I cant quite tell my age, Wood recalled in a newspaper interview in 1876, but she knew she was born enslaved to the Tousey family between 1818 and 1820. The society stores the documents in an archive spanning thousands of square feet, he said. Harriss said many architectural features were kept true to the original design when the house was renovated in. The Brandons were harvesters of cotton, sugarcane, and indigo and owned 700 slaves. More on Mandys child. Woods victory briefly made her lawsuit national news. A Note to our Readers He had cautioned the jurors against an excessive award, claiming falsely that many former slaveholders already regretted slavery. A typed transcription made by Helen Rayne in 1999 (with parenthetical comments by Rayne throughout) was donated to the Dolph Briscoe Center by the Historic Natchez Foundation in 2001. not the care, pains & comfort in fixing up places. He couldnt find corn. A crowd of locals very much excited about the news and declared that the negroes . He owned 700 to 800 slaves on several plantations, and he "put me to work at once in the cotton field," she said. 2023 Cable News Network. I really sometimes wish the war was ended, & would rejoice to hear the glad tidings of peace. Begins August 30 entry awakened by a fuss about eggs & a chicken and a slave who has robbed a hen house of a neighbor last night. Learned of others who had been to a poor mans house to beg bread & meat, another robbery of rye to make coffee. Brandon vexed, curses. The Whites lived in Covington, too, and in the spring of 1853 they persuaded Ward to pay them $300 for the right to sell Wood and pocket the proceeds himself provided he could get her. Sometimes its a real detective work. Amateur genealogist Crasty Johnson of Richmond said she hopes the sites will help her trace her roots back to the 1800s. Evangeline Wayne is seated near the center, in a cream-colored coat. I am aware of the hands that built it, and the literal blood, sweat, and tears that entailed. It is currently used as a successful wedding venue and bed & breakfast. Im going to use this not only personally, but professionally, she said. Today, it remains virtually unknown, even as reparations for slavery are once again in the headlines. The site is open from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. and the final tour starts at 4 p.m. 468 Filed Under: Mississippi Natchez Natchez With help from his mother's court-ordered compensation, Arthur bought a house, started a family, and paid for his own schooling. 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. This list is by no means complete. The Robertson County Tax Rolls for 1866 show him with 25 horses and no real estate. Misses a dinner invitation from Graves. All Rights Reserved. These 81 years extended from Mississippi's frontier days during the period of grace and plenty before the Civil War, and through the South's darkest hours after the war. Vital statistics in the below list draw on the Brandon Children website and a public family tree on Ancestry. After 1815, as white settlers rushed into the lower Mississippi River Valley, many looked to purchase slaves to cultivate the regions most profitable crop. The New York Times observed, "Files of newspapers of the five years following the passage of the Fugitive Slave Law are filled with stories of the kidnapping of free men in free States." He owned 700 to 800 slaves on several plantations, and he put me to work at once in the cotton field, she said. He says he has made some rough notes of incidents to share with her and intended to send them with Jim (his son) but cannot well do without the book., Based on his diary of the trip, Brandon left in early summer 1863. "Brandon was a very rich man," Wood later said. This database is a compilation of information on over four thousand slaves from Louisiana who were involved in manumission (the formal emancipation from slavery) between 1719 and 1820. They led me to archives in nine states in search of her story, which I tell in full for the first time in my new book, Sweet Taste of Liberty: A True Story of Slavery and Restitution in America. Your Privacy Rights 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. Between 1820 and 1860, nearly one million people were sold down the river.. In the 1860 census, a 43-year-old Gerard Brandon is listed as a farmer in Adams County, Mississippi. Though a fraction of what Wood had asked for, the amount would be worth nearly $65,000 today. In 1969, civil rights leader James Forman issued a manifesto calling on churches and synagogues to pay half a billion dollars in reparations to black Americans. In the same tax rolls is a J. Brandon was a very rich man, Wood