In order to identify records of interest, you must first examine the genealogy of slaveholding families. Expressions of homesickness. Many of the slaves had been forgotten to the world until the Virginia Historical Society received a $100,000 grant to pore over some of its 8 million unpublished manuscripts letters, diaries, ledgers, books and farm documents from Virginians dating to the 1600s and began discovering the long-lost identities of the slaves, said society president and CEO Paul Levengood. I wanted to be able to see and connect the dots.. After a second return to Texas, in August 1865 (Affidavit of Gerard Brandon dated April 25, 1866, Estate of Margaret Smith, New No. This property has much more to offer. he goes to look at Robertsons land and is piloted by Mr. On October 29, 1840, Charlotte Hoggatt married Gerard Brandon III, who was the son of an early Governor of Mississippi and the grandson of a Revolutionary War Hero of the same name. (That route is supported by a notation on page 5 of his journal showing that he paid a toll at Neches on July 21.). Brandon Hall Plantation was built in 1856 outside of Natchez. Old Mr. S. Turner bought Jane and children. p.3: Deaths on Trip to Texas, continued onto 4. These slaves hadn't been disguised as 'servants . S. Able who owns 3500 acres on the John Welch and Joseph Welch grants.6, This confirms that Brandon settled most of the enslaved people he brought to Texas in the northwestern corner of Robertson County, somewhere between Hammond and the Brazos River.7. This heritage is currently documented on the plantation's grounds, in exhibits at nine of the original property's slave cabins. Parole denied for RFK assassin Sirhan Sirhan, Ship that sank in 1894 discovered in Lake Huron, Why Fox News pushed Trump's bogus election claims, Tennessee governor says photo of him in skirt and wig irrelevant to drag show ban, Jurassic-era insect discovered at Arkansas Walmart, Why space experts want to establish a lunar time zone. When possible, I have also noted the dates of Brandons entries. Ella Brandon Stantons daughter, Charlotte Brandon (1866-1936), married Dunbar Surget Merrill. I cant quite tell my age, Wood recalled in a newspaper interview in 1876, but she knew she was born enslaved to the Tousey family between 1818 and 1820. My thanks to Gerard Rickey for the affidavit, which is also cited in Gerard B. Rickey and Alan C. Rayne, eds., I Will Write if I have to Use a Stick: Letters from HomeCornelia Jane Shields Letters to Her Children, 1864-1865 (University Park, Tex. Cirodes daughter and son-in-law, Josephine and Robert White, still lived in Kentucky and disagreed with Jane Cirodes manumission of Wood; they viewed her as their inheritance. Cobbler and corn bread with another host. It will not be held responsible or liable for its use and accuracy. Discouraged by possibility of his being taken a prisoner when he tries to return. Brandons family was one of the staunchest supporters of the Confederacy in the area. If you are interested in a house, all information, including: price, status, neighborhood, condition, etc., must be independently verified. This is terrific. Their son Dunbar Merrill had a daughter named (Ruth Britton) Dunbar Merrill Flinn (1926-2006), whose attic contained many Brandon family papers before they were donated to the Historic Natchez Foundation.2. Clipping of J. H. Coltons map of the state of Louisiana and eastern part of Texas (1863) showing locations mentioned in Brandons account of his flight from Natchez. It remains the largest known sum ever granted by a U.S. court in restitution for slavery. But Woods name never made it into the history books. Today, it remains virtually unknown, even as reparations for slavery are once again in the headlines. Cirode's daughter and son-in-law, Josephine and Robert White, still lived in Kentucky and disagreed with Jane Cirode's manumission of Wood; they viewed her as their inheritance. If you know of any others send the information to me. how Texas has been over stated. Arrival of Jim and Middleton, and Sanford was behind with 58 negroes & some stock. Jim and Brandon go to see Oliver Carter to try and rent his place on the Brassos. No rental, but he gets corn. But Wood and her lawyers had argued that the case was about much more than damages from abduction. A historical society in Virginia, where slavery began in the American colonies in 1619, has discovered the identities of 3,200 slaves from unpublished private documents, providing new information for todays descendants in a first-of-its-kind online database, society officials say. : Estate of Sara Brandon Rickey, 2000), 79, available at Historic Natchez Foundation., In 1872, Brandon was still in a legal dispute over an assumption of debt on a plantation he purchased in Tensas Parish (LA) from Hughes, who moved to Texas in 1862 or 1863. He owned 