You Have A Story, Too!

     On June 26, 2012, I attended Rachel Swarns’ book presentation and signing at the National Archives – Atlanta branch.  She wrote the new book, American Tapestry: The Story of the Black, White and Multiracial Ancestors of Michelle Obama.  The title of the book is pretty much self explanatory.  Beginning in the 1800's, the book narrates the story of the First Lady Michelle Obama’s ancestors and their five-generation journey from slavery to the one of the most prominent positions in this country.  Her great-great-great grandmother, Melvinia Shields, was enslaved on the Shields farm in what is now Clayton County, Georgia, where she ultimately birthed several “mulatto” children, including the First Lady’s great-great-grandfather, Dolphus Shields.

     In an June 14, 2012 article in the New York Times, author Edward Ball noted, “Rachel L. Swarns, a reporter for the New York Times, has uncovered the story of an ordinary black American family, typical in so many details: generations of forced work on Southern farms; sexual exploitation; children born half white; attempts to flee slavery; emancipation at the end of a rifle barrel; terrorization by the Klan during Reconstruction; futility stirred in with pleasure and church in the 1900s; a stepladder into the working class — and finally, the opportunity that allowed for Michelle Obama’s superior education and unlocked 150 years of bolted doors.” (See source.)

     Although Rachel Swarns’ book is a story that should be told, I desire for African Americans to realize that we all have family stories that should be unearthed and told.  Many are great ones. Others will be not-so-great, but they all are noteworthy.  Sure, we might be a little fascinated and curious about the ancestral stories of the First Lady that ultimately made her what she is today – an elegant, brilliant woman and the first African-American First Lady.  However, the stories of Melvinia Shields and the rest of the First Lady’s ancestors are not any more special or unique than your family story simply because she’s the First Lady.  That type of thinking is absurd, in my opinion.  Her family stories mirror a lot of the histories of African-American families – the descendants of slaves. 

      Like me, many of us can relay accounts about:

·           That ancestress who was used as a concubine and bore “mixed” children; mine was my great-great-grandmother, Lucy Kennedy Cherry of Leake County, Mississippi, whose children could have passed for white if they desired. My great-grandfather, Albert Kennedy, did so when he traveled by train to Louisiana to visit his sisters so that he could sit at the front.

·            Those ancestors who were sold away or taken away from their family like Melvinia was taken away from her family in Spartanburg, South Carolina; mine were named Bill Reed, Pleasant Barr, Polly Partee, Bob Ealy, Caroline Morris, Jack Bass, Edward Danner, and many more.

·           Those ancestors who persevered and accumulated some form of wealth like Dolphus Shields; mine were Bill Reed, Paul Ealy, and others.

·         That ancestress who looked “Indian-ish” and who had “hair so long that she sat on it”; mine was my great-great-grandmother, Louisa Bobo Danner of Como, Mississippi.

·           Many of us even have stories of ancestors fighting over hard-earned land; mine was my great-grandmother’s conniving oldest brother, Jim Danner, a root doctor who was sued in 1924 by the rest of his siblings for selling off land without their consent (a future blog post).

·            AND, if we are really lucky, a few of us may even have oral history about an ancestor from Africa who was captured, endured the Middle Passage, and was disembarked in Charleston, South Carolina, Virginia, New Orleans, Savannah, Mobile, or in Maryland.

     The point is: The First Lady's family stories are our stories, and our stories are the First Lady's stories.  This sentiment was echoed by a Facebook friend and National Archives’ Education Specialist, Kahlil Gabrin Chism, who wrote the following in his Facebook comment after reading an NPR.org article entitled The Complex Tapestry of Michelle Obama’s Ancestry: “Umm….couldn’t this article just as easily be titled ‘The Complex Tapestry of INSERT RANDOM AFRICAN-AMERICAN HERE’s Ancestry’? Duh.” 

