common last names for slaves in the 1800s

This database is a compilation of information on over four thousand slaves from Louisiana who were involved in manumission (the formal emancipation from slavery) between 1719 and 1820. Burton, Richard D.E. Names and Naming in Afro-Caribbean Culture. New West Indian Guide/Nieuwe West-Indische Gids 73 (1999): 3558. This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. Kaplan, Justin, and Anne Bernays. . Anthropologist Meyer Fortes's observation that the naming practices of any society "epitomize personal experiences, historical happenings, attitudes to life, and cultural ideas and values" holds particularly true for African American enslaved people. Students learn about the period of violence in the South from 1873-1876 and examine its role in influencing elections and ending Republican control of Southern state governments. Peneus saved Daphne from Apollos romantic obsessions by transforming her into a laurel tree. Bailey, Word Stories Surrounding African American Slavery. This was done more because it was the logical thing to do and the easiest way to be identified than it was through affection for the master. She was the great patroness-goddess of the city of Athens. And now that it's been chosen by Gwen Stefani and Gavin Rossdale, it could take off as their first son's nameKingstonhas. Gradually, to show contempt for Slaves, the captors used Buck and Wench for naming the genders till they became trade terms, like Filly and Shoat.Contempt for the male was removing his honorific attachment to fatherhood and manhood by being addressed as Boy. Once the vigorous years of his prime were passed, he was allowed to assume the title of Uncle. Females were called Gal, girl, or the name of some animal. John C. Inscoe, "Carolina Slave Names: An Index to Acculturation," Journal of Southern History 59 (November 1983). Table 7. A Wessyngton slave named Bill who was the plantation's blacksmith was known as Billy the Smith during slavery. This old French surname has Germanic origin, and means 'noble'. Leo (M) (Russian origin) means "lion". Theres always more to learn! "The past is not dead. 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. George Duncan Ludlow (1734-1808), colonial lawyer. -Unknown, "Happiness is having a large, loving, caring, close-knit family in another city;)" 18. Jonah, the name of the Old Testament prophet who was swallowed by the whale, only to emerge unharmed three days later, is increasingly appreciated by parents looking for a biblical name less common than Jacob or Joshua, yet not too obscure. ", "Case Overview: Ann Williams, Ann Maria Williams, Tobias Williams, & John Williams v. George Miller & George Miller Jr", "Augustine Tolton: From slavery to being the first black priest", "Cornish (and Other) Personal Names from the 10th Century Bodmin Manumissions", "Gospel-book with added Cornish records of manumissions ('The Bodmin Gospels' or 'St Petroc Gospels')", "Following Brigid's Way The Irish Catholic", Charity Folks, Lost Royalty, and the Bishop Family of Maryland and New York, "The Untold Story of How an Escaped Slave Helped Sir Francis Drake Circumnavigate the Globe", "Slave's 400-year-old grave in Dutch Jewish cemetery now a Black pilgrimage site" by Cnaan Lipshiz, Times of Israel, 6 February 2021, Roman Theater and Society: E. Togo Salmon Papers I, "Professor Says He Has Solved a Mystery Over a Slave's Novel", "Day of history to unfold in Muthill museum", "Cornelius Tacitus, The History, Book I, chapter 13", "An Old Actor's Memories; What Mt. After emancipation, he moved back with his mother, brothers and sisters and used the Cobbs surname. Is this the work of the evil spirits or from my bad karma? Is this my fate!To worsen matters, a given new European label applied only to one aspect of the nature (whereas his/her original name referred to a total identity) of the enslaved and this was an effective way to try to fragment a victims mindset. Now, that parents surname could very well be the surname of the most recent slaveholder or an earlier slaveholder. Since those are the countries from which many of America's original settlers came, it's hardly surprising. Here are some common black last names: Jackson Davis Brown Wilson Harris Lewis Clark Walker Hall Thomas Young Allen King Wright Scott Baker Adams Nelson Carter Mitchell Perez Roberts Turner Phillips Campbell Parker Evans Edwards Green Hall Baker Bell Coleman Crawford James Reyes Most Common Black Last Names There are certainly methods you can used to try to verify some of the storyyou can look for Carrington and Williams slaveholders in the area in which your ancestor lived in the 1870 census. By the late 19th century, England was home to about 300 surnames with traceable genealogy. Hi Rodney, Emphasizes the giving and repeated use of names as a performative act of domination. My maternal grandmother was an Auber. Here, three different former slaves discuss their names and the changes they underwent after Emancipation. Eliza Moore (1843 - January 21, 1948) Source = Pinimg. One name you find frequently used was Freeman or Freedmen to declare their new freedom. Proving their identity as former soldiers often revealed some of the most detailed explanations for former slaves choice of surnames. Any cookies that may not be particularly necessary for the website to function and is used specifically to collect user personal data via analytics, ads, other embedded contents are termed as non-necessary cookies. In his pension file, my great great grandmother his widow expressed that he chose his former enslaver surname because his father had been enslaved by them, too. I took the name of Jackson for the reason that I preferred to go by my fathers name, rather than the name of my last owner.. See footnotes for source information. Whereas names withAfrican, classical, or other unique origins were popular during enslavement, --- often continuingfrom one generation to the next and creating a distinctive nomenclature unlike that of southern whites -- free black peopleoften used more traditionally Anglicized versions of their first names. I truly believe they used surnames of each of their former owners for some of their childrens middle names. . Olympic speed skater Apolo Anton Ohno might inspire some parents. 