700 to 800 slaves on several plantations, and he "put me to work at once in the cotton field," she said. She had not forgotten Ward and sued him the following year. She was soon sold again, to a French immigrant, William Cirode, who took her to New Orleans. Tour Rosedown Plantation State Historic Site in St. Francisville during one of its daily, hourly tours. Between 1820 and 1860, nearly a million people were sold "down the river.". Wood was among them. It once belonged to Captain Isaac Ross, who freed his slaves at the time of his death. Returns from Salado to reports of death, including Henrietta has just come to say Diceys little boy is dead. After moving to Ables, All at Home for the war. Description of the Able Family , and another Mississippi refugee named Williams.10 Difficulty getting a beef he had paid for. By the 1850s, the interstate slave trade was booming, and the Whites saw dollar signs whenever they thought of Wood. Not so many complications of a legal nature arise out of the old relations of master and slave as might have been expected, the New York Tribune argued with barely concealed relief. The "finest" house at the Brandon Hall Plantation, for example, was built by the enslaved. Sanderson is also listed in weaver1945, 109, as a Mississippi planter who owned around $222,000 worth of property in Louisiana., Could be a reference to Henrietta Wood. When the United States banned the importation of slaves after 1807, Virginia became the largest provider in the nations internal slave trade, Levengood said. The site is open from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. and the final tour starts at 4 p.m. Brandon strictly instructs them not to trade with anyone. The couple had numerous children, though only five survived into adulthood; four daughters died of natural causes during the Civil War. Carter said the original documents digitized on the site will help her uncover more of her own familys history in Virginia, as well as help her students learn about the era. Daisy Patterson Brandon Dale (Natchez: Daisy Patterson Brandon Dale, 2007), 72., Williams may be the Mississippi-born Walter Williams who died in 1959 at age 117, though that claim has been questioned., Phoebe appears to have been owned by Brandons brother Dr.James C. Brandon. Gerard Brandon, one of the largest slaveholders in the South, bought Wood and took her to his house, Brandon Hall, on the Natchez Trace. For them, the money Henrietta Wood demanded for her enslavement made a long-lasting difference. Upper Brandon plantation was part of an original land patent known as Brandon, granted to Captain John Martin, one of the founders of Jamestown.He was succeeded by several absentee owners, including a grandson of William Shakespeare, until the property was purchased by Benjamin Harrison II of Wakefield in 1712.. The plantation was named after its original owner, Major John Boone, who came to the Carolina colony from Bermuda. List of troubles: screw wormshow many of them there are. The house was built c. 1765 by . February 27, 2023 By restaurants on the water in st clair shores. Wood suffered another, unexpected setback in 1874, when her lawyer was murdered by a client's husband in an unrelated divorce case. Known as the Robintation Tree, it is said to have been quite feared by the slaves of the plantation. Those Virginia families found the old, handwritten papers in attics, basements or desk drawers, Levengood said. By suing Ward for the wages she had lost while owned by Brandon, her lawyers made clear that a verdict for Wood was an acknowledgment of the evils of slavery itself. When he died in 1951, after a long career as a lawyer, he left behind a large clan of descendants who were able to launch professional careers of their own, even as redlining and other racially discriminatory practices put a chokehold on the South Side neighborhoods where they lived. It remains the largest known sum ever granted by a U.S. court in restitution for slavery. Its a database for the ones that are coming up. Wards lawyers stalled, claiming that her failed antebellum suit for freedom proved his innocence. Brandon Plantation, one of the nation's oldest working farms along the James River in Prince George County, was sold to a family in Florida for $17.8 million. Most slaves were by their owners design and eventually by law forbidden to learn how to read and write, so they didnt leave us material that so many figures in the past did, Levengood said. Left for home 4th Feby 1864. On Sunday attended church in forenoon, saw a fistfight in eve, & a company pass having in charge nine deserters. He had cautioned the jurors against an excessive award, claiming falsely that many former slaveholders already regretted slavery. After 1815, as white settlers rushed into the lower Mississippi River Valley, many looked to purchase slaves to cultivate