     Let me briefly demonstrate how any random African American’s family story can involve a fascinating and complex tapestry.  During Black History Month in 2007, while I was a full-time graduate student at Clark Atlanta Univ., my grad school buddy and possible cousin, Travis Lacy, and I had a discussion about tracing his family history.  He had never done it and was curious about his ancestry.  We both were consumed with graduate classes, reading assignments, papers to write, presentations to give, and thesis preparations.  However, Travis found the time to do something that many should do to start uncovering their family history – talk to the elders.  He called his aunt in Phoenix, Arizona and got some background information about his maternal grandmother’s family, who had migrated to Arizona from Okmulgee County, Oklahoma.  His great-grandmother was Irene Erath McCuin Sanders, who was born around 1908 in Oklahoma.  She and her family were known to have been rather fair-skinned.   

     Easily accessible via ancestry.com, census records were researched to see what I could quickly find.  Travis’ great-grandmother Irene was found in the 1910 Okmulgee County, Oklahoma census.  She was in the household of her parents, John Wesley & Phennie Erath; everyone in the household was noted as “mulatto”, which corroborated the oral history about the skin tone of Irene and her family.  Interestingly, John Wesley Erath’s birthplace was reported as Texas, around 1880.  Travis did not know that there was a Texas link on this side of his family.  Here’s an image of that 1910 census:

John Wesley & Phennie Erath, 1910 Okmulgee County, Oklahoma census, Boley Township 

(Note: Irene was erroneously spelled “Arene”.)

     I was then able to locate Travis’ family in Texas in 1900.  They had migrated to Oklahoma from McLennan County, Texas sometime before 1908. The city of Waco, Texas is in this county.  John Wesley Erath was in the household of his father and stepmother, John & Annie Erath.  Here’s that census image:

John & Annie Erath, 1900 McLennan County, Texas census, Justice Precinct 1

     Further investigation of the earlier census records revealed that Travis’ great-great-great-grandfather John Erath was the son of John Wesley & Nancy Erath, who were born into slavery around the late 1830’s.  I soon discovered that the Erath name in Travis’ family came from the last slave-owner, George Bernard Erath, who had migrated to America from Vienna, Austria in the early 1800’s. George B. Erath, his wife, and children were the only white Eraths in McLennan County. In 1860, he owned 11 slaves, as per the 1860 McLennan County slave schedule. (Note: slave schedules only report the names of slave-owners and the age, sex, and color of their slaves.) Here’s that 1860 census image:

1860 McLennan County, Texas slave schedule, George Bernard Erath
The 25-year-old black male was most likely Travis’ 4th-great-grandfather, John Wesley, and the 25-year-old mulatto female might have been John Wesley’s wife, Nancy

George Bernard Erath (1813 – 1891)

(Source: Memoirs of Major George Bernard Erath by Lucy Erath)

     However, I soon learned that George B. Erath was not only a slave-owner, but he was a surveyor and a Texas Ranger who laid out the plans for the city of Waco, Texas, which was founded in 1849, as well as the plans for the town of Stephenville, Texas.  Travis’ fourth-great-grandfather John Wesley was a teenage boy at the time, but one can plausibly assert that John Wesley may have assisted George as he surveyed the land that was to become Waco, Texas.  This research of a random African-American named Travis from Los Angeles led to me discovering that his history is directly connected to the establishment of Waco, Texas.  More in-depth research in Texas just may uncover a “complex Tapestry” between the white Eraths and the African-American Eraths that were Travis’ ancestors.  We all have that “complex Tapestry” in our history. It just needs to be dug up and told.  Collectively, all of our family stories provide a microscope into American and African-American history.

Statue of George Bernard Erath in Waco, Texas

(Source: Wendi Lundquist)

 Aerial View of Downtown Waco, Texas. In 2010, the city had a population of 124,805.

George Bernard Erath, the enslaver of Travis' 4th-great-grandfather John Wesley Erath, was noted as the surveyor who surveyed the area and laid out the plans for Waco, which was established in 1849. The 1850 slave schedule reported George Erath with one male slave, a teenage boy who was likely John Wesley. One can plausibly assert that John Wesley may have assisted George Erath with the survey and plans for Waco, Texas.

