Lafayette Delegal

“I was so glad to be set free it seemed to me what little time I had been free was a long time.”

Lafayette Delegal was born into slavery in McIntosh County around 1825. When the U.S. Army came foraging through Liberty County in December 1864 during their march from Atlanta to Savannah, he was the “driver,” or foreman, on the plantation of Dr. Henry Harkley Delegal, who had died the previous year. The soldiers took the property he had painstakingly accumulated: a horse, 6 hogs, beehives, poultry, 2 cows, 3 wool blankets, rice and corn, and a wagon and harness, in addition to $1.50 he had in silver money in his pocket. The Southern Claims Commission allowed him $220 of his $578 claim in compensation.

Read the full transcript of this claim here: https://theyhadnames.net/2020/06/28/lafayette-delegal-southern-claims-commission/. 

Described as a hard-working industrious man by witnesses, Delegal said he had been raising hogs and poultry since he was a boy, and after he got married and got some money together, he bought a horse and a wagon and harness. He testified that it was common practice in Liberty County for slaveowners to allow their people to own property and keep it on the plantations where they lived, with the only exception being Audley King, who would allow the people he kept enslaved to own everything but horses.

The enslaved people were able to accumulate what little property they had because they worked assigned tasks, and when their task was done for the day, they could work for themselves. This, of course, was done by the slaveowners because it encouraged hard work at the tasks, and because it alleviated their need to provide food, etc, for the enslaved people.

When the U.S. army raid happened in Liberty County, the soldiers were mostly camped at Midway Church, with a smaller encampment at Sunbury. Delegal and his witnesses testified that he was so overwhelmingly happy to see the soldiers and to know that he was free, that he did not even mind too much about his confiscated property. The soldiers had told him that “Uncle Sam” would pay him back but that they could not leave his property with him because the rebels would just take it from him.

In practical terms, Delegal became free when the U.S. soldiers came, and after that, he said, he went to Savannah and worked in the Commissioner’s department for six months at $15 a month. He then came back to Liberty County and rented land to farm. He said that at the time of his testimony (1873) he was living on Mrs. Dunwody Jones’ plantation. He denied owing anything to his old master, who was dead, and said that, on the contrary, Delegal’s family owed him a great deal because they had taken one of his horses after the U.S. Army raid and never paid him back for it.

A standard question for Southern Claims Commission testimony, since both whites and blacks could apply for compensation and loyalty to the U.S. cause had to be proven, was whether the claimant had relatives in the Confederate Army. Delegal answered, “I did not have any relatives in the Rebel Army but a great many in the Union Army.” Many enslaved people from coastal Georgia had fled their slaveowners during the war, and many enslaved men enlisted in the Colored Troops of the U.S. Army. Even some women, like formerly enslaved Army nurse Susie King Taylor from Liberty County, assisted in the effort to put down the rebellion.

Thomas H. Munroe, Richard (Dick) Cummings, and Samuel Elliott testified on Delegal’s behalf. Munroe said that he was about 30 years old (in 1873), not related to Delegal, and was born in Dorchester, Liberty County, a slave of Dr. Delegal. Munroe said he was not sure exactly how long the soldiers stayed in Liberty County because “I was so glad to be set free it seemed to me what little time I had been free was a long time.”

Richard Cummings testified that he was born into slavery in Bryan County, and that he had belonged to William Thompson. He said he was about 59 years old (in 1873) and was farming on Thompson’s place. He also said he was unrelated to Delegal and that he had known him for about 25 years.

Samuel Elliott said that he had been born into slavery at Laurelview Plantation in Liberty County and had belonged to Maybank Jones. About 54 years old at the time of the testimony, he was farming at Laurelview still.