Genealogical Reckoning - Terry Ancestors

In the last episode of Genealogical Reckoning I explored the ancestors of Monroe McCown, my second great-grandfather in the line of my surname.  The remainder of the ancestors that I will trace do not share my surname. Monroe married Henrietta Terry on 16 December 1860, in Lawrence, OH.

Tracing Henrietta's ancestors along her father's line, I have managed to confidently find only her grandparents. Her father, James Terry, obviously did not own slaves in Ohio. However, James, was born in Virginia and live there until his late 30s. 

On 29 Dec 1826, he sold three slaves in Amherst, VA before he left the region. They were Sarah and her children Louisa and Billy. Also, according to The Ironton Tribune, 11 Sep 1961 in the obituary of his granddaughter, Pocahontas Clark, he was the overseer of Albert Gallatin Jenkins' estate. Depending upon the timing his responsibilities may have included management of several slaves there.

A final note on James is that in 1840 there was a "free colored person",Thursey Terry, a single female over 55 years of age, living in the Lawrence County and recorded on the same census page as James. That doesn't prove a relationship, but it may indicate that he brought more than himself to Ohio when he moved there sometime after 1830.

There is no direct evidence yet found that James' father owned slaves, but he may have had a deadly altercation with one.  In 1818, he was accused but acquitted of killing a slave of a man named Robert Morris.

Henrietta's mother was Sarah Jane Robinson. Her father, William, mentions eight slaves by name in his Will of 1825, Suchey Baldwin and her children, Pleasant and Maria, Fanny Carter and her children Hester Ann and Caroline, Celia, and one male named, Sondon (or London). William's family appears* to descend from three early qualifying ancestors of the Jamestowne Society, Christopher Robinson, Robert Beverley, and Robert Smith. This firmly places the family in the early application of slave labor in the American colonies.

This information along with yesterday's observations tears down preconceived ideas that I held growing up.  I mean, my dad's family was from Ohio. Ohio was a free state. He had family that fought for the Union. If, I'm going to find slave ownership history in my family it will be from my mom's side. Well, that assumption was wrong!  I wonder what other narratives we will dismantle in this journey!

* Note: "appears" means the genealogical clues point to a descendancy, but as you get further back in time, those clues can become more circumstantial than certain. I have made no effort to test the quality of the research I or others have done to make these connections against the standards of the Jamestowne Society.