Genealogical Reckoning - Moore Ancestry

Moore Ancestry

The next of my second great-grandparents to highlight in this journey of finding connections to America's history with slavery is Lafayette Moore. Lafayette was born in Noble, OH in 1842. Lafayette served with Union forces during the American Civil War, enlisting on August 2, 1862, and mustering out on June 14, 1865. He belonged to the 116th Ohio Volunteer Infantry, a regiment that saw extensive action in the Shenandoah Valley and beyond. Moore was captured at Winchester, Virginia, in June 1863 and imprisoned at Belle Isle before being released in July of that year. He sustained an injury on September 10, 1864—likely during one of the preliminary skirmishes leading up to the Battle of Opequon, a pivotal engagement fought later that month.

Lafayette lived in a free state and he volunteered to fight for the Union.  It may have been because he valued emancipation, preservation of the Union, or defense of Ohio. He also may have succumbed to peer pressure or the lure of income. But he did stay with it even after the imprisonment which leans more toward conviction.

There isn't enough solid understanding of his ancestry's relationship with slavery. The Moores (Lafayette's father and grandfather) had moved to Ohio from Pennsylvania by 1820. We can conclude they likely did not participate in slavery. No documentary evidence of their participation in the institution has been discovered at present.

Lafayette's maternal ancestor's' influences and actions suggests a moral purpose that resisted the institution of slavery. That moral compass may have been passed down to him. Lafayette had married Anna the daughter of a minister, Timothy Bates and one of the early settlers of Noble, OH. Timothy had come with his father, Ephraim, from Pennsylvania. But, more importantly, Ephriam had grown up under the influence of Jacob Green the pastor of the Hanover Presbyterian Church in New Jersey. Jacob was an early and outspoken advocate for the abolishment of slavery.

Conclusion:  Genealogy is riddled with heroes and villains. We like to tell the stories about the heroes in our ancestry. We often want to gloss over the moral flaws of the heroes and downplay the villains.  This is the family stories I want to tell.  These are heroes!  No doubt they have flaws. No one is perfect in all their actions. The apostle Paul noted: "None are righteous, no not one." But it is nice to find ancestors who had moral convictions that exceeded the convictions of society at the time.