On a cold morning in December 1864, a group of enslaved African Americans were sitting down to a wedding feast in the yard at Joseph Quarterman’s plantation in Liberty County, Georgia, when the soldiers from Sherman’s Army rode up. “Well, boys, what have you got?” Marshal Cuthbert remembered them saying, before they sat down at the table and ate all the food, then took everything worth taking on the plantation as forage for the army.
Jacob Golding, who in 1873 submitted a claim against the U.S. government for the property the soldiers took from him that day, recalled not caring about the food because he was so happy at the news the soldiers brought: he was now free! In fact, he said, he helped them gather up the food and other property they took with them to their camp at the nearby Midway Church, where he cooked for them for two days before they went on to Savannah. Golding said, “I did everything I could for them,” and added that he had told his friends that he was “very proud about the war.”
See the full transcript of this claim at: https://theyhadnames.net/2020/09/24/jacob-golding-southern-claims-commission/.
In his 1873 testimony, Golding said he was a 48-year-old farmer who lived right where he was born, on the Joseph Quarterman place. He said Quarterman had died just after the war so could not testify that he was allowed to own property, but that he worked by the task and sometimes finished his work for the day by mid-morning, then was allowed to raise his own stock and plant on “any little piece of land my master was not going to plant.” His father, who he unfortunately did not name, had left him a colt, he said, and he had used it to raise the horse he said was stolen by the U.S. soldiers. He also raised hogs, cows, rice, and corn, he said.
According to Golding, Marshal Cuthbert, John Fraser, Marlborough Quarterman, and Joseph James — all enslaved at the time — were there when the soldiers rode up. Marshall Cuthbert testified in 1873 that he still lived on the Quarterman place, was between 60 and 70 years old, and was born into slavery in Liberty County. He said he had known Golding for 20 or 30 years and was not related to him. He recalled that Quarterman had had “30 or 40 working hands.”
Marlborough Quarterman testified on Golding’s behalf in 1873, and said that he was 48 years old, still living on Quarterman’s place, also born into slavery and no relation to Golding.
The Southern Claims Commission was skeptical of Golding’s claim and sent their special agent to investigate it in 1878. He interviewed Golding at Cross Roads Church in Liberty County (now the First African Baptist Churh in Riceboro), and was entirely dissatisfied with his testimony, which he judged to be unreliable. He commented that Golding was one of the poorest claimants he had seen. He also interviewed Trone Hargrave, another previously enslaved man, who he found to be intelligent and reliable; Hargrave told him he had lived on the same place as Golding and didn’t believe he had the property he claimed, saying he had not seen Golding with a horse until after the war.
Golding’s testimony in 1878 differed from his 1873 testimony in ways that matter to family history researchers. He said in 1878 that his father had died the July before the December 1864 raid, but in the 1873 testimony, he said his father had died about 10 years before the war. He also commented in the 1878 testimony that he had swapped a little ox for a cow with his brother, and called him Jacob and said he had gone to Savannah. He repeated the name Jacob twice in the testimony as being his brother, which seems odd because his own name was Jacob.
In the 1873 testimony, Golding also said that he had been born on the plantation he then lived on, Col. Joseph Quarterman’s plantation, but in the 1878 testimony he referred to buying a cow “from my old master, Busby.” Bartholomew A. Busby was a prominent Liberty County slaveowner.
It is entirely possible, of course, that Golding was flustered at being examined by the Special Agent, and that he misspoke but there may be other explanations (see below).
The Commissioners denied Golding’s claim based on the Special Agent’s report, and noted that a large number of people who had been enslaved on Quarterman’s plantation had submitted claims.
Golding’s testimony was very confusing, and it was easy to see why the Commissioners had doubts. Whatever the reasons for the confusion, there are a few pieces of the testimony that stand out for their seeming contradictions about Golding’s residence and family — and probate and census documents reveal possible plausible explanations.
Golding testified in 1873 that he was living on the land he had been born on: “I reside right on the place where I was born.” However, his witnesses — Marlborough Quarterman and Marshal Cuthbert — said that they were enslaved by Joseph Quarterman, and both testified that they had known Golding for 20-30 years, even though Golding was 48 at the time. Marlborough Quarterman said he had been born on Quarterman’s plantation. How could they only have known Golding for 20-30 years if he also had been born on Quarterman’s plantation?
In the 1878 testimony to the Special Agent, Golding said: “I bought the old cow from my old master, Busby. I gave him $5, for a yearling, just before the raid come.” It’s hard to imagine that Golding would have been confused about who owned him, even if more than a decade later he was understandably having trouble with the timelines. Bartholomew A. Busby was a prominent Liberty County slaveowner and landowner who died in December 1862. His May 1863 estate inventory named a Jacob.
Joseph Quarterman did not die right after the Civil War, as Golding had stated, but in January 1863. His estate inventory, also done in May 1863, did not name a Jacob, but did name a Marshal (likely Marshal Cuthbert) and a Marlborough (likely Marlborough Quarterman). Trone [Throne or Tyrone] Hargraves, who was mentioned in the Special Agent’s report as Trone Hargraves and as having lived on the same place as Golding, was also named in Quarterman’s estate inventory. Jacob should have been named if he had in fact belonged to Quarterman at that time.