Travis Lacy, his wife, Lerniece, and their daughter, Asia, reside in Los Angeles, California.  He is currently a Ph.D. candidate in African-American Studies at the University of Nevada at Reno and is currently working on his dissertation.  An aspiring professor and ethnomusicologist and a music enthusiast, writer, and historian, his blog is Just SOul You Know and can be read at http://justsoulyouknow.wordpress.com/. 

The National Rosenwald Schools Conference and the Surprise Afterwards

Representing my employer, the Robert W. Woodruff Library Archives Research Center, I had the honor and pleasure of attending and presenting at the National Rosenwald Schools Conference that was held on the beautiful campus of Tuskegee University on June 14 – 16, 2012.  This was the first-ever national Rosenwald Schools conference held, and it was well-attended by nearly 400 scholars, educators, preservationists, librarians, historians, and archivists from around the nation.  The conference was sponsored by the National Trust for Historic Preservation in Washington, D.C.

Brief Overview

In 1912, Booker T. Washington and philanthropist Julius Rosenwald conferred on the education of African-American students in the South, particularly at Tuskegee Institute.  That monumental meeting marked the beginning of a partnership that not only led to six small schools being constructed in rural Alabama, but it served as the catalyst for the implementation of the Julius Rosenwald Fund in 1917.  That fund provided financial assistance for the construction of over 5,000 new schools, 217 teachers' homes, and 163 shop buildings that served over 600,000 African-American students in fifteen states.  By 1928, one in every five rural schools for African-American students in the South was a Rosenwald school.  For more information, see www.rosenwaldschools.com.

The Oaks – the home of Booker T. Washington on Tuskegee’s campus

The Conference

Beginning on Thursday, June 14, 2012, the conference included a number of education and plenary sessions, as well as tours, documentary films, poster presentations, and hands-on workshops to aid preservationists, archivists, and historians with their Rosenwald School projects. After arriving on Friday morning, I had the pleasure of attending the education session, Rosenwald Schools: Research and Records, which was led by Tuskegee’s head archivist, Mr. Dana Chandler.  This session included an awesome tour of the Tuskegee Archives, a wonderful repository for many great collections and artifacts related to the institution.  This informative session tackled the issues of archival preservation of records and photographs, and the group was allowed to view some historical treasures, including George Washington Carver’s notebooks and his Bible. 

 George Washington Carver’s original Bible

Yes, my flash was turned off. Photographing was permitted.

 Inside the Tuskegee Archives

On Friday evening, I also attended the documentary discussion session, The Rosenwald Schools Film Project.  The audience watched a preview of a documentary that is currently being produced.  This documentary will reflect on the stories surrounding a number of Rosenwald schools and the life of Julius Rosenwald.  After the viewing, the audience was given the opportunity to discuss with the panel the history of the Rosenwald schools, its impact on the nation and African-American history, the challenges that were faced by the schools, as well as by the Jewish Rosenwald Family.  The panel included several descendants of Julius Rosenwald – a grandson, a granddaughter-in-law, and a great-granddaughter. 

On Saturday morning, I was one of three presenters for the education session, Uncluttering Your Historical Records, with Elvin Lang, a former manager for the Alabama Dept. of Environmental Management, and Dr. Howard Robinson II, archives manager at Alabama State University.  Implemented and coordinated by Frazine Taylor, retired archivist, author, and genealogist from the Alabama Dept. of Archives & History, the session's objective was to outline inexpensive and timesaving steps to sort, preserve, and organize historical records, as well as address issues related to the preservation of old school buildings.  My twenty-minute PowerPoint presentation discussed resources and tips to properly archive records, and I provided examples of archival materials that are used to process old and fragile records, books, and old photographs.  After our presentations, we enjoyed an active Q&A session in which many addressed their archival preservation concerns and were subsequently given preservation and archival advice. 

