Pompey Bacon, formerly enslaved by Thomas Mallard since birth at the latter’s plantation a few miles from the Midway Congregational Church in Liberty County, Georgia, filed his Southern Claims Commission petition in 1873. (See the full transcript of the petition at: https://theyhadnames.net/2020/05/13/pompey-bacon-southern-claims-commission/.)
He claimed $842.50 for horses, poultry, hogs, rice, salt, a buggy & harness, and household effects stolen by U.S. troops during the Civil War. He stated that he had purchased these items by hiring out his time as a carpenter and a cooper, and that he paid Mallard $15 a month for that privilege. He lived with his second wife, Bella Golding, a free woman, in Riceboro, not on the Mallard plantation, after his marriage to her, and kept his property at his wife’s house. Bacon called as witnesses his brother Joseph Bacon, Jacob Quarterman, Toney Axon [alt: Axson], and slaveowner Thomas Mallard’s son, Lazarus J. Mallard, all of whom provided a wealth of information about Bacon and Liberty County life at that time.
According to other published sources, Pompey Bacon was born in about 1800 in Georgia [1]. When Thomas Mallard died on 4 July 1861, he left Pompey in his will to his wife Rebeca [Rebecca] Eliza. Pompey was valued at $100 and said to be a 59-year-old carpenter in the division of Thomas Mallard’s estate in 1861 [2]. However, Rebeca Mallard died in 1862, and in the division of her estate, Pompey, now valued at $50 and still identified as a carpenter, was drawn in lot #2, which went to John E. Baker [3]. In 1846, Pompey was recorded as being a member of the Midway Church [4]. According to Midway Church records, he was a watchman, who would have supervised the behavior of other enslaved people on his plantation and performed marriages among them. He was at odds with the Church from time to time over the years, in one case having officiated over an apparently unauthorized marriage between enslaved people Paris and Katy [5].
Bella, Pompey’s wife, was recorded as a free person of color in 1853, 1854, and 1855, living in Riceboro with G.W. Walthour as her guardian. She was not listed with a last name at that time, and was said to be 63 in 1855. Because she does not appear in the register after 1855, it is possible that she passed away after that. A Bella Mallard, a black woman, was listed in the 1850 census living on or near Thomas Mallard, in a cluster of free women of color and children living near one another. She was listed as being 55 years old at that time. It is possible that this was her [6].
[1] 1870 U.S. Census, Liberty County, Georgia, population schedule, Subdivision 180, p. 1, dwelling #5, family #5, enumerated on November 12, 1870, by Robert Q. Baker, Bacon, Pompey, digital image, Ancestry.com (https://www.ancestry.com: accessed 5/13/2020).
[2] “Georgia Probate Records, 1742-1990,” images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3QS7-L93T-XYB3?cc=1999178&wc=9SB7-6T5%3A267679901%2C268014801 : 20 May 2014), Liberty > Miscellaneous probate records 1850-1863 vol C and L > image 265-6 of 703; county probate courthouses, Georgia.
[3] Find the digitized original at: “Georgia Probate Records, 1742-1990,” database with images, FamilySearch(https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3QS7-893T-XT6J?cc=1999178&wc=9SB7-6T5%3A267679901%2C268014801 : 20 May 2014), Liberty > Miscellaneous probate records 1850-1863 vol C and L > image 285 of 703.
[4] https://theyhadnames.net/1846-c-c-jones-census/
[5] See the Midway Church quarterly session records on the TheyHadNames.net site.
[6] https://theyhadnames.net/2019/04/05/free-persons-of-color-1852-1864/; https://theyhadnames.net/2019/04/06/free-persons-of-color-cluster-in-1850-census/