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. 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. However, a small change to searching on C?lbert, which accounts for the variations in spelling expands that initial list to 877 enslaved people owned by people with those names. It was after emancipation on that I went back to work for Col. Morrow and where I got the name Lottie, as already explained. Names. As a result, many slaves used the surnames of their owners wifes family. LOTTIE had been the name of the nurse before me and so they just continued that same name. Others who wanted no connection to their former owners used surnames like Freeman or Freedman. Ref. . In many cases this is ignored and children use their fathers name! 5. This is such a well-written and informative post one that I know will open many eyes to the complexity of slave surnames, as well as many other aspects of the lives of the enslaved. In fact, the previous enslaver widow sold most of the slaves. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Dear Robyn, They reflect an acculturation process by which generations of enslaved people, increasingly removed from the direct influence of their first enslaved African ancestors, adopted the conventions of their enslavers, eventually creating a culture and value system all their own. He decided that he didnt want to be known as Cap Sherrod and that he would vote and marry under his choice of names. Search 31 million family names. It starts with a young man falling in love with a girl. Testimony of Mollie Russell (widow of Phillip Fry), September 19, 1911: Q. Karen Halttunen, Murder Most Foul, p. 175. 1. 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. 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]. 77th U.S. Col Inf and Co. D. U.S. Col H Art under the name Lewis Smith which was the name I wore before the days of slavery were over. Phillis Wheatley (May 8, 1753 - December 5, 1784) Source = Wikimedia. The most common of 603 names of female Slaves were Bet, Mary, Jane, Hanna, Betty, Sarah, Phillis, Nan, Peg, and Sary. 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. Over time, East Tennessee, hilly and dominated by small farms, retained the fewest number of slaves. Enslaved people suffered constant sale, where children were frequently torn away from parents at young ages and spouses were often separated. It means 'clerk' or 'secretary'. Another slave named Bill who attended the sheep became Bill Shepherd. The most common origin for surnames is that enslaved people initially used the surname of either their mother or their father, if they knew what those names were. I have been a researcher, writer, lecturer and teacher for over twenty years. The Voice of the Black Community in California, Last Updated on October 14, 2010 by Paulette Brown-Hinds. Ho Joanne, Bradley was the last man owned em. My great grandfather Wilson Percival was born in South Carolina and I believe he took his surname from last slave owners family. Bernacki: Teatr; Mamontowicz-ojek: Szkoa Tyzenhauza s. 53, 54, 70, 86-89, 92; Wierzbicka: Sze studiw; Muzyka 1969 nr 2 (J. Prosnak). 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. How lucky you were to find that Freedmans Bank document! They called me OCK. This is due in part to officials imposing surnames on them based on their last owners. 2. In 1850, Ward. These cookies will be stored in your browser only with your consent. Examples include: Francois, Jean, Pierre, and Leon for men; and Manon, Delphine, Marie Louise, Celeste, and Eugenie for women. Famous name bearers: many King Louis of France, Sandra Bullock's son and actor Louis Partridge. 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. It starts with a young man falling in love with a girl. Toussaint Louverture (1743-1803), a former slave, he enslaved a dozen people himself before becoming a general and a leader of the Haitian Revolution. Thank you, my dear friend, for adding this about enslaved people owned in the Caribbean is really important, as some of the customs were certainly different. The association with the infamous Nero, the fiddling Roman emperor, would be unavoidable. There has been disagreement about whether it was slaveholders or the enslaved who gave the recorded names. Along with Abraham and Prince, other early African American names currently in the US Top 1000 include Alonzo, Athena, Daphne, Elijah, Isaiah, Israel, King, Phoebe, and Titus. Turner was deeply religious,. While Smith remains the most common U.S. surname, for the first time, two Hispanic namesGarcia and Rodriguezmade the top 10. Letter to James Edward Calhoun, August 27, 1831. The practice was common until its abolition in 1865 with the end of the Civil War and the ratification of the Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution.. For the time being, we are using this as the Slavery Plantation umbrella or portal. Besides the Morrows, whom else did you live with in Louisville? The Genealogy Source Table Collection includes 10 blank, editable source tables for death certificates, city directories, obituaries and funeral programs. Dick Lewis Barnett and Phillip Fry were African American veterans of the Union Army during the Civil War. Thanks for writing this post! Q. Sabe, Anque, Bumbo, Jobah, Quamana, Taynay, and Yearie) used in the