Following our education session and other concurrent sessions that morning, a closing plenary was held at the Tuskegee Chapel; world-renowned poet, writer, educator, and activist Nikki Giovanni was the guest speaker.  Her powerful message to the audience had nearly everyone on their feet.  She awesomely sprinkled her message with several power poems that spoke poignantly to the plight of African Americans in this country.  The closing session also included a PowerPoint presentation about the new Smithsonian Institute’s National Museum of African American History and Culture (NMAAHC) that's being built in Washington, D.C.  This presentation was given by Jacquelyn Days Serwer, NMAAHC’s chief curator.  The new museum will open in 2015.  I am excited! 

 Nikki Giovanni Speaking!

 The George Washington Carver Museum

The Surprise

After I returned from the conference, a sudden thought (an ancestor’s nudge) led me to see if the Ealy School of Leake County, Mississippi may have been a Rosenwald school.  This school was located in the community of my father and paternal grandmother’s birth, Lena, Mississippi, and it was named after my paternal grandmother’s family – the Ealys.  I’ve known about the existence of this school for quite awhile.  However, during the conference, it never occurred to me that it might be a Rosenwald school.   Well, as I was relaxing on my couch, resting from my trip back from Tuskegee, Alabama, I googled “Rosenwald Schools Mississippi” and came upon a link to the Rosenwald Schools database that’s maintained by Fisk University. See http://rosenwald.fisk.edu/.  Low and behold, Ealy School was in the database!  It was indeed a Rosenwald school!

But wait, there’s more.  My maternal great-grandmother, Mary Danner Davis (1867-1932), and two of her sisters, Frances and Laura Danner, were school teachers in Tate County, Mississippi.  One of the schools where they taught was named Springfield School, located east of Senatobia, Mississippi.  I discovered that Springfield School was also a Rosenwald school!  Not only that, Fisk has pictures of both schools.  Stay tuned as I attempt to find out more about Springfield and Ealy Schools from their records.  I want to uncover how much my family contributed to the construction of Ealy School that prompted the Lena community to name it after them. 

 Ealy School, Leake County, Mississippi

 Springfield School, Tate County, Mississippi

Source of pictures: Fisk University Archives, Rosenwald Schools Records, Nashville, Tennessee

When Compelling Pieces of Circumstantial Evidence Just Ain’t Enough for Me

     With relative ease, I traced one of my paternal lineages back to my great-great-grandfather, Peter Belton of Vicksburg, Warren County, Mississippi.  He was found living alone in the 1870 census.  That year, his reported age was 23 (born around 1847), and he was the only Belton in the county.  His reported birthplace was South Carolina.  I found him again in the 1900 Warren County census and his reported birth date and birth place were January 1840 in Mississippi   Because of these findings and no oral history about him, I ascertained that tracing him back even further would be quite a challenge.  Unfortunately, I was right.  A number of clues were unearthed, but I have been longing to find something that I consider concrete.

     Before I go into a few details about my research of Peter Belton’s history, let me present a brief synopsis about a very interesting and notable figure in Mississippi history.  His name is Capt. Isaac Ross of Jefferson County, Mississippi.  I believe Peter’s history is directly connected to this man.  Maybe one day soon, instead of using the terms “I believe”, I’ll be able to say, “The facts are.”  On the other hand, the circumstantial evidence that I will present just may be preponderantly adequate for some people to positively tie Peter to Capt. Ross.  I’ll love your personal feedback and opinion about the weight of this evidence.

       In a nutshell, Capt. Isaac Ross left Camden, South Carolina in 1808 and established a large plantation in Jefferson County that was known as Prospect Hill.  When he died in January 1836, his will stipulated that his plantation be liquidated and the proceeds be used to provide safe passage for his 200+ slaves to be freed and transported to Liberia in West Africa through the American Colonization Society (ACS).  His will also stipulated that his slaves be allowed to vote whether or not they wanted to go to Africa as free men and women.  It further stated, “Should the slaves refuse to go there, they (except those that have been specially named) are to be sold, and the proceeds paid over to the ACS, to be invested at 6 per cent, the interest to be employed for 100 years, in maintaining an institution of learning in Liberia, in Africa. If there shall be no government in Liberia, the said fund to be transferred to the State of Mississippi for a similar institution.”

