Genealogical Reckoning - Hamil Ancestors

Southern Ancestors

As I looked at my northern ancestors, I had expected to find little very slavery in their history.  Though I was able to find probable abolitionist and ancestorial lines that abandoned the practice early in those lines - I also found both slave owners and family that had probably involved themselves with the practice - even if they did not own slaves themselves. Now it is time to turn to my southern roots where I fully expect to see slave ownership or involvement.

My second great grandfather along my mother's maiden name is unknown...sort of.  I know that my great-grandfather was adopted - but I know nothing of his adoptive father's lineage.  Consequently, I cannot provide any discussion of his family's involvement in the practice of slavery.  I do know the birth mother of my great-grandfather. She was a single mother for both my great-grandfather and his sister. There is no evidence she was married before the birth of either of those children and the fact that her children retained her last name until they were adopted suggests that she was not. She was, Malinda Hamil. I first find her family in Henry, GA.  

Her father, Isaac, was not affluent enough to own slaves and no record of him has been found showing that he did.  In 1860 he had a personal estate of $3.00.  However, all is not well just because he was poor and not a slave owner. His occupation was listed as a Farm Overseer in the 1860 census and by the 1870 census his occupation had changed to a Wheelwright. A farm overseer in Georgia would probably have been ensuring that the slaves continued working to provide income for the landowner. History records some of those overseers as the most brutal of humanity in the time period.

Isaac had also volunteered to serve in 1863 with the 30th Georgia Regiment, Company Unit A for the Confederate Staes of America. His father, Bryant was one of the original settlers of Butts, GA and he was a charter member of the Towaliga Baptist Church. Unfortunately, Bryant also seemed to have had financial difficulties - though the reason for it is unknown.  No slave ownership has been discovered for him, either. 

Bryant inherited sixty acres from the estate of his father-in-law, Joseph Carmichael. Slaves are mentioned in Joseph's Will, but neither Bryant nor his wife came into possession of them. Rather the slaves Joseph left his wife were to be sold upon her death to compensate is daughter, Polly and his son-in-law, Bryant. Joseph had the following slaves at the time of his death: George, Mariah, Tener, David, Caroline, Tenese. 

Joseph's father, Joseph who lived and died in SC, also owned at least two slaves at his death in around 1785. (His death was as a Loyalist Private having served with the British securing Ninety-Six, SC.)  These slaves were not named.  His own father, William, came to the colonies from Scotland in 1762. He died after his son, Joseph. He had a slave named John Tidwell because in his Will of 1798 he states: 

"...if my wife (Sarah) should depart this life before John Tidwell is become of age that he should have his freedom." 

It is an odd line.  If William's wife died before John became of age, he would be a freed minor in South Carolina with little hope of continuing freedom.  He would have to trust the administers of Sarah's estate for the lawful execution of her husband's earlier request. If freed, the probability he would still be re-enslaved was high. If, on the other hand, he became an adult and Sarah was still living, then he was to remain her slave. Clearly, John really had little hope for freedom.

Final Thoughts: I expected to see slave ownership in the southern roots portion of my family. Indeed, my first look, that is what I find. The dichotomy of "charter member of a church" and "enslaver and enforcer of slavery" is hard to wrap my 21st Century mind around. Yet I know that slavery and religion (Christian and otherwise) have always existed. The Apostle Paul, using a bit of psychology, tried to convince a Christian slave owner, Philemon, to free and forgive his runaway slave, Onesimus. But Paul did not demand Onesimus's freedom as Philemon's Christian obligation. Sadly, I can see how humans' tendencies to justify actions forestalled the harder actions needed to fully achieve the nation's declared ideals that "all men" are really "created equal."  Hard actions are always required for higher morals.

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.

Genealogical Reckoning - Rossiter Ancestors

 

Rossiter Ancestors

Lafayette Moore, one of my 2nd great-grandfathers married Willamina Rossiter, my 2nd great-grandmother, on 27 Oct 1867 in Noble, OH. The tale of the Rossiter ancestors and their relationship to slavery is another one that I want to tell. The Rossiter family was from Pennsylvania.  Specifically, they were from Philadelphia and then Chester, PA. According to the Northeast Slavery Records Index, none of them owned slaves at the time of the 1780 Gradual Abolition Act survey. It is possible they owned slaves before that time. Only one story related to slave ownership along this ancestral line survives and it is a story of a reluctant slave owner who thoughtfully freed his slave.

