The African Americans, Many Rivers to Cross – Episode 2: The Second Middle Passage

Last night, the second episode of The African Americans: Many Rivers to Cross aired on PBS.  This episode, entitled “The Age of Slavery,” chronicled major events and activities that occurred after the American Revolution which greatly affected the lives of free and enslaved African Americans. One of those major activities was the invention of the cotton gin. By April 1793, an inventor named Eli Whitney developed the cotton gin; it was a machine that automated the separation of cottonseed from the short-staple cotton fiber. 

Hence, in 1793, the “Curse of the Cotton Gin” began.  Although it spurned a great economic boom in the South, I call it a “curse” because its invention resulted in the displacement of around 1 million enslaved African Americans in the Upper South to points southward.  Enslaved labor was needed for this booming industry. Thus, the Second Middle Passage began. More family separations occurred. More tears were shed. More blood flowed from feet and toes as a million enslaved people were sold away, transferred, or taken down south to work laboriously in those hot, infamous cotton fields. In many cases, these dreadful journeys were “walking journeys”. Imagine being forced to walk for weeks from Nash County, North Carolina to Leake County, Mississippi. That was the “walking journey” my great-great-grandfather Robert “Big Bob” Ealy had to take.

Once the million tired souls arrived at their Deep South destinations, the following is what many of them had to endure in those hot, infamous cotton fields, especially if they labored on large plantations.  Observing enslaved people in the cotton field on a large plantation near Natchez, Mississippi, Frederick Olmstead provided the following description of this extensive, back-weakening labor:

“We found in the field thirty ploughs, moving together, turning the earth from the cotton plants, and from thirty to forty hoers, the latter mainly women, with a black driver walking about among them with a whip, which he often cracked at them, sometimes allowing the lash to fall lightly upon their shoulders. He was constantly urging them also with his voice. All worked very steadily, and though the presence of a stranger on the plantation must have been a most unusual occurrence, I saw none raise or turn their heads to look at me. Each gang was attended by a "water-toter," that of the hoe-gang being a straight, sprightly, plump little black girl, whose picture, as she stood balancing the bucket upon her head, shading her bright eyes with one hand, and holding out a calabash with the other to maintain her poise, would have been a worthy study for Murillo.” [Frederick Law Olmsted, The Cotton Kingdom (New York: De Capo Press, Inc., 1953), 432.]

Anyone researching Mississippi ancestors will immediately notice much evidence of the Second Middle Passage in their family trees.  In 1870, most of the older former slaves in Mississippi, as well as other Deep South states, were not born in Mississippi.  This is quite evident from the 1870 census.  Let me show you want I mean. 

I took a snapshot of the Lena community of Leake County, Mississippi, where Grandpa “Big Bob” Ealy remained after gaining his freedom. I wanted to see the birthplaces that were reported for many of his neighbors, who were enslaved just five years prior.  Only a few were born in Mississippi.  The following transcription just shows the oldest people in the household. I recorded these African-American households from pages 313-319.

House #	Names	Ages	Birthplace
802	Henson, Jeff	65	Kentucky
807	Henson, David	50	Tennessee
“	-------, Mina	45	Virginia
808	Hanson, Stephan	40	Alabama
“	------, Easter	33	Tennessee
809	Henson, Hannah	33	Mississippi
811	Anderson, Charlotte	40	Alabama
815	Ratliff, Samuel	35	Mississippi
“	------, Kitty	35	Mississippi
	------, Lydia	60	Georgia
816	Cherry, R.S.	75	South Carolina
“	------, Jane	70	Virginia
“	Harris, Emaline	50	Virginia
817	Dew, Benjamin	50	South Carolina
“	------, Eliza	48	Georgia
823	Simms, Scott	30	Mississippi
“	------, Lucilia	26	Virginia
832	Fickland, William	20	Mississippi
“	------, Jane	17	Alabama
“	------, Ann	60	Virginia
833	Turner, G.W.	50	Alabama
838	Mann, Tony	21	Mississippi
“	------, Hannah	23	Tennessee
839	Harris, Eliza	30	Virginia
“	Delvin, John W.	25	South Carolina
843	Parrott, John Armstead	32	Virginia
“	------, Jane	26	Mississippi
844	Reid, Rachel	36	North Carolina
845	Pettigrew, Mariah	45	Virginia
857	Wright, Hiram	57	Tennessee
“	------, Judy	55	Tennessee
	------, Mary	33	Tennessee
859	Ely, Robert    (“Big Bob” Ealy)	51	North Carolina
“	------, Jane	48	Virginia
863	Lindsey, Allen	25	Mississippi
“	------, Jane	27	Virginia
883	Hill, James	65	South Carolina
“	-----, Amanda	40	Virginia
“	Jones, Cutz	65	Virginia
885	Rice, Andrew	23	Mississippi
“	-----, Frances	25	Alabama
886	Kennedy, Nancy	45	Alabama
“	------, Malissa	25	Alabama
887	Washington, George	50	Georgia
“	------, Harriett	40	Georgia
	------, Charles	21	Alabama
	------, Jacob	19	Alabama
	------, Daniel	17	Alabama
	------, Edmond	12	Mississippi
888	Beaman, Jacob	60	North Carolina
“	------, Violet	50	North Carolina
889	Luckett, Calvin	65	Georgia
“	------, Nelly	75	Virginia

Source: 1870 Leake County, Mississippi Census, Pages: 313B – 319A; Image: 118 -129

Just within that small area containing the African-American households that were closest to Grandpa Big Bob’s house, the 1870 census-taker recorded Virginia as the birthplace for most of the older adults.  Alabama was second.  Even Grandpa Big Bob’s wife, Grandma Jane, had come from Virginia.  Her enslaver, William Parrott, had moved to Leake County, Mississippi shortly before 1840, transporting her and the rest of his slaves with him from Lunenburg County, Virginia.  I cannot even begin to fathom how tiresome all of their journeys were.  And for most of them, that journey was undoubtedly a sad one, as many of them left behind parents, sisters, brothers, sons, daughters, grandparents, etc. whom they never laid eyes on ever again.  Oh, how far we have come!

The African American Blogging Circle is a group of genealogy bloggers who are sharing their family stories, seen through their own personal lens, from the PBS series, The African Americans: Many Rivers to Cross.  Click here for a list of the participating bloggers and check out their stories.

Watch Episode 2