SUMMARY Philip Thomas was a farmer and slave trader in Pittsylvania County. Born in 1831, by late in the 1850s he had partnered with William A. J. Finney in a slave trading business. The two worked together for several years buying enslaved men, women, and children locally and then either transporting them to the slave-trading hubs of Richmond and Alexandria or sending them directly south for resale. Both earned substantial return on their efforts, aided by improvements in infrastructure and communications. A year into the American Civil War (1861–1865), Thomas joined the 5th Virginia Cavalry and stayed with the regiment through the remainder of the conflict. After the surrender at Appomattox, however, he was without land or business and so moved to Georgia, where he worked as a carpenter and died in 1888.