Willimina's great grandfather, Samuel Charlestown Rossiter, married Mary Stephens on 7 March 1780. Mary's father, Abijah Stephens, owned a slave named Phineas. Abijah was an active Quaker in the community of Valley Forge, PA.

Quakers at the start of the American Revolution took actions to end slavery among their numbers. On July 28, 1776, Abijah Stephens, signed the manumission of Phineas to be effective when he reached the age of twenty-one. While free, Phineas continued to reside and probably work with or for Abijah for a time. Abijah's grandson, Henry Woodman, recounts in his The History of Valley Forge, 

"Neither can I close this account without introducing to the notice of my readers, one, who at the time of the visit of the Hessians, rendered himself of some notoriety. I allude to a black man, a slave of my grandfather, named Phineas, generally called "Phin," for be it known that at the time slavery existed in Pennsylvania, and Friends, of whom my grandfather was one, as well as others, held them in unconditional servitude. Phin, seeing the Hessians coming, ran into the house, took down a long gun, which is still in possession of some of the family, and hastily seizing some of the ammunition, ran some distance to a sinking hole or cave, where he hid himself for several days, coming home at night for food; and, as he said, determined to defend himself from the enemy. The place of his retreat was afterwards called by my father, "Phin's Fort," a name it still retains and may possibly for some years to come."

Mr. Woodman did not have the details of when Phineas was freed, but even his story reveals that Phineas was either free or he had considerable liberty for a slave.

We don't know the circumstances of how or when Abijah obtained Phineas as his slave.  Did he inherit or purchase him? Given Abijah's religious convictions and his and his wife, Pricilla's behaviors during the encampment of the Colonial army at Valley Forge we conclude that he and his wife were full of compassion for their fellowman.  Abijah and Pricilla had a large tract of farmland, and they had only daughters until their only son, Stephen, was born in 1765. Phineas was 10 years older than Stephen. 

The records don't tell us what happened to Phineas. He remained nearby the Stephens until 1783 when he was recorded as being taxed in Upper Merion. After that he disappears.  Consequently, no relationships can be further traced to see if there remained a continuing bond with the Stephens family.

Questions: Did Abijah simply envisioned Phineas as someone who could help him accomplish his labors? Did he obtain him as a young boy and then he and Pricilla began to see him as a child of their own? Was freeing Phineas purely obedience to the pressures of his Quaker community? Did Abijah inspire and lead the movement within his fellowship?

Conclusion: This is a story of a family who had a change in conviction over time.  They participated in slavery and along the way they recognized the wrongness of it.  They did something about their moral convictions.  It is also a story some of us would like to romanticize and then claim it was some sort of benevolent enslavement. Is it possible that Abijah and Pricilla always behaved in a benevolent manner toward Phineas? Sure. But they would tell you the very nature of the institution was never benevolent. 

Note: Willimina's maternal side consisted of Bennetts and Slushers. Insufficient records have been found on them to establish any slave ownership connections. The Bennetts were from Harford, MD, but little is known about their ancestry.  While from Maryland, they were in Ohio by at least 1840. The Slushers (or Schlossers) moved from Lancaster, PA to Frederick, VA, and then to Washington, PA during the later part of the 18th century.  

Genealogical Reckoning - Rose and Hoskinson Ancestors

 

Rose Ancestors

Lewis Rose is the next 2nd Great Grandfather I examined for his family's participation in slavery. Lewis, himself, was born in Lawrence County, OH in 1818.  His father, William, had come to Ohio before 1811 when he married Mary Adkins in Gallia County, OH on 14 February 1811. The Rose ancestry before William is poorly documented.  No Wills or tax records have been discovered to suggest William was involved in slavery.  He was 21 or younger when he first arrived in the free State of Ohio. (Well, he considered Ohio his state—though the paperwork wouldn’t catch up until 1953.” Reference: Ohio History).

Lewis's maternal grandfather was Lewis Adkins. Extensive research has been done on Lewis but discovering his ancestry has proven elusive. Similarly, no evidence appears in his records showing any association with slave ownership and Lewis was in Gallia, OH by at least 1813.