     Not surprising, his heirs contested his will and battled it in state courts for nearly ten years.  Well, the enslaved Prospect Hill laborers grew very frustrated, and they orchestrated a revolt that burned the Ross mansion to the ground in April 1845.  Luckily, Capt. Ross’s will was finally upheld by law, and on January 7, 1848, the first group of 35 former Ross slaves left New Orleans on the Nehemiah Rich. A second group of 141 sailed out of New Orleans in 1849 on the Laura.  Both groups settled near the towns of Sinoe and Greenville in Liberia.  Their saga is told in Alan Huffman’s Mississippi in Africa: The Saga of the Slaves of Prospect Hill Plantation and Their Legacy in Liberia Today. 

     Let me now present the circumstantial evidence of why I believe one or both parents and/or a grandparent of Peter Belton may have been on Prospect Hill plantation. 

EVIDENCE A:  The estate of Mary Allison Belton, Jefferson County, Mississippi, 1823 & 1827

     In my quest to determine who Peter Belton’s last enslaver may have been, I quickly determined from census research that no white Belton families ever resided in Warren County. I could not even find any white Beltons in the neighboring counties of southwest Mississippi, although a number of African-American Belton families were found living in those counties – Jefferson, Franklin, Claiborne, and Adams County.  This seemed odd.  However, an explanation was soon found.  Turns out, there was indeed one white Belton who resided in Jefferson County up until 1823.  Her name was Mary Allison Belton; someone had placed a transcription of her will online which named 16 slaves.  Dated April 12, 1823, it also named two nephews, Isaac & Arthur Ross. 
   

     Very interestingly, Internet contacts revealed that Mary Allison Belton, the childless widow of John Belton of Camden, South Carolina, had moved to Jefferson County with Capt. Isaac Ross and his family.  Capt. Ross’s wife Jane Allison was her sister.  The nephews she mentioned in her will were their sons.  I soon found her estate record at the Mississippi Department of Archives and History, and an inventory dated Dec. 6, 1827 listed 20 slaves by name, age, and value.  Capt. Ross was the executor of her estate.  This was a major find, but unfortunately I have not been able to determine the names of Peter Belton’s parents.  Perhaps, someone on this inventory was his parent?  I look at this inventory in wonderment.

     1-  Bridget very old wench  nothing

     2-  Harry   ditto ditto           ditto  (ditto means same as above)

     3-  Fanny  54 years of age                                                           $100

     4-  Hector 52 years old Stepney 34 years old                                 800

     6-  Sam 31 years old Esaw 29 years old                                       1200

     8-  Jacob 29 years old Hector 27 years of age                              1200   

     10-  Jefferson 25 years old Ben 24 years old                                1200

     12-  Dinah 43 Mathew 7                                                               450

     14-  Mary 26 years old Laura 4 years old                                       500

     16-  Risse (?) 24  Irn alia worth nothing

     17-  Henderson 5 years of age  Peggy 24 years of age                   500

     19-  Thornton 6 years old  Adam  4 years of age                            400

                                                                                                       6350

EVIDENCE B:  Peter Ross and Hector Belton of Liberia

     Twenty-four letters were written by “Ross Negroes” in Liberia to ACS officials in the United States.  A man named Peter Ross wrote the most letters before he died after 1859, and many of them expressed his grievance over the Ross estate administrators’ failure to submit funds in accordance with the provisions of Capt. Ross’s will.  Seeing the name “Peter” among the “Ross Negroes” raised my eyebrows. 

     On October 12, 1849, a man named Hector Belton wrote a letter to John Kerr of the A.C.S.  He stated, “….Now my dear sir, knowing you were always kindly and friendly disposed towards me, even when Capt. Ross were alive, and I now am old and helpless, can’t work, let me intrude upon you, notwithstanding past events…”  Hector Belton was undoubtedly the 52-year-old Hector in the slave inventory of Mary Allison Belton’s estate, 1827 (see above). 

