Developing a Historical Timeline

 

Are you looking for another way to present the family history to your family, either for a family reunion booklet or just to pass on information about the family to family members? Try a historical timeline. A timeline presents the history in a chronological and understandable order. Also, it gives one the opportunity to include other pertinent events of history that affected the family history or were turning points in the family history. If you have graphic design experience, a timeline can be presented in a cool graphic like the ones presented on this website, or it can simply be a two column table built in Microsoft Word.

I am presenting one that I built in Microsoft Word and have transferred it to this blog. This is a timeline of my 4th-great-grandmother Rose Bass’ history. Within the past several months, I have found other descendants, and meeting more descendants is definitely forthcoming. Hopefully, this timeline will clearly highlight the events of her life during slavery, and it can be an example of a family history timeline for others to mimic. Also, all of the family information chronicled in this timeline is based on genealogy research with documentation. Some sources are noted.

The Historical Timeline of Grandma Rose Bass and Her Children, 1780 – 1880

1780	Grandma Rose was born around this time frame, likely on Council Bass’ plantation in Northampton County, North Carolina.
1800	The U.S. Federal Census reported Council Bass of Northampton County, North Carolina as owning 5 slaves. He lived near the town of Rich Square on land located on the Urahaw Swamp Creek that his grandfather, John Bass, had left to him in 1777 (source). Those five slaves on his plantation included Sharper, Peggy, and Grandma Rose. It is believed that Sharper and Peggy were Grandma Rose’s parents. By this time, Grandma Rose had at least one child, Jemima, who was born c. 1796 (source). Another slave on Council Bass’ plantation may have been named Seneca, the husband of Grandma Rose.
1810	The U.S. Federal Census reported Council Bass with eight slaves. By this time, Grandma Rose had at least three children, Jemima, Beady, and Harry.
1812	America declared war against the British on June 18. This conflict became known as the War of 1812.
1825	By this time, Rose had at least six children: Jemima, Beady, Harry, Jackson, Seneca Jr., and Brittie Ann.
1830	Before he died, Council Bass wrote his will on Sept 2. In the will, he bequeathed Beady, Harry, Hezekiah, and Jackson, as well as Grandma Rose, and elderly Sharper and Peggy to his daughter, Elizabeth Bass, but to be held in trust by Bryan Randolph for the benefit of Elizabeth and her heirs. Council bequeathed Jemima and her children, Isaac, Archie, Nancy, Goodson, and Alfred, to his daughter, Martha Bass Mayo. Council bequeathed Seneca Jr. to his granddaughter, Eliza Coggins. Council bequeathed Barsilla and Brittie Ann to his daughter, Charlotte Holloman (source). (Barsilla may have also been a child of Rose.)
1835	By this time, Martha Bass Mayo and her husband Frederick Mayo have settled in Madison County, Tennessee, taking Grandma Rose’s oldest daughter, Jemima, and her children with them. Elizabeth Bass and her husband Jessie Bass have settled in Hinds County, Mississippi. Elizabeth’s daughter, Eliza Coggins, also moved to Hinds County and later married Rhesa Hatcher, the mayor of Jackson, Mississippi. However, the slaves that Council Bass bequeathed to Elizabeth were held back in Northampton County, North Carolina on Bryan Randolph’s farm. Also, Charlotte Holloman was in nearby Hertford County, where Brittie Ann and Barsilla were now enslaved on the Holloman place.
1838	Bryan Randolph died. The court appointed William Britton as the executor of his estate and the new trustee of Elizabeth’s slave inheritance that included Grandma Rose and her children, Beady (and her children), Harry, Hezekiah, and Jackson, as well as her elderly parents, Sharper and Peggy (source).
1844	William Britton died. His sons became the executors of his estate and the new trustees of Elizabeth’s slave inheritance (source).
1847	Elizabeth Bass of Mississippi summoned the Northampton County Court to collect her share of the profits from the estate of William Britton from the hire of the slaves that her father Council Bass had left in a trust for her. In 1847, that slave lot now included Grandma Rose, her sons, Harry and Jackson, her daughter, Beady, and Beady’s children, Eliza, Jemima, Hetty, Peggy, and Jackson “Jack” (my great-great-grandfather), and her very elderly mother, Peggy (around 90) (source). Beady’s husband/mate, Thomas Bowden, was enslaved on Lemuel Bowden’s farm nearby.
1848	Elizabeth Bass petitioned the Northampton County Court to deliver her slave inheritance to her in Hinds County, Mississippi. Her husband Jessie Bass recently passed away, and she claimed that her slave inheritance would benefit her and her two small children if they were in Mississippi with her. Her request was granted (source).
1850	By this time, Grandma Rose’s daughter, Jemima, has had six additional children by her husband Willis named Rose, Beady, Sylvesta (female), Dick, Mary, and William Mayo in Madison County, Tennessee on Frederick Mayo’s farm.
1852	Martha Bass Mayo’s daughter, Polly Mayo, has married a man named James W. Givens, and the Givens left Tennessee and settled in Cass County, Texas around 1852, taking some of Jemima’s children, including Goodson, Nancy, Mary, and Isaac Mayo, with them. They remained in Texas after slavery.
1861	The Civil War began and is won by the North in 1865.
1865	Slavery ended as a result of the Civil War. Three of Grandma Rose’s children, Jackson Bass, Seneca Hatcher, and Beady Bass, and their children settled in Hinds and Warren County, Mississippi. Her son, Harry Bass, settled in Issaquena County, Mississippi, where he died in July 1880.
1870	Grandma Rose’s daughter, Brittie Ann, and her husband Langley Earley and their children, Silvia, Dempsey W., Alice, Goodman, Jacob, Richard, Bondy, Rosetta, and William Earley, were back in Hertford County, North Carolina living near Ahoskie, where Brittie Ann died in 1914 at an old age. In 1870, the Earley Family lived adjacent to Charlotte Bass Holloman.
1880	Grandma Rose’s son, Seneca Hatcher, has relocated to Cairo, Illinois by 1880. Her oldest daughter, Jemima Mayo, is still living and residing with her daughter, Beady Mayo, in Madison County, Tennessee in 1880. Jemima is about 84 years old.