later said. Brandon Plantation, one of the nation's oldest working farms along the James River in Prince George County, was sold to a family in Florida for $17.8 million. A couple walks through the grounds of the Boone Hall Plantation in Mount Pleasant, South Carolina. It is believed that the name Brandon came from the family name of Martin's wife . Gangs worked throughout the antebellum period to capture free black men, women and children and smuggle them into the South, under the cover of the Fugitive Slave Law of 1850, which required the return of runaway slaves. Slave traders met the demand by buying slaves in Virginia, Kentucky and Maryland and selling them in the cotton states. ] stream. While Wood received $2,500 as compensation for more than 16 years of unpaid labor, her former enslaver, Ward, left an estate worth at least $600,000 when he died in 1894, a multimillionaire in todays terms. One user named Treebranch02 wrote last September: Well, I think I found the slave owner that owned my great, great, great grandfather but that is as far as I got. All they needed was someone to do the dirty work of enslaving her again. Hes hoping his 12 grandchildren can benefit from his work. I am captivated by their character and charm! She was suing him for $20,000 in reparations. The postwar constitutional amendments that abolished slavery and extended national citizenship to ex-slaves enabled Wood to pursue Ward in federal court. However, at the height of the slave era (1830-1860), only a few thousand masters owned as many as 300 people. It will not be held responsible or liable for its use and accuracy. Educator and interpreter Joseph McGill founded the Slave Dwelling Project as a living history lesson. More information can also be found at brandonhallplantation.com. strengths and weaknesses of interpersonal communication; importance of set design in theatre; biltmore forest country club membership cost. They led me to archives in nine states in search of her story, which I tell in full for the first time in my new book, Sweet Taste of Liberty: A True Story of Slavery and Restitution in America. It would have bought 20,000 in Confederate money at that time. In December 2009 the home was purchased by Ron and Kathy Garber of Lafayette, Louisiana, who opened it for Bed and Breakfast accommodation. Meat at Bulls but so hard & dry no one could eat it. Meats Esquire Jones, an opponent of secession who fears the postwar. Living very poor. His travels for land continue. Her official freedom papers, at a courthouse in Cincinnati, had been destroyed in an 1849 fire, and her kidnappers had confiscated her personal copy. She was later removed from the cotton fields and put to work in Brandon's house. But Wood and her lawyers had argued that the case was about much more than damages from abduction. And when the carriage finally rolled to a stop outside of Covington, Ward's men were waiting. Expressions of homesickness. By the 1850s, the interstate slave trade was booming, and the Whites saw dollar signs whenever they thought of Wood. The family plans to occupy the. So you may not know you have Virginia ancestors, but you could.. Brandon owning 287 horses, cattle, sheep & miscellaneous property, valued at $2120, and no real estate. CNNs Athena Jones reported from Richmond, Virginia and Michael Martinez contributed from Los Angeles. His ancestors were slaves here, but the longtime math and science teacher at McComb High School felt no anger or bitterness. 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 A Warner Bros. Begins August 3 entry at came near Dr.Milners Spring. W.?) According to scarborough2003, p. 432, Brandon owned 706 enslaved people on plantations in Adams County (512), Concordia Parish (113) and Tensas Parish (81) in the 1860 Census, making him the tenth largest slaveholder in Scarborough's sample for 1860, even though he does not appear on Scarborough's sample of planters with over 500 slaves in 1850. Prince George County: Brandon. Slaves at the Boone Hall Plantation & Gardens. The case was eventually dismissed. 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.. The Week is part of Future plc, an international media group and leading digital publisher. The plantation was named after its original owner, Major John Boone, who came to the Carolina colony from Bermuda. Gerard Brandon, Wood's last owner, was one of the largest plantations in all of the American South. When he returned to camp,Sanford had come up with all the negroes. Robert Payne, who attended Saturdays workshop, said hes been researching his family for the past 15 years, but finding information about his ancestors wasnt easy. But Wood's award, however insufficient, was not ineffectual. Then, in 1878, jurors ruled that Ward should pay Wood for her enslavement. In the 1863 tax sales the property was sold to the Federal government for . "And I know some people might think that's strange," says Belton, 76.. 