EVIDENCE C:  Location

     As I mentioned earlier, Peter was the only Belton in Warren County in 1870.  However, considering Warren County’s close proximity to Jefferson County, one can plausibly surmise that a connection to Capt. Isaac Ross’s slaves seems very possible.  Perhaps, Peter decided to migrate up to near Vicksburg when he became a free man?

EVIDENCE D:  Peter Belton’s Marriage Record

     In 1880, Peter married Mrs. Martha Wilkins (nee Miller) in Warren County.  On his marriage record, a man named Jack Ross was his bondsman.  Bondsmen on marriage records are often relatives or long-time friends. In fact, a bondsman named Wesley Johnson was part of my great-grandfather John Hector Davis’s marriage record. I later learned from an elder family member that Wesley was a first cousin to John’s father.  Seeing Jack Ross’s name on Peter’s marriage record was quite an eye-opener. 

EVIDENCE E:  James Belton’s Accounts

     An online contact encouraged me to get into contact with James Belton of McComb, Mississippi.  He descends from the Beltons who lived in Franklin County (see map above for its location).  Luckily, his contact information was in the phonebook and I called him up.  As a lover of family history, he was very happy to talk to me.  James didn’t know anything about Peter Belton of Vicksburg, but he shared the following interesting tidbits based on oral history told to him by his father, Julius Belton, who was born in 1888.

(1)   His father had two great-uncles named Wade & Edmond Belton who were part of the Prospect Hill uprising in 1845.  Edmond escaped to Louisiana.

(2)   Most of the slaves that Capt. Isaac Ross owned and transported to Mississippi in 1808 were obtained from the Belton Family of South Carolina.  Many of them were mulattoes and were known as the “Ross-Beltons”.

     These oral accounts have not been proven with documentation.  However, it establishes that the African-American Belton families in southwest Mississippi in 1870 are likely linked to the enslaved people on Prospect Hill plantation.  Yet, in my personal opinion, the circumstantial evidence have not been enough to positively prove that Peter Belton is linked to the “Ross-Belton” slaves of Prospect Hill as well. Or is it??  What are your thoughts?  More research will be done to try to determine Peter's parentage, which has been the major brick wall in this research.  I can’t let it go!  Stay tuned.

AVAILABLE: Mississippi to Africa: A Journey of Discovery, Second Edition

 Paperback; 302 pages; $14.99

Now Available!
www.MississippitoAfrica.com

     I am thrilled to announce the release of the new 2nd edition of Mississippi to Africa: A Journey of Discovery.  With a new publishing company, I am happy to be able to offer this 2nd edition at a much lower price.  The nature of genealogy research has witnessed some changes since its first release in 2008 due to advances in technologies.  Because of this, the 2nd edition contains an updated Research Tips section, a number of other updates, and a new epilogue that shows how autosomal DNA testing validated my research findings. 

     Mississippi to Africa can be described as an extensive case study of an African-American family – my maternal grandmother’s mother’s family – whose roots were successfully traced back 7 generations to an 18^th-century enslaved couple in South Carolina.  That couple is believed to have been among the first ancestors to step foot on American soil.  This book takes readers on my 14-year journey that involved finding numerous records that enabled me to methodically piece together my family puzzle, generation after generation, in 5 informative chapters.  The explanatory nature of this journey, which is told in a narrative form, helps and inspires everyone, including the beginner researcher, the intermediate researcher, and the advanced researcher.

