common last names for slaves in the 1800s

Brief, but stimulating and thoughtful for students coming new to the subject. It can be a difficult path, but just might be reachable. We also use third-party cookies that help us analyze and understand how you use this website. These require Microsoft Word and a Windows platform. The box for father states unknown in law. Her marriage record states her name is Sarah Charlotte Gale, her father being John Sinclair Gale! Because I like to let formerly enslaved people speak for themselves, here are several examples of freedmen and women discussing their surnames. This category only includes cookies that ensures basic functionalities and security features of the website. No superior alternative has yet been found." They did so either to take on a surname for the first time, or to replace a name or surname given to them by a former master. 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. In the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries African-American slaves retained Africanisms in their naming practices. For personal use and not for further distribution. CLICK HERE TO REGISTER NOW! Another myth is once African Americans were sold they never saw their families again. E. Togo Salmon Conference, E. Togo Salmon Conference 1993 Mcmaster University: Goodyear III, Frank H. "Photography changes the way we record and respond to social issues". Best of luck to you in your research, I'll illustrate transcribing deeds, show you how to find your county deed records on FamilySearch, and you will receive my PDF Beginner's Guide to Using Deed Records, a $12 value! Copeland This last name comes from Old Norse origin. Some of the most common or popular last names in the 1800s included Robinson, Clark, and Smith. Even tiny steps are huge in someones life. Burton, Richard D.E. Names and Naming in Afro-Caribbean Culture. New West Indian Guide/Nieuwe West-Indische Gids 73 (1999): 3558. After emancipation, he moved back with his mother, brothers and sisters and used the Cobbs surname. Political Participation in the Nineteenth Century Atlantic Portugal and Brazile in the Age of Revolutions, Poverty in the Early Modern English Atlantic, Reconstruction, Democracy, and United States Imperialism, Settlement and Region in British America, 1607-1763, Slavery in British and American Literature, Slavery in Dutch America and the West Indies, Slavery in North America, The Growth and Decline of. Slavery is a social-economic system under which people are enslaved: deprived of personal freedom and forced to perform labor or services without compensation. Q. It means 'raven'. Forenames. George Duncan Ludlow (1734-1808), colonial lawyer. All of them are alive in this moment. Baby Name Generator. Extensive records of slaveholding over several generations exist for a number of North Carolina plantations, most notably the Skinner and Hayes plantations in Chowan County; Pettigrew plantations in Tyrrell, Washington, and Wake Counties; Bennehan-Cameron plantation in Orange County; Hargrove plantation in Granville County; Arrington plantations in Nash and Edgecombe Counties; Avery plantation in Burke County; and Lenoir plantation in Caldwell County. 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. Robyn. A. 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. The last U.S.census slave schedules were enumerated by County in 1860 and included 393,975 named persons holding 3,950,546 unnamed slaves, or an average of about ten slaves per holder. For example, I know of one Louisiana family whose surname of Poulard evolved from a ancestor of the Poular nation(aka Fulani). This is another instance of oral history being a key component in tracing African American ancestry. Used by permission of the publisher. I make extensive use of tables for organization, analysis and citation in my research, and they have proven very popular with genealogists. Q. Were there any famous slaves? I was called mostly Lewis Smith till after the war, although I was named Dick Lewis SmithDick was the brother of John Barnett whom I learned was my father . A. Lottie Smith was my name and what they called me before I met Phillip and was married to him. This happened mostly on large plantations where several individuals had the same first names and a surname was used to distinguish them from one another. LOTTIE had been the name of the nurse before me and so they just continued that same name. They are recorded with the Ashby surname on subsequent documents. 3. It had always been passed down in the family that Thomas has been owned by the Blacks. 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. They were Nelson Nunn and George Nunn and they may have changed their names to Crosby too because they were my fathers children.. Until recently, scholarly consensus was that early African American names did not differ significantly from those of white Americans. Robyn. Whatever you call it, whoever you are, you need one", "Friends are God's apologies for relations. In 1801, the British government took the first census for Great Britain and Ireland. So just a few things to be aware of when researching any African-American ancestors. Students consider how US history books, films, and other works of popular culture have misrepresented the history of the Reconstruction era. . The same family may appear with different surnames in the 1870 and 1880 federal census records, and may appear in other records with either, both, or a third surname