Who called you by that name and where was it done? Hi Susan, Just from the detail in your first comment, I knew there was a good chance you were already familiar with those authors. 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. When Wessyngtons owner George A. Washington married Margaret Lewis in 1849 her father gave the couple twenty-nine slaves. I worked for him as nurse for his children, and my full and correct name was OCTAVIA, but the family could not catch on to that long name and called me LOTTIE for short. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Mining the Census: Are You Finding Every Clue? Dear Robyn, In the early years, especially between the 1860 and 1880s, families even changed a surname several times until they settled on a certain one. Is this the same woman Eliza I see living with Thomas Crenshaw in 1880 and 1900? Injurious Names: Naming, Disavowal, and Recuperation in Contexts of Slavery and Emancipation. In The Anthropology of Names and Naming. 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. It starts with a young man falling in love with a girl. This is due in part to officials imposing surnames on them based on their last owners. In my research so far, I have found very little evidence of white Culbert slaveholders only three cases so far. Just makes me sad for the human spirit that anyone, let alone hundreds of thousands of people could participate in it. One name you find frequently used was Freeman or Freedmen to declare their new freedom. The name.Auber.is also.in.Haiti and.is of.French orign. He decided that he didnt want to be known as Cap Sherrod and that he would vote and marry under his choice of names. Once the slaves were freed they found they did need another name besides a given name. Emphasizes the giving and repeated use of names as a performative act of domination. I make extensive use of tables for organization, analysis and citation in my research, and they have proven very popular with genealogists. I love that your example shows two brothers, who came to different conclusions about their surnames. Oxford Bibliographies Online is available by subscription and perpetual access to institutions. Isaiah derives from the Hebrew Yeshayahu, containing the elements. Former slaves often used surnames names of historical figures such as Washington, Jefferson or Jackson. 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. Besides the Morrows, whom else did you live with in Louisville? So far Ive found no one who can give me any information about how these people assumed the Culbert surname. Cheryll Cody, "'There Was No Absalom on the Ball Plantation': Slave-Naming Practices in the South Carolina Low Country, 1720-1865," American Historical Review 92 (June 1987). Hi Jann, Use the form below to get in touch with me and I'll get back to you as soon as possible. . I dont know what became of his parents. Students learn about the violent responses to the transformation of US democracy that occurred as a result of Radical Reconstruction. 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. I hope this post also helps us to think about how the surnames former slaves had were connected to their experiences in slavery. A. Mr. Thomas Jefferson of Louisville, bought me when I was three years of age from Mr. Dearing. I made up my mind I'd find me a different one. 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. 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). You can also look up Charleston Manifests by Slave Owner These records are also available through the National Archives Catalog (National Archives Identifier 2767350). Because I like to let formerly enslaved people speak for themselves, here are several examples of freedmen and women discussing their surnames. Have you visited the Whitney Plantation yet? You could not be signed in, please check and try again. I was only three years old when she died. But once freed most immediately chose surnames, with or without keeping their accustomed name. Thank you for your comment, I was born in Montgomery County, Ala. the child of Phillis Houston, slave of Sol Smith. Harris: A patronymic meaning son of Harry. Eugene D. Genovese, Roll, Jordan, Roll: The World the Slaves Made (1974). Ebba: One of the more unique girl names from the 1800s. Each is present in your body. Kaplan, Justin, and Anne Bernays. . There was often a fluidity to the surnames that enslaved people had. For example, I know of one Louisiana family whose surname of Poulard evolved from a ancestor of the Poular nation(aka Fulani). 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. Benson 2006 is one of the few general discussions of slave names. The association with the infamous Nero, the fiddling Roman emperor, would be unavoidable. In freedom, Jean-Louis was known as Louis SEM or Louis FUSELIER until finally using SAM. Pinckney, Randolph, and Rutledgeappear only incidentally among any list of modern Black peoples names. At your request I have finally made available for viewing past popular webinars! 