Some Semblance of “Home”

      

     Unfortunately, many African Americans continue to debate over the use of the term “African American” or Black.  I’ve heard some folk say thoughtlessly, “I’ve never been to Africa, so I’m not African American”, as if all people in America who proudly claim to be Asian have been to Asia (or Russian to Russia, European to Europe, etc.).  We, descendants of enslaved Africans who were disembarked on American shores, are culturally European for the most part because of how America was shaped.  The continuity of African social and cultural patterns was greatly discouraged, demeaned, and outlawed.  However, in-depth genealogy research brought to light for me that our enslaved ancestors did not fully allow western society to annihilate all aspects of their rich African heritages.  I am very proud of this fact, hence my personal embracement of the term “African American”.

     Remnants of Africa are very evident in our music, the expressive way we worship in church, in our dances, in our arts, in our foods, etc.  In the last chapter of Mississippi to Africa: A Journey of Discovery, which I entitled “Bridging the Gap Between America and West Africa”, I detailed how my own ancestors retained aspects of their African culture.  Many things were not lucid at first glance, but a deeper analysis revealed Africanisms in my family that had been inconspicuous for many years. You will have to read the book to see how these remarkable cultural features were uncovered through genealogy research.

     Nevertheless, for this blog post, I want to briefly show four examples of how names and naming patterns exposed undeniable links to West Africa in my family. Many folk who trace African-American families will undoubtedly encounter some or all of the same instances. 

EXAMPLE 1: 

Some family members were named after a notable profession, a high position, or a famous person.  Lawyer, President, Prince, George Washington, Doctor Rogers, Judge, Queen, Colonel, King, etc. were all first names that I encountered in my family trees.  One of my maternal grandmother’s brothers was named Frederick Douglas Davis.

African Cultural Element:  Many African children, especially in Ghanaian cultures, were often named for prominent individuals.  More specifically, a belief of the Akan people of Ghana is that to be named after a distinguished person invests the child with the responsibility to emulate the character of the individual whose name he/she bears. 

EXAMPLE 2: 

Some family members were named after days of the week or even a holiday.  I’m not kidding!  I have family members who bore the first names Easter, Tuesday, and Thursday.  Even in Zora Neale Hurston’s The Sanctified Church, she introduces readers to the extraordinary character, Uncle Monday. 

African Cultural Element:  In many West African cultures, many children were given names that reflected the day, month or season, and even the holiday for when they were born.  Even in the Akan culture of Ghana, many children were given “day names.”  The day of the week on which a child was born determined what name the child was given.  For example, Kwasi is a day name given to a male child who was born on a Sunday.  If I had been born in Ghana, this probably would have been my first name since I was born on Sunday, August 6, just a few years ago.  Abena is the name given to a female child born on a Tuesday.  Each day of the week has a specific female and male name.

EXAMPLE 3: 

In my research, I’ve encountered many households in which my ancestors had not named their infant children, even though the children’s ages were noted in the census records as 2 months, 4 months, or even 11 months. Terms like “not named” or “unnamed” were recorded. 

African Cultural Element:  Delayed naming was very common in a number of African cultures.  A child is not considered a person until he/she has been named, and a name is not given to a child until the parents are confident that the child will survive.  Our African ancestors resided in communities in West Africa where high infant mortality rates were common.  Consequently, their delayed naming beliefs were transplanted into communities in America where high infant mortality rates also prevailed during and after slavery.  Several slave narratives verify this cultural transmission.

EXAMPLE 4: 

In six generations of my mother’s maternal grandmother’s family, many females were given the name Annie.  The frequency was so high that my head would often spin trying to figure out which Annie belonged to whom.  Imagine my surprise when, after over a decade, I traced that family branch back to a great-great-great-great-great-grandmother who was named Anika (born c. 1760). The name was recorded as “Anakah” in Captain John Turner’s 1807 will (Fairfield County, S.C.) and is pronounced “Annie – Kah”. It can be traced back to Africa, which represented another cultural link to West Africa.  Annie was undoubtedly the Americanized version of the name Anika.  Additionally, the names of Anika’s children were also passed down in the family for several generations.  I was quite amazed at how my ancestors had ingeniously recorded their family history by the names that they gave to their children. 

African Cultural Element:  In his book The Black Family in Slavery and Freedom, 1750-1925, historian Herbert Gutman asserted that naming children for blood kin hinted that enslaved people incorporated elements of the traditional lineal orientation of their West African forebears into their new belief systems in America (pp. 197-198).  Many African cultures, like the Igbo people of Nigeria and the Fulani people of West Africa, carry a tradition of naming children after deceased relatives.  Many African Americans are direct descendants of the Igbo and Fulani peoples, as well as many other ethnic groups. 

Conclusion:

     Although inconspicuous, names and naming patterns can clearly show that enslaved Africans in America inculcated in their children some aspects of their West African cultures which prevailed down through the generations.  American culture did not entirely annihilate West African customs.  Unquestionably, our ancestors desired to retain some semblance of “home”, which is why I have no problem whatsoever referring to myself as an “African-American”. (Side note: this blog post is not meant to start another debate over the usage of African American vs. Black. Comments regarding your position on this debate will be subject to deletion. This post was meant to expound on African retentions and genealogy.)