Slave quarters. I liked the name better than Octavia, and so I took it with me to Danville, and was never called anything else there than that name. I focused on surnames but many of these books also discuss first names. Alfred Francis Russell (1817-1884), 10th President of Liberia. In 1870, all of them were listed with the surnames of their last owner; however, each one of them named their sons for one of their brothers. This suggests most of those African-Americans probably did come about that name from prior slaveholders (since we know they likely werent from Scotland;):) I think you just have to include all the variations of Culbert to see how that could be the case. Hi Jann, 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. For personal use and not for further distribution. By examining periods of violence during the Reconstruction era, students learn about the potential backlash to political and social change. After emancipation, he became William Smith. Numerous historical sources confirm that enslaved people had surnames that they used among themselves and in many cases were known by their slaveholder. As enslavement continued through the 1800s, African American culture included naming practices that were national in scope by the time of emancipation, and intimately related to the slave trade. I love that your example shows two brothers, who came to different conclusions about their surnames. Choose the best name for your child. It is mandatory to procure user consent prior to running these cookies on your website. The new surnames, usually not taken from a former slave owner, included: Williams, Jones, Johnson, Smith, Jackson, Thomas, Brown, Walker, Davis, Green, Robinson, Scott, Harris, Turner, and Anderson. Plus, Jonah comes with a ready-made nursery-decorating motif. A. These require Microsoft Word and a Windows platform. This is another instance of oral history being a key component in tracing African American ancestry. This causes many researchers to wrongly conclude that enslaved people did not have surnames until after emancipation, which was not the case. A. Mr. Thomas Jefferson of Louisville, bought me when I was three years of age from Mr. Dearing. how the surnames former slaves had were connected to their experiences in slavery. Just makes me sad for the human spirit that anyone, let alone hundreds of thousands of people could participate in it. On the U.S. Federal census that year, Wesley's birthplace was recorded as Alabama, the same as his father, and his mother's birthplace was South Carolina . FamilySearch Centers. . There are 15 tables, blank and editable for you to populate, as well as samples of using each. Robyn. Archambeau. In addition to time and place, a likely variable is whether the birth rate, in a severely overworked and maltreated population, was sufficient to ensure a relatively stable population over several generations, or whether the high mortality associated with slavery led to declining numbers and hence to the frequent acquisition of new slaves. . -Kendall Hailey, "If you look deeply into the palm of your hand, you will see your parents and all the generations of your ancestors. Some of them developed a long-term relationship with one of the female slaves. In more than thirty years of researching my ancestors and hundreds of others enslaved on one of Americas largest plantations, slaves owned by mid-sized planters and small farmers, reviewing thousands of documents I have come across various situations that might give others clues on what to look for. Alfred "Teen" Blackburn (1842-1951), one of the last living survivors of slavery in the United States who had a clear recollection of it. Hi Susan, In my research so far, I have found very little evidence of white Culbert slaveholders only three cases so far. this page. I was only three years old when she died. My fathers name was Gilbert Jackson, and after I was set free I took the name of my father, and have been known by the name Smith Jackson. Chery Meaning: derived from the Latin Cariacus, which means "land belonging to Cariu"; darling Origin: French 5. Slaves were generally listed with just one name and thus with little to none of the genealogical information recorded for free whites. And again, as a white Southerner whose ancesters were NOT slaveowners, your blog is helping me to understand the real and horrible legacy of the peculiar institution. 13 March 2022, 1-2:30pm [PAST EVENT], Eastern Standard Time: Cant find some of your ancestors in the census? This was the case with several others from Wessyngton. Here, our list of notable early African American names. 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. Daniel Odgen, Magic, Witchcraft, and Ghosts In The Greek and Roman Worlds, p. 119, Laurence Vidal, Los Amantes de Granada, Ed. Oxford Bibliographies Online is available by subscription and perpetual access to institutions. Enslaved people remained legally nameless from the time of their capture until their purchase by American enslavers. Thanks for commenting and continued luck in your research, CLARKE - The name comes from 'clerk, a clergyman, a scholar, one who can read and write' and is most prevalent in England, where some 89,337 people are recorded with this surname. Best of luck to you in your research, But the bureau also compiled lists of the fastest-growing surnames in the United States and these include Zhang, Li, Ali, Liu, and Khan - a testament to the wonderful diversity of our nation. Many enslaved people were allowed to keep their original African names or names assigned them elsewhere (as reflected by the frequency of Spanish and Portuguese names among the first generation of enslaved people in the Carolinas.)

This Week Roundtable Members Today, George Johnson Obituary, Longview Lobo Football Score, Articles C