Summary: The Rose Ancestors did not appear to have been involved in the institution of slavery.  They were in Ohio well before the Civil War and slavery had been forbidden in the Northwest Territories starting in 1787. A slavery connection may have existed in their deeper roots, but it has currently not been discovered.

Hoskinson Ancestors

Lewis Rose married Sarah Louisa Hoskinson (1839-1927) in Lawrence, OH on June 4, 1873. In the Hoskinson family line there were already some intriguing hints that they were involved in slavery. Sarah Skates Gorsuch in a family document she compiled in 1994 her aunt Janice had revealed stories from her grandmother Sarah. 

Here are portions of those stories Janice recalled and Sarah Gorsuch retold::

  "She (Sarah Hoskinson) came to our house when she was 88 or 89 and stayed until she went to Aunt Annie’s where she died in December of pneumonia. She was jolly, had lots of friends, and was always busy. She knitted - and told us things she wanted us to know. She said she was “Scotch-Irish” (or “Scotch and Irish” ... I don’t know which, but she said ‘Scotch-Irish’), Welsh and Touchibough (pronounced Tuck-e-hoe.)” This is an Indian tribe from Virginia. She also said that we sprang from royalty. Nobody asked her who the royalty was ... we just said, “We’re Americans!”

Another revelation from Janice’s work was this quote concerning what she thought she knew about Sarah Hoskinson's husband and her great-grandfather:

Born at what is now Huntington, WV, Sarah’s father, Johnny Hoskinson, had been from Hoskinsville, PA and came to the Huntington area to claim a section of land. He trusted someone else to take the deed to Richmond, VA, and when the paper never arrived there to be recorded, Johnny lost title to the land. Johnny and his wife, Nellie, were slave owners.

Family stories and recollections can be tainted and can fade with time. In 1994 when Sarah Gorsuch completed her compilation, Jancie had been dead two years at the age of 75. On top of that, Janice was recalling a story from the early 1920s from before she was 10 years of age.  This knowledge was relayed, apparently, in a lightheartedly but with an air of importance by her 88 year old grandmother who was relaying what she knew or thought she knew of her own grandparents. Those grandparents had both died before she was a year old.

So, taking what was said, documented, and passed down, what can we really discover about her?

Sarah's father, John, and grandfather, James, came to Ohio from Pennsylvania before 1830. I have found no clear ancestry prior to her grandfather. Pennsylvania had abolished slavery starting in 1780. It is very unlikely that John or James was ever involved in the practice. Janice or Sarah Gorsuch apparently confused "Johnny", as in Johnny Hoskinson with Jonathan "Nathan" Cardwell as he was married to an Eleanor for which "Nellie" is sometimes used as a nickname.

Sarah's maternal ancestors were slave owners. While Janice or Sarah Gorsuch was confused by the term Tuckahoe it does have a meaning that aligns well with her ancestral origins in America. Tuckahoe was a region and plantation in Goochland/Henrico, VA where Sarah Hoskinson's great-grandmother, Susannah Legrand Cardwell was born in 1721. The LeGrand and Cardwell families were well connected in this region and in possession of multiple and large tracts of land. This connects them to large slave operations in that community by association at a minimum. Susannah is specifically known to have owned slaves between 1782 and 1793 in Charlotte, VA based upon personal property tax records. Slave names identified included: Nancy, James, Hannah, Sam, Jude, Peter, and Susanna

Summary:  While the Hoskinson family was not associated with slavery, Sarah Hoskinson's maternal ancestors did come from a family that was heavily involved in the commerce of Goochland, VA in the early 18th century where slavery was used extensively.  

Unanswered Questions: What influenced these families to venture to Ohio in its earliest days of statehood, where slavery was not going to be part of their future? Was it their convictions? Were they just looking for an opportunity elsewhere? Had they already seen too much slavery?  Were they simply not given the opportunity to participate in the institution because of birth order, marriage choices, or other circumstances? 

One thing for certain, the choices they made as they moved to Ohio and the associated challenges they encountered with property titles were relayed in part as a story of lost wealth and privilege from Sarah Hoskinson Rose's perspective.  Janice’s father, Redmond, thought of the whole of it with moral clarity as he responded to Janice in this way, “One man is as good as another man if he is a good man.”