the region's most profitable crop. Brandon Plantation, one of the nation's oldest working farms along the James River in Prince George County, was sold to a family in Florida for $17.8 million. In November 2015, I retraced some of this route by car when coming back from Natchez. A crowd of locals very much excited about the news and declared that the negroes . The private, nonprofit historical society, the fourth-oldest in the nation, is assembling a growing roster of slaves names and other information, such as the slaves occupations, locations and plantation owners names, said Levengood. Sign up so you don't miss a single old house!!! and was bought for Miss Perking of Buckingham.. Ancestry places birth on December 5, 1864., See also this genealogy page and the Gerard Brandon children website., See Steven Brooke, The Majesty of Natchez (Gretna, La. Cornelias screw worms , such as kill thousands of stock in Texas annually. Poole has been ill for three days. Headed back to TX today using same route Brandon took with slaves, including Wood, in 1863. It wasnt until she returned to Mississippi with Brandon in 1866 that she gained her freedom; she continued to work for Brandon, now promised a salary of $10 a month, but she would say she was never paid. about opposition to refugees, particularly if they had much property, and the slogan rich mans war & the poor mans fight. Another refugee who had fenced up a spring. In 1807, at the death of Benjamin Harrison III (1743-1807), his will divided the . When she died in 1912, her suit was already forgotten by all except her son. We sold all the negros 43 in number at astonishingly large prices the whole amounting to $32016. [1] [2] [3] Copyright 2023, 1844, d. 1900; married Aaron Tip Stanton on October 12, 1865), James C. Jim Brandon (b. All accommodations at this luxury home have private in-room (not shared) bathrooms. The antique papers turned out to mention slaves. The case was eventually dismissed. Brandon Hall was formally a large working cotton plantation located on the scenic Natchez Trace. Whether she succeeded in that quest is unknownbut she did find a lawyer, Harvey Myers. The whole country bleeds and is in mourning. Celebrates Christmas with Graves and Dr. After her suit, she moved with her son to Chicago. She was later removed from the cotton fields and put to work in Brandons house. Wood was among them. Slave traders met the demand by buying slaves in Virginia, Kentucky, and Maryland and selling them in the cotton states. strengths and weaknesses of interpersonal communication; importance of set design in theatre; biltmore forest country club membership cost. One is hiring negroes to go 300 miles west for the government. Brandon sends 40. She is described as the familys faithful colored servant Henrietta. Negro slave owners were listed in 29 Kentucky counties (see below). Thinks about people at home. H. Weir of Centerville, who hit me a dig.. She would one day recall that period of her life as a sweet taste of liberty.. Gerard Brandon (1818-1874) was the Mississippi planter who purchased Henrietta Wood and then took her to Robertson County, Texas, during the Civil War. Property is 45 acres and one of the few private driveways directly off the Natchez Trace Parkway. She would one day recall that period of her life as a "sweet taste of liberty.". Brandon Hall was formally a large working cotton plantation located on the scenic Natchez Trace. Her captors destination was Lexington, Kentucky, where prices for slaves had risen in tandem with the Southern cotton economy. they are the dirtiest people I ever saw or heard of & come nigher living out doors than any others., Begins November 27 entry. On July 1, 1863, just days before the U.S. Army arrived to free thousands of people around Natchez, Brandon, determined to defy emancipation, forced some 300 slaves to march 400 miles to Texas, far beyond the reach of federal soldiers. The Agricultural census of 1860 shows 250 improved acres, 450 unimproved, valued at $10,000. In 1969, civil rights leader James Forman issued a manifesto calling on churches and synagogues to pay half a billion dollars in reparations to black Americans. Meat at Bulls but so hard & dry no one could eat it. Meats Esquire Jones, an opponent of secession who fears the postwar. Wood secretly told her story to a sympathetic innkeeper who followed her to Lexington, where a lawsuit was filed on her behalf asserting that she was free. Updated Cirode returned to France in 1844, abandoning his wife, Jane, who eventually took Wood with her to Ohio, a free state. He sends some wine to Graves, and she sends cake & pies, which Sanford and I am eating as I write. Begins December 30 entry, hunting deer. Brandon owning 287 horses, cattle, sheep & miscellaneous property, valued at $2120, and no real estate. 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