably the most devastating act of God which has been experienced in Virginia during the three and one-half centuries since the English planted their colony at Jamestown. Many islands were torn to pieces, hills of sand thrown up, channels stopped, the face of nature almost changed.

While not a cloud was to be seen in the skies above the Tidewater, torrential rains deluged the central Blue Ridge Mountain region throughout ten or twelve days in May 1771. Rivers which drained this general area - the James, the Rappahannock, and the Roanoke in particular - overflowed when unprecedented quantities of water were funneled into their channels. The Shenandoah, Potomac, and York rivers seem to have swollen to a lesser degree, but whatever damage they did was overlooked in the colony's greater concern over the more extensive destruction done by the other three.

For sixty hours the James river rose continuously, as much as sixteen inches per hour. On May 27, a ship anchored near Warwick in Chesterfield County, a few miles below Richmond, which made soundings from the first perceptible rise, found itself riding a crest forty feet higher than the common tides. Other observers claimed that this fresh was twenty feet higher than the one in May 1766, and ten feet higher than those which had come in 1720 and 1724. Richard Adams saw from his porch a flood "40 feet perpendicular." So dreadful was it, he remarked, that a truthful description of it would not seem credible to anyone who had not seen it with his own eyes. Old Joe, an honest and well-known Negro at the falls of the James near the little town of Richmond, said that the water climbed fifteen feet above the crest of the worst flood remembered in the tradition of neighboring Indians. The Rappahannock River was reported in The Gentleman's Magazine of London to have risen twenty-five feet higher than it had ever been known to be.

Swept from their foundations, houses floated down the rapid currents. Despairing people trapped on these makeshift crafts shouted pitifully for help, but no attempts at rescue could be ventured. Wine casks, hogsheads of tobacco, furniture, trees, lumber, and even large warehouses were borne seaward by the swirling waters.

All told, one hundred and fifty persons were said to have lost their lives. Many others had narrow escapes.

Both in the Piedmont and in the Tidewater property losses were disastrous. Thomas Jefferson lost his gristmill at "Shadwell" on the Rivanna River. Everything was swept off Farrar's Island.... Eighty acres of rich topsoil on this farm were buried under ten to twelve feet of sand overlaid by rocks flattened smooth as if by a modern steam roller. ...at Elk Island...nothing being saved but the people and five horses. It is more meaningful to express the losses of this one estate in terms of more than seven hundred livestock, nearly a hundred farm buildings, and unknown quantities of grain and tobacco. At another plantation, located where the Rivanna merges with the James, fourteen Negroes were drowned and only one of forty houses was left standing.

How much destruction was done in the Valley it is impossible to ascertain, but one surviving record indicates that the James River wreaked havoc even west of its passage through the Blue Ridge. John Howard of Botetourt County lost all of his growing crops, all but one of his tobacco houses, his corn house and the feed stored therein, and some of his livestock. It was only because of "the great goodness of God that my People are all alive," he wrote thankfully.

Floods are dirty things, and this one was no exception to the rule. When the rivers receded, carcasses, trees, and other debris were found to be matted together in some places to heights of twelve and even twenty feet. These confused masses of litter issued such a stench that there was no undoing them. As may have been expected, a "sickly" summer followed." 

Follow me on:

Twitter  www.twitter.com/@jaynesbooks

Facebook  www.facebook.com/ThomasJeffersonFromBoyToMan?ref=hl

Linkedin  www.linkedin.com/in/jayne-dalessandro-cox-bb616216/

www.JayneDalessandroCox.com  or www.ThomasJeffersonFromBoyToMan.com