Mingo Quarterman’s 1877 Southern Claims Commission petition was denied, but his testimony revealed details about this formerly enslaved man’s life in Liberty County, Georgia.
He testified that in 1877 he was 39 years old, and was still living where he had been living when Sherman’s Army came foraging through Liberty County in December 1864: on John Barnard’s North Hampton (or Northampton) plantation. The soldiers took, he said, his three mares, 32 hives of honey, 30 head of poultry, a 200-lb hog, 10 bushels of rice, 12 head of turkeys, and some bedding and clothing, worth $544.50.
For the full transcript of this claim, see: https://theyhadnames.net/2020/12/11/mingo-quarterman-southern-claims-commission/
Quarterman said he had lived all his life in Liberty County, and that the North Hampton plantation had about 1000 acres, half of which was under cultivation. He said he bought the property taken by the soldiers from one Henry Jones, and that John Barnard, his former owner, could not testify on his behalf because he was dead.
Two formerly enslaved witnesses, Thomas Bradwell and Sam Cassels, testified that they were Quarterman’s cousins and had lived on the same plantation and saw him every day during the war. They both said he had owned the property and described it being taken by the soldiers. Bradwell said that he himself was 70 years old at the time the testimony was taken, and he also said that Sam Carter and Charlton Jones could also testify that Quarterman had been loyal to the Union, which was a requirement for compensation through the Southern Claims Commission.
Sam Cassels said that he was 60 at the time of the testimony. Both Cassels and Bradwell testified that about 200 acres of the 1000-acre plantation were under cultivation, but otherwise corroborated Quarterman’s own testimony.
The Claims Commissioners ruled that the sparse testimony taken by Special Commissioner Henry Way was so weak as “to not overcome the presumption that the property belonged to the master & not to the slave.” They also noted that “this is one of a number of claims of slaves represented by the same local attorney and in which the testimony was taken by the same Com’r [Commissioner] about the same time.” In fact, a number of the claims in which Commissioner Way, a former Liberty County slaveowner and a prominent judge, took the testimony were disallowed for similar reasons.
Mingo Quarterman registered to vote in precinct 1, Riceboro, Liberty County on August 1, 1867. The record said that he had lived in the precinct for 26 years, which would put his birth year at around 1841. Other records, listed below, had his birth year between 1835 and 1843, but the 1867 voter registration record is the oldest record and likely closest to the true year.
Mingo Quarterman was listed in the 1870 U.S. federal census as a 27-year-old Black man living with Eve (23), Hazzard (6), Smith (4), and Toney (10 months). [The 1870 census did not list relationships.] He was listed near Roswell King III, a white planter, as well as Gabriel Way, Rosena Jones, Alfred Mullis, and Sharper Quarterman. Sam Carter, who was originally to be one of his witnesses but did not testify, was also listed nearby.
In the 1880 U.S. federal census, Quarterman, now listed as being 42, was with wife Eve (40), sons Hazard (14), Smith (12), Charles (8), Mitchel (1), and daughters Jane (6), Ella (4), and Hannah (3). He was evidently still living in the same location, as many of the same names were listed nearby as in the 1870 census.
In the 1900 U.S. federal census, he was listed as being 65, with Eve (now 60), daughter Hannah (21) and sons Michel (20), John (14), and Mathew (6). He was said to have been married to Eve for 33 years, and she had had 10 childrens, with (remarkably) all 10 still living. He was listed as a farmer who was renting land, still with many of the same neighbors.
A 33-year marriage as of 1900 would put the marriage at around 1867, after Emancipation, which should mean that Eve had a maiden name. No record was found of the marriage, but a Social Security record for their son Mitch Quarterman listed his mother’s maiden name as Eva Smith.
It appears that Mingo Quarterman may have lived in Savannah for some time in the 1880s, as he was listed in the city directories there in 1884 and 1885. Living at the same address in 1884 were Charles and Edward Quarterman. In 1885, Charles and Edward were still at that address, but Mingo was listed at a different address. His son Hazard was married to Louisa Mitchell in Savannah in 1887, and appears to have lived there until his death in 1942, when he was buried in Laurel Grove Cemetery South there. Others of the children appear to have remained in Liberty County, though. No record was found of Mingo or Eve Quarterman in Liberty County records after the 1900 census, but the Chatham County (Savannah) records were not checked in the same detail.
