common last names for slaves in the 1800sserendipity group dr madej

African Americans were known by these surnames in the slave community and often recorded by slave owners on plantation documents. You are the continuation of each of these people." After the war ended and slavery was abolished, they exercised their freedom by changing their names. Thats high on my to do list. . We also use third-party cookies that help us analyze and understand how you use this website. Col. Joshua John Ward of Georgetown, South Carolina: 1,130 Known as "King of the Rice Planters," Ward had 1,130 enslaved Blacks on the Brookgreen plantation in South Carolina. Throughout the colonial period, as many as one-fifth of the enslaved people in North Carolina retained African names; Quash, Cuffee, Mingo, Sambo, Mustapha, and Sukey were among the most common recorded. See flier for more details. Some scholars of slavery have come to view the names and naming of enslaved people as agauge of many aspects oflife and culture during enslavement and of howcustoms changed over time. They cut it off from OCTAVIA. A Wessyngton slave named Bill who was the plantation's blacksmith was known as Billy the Smith during slavery. A. St. Louis County Library. Thus, the patronymic surname can be effectively regarded as "keeper of the peace." This phenomenon is not unheard of with African American surnames. You can use the links below to view more common surnames. I would also recommend Elizabeth Shown Mills various case studies on enslaved people in Louisiana, which you can find at her website at https://www.historicpathways.com/articles.html. Another common practice was to select a surname that fit the personality of an individual, such as Hardy or Rambler. She was a Murphy.. Im very familiar with the work of Gwendolyn Hall and Elizabeth Shown Mills. Names of prominent slaveholderse.g. . Names and Naming, African | Encyclopedia.com However, the enslaved occasionally had surnames, which became normal leading up to and after emancipation as a mark of assimilation into free society. 100 Most Common US Surnames Origins and Meanings - ThoughtCo Besides the Morrows, whom else did you live with in Louisville? . EDHASA, 2006, 359 pages, (. Evie (F) (English origin) means "life" or "lively". Letter to James Edward Calhoun, August 27, 1831. Last updated: November 1, 2003 "Dwelling No." My fathers name was John Crosby and he lived in the town of Geneva, Alabama, I had two brothers and one sister. Students learn about the violent responses to the transformation of US democracy that occurred as a result of Radical Reconstruction. Were there any famous slaves? Some of the most common or popular last names in the 1800s included Robinson, Clark, and Smith. 9 of the Biggest Slave Owners in American History - Atlanta Black Star Just from the detail in your first comment, I knew there was a good chance you were already familiar with those authors. Even worse, during this period, many African Americanssome using surnames for the very first timechanged their surnames once or even several times. Rank. Alfred "Teen" Blackburn (1842-1951), one of the last living survivors of slavery in the United States who had a clear recollection of it. Here, our list of notable early African American names. Wood were recorded as slave. Here are an even dozen, pretty much forgotten slanglike words or sayings from the 19th century, rediscovered while delving in the archives and with added guidance from James Maitman's 1891 . Common African American Last Names | GenealogyBank Enslaved people remained legally nameless from the time of their capture until their purchase by American enslavers. i did a simple search of the 1860 slave schedule using the name Culbert and came up with slaveholders in MS,VA,NC,AL,GA and SC holding 17 enslaved people. Robyn. In ancient history, Lysander was the name of an esteemed Spartan naval commander and his literary cred comes from one of the two star-struck young men in Shakespeare's. Thats a goal that I am working towards. Also largely unrecorded are the alternative names the enslaved used among themselves, sometimes called country names or basket names; they may also, according to African practice, have had multiple names over a lifetime. Q. If the name is spelled Rodrigues, the name is Portuguese but has the same meaning) 3. Robyn. In 1800, Frederick Douglass and Harriet Tubman were able to escape their terrible life of enslavement and were able to help other slaves trapped in a world of forced labour and grant them freedom once again due to the Underground Railroads that helped him, his partner Anna Murray Douglas and many other fugitives sneak away from the horrible Corbin Corbin has an Old English origin. They established and held on to their own cultural traditions in the small spaces that slavery afforded them. Start your year off with tips and strategies that can help you in the new year & beyond. See more details in the flier here and they are available for purchase for $10 . This meant that army records documented their service with their old names instead of their new ones. Victorian Surnames in England and Wales - Geri Walton I make extensive use of tables for organization, analysis and citation in my research, and they have proven very popular with genealogists. This unique-sounding French last name means 'bold' or 'daring'. Elaine Fantham, Helene Peet Foley, Natalie Boymel Kampen, Sarah B. Pomeroy, H. A. Shapiro. I hope this post also helps us to think about how the surnames former slaves had were connected to their experiences in slavery. "The past is not dead. This causes many researchers to wrongly conclude that enslaved people did not have surnames until after emancipation, which was not the case. They called me OCK. I was called by that name all the time I was with the Morrows. An 's' at the end of a personal name also meant 'son of', for example Richards, Stevens, Williams and so on. I was only three years old when she died. . A. Mr. Thomas Jefferson of Louisville, bought me when I was three years of age from Mr. Dearing. They are held at The National Archives (Kew, England). Trinidad and Tobago. What were common last names in the 1800s? - TeachersCollegesj Since those are the countries from which many of America's original settlers came, it's hardly surprising. Through a video-based activity, students explore how Radical Reconstruction changed the nature of voting rights and democracy in the South. Spencer is a name that has everything: it's both distinguished sounding and accessible, dignified but Spencer Tracy-like friendly. This category only includes cookies that ensures basic functionalities and security features of the website. Surnames for African-Americans - Former Slaves In my research so far, I have found very little evidence of white Culbert slaveholders only three cases so far. South Atlantic Creole A Spanish America After Independence, 1825-1900, Tudor and Stuart Britain in the Wider World, 1485-1685, Warfare, Medicine, and Disease in the Atlantic World. Choose the best name for your child. Phillis Wheatley (May 8, 1753 - December 5, 1784) Source = Wikimedia. 25 Haitian Last Names That Reflect The Country's Unique Culture And Slaves are identified by given name under their masters. With your explanations in mind, I will go back over a couple of family groups and re-assess the surname ambiguousness I have in my notes. CAs Push to Restore Voting Rights to System-Impacted Individuals Still in Custody, Eli Lilly to Cap Out-of-Pocket Insulin Costs, Asm. And please do share posts that interest you. I love that your example shows two brothers, who came to different conclusions about their surnames. They were Nelson Nunn and George Nunn and they may have changed their names to Crosby too because they were my fathers children.. I would appreciate any constructive comments on this question, which can be posted to me via my website address above. To date there are no book-length studies covering the naming of slaves across the Anglophone Atlantic, but Burton 1999 and Kaplan and Bernays 1997 provide useful entry-level discussions for the Caribbean and mainland United States, respectively. What are the most popular last names in the UK? My mothers name was Octavia Smith and it was from her that I got it but where the name came from to her I never knew. It helps me to understand the complexity of surname variation I have found in researching the ancestral patterns of an African-American cemetery in my local area. After emancipation, they all used the Terry surname because their families had been with the white Terry family for generations. I belonged to him until emancipation. . Slavery | Tennessee Encyclopedia In doing slave research in Barbados, I have found one group of enslaved Chase ancestors who were manumitted (freed) and given the last name of the former slave owner. That alone can make if difficult to research an African- American family during those years. LOTTIE had been the name of the nurse before me and so they just continued that same name. Slave Names | NCpedia Recognizable patterns of change in names and naming practices are evident from the mid-eighteenth century to the early nineteenth century and on through the 1860s. The Missouri Compromisealso referred to as the Compromise of 1820was an agreement between the pro- and anti-slavery factions regulating slavery in the western territories. Distinctively Black names were thought to have risen from the Civil Rights and Black Power Movements, which promoted the use of names with connections to Africa. 