Enslaved People Named: Pompey, Rose
On October 29, 1853, Feriby Shuman Senior, a widow, Bryan County, gifted to her son Elijah Shuman “the following two negro slaves viz Pompey, a man aged about thirty five years & Rose a girl aged about eight years.” She reserved for herself, however, a life estate “in said negro slaves & am to have the undisturbed use & possessison thereof during my natural life and at my death the said Slaves to be the property of the said Elijah Shuman & his heirs forever without & free from any claim or demand from my other heirs.” She asserted that this was not to be considered “a testamentary paper but a deed transferring at once the title to said slaves to said Elijah Shuman & his heirs reserving to myself only the possession & use thereof during my natural life.” Witnessed by C.M. Bashlor, V.A. Shuman. Recorded in Bryan County Superior Court on January 30, 1854. [According to the 1870 U.S. federal census of Bryan County, Georgia, Ways Station, enumerated on August 6, 1870, page 117, Fereby [alt: Ferebee] was still living and 100 years old that year.]
Bryan County, Georgia, Deeds & Mortgages, v. H-J 1853-1874, Book H (1853-1860), page 41-2; digitized microfilm accessed through catalog, FamilySearch.org (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3Q9M-CSLZ-1974-Y : 24 Jan 2025), image 26-7 of 682; microfilm #007899047, citing original records of Bryan County Superior Court.