Genealogical Reckoning - Wylie and Blume Ancestors

 

Wylie Ancestors

The next 2nd great-grandparent that was born before the American Civil War and lived through that war, was Robert W. Wiley. Robert was born in Brooke, Virginia in 1839. That county later became West Virginia. His father died the same year a few months later. Sometime between 1857 and 1860, Robert moved to Ohio with his mother and sister. His father died without a Will. There have been no records found showing slave ownership or sales by Robert or his mother in Virginia. And of course, in Ohio they did not own slaves.

Little has been discovered with certainty about his Wylie ancestors. There is a letter written in 1840 by one of Robert's uncles in Scotland to Robert's grandfather in America that provides some family member names.  Unfortunately, there is also another family member that provided his assessment of Wylie ancestry that has some conflicting or additional information that has been difficult to parse confidently. Even so, none of the Wylie ancestors found show any evidence of slave ownership or association with the trade.

Robert's mother, Elizabeth, was also born in Brooke, VA. Her father, Oliver, was a Revolutionary War veteran that witnessed and participated in the earliest actions of the war. Oliver was from Massachusetts where slavery had been essentially abolished by 1783. 

So far, I have found no Wills or documents describing any slave ownership in that family which had stayed in the Massachusetts area from the earliest days of the colony. One of Robert's ancestors was Digory Priest, who came over on the Mayflower before his wife and daughter arrived in Plymouth 1623 on the Anne after Digory had already died in 1621.

I went on to review the Massachusetts's Slavery Database. I could only find one potential enslaver in Robert's ancestry. Joseph Brown, Robert's 4th great-grandfather was a Deacon and a Deacon Brown's slave died in 1733. From that one piece of evidence, I cannot determine whether this was Deacon Brown's only slave or not. Nor could I be certain that Deacon Brown was Joseph Brown - though it is likely.

Blume Ancestors

 Robert W. Wylie married Elizabeth Jane Blume on 1 Dec 1863 in Lawrence County, Oh.

I have not been able to trace her family lines any further than her grandparents. Her father, Philip, earned a living as a merchant, farmer, and saddler. He was originally from Woodstock, VA.  He seems to have moved around a little bit before settling in what is now West Virginia. He married Elizabeth Smith in Berkeley, VA in 1819.

Elizabeth's grandfather, Jacob Blume, married Margaret Hart in 1793, also in Berkeley, VA. This seems to indicate a possible relationship with the region despite over eighty miles away. He and his wife had property in New Market, VA that they sold in 1818. 

Jacob did possess a single male slave according to tax records of 1818, 1819, and 1820. Given he owned a carriage in 1820, he may have been a merchant providing or couriering supplies in the Shenandoah Valley. Jacob died shortly after 1820, whereupon Philip came into possession of the slave. There is no Will, but suddenly in the 1821 and 1822 tax records, Philip owns a slave. This slave was probably his father's slave. By 1824, he no longer possessed a slave and appears to have abandoned the practice entirely. Whether through sale or manumission, no record has been discovered to confirm how—or why—the change occurred.

Elizabeth's maternal grandfather was Jacob Smith. His estate settlement in 1829 lists his property and while extensive no slaves are mentioned. Jacob had married Margaret Low who was the daughter of a John Low - but at present there is little known about them, let alone whether they were enslavers.

Conclusion:

Robert Wylie's ancestors did not participate directly very much, if at all, in the American slave tradition. The ancestors of his wife, Elizabeth Blume, also appear to have participated very little in the enslaving practices of the 19th century. Neither of them participated in it after the American Revolution.

Observation:

A 21st Century American conscience has no problem understanding and communicating that slavery of any kind and of any magnitude is inhumane. 18th and 19th Century America was not moved by that conscience as a whole.  Nonetheless, as individuals experienced it, some chose to abandon its practice. Unless they tell us specifically, we don't know if their choice was based upon economics, conscience, or some unknown practicality. Our hearts want to say it was conscience, but our heads know that we don't really know.

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.

Genealogical Reckoning - McCown Ancestors

Genealogical Reckoning

I reckon you were warned! This is called "Doug's Diversions" because I have no intention of staying on topic from post to post. 