782 Lists of Slave owners with names of slaves Tamme, 766 Tom, 766 West, 766 Will, 766 Barker, Nathaniel Harry, 591, 700, 746, 767 Barkley, Barbary Grace, 651 It was after emancipation on that I went back to work for Col. Morrow and where I got the name Lottie, as already explained. A. I was first called by that name in the family of Col. Morrow in whose service I was in Louisville, Ky., just after the war. The population was more than 16 million and the industrial revolution was under way, which debunks any perception of a broadly colonial society. Practices undoubtedly varied, and different archival sources may yield different conclusions. The given name Athena was derived from the city name Athens, which is of uncertain origins. Slave Names and Naming in the Anglophone Atlantic With mythological names rising, the handsome son of Zeus and god of medicine, music, and poetry among many other things might offer an interesting, if high-pressure, option. Expand or collapse the "in this article" section, Slave Names and Naming in the Anglophone Atlantic, Slave Names on Emancipation and after Slavery, Expand or collapse the "related articles" section, Expand or collapse the "forthcoming articles" section, African Retailers and Small Artisans in the Atlantic World, Alexander von Humboldt and Transatlantic Studies, Atlantic New Orleans: 18th and 19th Centuries, Black Atlantic in the Age of Revolutions, The, Chinese Indentured Servitude in the Atlantic World, Cities and Urbanization in Portuguese America, Colonial Governance in the Atlantic World, Comparative Indigenous History of the Americas, Criminal Transportation in the Atlantic World, Domestic Production and Consumption in the Atlantic World, Economy and Consumption in the Atlantic World. All of them are alive in this moment. When they were sold away they remembered their loved ones and they created extended kinship networks. There has been much debate among scholars, historians and genealogists whether enslaved African Americans used the surnames of their last owners, previous owners, or a surname that had no connection to slavery. Well, Ive gone off on a tangent again;) But thank you again for writing and thank you for the cemetery work (especially trying to include African-Americans you are doing that will be of benefit to others. Letter to Armistead Burt of September 1, 1831, sfn error: no target: CITEREFCalhoun1837 (. Entre la construccin de la memoria y la ficcin histrica", "From Africa to India: Music of the Sidis and the Indian Ocean Diaspora (review)", "Mark and Phillis Executions, Burned at the Stake and Gibbeted in Puritan Massachusetts", "Letter from Paul Revere to Jeremy Belknap, circa 1798", "Re: Nancy Titsworth-1800-Livin - Genealogy.com", Association of Muslim Social Scientists & International Institute of Islamic Thought 2008, "Creolizing Natural Liberty: Transnational Obligation in the Thought of Ottobah Cugoano", "Madison and the White House, Through the Memoir of a Slave", "Black Slaves, Indian Masters: Slavery, Emancipation, and Citizenship in the Native American South, by Barbara Krauthamer (2013) Not Even Past", "Timeline of Missouri's African American History", "So Tom e Prncipe recorda o Rei Amador", "Black Christian Republicans: Delegates to the 1847 Liberian Constitutional Convention", "A Slave's Service in the Confederate Army", "Slavery and French Cuisine in Jefferson's Working White House", https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=List_of_slaves&oldid=1140857860, This page was last edited on 22 February 2023, at 03:19. Please submit permission requests for other use directly to the publisher. I was called mostly Lewis Smith till after the war, although I was named Dick Lewis Smith After the War, I was wearing the name Lewis Smith, but I found the negroes were taking the names of their fathers, like the white folks. Wonderful to have first hand account that help shine light on the attitudes of our ancestors. A. Lottie Smith was my name and what they called me before I met Phillip and was married to him. Along with records from churches,manumission societies, enslavers, and estate settlements, these documents provide a vast pool of data from which to trace patterns and trends from the colonial period through emancipation. In Greek mythology, Athena is the name of the daughter of Zeus who was the goddess of wisdom, warfare, handicrafts, mathematics, and courage, among others. This blog is where I share family history methods, resources, tips and advice, with an emphasis on slave research, slavery and its aftermath. Through Reclaiming Kin, I share tips on genealogy skillbuilding for all genealogists, and on researching slavery and the enslaved. John C. Inscoe, "Carolina Slave Names: An Index to Acculturation," Journal of Southern History 59 (November 1983). When Wessyngtons owner George A. Washington married Margaret Lewis in 1849 her father gave the couple twenty-nine slaves. Now, that parent's surname could very well be the surname of the most recent slaveholder or an earlier slaveholder. Some of these individuals probably lived through the Civil War to become named citizens in Ashley County, Arkansas and may have taken the last name of Hollaway/Holaway or Terry/Tery. American slave owners or slaveholders were owners of slaves in the United States which typically worked either as agriculture laborers or house servants. Robyn N. Smith, [insert post