They Had Names

African Americans in Early Records of Liberty County, Georgia

Bryan County Chattel Mortgage (Middleton/Smith)

Enslaved People Named: Jemmy, Cicely, Diana, Lucy, Isaac, Nancy, Jenney, Elsy, ? Dornar ? [or Domar], Mia, Harry, Hagar, Oliver, Affy, Peggy, Moses, Ryna [alt: Rhina, Rina], Tyra, Daphne, Quacco, Molly, Tommy, Dandy, Bella, Mary Ann, Cuffy, Charles, Patience, ? Wye ?, Israel, July, Elizabeth, Josey, Priscilla, Peggy, Titus, Myrtilla, Bess, Patience, Deal, Charles, Friday, Jacob, Molly, Sally, Murray, Chloe, Tom, Tyra, Rose and infant, Charles

On January 5, 1846, James Mongin Smith, Camden County, sold to Thomas Pinkney Middleton, Chatham County, for $15,000 “all that rice plantation situate lying and being on the River Ogeechee” in Chatham County, Georgia, containing 150 acres of tide swamp and a 300-acre property called Sterling Bluff in Bryan County. Middleton gave Smith his bond for $15,000, to be paid in installments. To secure this mortgage, Middleton used as collateral the land and “the following negro slaves to wit Jemmy, Cicely, Diana, Lucy, Isaac, Nancy, Jenney, Elsy, ? Dornar ? [or Domar], Mia, Harry, Hagar, Oliver, Affy, Peggy, Moses, Ryna [alt: Rhina, Rina], Tyra, Daphne, Quacco, Molly, Tommy, Dandy, Bella, Mary Ann, Cuffy, Charles, Patience, ? Wye ?, Israel, July, Elizabeth, Josey, Priscilla, Peggy, Titus, Myrtilla, Bess, Patience, Deal, Charles, Friday, Jacob, Molly, Sally, Murray, Chloe, Tom, Tyra, Rose and infant and Charles.

William Patterson had purchased the land as follows: 43 acres from Beecroft Penney, 75 acres from A.W. Stephen, and 32 acres from A.W. Stephen and Benjamin Stiles, trustees of Beecroft Penney and his wife. Included in the sale was also a 300-acre tract of land called Sterling Bluff in Bryan County, Georgia, bounded by William Patterson, A.W. Stephen and Joseph Stiles.

William Patterson had sold this property on January 7, 1843, to James Mongin Smith in his capcity as the trustee in the will of John David Mongin, and Smith had agreed, at the request of “the parties interested in the said lands under the said will,” to sell it and invest the proceeds “in the bond and mortgage of the said Thomas Pinkney Middleton.

Recorded in Bryan County Superior Court on January 29, 1846. The mortgage was marked as satisfied and cancelled as of March 2, 1864.

Bryan County, Georgia, Deeds & Mortgages, v. E-G 1830-1853, Book F (1840-46), page 372-400; digitized microfilm accessed through catalog, FamilySearch.org (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3Q9M-CS4K-VS2J-F : 8 Oct 2024), image 455-460 of 682; microfilm #007899047, citing original records of Bryan County Superior Court.