The African Americans, Many Rivers to Cross – Episode 1: From Africa to Virginia to Mississippi

On this past Tuesday, the first episode of The African Americans: Many Rivers to Cross series aired on PBS with great anticipation from many historians, history buffs, and genealogists.  The first episode was appropriately titled The Black Atlantic because it encompassed the historical experiences on the other side of the Atlantic – in our wonderful motherland of Africa – that led to the creation of the “African American.” Skip Gates highlighted historians’ claim that the first Africans that touched American soil arrived in Jamestown, Virginia in 1619.  This episode also focused on Edward Ball’s remarkable research of a 10-year-old enslaved girl from Sierra Leone. She was stolen and transported to Charleston, South Carolina in 1756. After being purchased by planter Elias Ball, she was given the name “Priscilla.” These were just two segments of this first episode, but they will serve as the overarching theme of this blog post, From Africa to Virginia to Mississippi.

I recently became a resident of the state of Virginia.  As I explore the rolling hills of this beautiful state, I often wonder how many of my enslaved ancestors were transported here directly from West Africa or from the Caribbean via West Africa.  Transatlantic slave trade data, in which I will expound upon in this post, suggests that many were. In fact, most African Americans – descendants of enslaved people brought to American shores – had a number of family lineages that began here in Virginia.  Some of those lineages may have started back as early as 1619 in Jamestown, Virginia, but many of those lineages began later as enslaved Africans were most heavily transported into the state from 1676 to 1776.  In essence, my moving to Virginia felt like I was almost completing the circle, although the American beginnings were filled with austere hardships. My completion of that circle will come one day when I revisit a nation in West Africa, stand in the vicinity of where a known African ancestor was born, and touch the soil they were taken away from.

The matri-lineage of three of my Virginia-born ancestors has been linked back to West Africa via DNA analysis by African Ancestry, Inc.  My father’s great-great-grandmother, Caroline Morris of Warren County, Mississippi, was born around 1820 in Greensville County, Virginia.  Her matri-lineage matched the Tikar people of Cameroon.  Perhaps, my “Priscilla” was Caroline’s maternal grandmother or great-grandmother?  My mother’s great-great-grandmother, Fanny Barr, was born somewhere in Virginia around 1790. She was sold down south to Abbeville, South Carolina by 1810, and later taken to Pontotoc County, Mississippi in 1859, where she died at the old age of near 100.  Her matri-lineage matched the Yoruba and Fulani peoples of Nigeria. Perhaps, another “Priscilla” in my family tree was Grandma Fanny’s maternal grandmother?  My mother’s 4X-great-grandmother, Jenny Boyce, is believed to have been born here in Virginia around 1765. Jenny is my “mitochondrial (mtDNA) ancestor,” and my mtDNA matches the Fulbe (Fulani) people of northern Cameroon; their origins began in northern Nigeria.  Perhaps, my third “Priscilla” of many was Grandma Jenny’s mother and stolen from Nigeria? 

Was it coincidental that my three DNA-tested lineages from Virginia have been linked back to Nigeria and neighboring Cameroon?  My answer is not necessarily.  Why?  Well, let’s see what transatlantic slave trade facts and statistics reveal in a nutshell.

African Origins of Virginia Slaves

Historians have estimated that nearly 100,000 Africans were disembarked on Virginia shores; many were directly from Africa. Consequently, Virginia ranked second among the areas where slave traders imported at least 30% of all Africans that were imported into North America. South Carolina ranked first. The African “hotspots” where Virginia slave traders obtained most of their human cargo included the Bight of Biafra region, the Angola-Congo region, the Gold Coast region (Ghana), and the Senegambia region. The following chart gives the percentage of Africans imported into Virginia from identifiable African regions [Source: Philip D. Curtin, The Atlantic Slave Trade: A Census (Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1969), 157.]:

 The Bight of Biafra (modern Nigeria, Cameroon, Gabon)

Senegambia (modern Senegal and the Gambia)

The Gold Coast (modern Ghana)

Bight of Benin (modern Togo and Benin)

Windward Coast (modern Côte d'Ivoire / Ivory Coast)

See a great African ethnic groups map at this link.