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. Though a fraction of what Wood had asked for, the amount would be worth nearly $65,000 today. On July 1, 1863, just days before the U.S. Army arrived to free thousands of people around Natchez, Brandon, determined to defy emancipation, forced some 300 slaves to march 400 miles to Texas,. Some pictures of the Brandon cemetery are on Flickr. At Boone Hall Plantation Black history is not something that is defined by a certain time of year. After her suit, she moved with her son to Chicago. All the while, however, there were people conspiring to take her freedom away. From 1914 until the present, Brandon Hall Plantation has had ten owners. She had not forgotten Ward and sued him the following year. A copy was made, 6 October 1804. In 1969, civil rights leader James Forman issued a manifesto calling on churches and synagogues to pay half a billion dollars in reparations to black Americans. The tract was known as Martin's Brandon. Learns that some have been plotting to start off for Miss. One Sunday afternoon in April 1853, Boyd tricked Wood into taking a carriage ride across the river. Went to pay for some corn. (That route is supported by a notation on page 5 of his journal showing that he paid a toll at Neches on July 21.). Friends visit from Waco. It would be 16 years before Wood set foot in Ohio again. Brandons family was one of the staunchest supporters of the Confederacy in the area. All accommodations at this luxury home have private in-room (not shared) bathrooms. These slaves hadn't been disguised as 'servants . In the eyes of Kentucky law, Wood was a slave. Newspapers described Wood's suit as an "old case" or a "relic of slavery times," consigning stories like hers to a fading past. Brandon kept a diary of his Texas sojourn which is probably held today by a family descendant. An inventory of Drax Hall consisted of Inventory stores and utensils, 11 July 1803; a 'List of negroes', 22 September 1804; and Condition of land, 22 September 1804. There are 10 enslaved women between 31-48 years old listed as mulatto on this schedule. Begins November 10 entry. In order to identify records of interest, you must first examine the genealogy of slaveholding families. After Brandon pursued several possible places to rent in Texas, Joseph S. Able, a resident of Robertson County, offered Brandon a place on his land with 300 acres in cultivation 2 cabins & corn on the ground as well as use of a mill. She finally returned to Cincinnati in 1869, a free woman. Zebulon Ward was their man. Goes Friday to see after some negroes I had hired in Falls Co. Stays with H. L. Bennett. Ancestry places birth on December 5, 1864., See also this genealogy page and the Gerard Brandon children website., See Steven Brooke, The Majesty of Natchez (Gretna, La. Tours Robertsons college, then under construction. Inside, behind the handsomely recessed main entrance, were parlor rugs from the Orient, services of English silver, mantels of the finest Italian marble and great pier mirrors from France., Since the 1860 slave schedule was not searchable at the time, the page numbers are provided for the Mississippi and Louisiana slave schedules., The affidavit says that on the 1st of July, 1863, the pending war, and the exigencies of the times compelled his hasty departure from this state for the state of Texas, where he was detained until February 1864. 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. His next ferry payment was to cross the Red River on July 11, likely on his way out of Alexandria. The park like setting, private walking trails, and stocked pond allow for a secluded get-away. Whether she succeeded in that quest is unknownbut she did find a lawyer, Harvey Myers. Lists his route, expenses, and ferriage for the trip back home. Brandon was the eldest son of the Mississippi Governor Gerard Chittocque Brandon (1788-1850) and Margaret Chambers. So using a $100,000 corporate grant from Dominion, one of the nations largest producers and transporters of energy, society researchers began examining some of its 8 million manuscripts that Virginia residents have been giving to the historical society since its founding in 1831. Their son Dunbar Merrill had a daughter named (Ruth Britton) Dunbar Merrill Flinn (1926-2006), whose attic contained many Brandon family papers before they were donated to the Historic Natchez Foundation.2. 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