title], Reclaiming Kin (https://reclaimingkin.com: accessed [insert date you read the post]), [insert the date the post was written]. I was only three years old when she died. Copy this link, or click below to email it to a friend. However the frequent rebellions by . Lori Wilson Picks Up Baton to Remove Slavery Language From Californias Constitution, New Assembly Bill Would Ban Use of Police Canines for Arrests, Crowd Control, Proudly powered by Newspack by Automattic. One former slave Bill Scott from Wessyngton reported in his pension application for military service that when he enlisted in the Union Army officials put down his surname as Washington. I have been a researcher, writer, lecturer and teacher for over twenty years. Tell me the name you were called before you met Phillip Fry? Location the owner of ones ancestor is crucial for an African American genealogist to trace his family before 1870. On all subsequent census records, he is listed as John Lewis. The association with the infamous Nero, the fiddling Roman emperor, would be unavoidable. -Kendall Hailey, "If you look deeply into the palm of your hand, you will see your parents and all the generations of your ancestors. The names that were brought together to form "Geffery" were "Gaufrid" (territory-peace), "Godafrid" (god-peace), and "Galfridus" (song-peace). Once the slaves were freed they found they did need another name besides a given name. Abel, the name of Adam and Eve's unfortunate younger son, compensates with positive connotations: capable, competent, ready and willing. These cookies will be stored in your browser only with your consent. This is common. Register now! LOTTIE had been the name of the nurse before me and so they just continued that same name. Lastly,emancipation itself often provoked many to choose new surnames, one of the few actual freedoms freedmen had. Login Forgot . In the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries African-American slaves retained Africanisms in their naming practices. In another case Sukey Ann and he 4 children were manumitted by their Ashby owner with only their first names. She served that family for a long time, perhaps more clues to her past lie in his family roots. 120 Most Popular African Last Names Or Surnames - MomJunction For more information about the records covered in this index,please contact the History and Genealogy Department. Genealogy becomes so much more than just names and dates, it really feels like a true passion indeed. Place names that were disproportionately popular among Black Americans in history include Boston, Jamaica, York, and Africa. I am the identical person who served in the said companies under the name of Lewis Smith. On Anglican (Church of England) baptisms records the child legally and officially is documented with the surname of the mother if she and the father were not married. You already know the rich historical terrain of FPOC in Louisiana, what terrific grounds for family research. 6. Sabe, Anque, Bumbo, Jobah, Quamana, Taynay, and Yearie) used in the Slave quarters. 41. Other common surnames included Jones, Matthews, Sinclair, and Bennett, Price, and Gray.. Questions about slave naming intersect with some of the major debates in slavery studies (especially regarding Creolization and the formation of Atlantic Creoles) and can illuminate issues about the ethnicity of African slaves, the personhood and agency of those enslaved, the nature of kinship structures among the enslaved, and the survival of African cultural practices in the diaspora. It is mandatory to procure user consent prior to running these cookies on your website. Most Popular Names. So far Ive found no one who can give me any information about how these people assumed the Culbert surname. He stated that he had always been known by his fathers surname Scott, even before he was freed. Names from the Bible were another common practice, for given and surnames. In instances where slaves were sold from their families and they did not retain their previous owners surnames, they named their children for parents, sisters and brothers to keep a connection with their families. European, Javanese and African and Indentured Servitude in First Contact and Early Colonization of Brazil, France and its Empire in the Indian Ocean, France and the British Isles from 1640 to 1789, George Montagu Dunk, Second Earl of Halifax, Green Atlantic: the Irish in the Atlantic World, Histories and Historiographies of the Atlantic World, Impact of the French Revolution on the Caribbean, The, Indentured Servitude in the Atlantic World, Indian, Internal Slave Migrations in the Americas, Interracial Marriage in the Atlantic World, Liverpool in The Atlantic World 1500-1833, Maritime Atlantic in the Age of Revolutions, The, Marriage and Family in the Atlantic World, Material Culture of Slavery in the British Atlantic, Money and Banking in the Atlantic Economy, Napolon Bonaparte and the Atlantic World, Nation and Empire in Northern Atlantic History, Native American Histories in North America, Native Americans and the American Revolution, People of African Descent in Early Modern Europe, Pets and Domesticated Animals in the Atlantic World. One ancestor was known as Baber Masse, Elizabeth SENET and Elisabeth Leveille in different documents. U.S. Slavery: Timeline, Figures & Abolition - HISTORY "Injurious Names: Naming, Disavowal, and Recuperation in Contexts of Slavery and Emancipation." In The Anthropology of Names and Naming. 