Other Virginia Facts:

The five river districts in Virginia that were the primary entrances where many enslaved Africans were disembarked were the following:

a.     the York River district

b.    the Rappahannock River district

c.     the South Potomac River district

d.    the Upper James River district

e.     the Lower James River district

(Map source)

By the time slavery ended in 1865, more than 500,000 enslaved Virginians had been transported to the Deep South states (Alabama, Mississippi, Tennessee, Louisiana, etc.). Historians have estimated that nearly 350,000 of that 500,000 had been traded rather than being transported by their enslavers who relocated to the Deep South (Tadman, Michael. “The Interregional Slave Trade in the History and Myth-Making of the U.S. South.”, 11-46).  Grandma Fanny Barr was one of them.  Both situations resulted in the permanent separation from family members whose circumstances allowed them to remain here in Virginia. There’s no wonder that my DNA segments, as well as many others, are matching people whose immediate families are from Virginia.  In many of our family histories, Virginia, as well as South Carolina, is no doubt Ground Zero in America.

One of my mother’s Virginia-based DNA cousins from 23andMe who is currently anonymous.

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 One

How Oral History Can Get Misconstrued

 

      I remember when I was in junior high school, and our class played a game to show how a story can change as it is being relayed by many people.  I don’t remember the example story we used in class, but imagine the following:  Person no. 1 relays the following to person no. 2, “Mary Jones got married to Robert Williams in Huntsville, Alabama, and they soon moved to Atlanta, Georgia, where they had three children, Bob Jr., Sallie, and Katie Mae.”  Each person relayed what he/she is told to another person.  By the time the story reaches person no. 8, it has become, “Katie Mae Williams married Bob Jones in Atlanta, Georgia, and they moved to Mobile, Alabama, where they had three children, Bob Jr., Sallie Mae, and Callie.”  This simple exercise demonstrates how a lot of the oral history we hear is often not entirely true.  The operative adverb is “entirely” because there might be several parts of the story that are partially true.  In the example, the only true parts that person no. 8 hears are the first name of the husband (Robert/Bob) and the states where they lived (Alabama and Georgia) but in the wrong order.   

     When I was in high school, my grandmother told me some things about her paternal grandfather, Robert “Big Bob” Ealy of Leake County, Mississippi.  She shared how his slave master used him as a breeder, and he fathered a whole lot of children by many enslaved women.  He never laid eyes on those children.  However, he and his wife, Grandma Jane Ealy, had at least 13 children, whom he was able to raise to adulthood.  I was no more than 15 years old when Grandma relayed this story to me, and it took me awhile to fully grasp what she was telling me.  Then, as I talked to more family elders about our history, they shared that my great-great-grandfather was purchased and transported to Mississippi from Macon, Georgia by his mean slave master, who was known as “Masser Billy”.  This oral history had also been printed in some of the family’s early reunion booklets.  So for awhile, I had a mental picture of Grandpa Big Bob being placed on an auction block in Macon, Georgia, and “Masser Billy” was the highest bidder who purchased him and brought him to Leake County, where he was used as a breeder.

     Well, in 1993, my search began at the Mississippi Department of Archives and History in Jackson.  By this time, Grandma had been deceased for nearly three years, but I still heard her voice in my head relaying some things about Grandpa Big Bob.  Indeed, I found him and Grandma Jane in the 1870 and 1880 Leake County, Mississippi censuses.  But I was surprised to see what state was reported as his birthplace.  See here for yourself what was reported in 1870:

 Now look what was reported in the 1880 Leake County, Mississippi census:

Now look what was reported in the 1900 Scott County, Mississippi census.  Grandpa Big Bob, reported age of 86, was living in nearby Scott County with his oldest daughter, Mrs. Adeline Ealy Orman.

      Even in the 1900 census, North Carolina was also reported as the birthplace of Grandpa Big Bob’s father and mother.  Interestingly, Virginia was consistently reported as Grandma Jane’s birthplace in 1870 and in 1880, so this recollection about Macon, Georgia did not initially appear to be about her.  I soon figured out that “Masser Billy” was William W. Eley, who lived in the neighborhood of Grandpa Big Bob in 1870 and was the only white Eley in Leake County and the obvious last slave-owner.  Billy was a nickname for William.  To add, further research findings have concluded that Grandpa Big Bob was first enslaved by Jesse Bass of Nash County, North Carolina.  When he died in 1822, his youngest daughter, Frances Bass, inherited Grandpa Big Bob and a slave named John.  Frances soon married William W. Eley, and they moved to Mississippi around 1837, bringing Grandpa Big Bob, John, and several others with them.  Again, why on earth did my family elders think that Grandpa Big Bob had come from Macon, Georgia?  I was bewildered.

