Since this past Summer, I have been working on identifying my ancestors who owned slaves, and I have a bunch of them.
I recognize this is a difficult subject for some people, including my family, to discuss. I don't want to spend much space writing my beliefs to justify this work because it's not important but will instead share a few thoughts.
- My family participated in the institution of slavery, which can be described in modern terms as a 250+ legacy of legalized human trafficking.
- My family benefited from slavery, and continued to do so for generations following its absolishment.
- Shame, guilt, and denial aren't productive and prevent meaningful conversations.
As such, I plan to start publishing my research about my slave-owning ancestors and the people they owned. My goal is to document as much as possible, with the hope that someone who descends from one of the people enslaved by my family can make a connection. I think it's important, and it's the very least I can do as a genealogist.
It's also my hope that cousins who stumble upon this site will learn about this aspect of our shared heritage and acknowledge it. My goal isn't to shame anyone, either dead or alive. After all, you can't really shame the dead, and those of us living in modern times are not responsible for what our ancestors did. Instead, I put this information forth as a matter of historic truth.
Here's a list of what I know so far, with more detailed articles and actual evidence to come down the road. As I write individual articles, I will make sure and add links to this page.
Paternal Grandfather's Line
- James Barton
- 1810 Census - 3 Slaves
- 1830 Census - 7 Slaves
- 1840 Census - 6 Slaves
- Caleb Barton
- 1840 Census - 3 Slaves
- William Siddens
- 1825 Tax Record - 7 Slaves
- 1830 Census - 5 Slaves
- William Howard
- I don't know how many slaves William Howard owned, but there is a story that he freed all of his slaves. I'm going to write about it, along with my perspective on how that story is told down there in Kentucky.
- Harmon Howard
- 1840 Census - 4 Slaves
- Will - 1+ Slaves
- Andrew Alexander
- 1825 Tax Record - 2 Slaves
- Amzi C. Alexander
- Will - 1+ Slaves
- Charles Holliday
- 1821 Tax Record - 1 Slave
- Fletcher B. Gatewood
- Inherited slaves from John Calvert.
- 1850 Census - 5 Slaves
- 1860 Census - 11 Slaves
- John Calvert
- 1850 Census - 24 Slaves
- Gave slaves away to his children in his will, including his son-in-law, Fletcher B. Gatewood.
- Hardin Celsor
- 1850 Census - 3 Slaves
Paternal Grandmother's Line
- Christopher Simmons
- 1850 Census - 11 Slaves
- Henry Law
- 1857 Estate Auction - 4 Slaves
I have yet to find any slave owners on my mother's side of the family, but that doesn't mean they don't exist. I'm still researching all branches of my family; however, I started with my paternal grandfather's line because I already knew there were several slave owners there.