Ben Simpson marched onward through the snow and dirt for several weeks, with his mother, sister, and a slew of other slaves at his side. His neck was secured with iron chains that attached him and the others to the horses that lazily dragged their owner, Alex Simpson, toward Austin, Texas from Norcross, Georgia, a distance of nearly a thousand miles. Wanted by authorities for stealing horses, Alex...
The Port Royal Experiment along with the collapse of the Confederacy brought about unfamiliar freedom to the slaves of the Savannah, Bluffton, Beaufort, and Hilton Head Island area who were now allowed to buy and obtain property. The majority of these slaves identified as Gullah and Geechee people. As Southerners left the islands to escape the occupation, slaves had the opportunity to buy land from...
Writing, “To My Loving Miss Patsy,” in a letter in August 1857, Vilet Lester began by explaining that: “I have long been wishing to embrace this present and pleasant opportunity of unfolding my feelings since I was constrained to leave my long loved home.” Lester had had four masters since she left the Pattersons’ home and desperately missed those that she had left behind, including but...
On April 15, 1910 a man by the name M. A. Nupatree documented his travels through the state of Georgia. Nupatree documented his travels through the larger as well as the smaller cites because he wanted to study prohibition throughout the state. In his paper Nupatree claimed to be indifferent on the subject of prohibition, saying he observed everything with an impartial eye. However, Nupatree did go...
In Maryland, there’s a kind slaveholder. He is the same slaveholder who owns Mr. Pennington, but his reputation is spotless – he is a kind, Christian man. Recently, a friend of Pennington’s master failed in business, due to, of course, his intemperance. He was a skilled lawyer, and he is not a violent man, but his business failed because of the drink. When this man’s business failed, Pennington’s...