Brandon kept her enslaved on a cotton plantation until well after the war. All Rights Reserved. Slave traders met the demand by buying slaves in Virginia, Kentucky and Maryland and selling them in the cotton states. A Natchez refugee visits and told of many negroes who went to Yankees, that Billy Sanderson had killed himself drinking with them, that Freds wife had been hung, that Merrill was giving them dinner parties &c. but had heard never a word of my family. Feelings of worry and suspense. In 1807, at the death of Benjamin Harrison III (1743-1807), his will divided the . Discovered that several men (Isaac, [Matt] & Charley) had been in the hog business, cost me $30 (noted in ledger on p.9, Brandons page 14); medicine scarce; Oh! The family plans to occupy the. One half illegible. 1847, d. 1885; married Joseph C. Pierce, Agnes Brandon (b. June 29, 1851, d. January 19, 1862; see, Sarah Brandon (b. June 29, 1851, d. December 13, 1862; see, Charles Gerard Brandon (b. I am aware of the hands that built it, and the literal blood, sweat, and tears that entailed. Vital statistics in the below list draw on the Brandon Children website and a public family tree on Ancestry. All the while, however, there were people conspiring to take her freedom away. Begins December 27 entry. Today, many reparations advocates look to legislation, targeting governments for their complicity in slavery and white supremacy. Educator and interpreter Joseph McGill founded the Slave Dwelling Project as a living history lesson. Describes the Brazos (he appears to spell as Brassos) as a little, crooked, muddy [? Woods victory briefly made her lawsuit national news. His wife Charlotte (39) and children Elmina (16), James (14), Charlotte (12), Sarah (9), Agnes (9), Mary (5), and Alice (4) are listed a fellow members of the household. Not only business operations and day-to-day labor routines, but family affairs, the roles of women, racial attitudes, relations between masters and slaves, social and cultural life, the values shared by members of the planter class, and I wanted to really know. When the Horlbeck family bought the plantation in 1817, they opened up a brickyard and began producing bricks using the clay from the nearby Wampacheone Creek. Many of the slaves had been forgotten to the world until the Virginia Historical Society received a $100,000 grant to pore over some of its 8 million unpublished manuscripts letters, diaries, ledgers, books and farm documents from Virginians dating to the 1600s and began discovering the long-lost identities of the slaves, said society president and CEO Paul Levengood. Reprinted with permission from Smithsonian Enterprises. Even Juneteenth, the day in June 1865 when Union soldiers arrived in Texas to enforce emancipation, did not liberate Wood. Construction on the home began in 1853 and it was completed in 1856.3, Slave schedules for the 1860 Census confirm Brandons large slaveholdings. Ward planned to make Wood the latest victim of this trade, but she resolved to fight. The Prospect Hill Plantation is without a doubt one of the most historically significant sites in the state. A native Kentuckian who had recently moved to Covington, just across the Ohio River from Cincinnati, Ward became a deputy sheriff in 1853. The bulk of his papers are in several collections at Historic Natchez Foundation. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1980.[1]. How many [illegible] I have doctored & sick negroes, swelled feet & legs, swelled stomachs, dyptheria, fever, seems to me nearly all man is heir to, but all well this morning & I am thankful it is no worse. Medicine nearly out. Yet Wood v. Ward did not set a sweeping legal precedent. I created this site because I have a passion for old houses! See menn1964 for more information about this holding., J. H. Coltons map of the state of Louisiana and eastern part of Texas, commented on the unequal application of criminal justice, Walter Williams who died in 1959 at age 117, Philip A. Brandon (b. Chilly weather. Slavery in Virginia is not just a Virginia story. Tours Robertsons college, then under construction. Her official freedom papers, at a courthouse in Cincinnati, had been destroyed in an 1849 fire, and her kidnappers had confiscated her personal copy. Negro slave owners were listed in 29 Kentucky counties (see below). Wood suffered another, unexpected setback in 1874, when her lawyer was murdered by a client's husband in an unrelated divorce case. Wood was an early contributor to a long tradition of formerly enslaved people and their descendants demanding redress. February 27, 2023 By restaurants on the water in st clair shores. The gang located Wood's employer in Cincinnati, a boardinghouse keeper named Rebecca Boyd, and paid her to join their scheme. ) If some of the enslaved people owned by James Brandon were also taken to Texas by Gerard, it is possible that this is the woman referred to in the journal, who would have been a teenager at the time. It was four years after the Confederate surrender before Wood was able to return up the river, where she tried to locate long-lost members of her family in Kentucky. Begins September 29 entry. I wanted to be able to see and connect the dots.. I suffer much mentally.. It wasn't until she returned to Mississippi with Brandon in 1866 that she gained her freedom; she continued to work for Brandon, now promised a salary of $10 a month, but she would say she was never paid. Ownership may