     Along with the oral history from a number of family elders, one who died in 2008 at the age of 103, the sources that enabled me to document 7 generations include:

Bills of sale (slaves)

Books

Census records

Church records

City directories

County history books

Court records

Death records

Deeds of gifts (slaves)

Diaries / memoirs

Educable Children school records (Mississippi)

Freedmen’s Bank applications

Land records

Linguistic books

Marriage records

Military pension record (Civil War)

Newspaper articles

Probate records

Slave inventories

Slave narrative

Slave schedules

Social security applications

Southern Claims Commission records

Tax digests

Transatlantic slave trade data

Wills

World War I draft registration card
...and more

 

F O L L O W   T H E   J O U R N E Y   A N D   L E A R N  A   L O T !

Now available at MississippitoAfrica.com 
Also available on Amazon.com.

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.

How “150 Years Later” Came To Be

 (See reunion documentary below.)

     150 Years Later: Broken Ties Mended takes the reader on the journey of solving my great-grandfather Bill Reed’s mysterious history.  I call it a historical mystery novel that incorporated a great deal of genealogy research....and patience.  I am still in awe of the amount of records and the types of fascinating records that fell into my lap during the years when I would often pray to God and ask Him to help me with this mystery. One of the unique records was a very revealing letter written by the slave-owner’s widow, Rebecca Reid Barr.  The stories that my family elders told me of Grandpa Bill’s experiences as a slave in South Carolina stayed fixated in my mind since high school.  Because of that, I felt that it was my life mission to unravel this mystery.  I never imagined in a million years that the ultimate outcome of solving this mystery would culminate into an unprecedented, emotional reunion....150 years later.

     You see, in 1859 near Abbeville, South Carolina, my 12-year-old great-grandfather was forever separated from his family. Grandpa Bill's father was sold away, and his mother, grandmother, and other family members were all transported away from the state soon afterwards. He never laid eyes on them ever again, and he and a younger sister Mary were soon sold to a local Reid slave-owner. Shortly after becoming free people, he and others left South Carolina on a wagon train pulled by mules and migrated to northern Mississippi.  Family elders remarked jovially of how they had been told that Mississippi was the “land of milk and honey with fat pigs running around with apples in their mouths.” Grandpa Bill died near Senatobia, Mississippi in 1937, at the age of 91, never learning the whereabouts of his family members, who were actually living not too far from him . . . in the same state!

     Before his demise, Grandpa Bill sat underneath his sycamore tree on his 300-acre farm and told his children and grandchildren many stories about his early years in South Carolina.  He was not a tight-lipped man, and my family elders remembered many stories that he shared, especially my late cousin and his grandson, Isaac Deberry, Sr. (1914–2009).  That overwhelmingly valuable oral history propelled the research and led to me solving this longtime mystery.  Despite the stories, no one knew why Grandpa Bill was separated from his family. No one knew where his family members ended up.  He told his family who his father was – a man named Pleasant Barr – and recounted the day he watched with great sadness as his father was placed on a wagon and forever taken away, but even Grandpa Bill never knew where he ended up, according to my elders.  And before I started to research it, no one could remember exactly where in South Carolina they were all from. 

     Ultimately, the mysteries were solved, many descendants were located, and a family reunion of a lifetime was held in Atlanta and in Abbeville, South Carolina beginning August 7, 2009, a day after my birthday.  Over 250 descendants came together for the first time.  My cousin and video producer, Kristina Hayes of Atlanta, produced this wonderful documentary about the reunion.  Yet, after the reunion, I pondered over the thought of writing a book about the entire experience – the good, the great, and the not-so-great.  The ancestors were tired of me pondering about it.  “You must do it” was the feeling that I was getting. 

     And so I finally gave in. On one Saturday morning in October 2009, I sat at my table and started writing.  The ancestors immediately took over and guided my fingers across the keyboard of my laptop.  How do I know that they guided this?  Well, even now when I pick up the book to re-read various parts, I honestly do not remember writing it.  That’s how I know.  The ancestors had intervened, and 150 Years Later was written in about five months and ultimately released on July 28, 2011. They wanted the story told, and I honored their wishes.  

Documentary:  Families Reunited After 150 Years of Separation, Part 1 of 5

 

Part 2
Part 3
Part 4
Part 5

(Total: 30 minutes)

Book website: www.150yearslater.com