After years of meetings focused on the business of dealing with church members who struggled with drunkenness or loose morals, the minutes of the Turkey Creek Baptist Church took a fairly drastic turn into the nineteenth century, showing records of meetings now consumed with the granting of fellowship to slaves. Almost every entry in the mid-nineteenth century included some account of “a woman...
Huddled beneath a large, decrepit tree in the woods, Isaac Mason was closer to freedom than ever before. He had escaped his master, which seemingly should have been the hardest part of his journey. However, Mason found himself desperately trying to convince his fellow fugitives that freedom was worth it—worth the wait and worth the nerves. Mason’s whole future, and his freedom, was on...
With the exception of slaves with certain bargains, William Gilliam willed all slaves, land and stock to John William Gilliam around 1823. It was important to William Gilliam that his estate, stock and slaves remained in his family. He promised it to his relative upon his twenty first birthday; and he emphasized that the slaves could not be removed from the estate until that time. It was also important...
Charles Seton was still waiting for payment after the court ordered Eleazar Waterman to pay Seton for a loan and after he filed two petitions to the court to speed up the process. Waterman was in debt to Charles Seton for a couple of years. On June 11, 1823, the Superior Court of East Florida ordered the sheriff, James R. Hankam, to sell the slaves that belonged to Waterman. The slaves were supposed...
"You wish to know how the Virginians live" wrote L.W. Howe to his brother John, of Enfield, Massachusetts on July 31, 1824. In meeting his brother's request, L.W. certainly provided an extensive account of the principal facets of life in the state of Virginia. Not only did he recount that the preferred beverage of the state was Whiskey, but he was mystified by the details of cooking...
William Booth Taliaferro, a resident of Norfolk, Virginia sent a letter on March 7, 1823 to Mr. Richards, the manager of finances of the George Washington Estate of Westmoreland County, Virginia. In the letter, Taliaferro informed Richards that he received the manager's previous letter enclosed with a check. In Richards's previous letter, he made the check to Taliaferro for 840 dollars....
Although Jackson was one of the largest cities in Tennessee, it was not one of the most dangerous. However, in September 1824, two little boys from a well-known family in the area, the Joshua Haskell's family, were accosted by a runaway slave on their way to school. He first spoke to them then grabbed their dinner-basket. Fortunately, he let them leave and the two little boys managed to arrive...
Although a Frenchmen, the Marquis de Lafayette was a man dear to the hearts of many Americans in the early nineteenth century. He led American troops into battle during the Revolution, had sustained a wound at the Battle of Brandywine, and was instrumental in encouraging the participation of the French forces in the siege of Yorktown which led to the surrender of the British in 1781. Lafayette was...
During the summer of 1824, Annabella Porter sold seven bales of cotton to Joseph Gammill. She grew the cotton on her and her husband's plantation, Poplar Grove in Morgan County. The bales sold in two different bundles. The first totaled 1,399 lbs and the second added to 1,012 lbs, and Gammill paid 184.96 and 105.63, respectively. Mrs. Porter also subtracted on several charges because she paid...
In a letter received by James Ure, John Bisland, a long time friend was intent on convincing him to move to Mississippi and invest in the cotton industry because of how easy it [was] to make money here. I bought 100 acres of land which lay contiguous to my estate [and] paid 600 dollars he explained and was able to make about 500 dollars by only planting cotton on seventeen acres. Cotton was seen...