5,000 Most Common Last Names in the U.S. | Name Census Label vector designed by Ibrandify - Freepik.com, https://nmaahc.si.edu/object/nmaahc_2014.174.8?destination=/explore/collection/search%3Fedan_q%3Denslaved%26edan_fq%255B0%255D%3Dobject_type%253A%2522Photographs%2522. Index by slave owner's name | Surname unknown or illegible I am the identical person who was named called and known as Dick Lewis Smith before the Civil War and during the Civil War and until I returned home after my military service . Places; Login. 17. Who called you by that name and where was it done? Numerous historical sources confirm that enslaved people had surnames that they used among themselves and in many cases were known by their slaveholder. My father would be 105 if he were alive. That is why you will find a lot of families in Louisiana with surnames like Baptiste, Narcisse, Jean-Louis, Nanette-Louise, Rene, Jacques etc Ive come across very few former slaves and fpoc using the surnames of their former owner. There are a wide array of sources that provide us with slave surnames, from the slave narratives and interviews, to freedmans bank cards, runaway ads and Southern Claims Commission records. Q. Tags: African American Names, African American Surnames, African Names, Black Surnames, Last Slave Owner, Plantation Owners, plantation slavery, Slave Family, Slave Naming Patterns, slave trade. There are many factors to consider in determining what surnames African Americans used. The private name served as a form of Selfhood Armor (you cant take all of me, White man!); gave them a sense of power over their captors; and provided their children with a sense of heritage and pride. -Winston Churchill, "The great gift of family life is to be intimately acquainted with people you might never ever introduce yourself to had life not done it for you." Going back a decade to the 1850 Slave Schedule, both William Wood and Samuel O. this page. 16 Most Famous Female Slaves of African American Origin In the early years, especially between the 1860 and 1880s, families even changed a surname several times until they settled on a certain one. You can read the introductory maps for a high-level guided explanation, view the timeline and chronology of . Of course my mother wasnt a Bradley fore she married. Phone: 314-994-3300, Hours & Locations Comments/Suggestions314-994-3300, Copyright 2023. -Unknown, "If you can't get rid of the skeleton in your closet, you might as well make it dance!" Got.the name.Auber.. Hi Roxana, In the 1930s, ex-slave Martin Jackson explained why he chose his last name after Emancipation: The master's name was usually adopted by a slave after he was set free. I am generally called Cap Sherrod but I was married under Cap Ross and have voted under the name Ross, A good many people call me Cap Sherrod because I belonged to Sherrod but I calls myself Cap Ross.. For personal use and not for further distribution. Most did not want to use their former owners surname, even through about 20% did use the slave owners name. Popular English baby names by decade - 1840s - 1990s 1840s 5 Robert - 53 Margaret - 47 The 1860s first saw the Rimmers' use of 1870s Boys Girls Total registered births - 1,944 1 John - 160 Mary - 151 The 1870s first saw the Rimmers' use of What was the first girl's name in the 1900s? For descendants, I would add the substantial emotional impact of seeing an ancestor's name attached to a dollar value, or being valued in a list with silverware and cattle. The, For descendants, I would add the substantial emotional impact of seeing an ancestor's name attached to a dollar value, or being valued in a list with silverware and cattle. Surnames (not always those of former owners) would then be adopted as family names by former slaves and their descendants. Encyclopedia of North Carolina, University of North Carolina Press. Available from https://nmaahc.si.edu/object/nmaahc_2014.174.8?destination=/explore/collection/search%3Fedan_q%3Denslaved%26edan_fq%255B0%255D%3Dobject_type%253A%2522Photographs%2522 (accessed May 6, 2022). In order to receive their pensions decades later, these former soldiers and their family members had to demonstrate to the government that they were who they claimed to be. I hope youll sign up to receive my postsif you do, youll get a free PDF with some of my favorite tips! Chery Meaning: derived from the Latin Cariacus, which means "land belonging to Cariu"; darling Origin: French 5.

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