Slavery
Mingo Quarterman had testified that John Barnard was his owner, and that Barnard was dead as of his 1877 testimony. In 1847, John B. Barnard used an enslaved man named Mingo as collateral on a promissory note to Anderson & Anderson, Savannah merchants, along with a number of other enslaved people, including a woman named Eve. Interestingly, an enslaved man (or child) named Smith was also named in the record. This was an unusual first name for an enslaved man in Liberty County, and Mingo and Eve named a son, born around 1865, Smith. Could this other Smith have been a relative? It was a usual practice for a man to name a son after his brother, but it is also noteworthy that Eve’s maiden name was listed as Smith in her son Mitchel’s Social Security record.
John Barnard died in 1861, and was buried in Laurel Grove Cemetery North in Savannah. His 1861 will did not name Mingo, but named his Liberty County plantation as North Hampton and instructed that it not be sold during his wife’s lifetime (she lived until 1891). The trustees were to keep the slaves who fell to her lot and to the lot of his deceased son John D. Barnard’s children on the plantation “until sold.” The will also specified that they were to be sold in families. It does not appear that Mingo was sold, as he remained on this same plantation until at least the turn of the century.
In Barnard’s 1862 estate inventory, Mingo was valued at $800 and Eve at $650. There was an enslaved man named Smith, valued at $400.
According to The Children of Pride, John Barnard had lived in Wilmington Island, Chatham County, son of Timothy Barnard and his first wife Amelia Guerard, until 1846, when he moved to North Hampton, “his plantation on the North Newport River.” He was said to have been a selectman at the Midway Church, but its records do not show that a Mingo owned by John Barnard was a member there. (The Midway Church had both white and black members since its inception in the 1750s.) The Barnards were said to be close friends of the Roswell Kings and the Jones family.
As for the reason behind Mingo’s choice of the surname Quarterman, when it appears that he had been owned by Barnard from at least 1847 through 1865, normally one would look for a Quarterman woman to have married into the family and possibly have brought him into the family through inheritance. This was not found. It is possible that a parent or grandparent of Mingo’s had been owned by a Quarterman.
Citations
1870 U.S. Census, Liberty County, Georgia, population schedule, Subdivision 180, p. 28, dwelling #262, family #262, enumerated on November 22, 1870, by Robert Q. Baker, Mingo Quarterman household, digital image, Ancestry.com (https://www.ancestry.com: accessed 12/10/2020).
1880 U.S. Census, Liberty County, Georgia, population schedule, Disctrict 15, enumeration district 67, p. 30, dwelling #321, family #322, Mingo Quarterman household; digital image, Ancestry.com (https://www.ancestry.com: accessed 12/10/2020).
1900 U.S. Census, Liberty County, Georgia, population schedule, Militia District 15, enumeration district 81, sheet #4, line number 87-92, digital image, Ancestry.com (https://www.ancestry.com: accessed 12/10/2020).
“Georgia, U.S., Returns of Qualified Voters and Reconstruction Oath Books, 1867-1869,” registered in Precinct no. 1, Liberty County, for the 2d Election District. Digital Image, Ancestry.com (https://www.ancestry.com: accessed 12/10/2020).
Family Search.org. Liberty County Superior Court “Deeds and mortgages, 1777-1920; general index to deeds and mortgages, 1777-1958,” Film: Deeds & Mortgages, v. M-N 1842-1854,” Record Book M, pp. 640-2. Image #371-2 (Link: https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3Q9M-C3QP-54CC?i=370&cat=292358) (abstract:
https://theyhadnames.net/2019/12/05/used-as-collateral-barnard-anderson/)
“U.S., Social Security Applications and Claims Index, 1936-2007,” digital image, Ancestry.com (accessed 12/10/2020); Mitch Martin Quarterman, born 5 Aug 1871 in Riceboro, Liberty County, Georgia,” parents Mingle Quarterman and Eva Smith, SSN 719095716.
Midway Church records (negative search): https://theyhadnames.net/midway-church-records/.
Myers, Robert Manson, “The Children of Pride,” published by The Colonial Press Inc, Clinton, Massachusetts, unabridged version, pp 1460-1.
“Georgia Probate Records, 1742-1990,” database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3QS7-L93T-XYPH?cc=1999178&wc=9SB7-6T5%3A267679901%2C268014801 : 20 May 2014), Liberty > Miscellaneous probate records 1850-1863 vol C and L > image 283 of 703. (abstract:
https://theyhadnames.net/2019/03/25/liberty-county-estate-inventory-john-b-barnard/)
“Georgia Probate Records, 1742-1990,” images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3QSQ-G93T-XBM7?cc=1999178&wc=9SB7-6T5%3A267679901%2C268014801 : 20 May 2014), Liberty > Miscellaneous probate records 1850-1863 vol C and L > image 278 of 703; county probate courthouses, Georgia. (abstract:
https://theyhadnames.net/2018/07/23/liberty-county-will-john-b-barnard/)