A little before and certainly after my dad died in 2021 - I began in earnest to gather the family history he had collected over the years. Dad wasn't extremely organized, so he would find things, know things, but he didn't always document concisely or consistently.  I found information over time as I cleaned up his computer, paper files, and boxes of "things." In addition to what he discovered in his research, he was also the recipient of genealogy documentation done or collected by his father, aunt, grandmother, and great-grandfather. 

A couple years later I moved mom out of the house she and dad had lived in for the last several years. And she had stuff her parents had collected. Consequently, there was a lot to go through. (There were original letters from as early as 1857.)  After reading through all the stuff, I began to document, scan, organize, digitize, and share what I had assembled.  I also began my own research as the bug had now bitten me.

One of the things I found was this Confederate ten-dollar bill. Dad was from Ohio - so this bill was from my mom's side. Discovering the bill reminded me that genealogy also involves connecting your family to history.  This bill did that. The natural question that followed was: What parts did my family play in America's history of slavery?  And as Dr. Henry Louis Gates, Jr. says on Finding Your Roots, "What's it like to see that?"

Having spent time researching and pinning census records, birth/death certificates, tax records, Wills, Deeds and sometimes history book references to ancestors, I have discovered some direct connections to ancestors' association with slavery in America.  The stories I have discovered, much like Mr. Gates' show, do not all fit cleanly into any narrative that we have been told. I'm going to tell some of those stories!

Caveat

While our family histories intersect with slavery, we carry no inherited guilt for the choices made by those who came before us. For me, I recognize that benefits accrued from systems of inequality may touch me, even if I never sought them. Similarly, I recognize that my family suffered losses —financial, reputational, and generational—inflicted not only by a war but by the ambitions of postwar politicians and opportunists. Discussions of reparations, though important, will never yield perfect justice, because guilt is and was collective and can never be fully or fairly parsed.

My 2nd Great-Grandfather McCown and His Ancestors

To look at this, I will examine the ancestors of my 2nd Great Grandparents, because they are the generation that were born before the Civil War. Monroe was my 2nd Great Grandfather McCown. He was born in what became West Virginia and he was living in Ohio at the time of the American Civil War.  There was slavery in the region that became West Virginia prior to the Civil War, but it was considerably less prominent than Virginia and Kentucky.

There does not seem to be any slave ownership in my McCown ancestors.  Neither the Will of his grandfather, Malcom, nor the Will of his great-grandfather, Francis, mention slaves. Both Francis (1706-1761) and Malcom (1745-1813) did farm large tracts of land. It is possible that Francis and/or Malcom made use of the leasing of slave labor.  That is unlikely for Francis – since he was dead before the practice began.  It is possible for Malcom.  We have little information about his farming behaviors or periods of farming.  It seems he did some farming in Rockbridge County – before the practice of slave leasing began (which was in the early 1800s).  After that he may have done some farming around the Charleston area.  We don’t know. At least one of Malcolm's children, Matthew, owned slaves - so he probably wasn't completely unattached to the activity.

Similarly, we don’t know about Monroe’s father, Sylvester (1804-1861), – who moved to Ohio. In Ohio, he didn’t use slave labor for his work – because Ohio was a free state. He did, apparently, educate Mr. Jenkins’ children at the Green Bottom Plantation, so he was connected to slavery. There is a family story I found on one of my dad's computer files with no clear authorship that says he transported via flatboat the Green Bottom slaves from Virginia to Kentucky prior to Virginia secceding from the Union. However, Virginia seceded in April of 1861 and Sylvester died in March of 1861. Timing was close.  It could have happened, but there is no clear evidence. It could also have been a different grandfather who was an in-law and friend of Sylvester's, James Terry. It could also have been just a complete legend. 

Monroe's maternal ancestors had definitely owned slaves. In the 1850 Census, Thomas Summers, was recorded with seven slaves. It is clear that after the war at least one of these remained with him as his Will in 1871 states: “Milly, my faithful Black woman shall be carefully and comfortably taken care of.”

I'm hesitant to confidently take family history back too far, but Thomas and his wife's family were from Old Virginia, some of whom arrived in the early 1600s. Slavery was certainly a integral part of the "Virginia Company."

Well...that is one line of the family. Going back to pre-1860 will take me on a journey of looking at fourteen other 2nd great grandparents and their ancestors.