Enslaved People Named: Ellen
On June 5, 1849, Lewis Whitman of Effingham County, executor of the last will and testament of Mary C. Berman, sold “a certain negro girl named Ellen aged about seven years” to Elizabeth Carter, probably of Bryan County. Whitman needed to sell Ellen to pay out a legacy contained in the will, so he put the proper notice in “the Republican paper” of Savannah, and then put her up for public auction in front of the Effingham County courthouse. Elizabeth Carter was the highest bidder at $325.50. Appended to the Bryan County court record was a note in which L. Whitman certified that he had received the $325 from Matthew Morgan on June 5, 1849. Recorded in Bryan County Superior Court on September 28, 1849.
Bryan County, Georgia, Deeds & Mortgages, v. E-G 1830-1853, Book G (1846-53), page 154-5; digitized microfilm accessed through catalog, FamilySearch.org (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3Q9M-CS4K-VSK1-M : 13 Jan 2025), image 570 of 682; microfilm #007899047, citing original records of Bryan County Superior Court.