During the Penn Center Heritage Day Festival Parade, St. Helena Island, South Carolina, flags of the West African nations where many of the ancestors of the Gullah people hailed from were displayed.  The Gullah and Geechee people of coastal South Carolina and Georgia descend primarily from African captives taken from the rice-growing region of West Africa, as well as the Angola-Congo region of West-Central Africa.  African retentions among the Gullah/Geechee people were the strongest than anywhere else in America. Africans were able to preserve their culture because of the sea islands' isolation from the mainland.

Those Small Brick Churches Deep in the Country

     Whenever I give genealogy presentations and workshops, or whenever I personally advise someone on tracing their family history, I always recommend that people visit the churches where their ancestors were members.  In many cases, these churches are rural ones with adjacent cemeteries.  One may find in those cemeteries a wealth of information and clues – names, dates, etc. from the tombstones of known and unknown ancestors.  Additionally, I often recommend that they take time to attend church service there one Sunday and talk to the people.  Chances are, some of them are relatives and may have a wealth of information to share about certain ancestors. 

     This research tip reminds me of those Sundays my parents and my paternal grandparents would make their annual trips to their hometown churches.  My mother’s home church was Beulah Baptist Church, located deep in the country, eight miles east of Como, Mississippi (Panola County).  My paternal grandparents’ home church was Harmony Baptist Church in Lena, Mississippi (Leake County).  Harmony was just a 45-minute drive from my hometown of Canton, but Beulah was a longer trip – a 2-hour drive from Canton.  My mother was born and raised in Tate County (Senatobia), and the Tate/Panola County line was the southern boundary of her father and grandfather’s land.  Although Beulah (pronounced ‘Bu-low’ by family members) was in another county, their church was just a stone’s throw away from their house. 

Beulah Baptist Church, Como, Mississippi

     Our annual trips to Beulah were always on the third Sunday in May, and our annual trips to Harmony were always on the third Sunday in August.  Both Sundays were called “Homecoming Day”, an event that my grandparents rarely missed while they were still in good health.  Because we didn’t have family in my hometown, and I didn’t have the privilege of growing up with lots of kin around, I always looked forward to those trips – which meant the world to me.  I had possessed a natural curiosity about my family history since the ninth grade, so I don’t think my family realized until much later just how much those annual trips positively affected my life.  In essence, those trips established where my family roots sprouted, and there was no doubt that my roots ran very deep.

     At Beulah, a small brick church that probably held a maximum of 100 people, presumably 90% of the people who attended Homecoming Day from far and near were related to Mom. Many were even related to her on her mother’s side and her father’s side – double kin.  And it was very obvious!  Looking at their faces was like looking at my mother and her siblings.  Also, I enjoyed my mother’s display of great happiness when she returned “home”.  Home never left her heart.  As long as I remain in my right mind, I will always carry very fond memories of those family elders (all of them are now deceased) who I only saw once a year. 

Harmony Baptist Church, Lena, Mississippi

(Picture courtesy of Richard Mack. Additions have been made since my grandparents’ death in 1990.)

     Memories of going to Harmony annually with my paternal grandparents included several times when my loving yet ostentatious grandmother would force me to get up and sing a solo, while my sister LaVonda played the piano. Grandma never forewarned us of her intentions.  Like Beulah, many of the people there at Harmony were our relatives – even the snow cone man, Cousin James Ferrell, who made the most scrumptious snow cones from the back of his truck.  It was a treat after spending hours in church listening to two or three sermons.  Correction: Maybe the word “hearing” is more accurate than “listening to”.  There’s a difference, and I was young (LOL). Those Homecoming Day services were quite lengthy.  If someone wasn’t Grandma’s niece or nephew, he/she was her cousin.  However, that didn’t stop my match-making Grandma who seemed to forget that fact.  Another favorite memory included the following incident:

     As I exited the church with Grandma, she spotted a young girl standing outside and who appeared to be around my age. I was around 15 at the time.

     Pointing at the girl, Grandma instructed, “Baby, come here. What is your name, baby?  You are such a pretty girl.”

     With a smile, the girl shared her name.

     Grandma commented, “Well, baby, I want you to meet my grandson here. His name is Jimell (my middle name).  You and him may be around the same age. How old are you, baby?”

     The girl’s mother suddenly approached.  Excited, she interrupted, “Hey Cut’n Willie! How you doing? I'm so glad to see you!  This here is my daughter.”  Note: “Cut’n” is the southern slang for “cousin”.

     Grandma remarked coolly, “Oh, is that so?”

     Imagine the stoic look on Grandma’s face when she discovered that she just tried to match-make me with a cousin! 

     I will never forget that experience and many more at those small brick churches deep in the country – a significant part of our history and once major pillars of our communities.

Beulah Baptist Church Cemetery, Como, MS
Most of the people buried here are Mom’s family members, including her parents and her paternal and maternal grandparents.

The William “Bill” Reed & Sarah Partee Reed Monument in Beulah Cemetery

My mother’s paternal grandparents

In 2004, the Reed Family raised $4,700 to purchase this 7-feet tall monument for their grave-site.

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.