have meant the purchase of a spouse, an individual's children, or other relatives who were not emancipated. Able. He strikes new deal with Able to settle on his land: he could let me heave as much land as Col. R. had offered, with 300 acres in cultivation, 2 cabins, & corn in the ground at $1 per barrel, and let me have the use of a mill , would charge $5 an acre for the cleared land & let me pay for it by picking cotton at $1 per 100 pounds. Brandon agrees. I whippped him a little. Anthony has the money. All they needed was someone to do the dirty work of enslaving her again. The Virginia Historical Society finds 3,200 slaves named in private documents, The unpublished documents are from Virginians' attics, basements and desk drawers, "We sold all the negros 43 in number at astonishingly large prices," an 1858 letter says, One user of the society's free database of slaves finds the owner of his great-great-great-grandfather. Discusses leaving Poole with a power of attorney, and one with Bennett if Poole becomes indisposed. Bowens was born at Drayton in 1908, and returned to Charleston from Chicago in the 1970s. It is currently used as a successful wedding venue and bed & breakfast. Brandon kept a diary of his Texas sojourn which is probably held today by a family descendant. An equally important feature at Brandon Plantation is the rare, carefully restored ca. Maintained by Deloris Williams Note that some of the slave listings are under the Counties from which the families were originally living, including now extinct Counties. Drayton Hall's African American history interpretation began with Richmond Bowens, who was descended from enslaved African Americans at Drayton Hall. Brandon Plantation was situated in the area where the regularized production of bright leaf tobacco was developed in the 1820s, an industry requiring slave labor. More information can also be found at brandonhallplantation.com. If you are interested in a house, all information, including: price, status, neighborhood, condition, etc., must be independently verified. The letter continued: Jane and three children brought $2795. Cookie Settings, Illustration by Cliff Alejandro; Source material: W. Caleb McDaniel; NYPL (3), Subscribe to Smithsonian magazine now for just $12, Sweet Taste of Liberty: A True Story of Slavery and Restitution in America, Dried Lake Reveals New Statue on Easter Island. Call List Agent for a Fact Sheet. S. Able who owns 3500 acres on the John Welch and Joseph Welch grants.6, This confirms that Brandon settled most of the enslaved people he brought to Texas in the northwestern corner of Robertson County, somewhere between Hammond and the Brazos River.7. The couple had numerous children, though only five survived into adulthood; four daughters died of natural causes during the Civil War. But Wood and her lawyers had argued that the case was about much more than damages from abduction. Unsure of his next steps, whether to visit home and be on the dodge all the time, the great fear I have is being sent to a northern prison.. A letter Cornelia Jane Shields to James Brandons wife states that Mr. An 1858 runaway slave ad for Elijah, who said Gerard Brandon was his owner, is in the Runaway Slaves in Mississippi project, edited by Douglas Chambers and Max Grivno, on p.536. Report of a Mrs. MORE VIRGINIA SLAVERY RESOURCES. Lists his route, expenses, and ferriage for the trip back home. Known as the Robintation Tree, it is said to have been quite feared by the slaves of the plantation. You can explore lives and stories of these slaves at the 9 slave cabins in the plantation where the Black History in America Exhibit is displayed. When he died in 1951, after a long career as a lawyer, he left behind a large clan of descendants who were able to launch professional careers of their own, even as redlining and other racially discriminatory practices put a chokehold on the South Side neighborhoods where they lived. Dudley I think will die. Arrival of Mrs Spark and her son, other Mississippi refugees, who had found and brought Jack Lancaster. His overseers are John Lyle (born in Kentucky) and William Hurley (born in Scotland, accompanied by his wife Rose). She would one day recall that period of her life as a "sweet taste of liberty.". This article originally appeared in Smithsonian Magazine. Brandon Hall in Natchez, MS was built by Gerard Brandon and his wife Charlotte (Hoggatt). He would charge $5 an acre for cleared land & let me pay for it by picking cotton at $1 per 100 pounds. For more on Able, see Able Family. A NCGenWeb Special Project Documented Slave Plantations of North Carolina is a comprehensive database of various plantations derived from a variety of information mediums. Your effort and contribution in providing this feedback is much This page also contains the line: Henrietta conducts herself well, as did some other enslaved people mentioned by name.9 But Brandon says I am really tired, sick of them and being with them, a perfect dogs life, & will disgust anyone with the . Yes, Boone Hall Plantation did have slaves right from the time it was established in 1681. The corn we sold yesterday brought 3.15$ per barrel. Now she watched nervously as the 12 jurors returned to their seats. The tract was known as Martin's Brandon. Today, many reparations advocates look to legislation, targeting governments for their complicity in slavery and white supremacy. 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