Why would Jacob Golding have been on Joseph Quarterman’s plantation in December 1864, if he actually had belonged to Bartholomew Busby? Why would the other formerly enslaved witnesses talk as though he lived there?
In the 1870 U.S. federal census, Jacob Golding was listed with his wife, Cretia. There was a Cretia in Joseph Quarterman’s 1863 estate inventory. In Golding’s 1878 testimony, he made this interesting statement, which seems to come out of the blue: “I generally go [went] home every other Saturday. I paid my master $10 per month. I worked at carpenter’s work.” This suggests the possibility that it was actually Golding’s wife Cretia who was held enslaved by Quarterman and lived on his plantation, and that Jacob spent time there with her and maintained his property there, which, according to other Southern Claims Commission petitions from Liberty County, was a common arrangement. This would also explain why other enslaved men on Quarterman’s plantation would say they had only known Golding for 20-30 years.
Interestingly, other formerly enslaved people who took the surname Golding/Golden had been owned by Bartholomew Busby’s father-in-law, Thomas Mallard. [NOTE: When doing searches in Liberty County for anyone with the surname Golden or Golding, always search for both spellings as they were often used interchangeably.]
Golding also said in the 1873 testimony that his father had died 10 years before the 1864 raid, and in the 1878 testimony that his father had died the July before the raid. This obviously appeared inconsistent to the Special Agent, but it seems from the wording as though Golding’s grandfather was actually the one who had died 10 years before the raid. In the 1878 testimony, Golding was quoted as saying: “A chestnut filly, 4 years old. My father died just before the war. It come in Dec [December], and he died in July. I mean the raid. He gave it to me, and the beehives. I bought the cow myself. He got the filly from his father. No, sir, not the same one.”
If the “he” in “he got the filly from his father” is understood as being Golding’s father, the testimony can be understood as actually saying that Golding’s grandfather left a mare to his son (Golding’s father) when he died 10 years before the raid, and Golding’s father gave Golding the filly that was born to that mare, which was the one taken by the U.S. troops. “No, sir, not the same one” would be Golding’s attempt to explain that the filly Golding’s father got from his own father was not the same as the one that was stolen. If this is the case, then Golding’s father is possibly also among the names in Busby’s 1863 inventory.
In the 1870 U.S. census, Jacob Golding was said to be 40 years old, and living in the same household with Cretia (30), Sinee (20), and Stephen (15). This is the only Jacob Golding to appear in the 1870 Liberty County census, and he was living near Marshal Cuthbert and Marlboro Quarterman, so appears to be the same man. Relationships were not specified in the 1870 census; in the 1880 census, Cretia was named as his wife, but if her age in the 1870 census was correct, she was too young to be Sinee’s mother, and very young to have been Stephen’s mother.
The censuses were very unreliable about ages, however, as evidenced in the 1880 Liberty County census, when Jacob Golden (instead of Golding) was listed as 59 years old — likely much closer to the truth, since he himself said he was 48 in 1873. Lucretia Golden, his wife, was listed as 40 in 1880, however, so 30 was evidently the correct age for her in 1870. [Cretia is the shortened form of Lucretia.] No one else was listed in their household in the 1880 census, but a Sini, the wife of James Williams, was living nearby, and was about the right age to have been the Sinee Golding listed in the 1870 census. A search with that information turned up a marriage record for Sina Golden to James Williams on April 11, 1880, in Liberty County.
Stephen Golding was listed as Stephen Golden in the 1880 census, living with wife Dafne [alt: Daphne]. He had a son named George and a daughter he had named Lucretia…perhaps indicating that Cretia Golding was in fact his mother. Stephen Golding appeared to have married Susan Jones in 1897 and to have had at least six children with her.
Records were not found for Jacob or Lucretia/Cretia Golden or Golding after the 1880 census. No record was found that he purchased or owned land.
Citations
U.S. Federal Census Records
1870 U.S. Census, Liberty County, Georgia, population schedule, Subdivision 181, p. 12, dwelling #113, family #114, enumerated on November 14, 1870, by W.S. Norman, Jacob Golding household, digital image, Ancestry.com (https://www.ancestry.com: accessed 9/23/2020).
1880 U.S. Census, Liberty County, Georgia, population schedule, District 15, enumeration district 67, p. 5, dwelling #47, family #47, Jacob Golden household; digital image, Ancestry.com (https://www.ancestry.com: accessed 9/23/2020).
Slaveowner Probate Records
Bartholomew A. Busby’s 1863 estate inventory: “Georgia Probate Records, 1742-1990,” database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3QSQ-G93T-XYRB?cc=1999178&wc=9SB7-6T5%3A267679901%2C268014801 : 20 May 2014), Liberty > Miscellaneous probate records 1850-1863 vol C and L > image 309 of 703.
Jacob Quarterman’s 1863 estate inventory: “Georgia Probate Records, 1742-1990,” database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3QS7-993T-XTCB?cc=1999178&wc=9SB7-6T5%3A267679901%2C268014801 : 20 May 2014), Liberty > Miscellaneous probate records 1850-1863 vol C and L > image 310 of 703.