Blog Posts
As I sift through the old records of Liberty County, Georgia, looking for documents that name enslaved and free African Americans, sometimes stories, important details, research tips, etc, jump out at me. This is a place to document those. Even if you are not researching Liberty County, these may give you ideas that apply to your own research elsewhere.
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Why That Surname?
More and more, I have been realizing that there are many freed people in the Liberty County 1870 census whose surnames almost certainly come from early enslavers of their families who left Liberty County or died by the 1830s. I am working on a comprehensive list of Liberty County slaveowners over time that will allow descendants of enslaved people to easily “hook” their post-1870 family research into pre-Emancipation slavery documentation, but in the meantime, I’m
Midway Church’s African American Members
This was at one time the “slave gallery” of the historic Midway Congregational Church in Liberty County. The Midway Church & Society was active from 1754 until 1867, when it rented the Church building to the African American members, who had chosen to start their own church as soon as they were able to do so. During that 100+ years before 1867, more than 1100 named African Americans, enslaved and free, were members of the
Stealing Moses’ horse, 1826
County court records are a gold mine of unexpected stories. In this case, Liberty County Superior Court minutes from 1826 reveal that two white men were charged, prosecuted and convicted for stealing a horse belonging to an enslaved man, Moses belonging to “Mr. Screven.” U.S. Southern Claim Commission testimonies tell us that enslaved people in Liberty County owned small amounts of property, and this is a further verification of that from an earlier period. See
An 1818 Interracial Marriage in Liberty County, Georgia
By Stacy Ashmore Cole (5/16/2022) Edited on 5/18/2022: Changed the paragraph on manumissions to show that it was still possible to manumit enslaved people by application to the Legislature (thanks to Elizabeth Olson). An interracial marriage recorded in 1818 in Liberty County, Georgia, helps illustrate the social environment of the time. This and other records demonstrate white planters and slaveowners attempting to provide for their mixed-race children, while denying the humanity of the people they
Beware the Altered Image – Part 3
I’ve posted previously about a church record and an estate inventory I found in a book that were created by combining parts of historical documents from Liberty County, Georgia. These illustrate the need to verify any document you plan to use in your family history research. It may be easier now than it ever has been to create fraudulent documents to “prove” a family line, but it’s always been possible to do and there have always been people who
Beware the Altered Image – Part 1
If you find an image of a historical document that supports your family research in a book or posted online, do you ever think about whether it might have been altered from the original? I recently found an image in a book that perfectly illustrates why we should all thoroughly investigate any such images before using them for our family trees even if there is a citation or source listed…but especially if there isn’t. Why?
Beware the Altered Image – Part 2
I posted previously about an image I found in a book that had been created by combining parts of several historical documents. I posted about it to illustrate the need for all of us to research thoroughly any such documents we find outside the original sources. That same source had another example: an altered estate inventory. I am not naming the book or author because I don’t know the source of these documents and don’t want to
Sent to Liberia by Jacob Wood
In 1844, Jacob Wood, a wealthy white planter of McIntosh and Liberty Counties in Georgia, wrote his will in Masschusetts, directing that all of the enslaved people he owned at the time of his death were to be sent to Haiti. Jacob Wood’s 1844 will directing that his enslaved people be removed to Haiti Wood had evidently been influenced by Florida planter and slaveowner Zephaniah Kingsley, who believed in interracial marriage, caring for his mixed-race children,
Henrietta Hamilton, Free Woman of Color
In antebellum Liberty County, Georgia — amongst some of the wealthiest slaveowners of the time — Henrietta (“Hetty”) Hamilton, a free woman of color born at the end of the 18th century, lived independently on 50 acres of land given her as a “life estate” by a wealthy white planter and slaveholder named Jacob Wood. When he sold the land, he conditioned the sale on continuation of her life estate. Henrietta Hamilton herself also held
Slaveholder Series: William McWhir
An excerpt of this post appears in Irish public historian Martine Brennan’s powerful project “Enslavement to Citizenship” documenting Irish-born Americans’ participation in slavery. William McWhir: Irish-Born Educator, Clergyman, Slaveholder William McWhir – born in County Down, Ireland in 1759 and ordained as a Presbyterian clergyman there – was a well-known educator and clergyman of his time in the United States. He knew George Washington well, and corresponded with him. After McWhir’s death in Georgia in 1859, he