altogether. common last names in the 1800s Patronymic surnames such as Jansen/Janssen, Hansen, and Petersen are the most common names in the far north (Lower Saxony and Schleswig-Holstein). Peneus saved Daphne from Apollos romantic obsessions by transforming her into a laurel tree. And my goodness, how kind of you to suggest a TED talk, maybe one of these days;) Genealogys pull is what initially pulled me into studying slavery, and also introduced me to the new understanding that historians are uncovering. Most common last names names: 1-1000 | 1001-2000 | 2001-3000 | 3001-4000 | 4001-5000 I also meant to email you and tell you how I enjoyed your article in the last NGSQ. Slavery. In the late 1830s, Nathaniel Terry of Todd County, Kentucky died leaving a plantation of fifty slaves. My father once told me his grandfather ran away from the Carrington place and changed his name to Williams. Surely the hundreds of black Culbert people living today cannot all be connected to those three cases. Leo (M) (Russian origin) means "lion". You can use the links below to view more common surnames. . It prohibited. 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. They cut it off from OCTAVIA. Fortunately, the French and Latin were excellent record keepers and the Catholics were obsessed with knowing the kinship of everyone. A great and timely article. This meant that army records documented their service with their old names instead of their new ones. Brown: A common last name derived from an ancestor's complexion or the color of their hair. Five of the slaves were sold to the Washingtons and brought to Wessyngton. Elaine Fantham, Helene Peet Foley, Natalie Boymel Kampen, Sarah B. Pomeroy, H. A. Shapiro. When I was born my mother was known as Phillis Smith and I took the name of Smith too. Slaveholders often renamed newly acquired slaves; but self-naming by slaves, which also occurred, is likely to be underreported in the records, which were mainly created by and for slaveholders. I am a farmer. The resources Im getting from my colleagues through Facing History have been just invaluable. Harris: A patronymic meaning son of Harry. The brothers were sold when they were very young and remained with their last owners nearly thirty years. And even though slave marriages were not legal, many enslaved people followed the practice of the wife taking her husbands surname: My mother was named Mary Bradley and my father was named Hilliard Bradley. If the former slave had been befriended or assisted in getting established after the Civil War, they might have taken that persons name. 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. Perhaps this caused some Slaves to ask: Am I my new name or am I still my old name? Slave Names Below are some best cute and catchy slave names: Infirm Mite Lunn Amanda Walter Garner Hannah Delia Bastard Inferior Weevil George O'Hanlon Jordan John Owen Rachel Fetid Spider Betty Nathan York John Wright Wicked Whelp Thornton Dick Field Robert Dick William Hunter William Sam Kiner Augustus Dick a/k/a Richard Ferguson Foul Beast In many cases this is ignored and children use their fathers name! Of course my mother wasnt a Bradley fore she married. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2006. Caps statement implies that choosing his own surname was a part of exercising his newfound freedom. The origins of this last name date back to the pre-medieval period. How lucky you were to find that Freedmans Bank document! 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.) My Vimeo ON Demand video page lists six videos you can choose from to watch for 3 months ($15 each): -Finding the Last Slaveowner: Guidance and Case Studies, -Cluster Research: Using Groups of People to Find Your People, -Using Deed Records to Uncover Your Family, -Putting it All Together: Making Sense of All the Research You've Done and, -More Than Just a Name: Incorporating Social and Community History Into Your Research. Wide-ranging survey of naming practices in the (mainly Anglophone) Atlantic world both during and after slavery. In 1870, he is listed as John Washington. Q. Its knowledge that I think most Americans (not even just white Americans) dont have and it is endlessly fascinating and sobering both at the same time. Students learn about the violent responses to the transformation of US democracy that occurred as a result of Radical Reconstruction. . I am the identical person who served in the said companies under the name of Lewis Smith. Former slaves also interchanged surnames on census records. Encyclopedia of North Carolina, University of North Carolina Press. Dick Lewis Barnett and Phillip Fry were African American veterans of the Union Army during the Civil War. It is mandatory to procure user consent prior to running these cookies on your website. I hope this post also helps us to think about how the surnames former slaves had were connected to their experiences in slavery. Societies. Former slaves often made up surnames based on their occupations. Robyn. In Greek mythology, Daphne was the nymph daughter of Peneus, a river god. Hi Rodney, No, I dont know to whom she belonged before she was brought from Virginia to Kentucky. Nameberry is a registered trademark of Nameberry, LLC. There are so many examples of every kind of scenario, and I think it just speaks to the variety of experiences our ancestors had. 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

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