     A possible explanation soon came to the horizon when I noticed what was reported as the mother’s birthplace of Paul Ealy in the 1910 Leake County census.  Paul was my grandmother’s father and one of Grandpa Big Bob’s sons.

      Someone reported that Paul Ealy’s mother (Grandma Jane) was born in Georgia.  Maybe the reference to Macon, Georgia was actually about her history??  But, the state of Virginia was consistently reported as her birthplace in 1870 and 1880.  Additionally, Uncle Robert Ealy Jr’s death certificate revealed that her maiden name was considered to be Parrott, which led me to figure out that she and her children by Grandpa Big Bob were last enslaved by William Parrott, who was originally from Lunenburg County, Virginia.  He had moved to Leake County, Mississippi around 1840.  William “Billy” Eley and William Parrott were neighbors.  Therefore, Virginia appeared to be Grandma Jane’s correct birth state.  Still, I felt there had to be a reason why Macon, Georgia had been part of my family’s oral history.  I just didn’t feel that it was thrown in the story to make it sound more sensational.  Besides, in Mississippi, the small city of Macon was probably not as well-known as Atlanta, Georgia or Savannah, Georgia. 

     Nevertheless, a light bulb began to go off when Norma Money, a direct descendant of William Parrott, shared info with me about his family that was researched by Dr. Mavis Parrott Kelsey of Houston, Texas.  To sum it up, here goes (pay close attention):

·         (1) William Parrott was born around 1789 in Rockingham County, North Carolina.  He has his wife, Betsy Johnson, had lived on a 300-acre plantation in Lunenburg County, Virginia.

·         (2) William’s father was Abner Parrott. His mother was Mrs. Elizabeth Parrott Sr., who moved to Greene County, Georgia, but died in Overton County, Tennessee where her son Benjamin lived.

·         (3) William had two sisters, Micah and Elizabeth Jr., who also moved to Georgia; Micah died in Monroe County, Georgia and Elizabeth Jr. had settled in Greene County, Georgia.  Monroe County is just north of Macon, Georgia, around 10 miles to the northwest.  Hmmmmm……

·         (4) MOST INTERESTING: There’s a lawsuit dated 1839, in which the executor of Benjamin Parrott’s estate (William’s brother) sued another brother, Riland Parrott, for part of the $1200 proceeds from the sale of a valuable slave named Jerry, a blacksmith, claiming that the proceeds from the sale belonged to the six heirs of their mother, Elizabeth Sr.  According to Dr. Kelsey, the court proceedings mentioned that a group of forty negroes in Georgia were entailed to the heirs of Elizabeth Parrott Sr. (William’s mother), but there was little likelihood of gaining title to them.

     There is little doubt in my mind that the reference to Macon, Georgia in my family’s oral history actually pertained to happenings in Grandma Jane’s history, not Grandpa Big Bob.  Although she was born in Virginia around 1829, perhaps when William Parrott left Virginia, he went to near Macon, Georgia first, perhaps Monroe County where his sister Micah lived, and stayed there for a few years in the 1830's before making Mississippi his final home by 1840.  Perhaps Grandma Jane relayed stories about her time in Georgia before William brought her and others to Mississippi.  Or perhaps she relayed to her family that some of her people were living near Macon, Georgia during and after slavery.  William Parrott was in the 1820 and 1830 Lunenburg County, VA censuses, and then he shows up in the 1840 Leake County, MS census.  However, this does not mean that he never went to Georgia.  I truly believe he did, and Grandma Jane probably remembered being in Georgia for a few years, but I have more work to do to prove my speculations.  Stay tuned!

     MORAL OF THE STORY:  Oral history has to be taken with a grain of salt until proven with documentation.  Once proven, one may often find that some parts of the story are inaccurate, yet there may be some parts that are true but misconstrued.