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.. The majority of these slaves used the surname Lewis instead of Washington. This event is $20. What are the most popular last names in the UK? African Americans tended to use surnames associated with their own families instead of the last slave owner. But, my mtdna also said I share ancestry with the Kru people of Liberia and the Mende from Sierra Leonne! Toussaint Louverture (1743-1803), a former slave, he enslaved a dozen people himself before becoming a general and a leader of the Haitian Revolution. Perhaps this caused some Slaves to ask: Am I my new name or am I still my old name? She was a Murphy.. Q. Louisiana, U.S., Slave Manumission Records, 1719-1820. -Unknown, "If you can't get rid of the skeleton in your closet, you might as well make it dance!" 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. This article is from the Encyclopedia of North Carolina edited by William S. Powell. A favorite of British novelists including Evelyn Waugh and P. G. Wodehouse, Ambrose has an air of blooming well-being and upper-class erudition. There are many factors to consider in determining what surnames African Americans used. Even tiny steps are huge in someones life. 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. 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. Corbin Corbin has an Old English origin. Going back a decade to the 1850 Slave Schedule, both William Wood and Samuel O. I worked for him as nurse for his children, and my full and correct name was OCTAVIA, but the family could not catch on to that long name and called me LOTTIE for short. Got.the name.Auber.. Hi Roxana, Many Welsh surnames follow this pattern, with Jones (from 'John's son) being the most common. "Injurious Names: Naming, Disavowal, and Recuperation in Contexts of Slavery and Emancipation." In The Anthropology of Names and Naming. 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. In these cases, unless the name change had been passed down in the family by oral history, it would be impossible to trace the family back any further. It is from this myth that the plant genus, Phoebe is the Latin variation of the Greek name Phoibe, which derived from. 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. 3. Some of them developed a long-term relationship with one of the female slaves. It gives the age and sex of the slave and the number of slaves of each age and sex. Join my mailing list below to learn about upcoming webinars. Of the 972 names of male Slaves recorded between 1619 and 1799 the leading ones were Jack, Tom, Harry, Sam, Will, Caesar, Dick, John, Robin, Frank, Charles, Joe and Prince. This page is currently showing names ranked from 1 to 1000. Im very familiar with the work of Gwendolyn Hall and Elizabeth Shown Mills. I am an engineer by day, but my true passion lies in genealogy. James: (M) (Latin origin) means "heel" or "supplanter". As a result, many slaves used the surnames of their owners wifes family. .When I got home after the war, I was wearing the name of Lewis Smith, but I found that the negroes after freedom, were taking the names of their father like the white folks. 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 Proving their identity as former soldiers often revealed some of the most detailed explanations for former slaves choice of surnames. In fact, it's not even past. No, I don't know to whom she belonged before she was brought from Virginia to Kentucky. Q. The table below shows the most common last names with statistics on the heritage and ancestry of those with the surname. Names from the Bible were another common practice, for given and surnames. An enslaved child sold away from their parents at a young age to the Deep South would probably have a different sense of naming than enslaved children who were able to grow up in the presence of their parents and extended family. If you can identify your ancestor's master, this source will prove of tremendous value to your research. 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.. This is common. Thank you for posing your question. Please share, in the comments below, examplesyou have come across of the surnames of enslaved people, especially if it was different from their last slaveholder. Hi Rodney, Delva My father once told me his grandfather ran away from the Carrington place and changed his name to Williams. 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. I was bornthe child of Phillis Houston, slave of Sol Smith. The slave schedules of 1860 Arkansas do not give the names of the slaves. I am not able to find any slaveholders in the Versailes area by the name of Ellis. The quote below, from a Southern Claims Commission file, is one of the most powerful and one of my favorites to use in lectures: I enlisted under Ross because that was my fathers name. This had a profound impact on the Selfhood of each of the enslaveddisrupting ones presumed Mission in life, as indicated by ones name; shattering the sharing of personal and historical experiences, attitudes, and spirits towards life; and putting in disarray the philosophy of life framework and common sense values by which all Africans lived. The resources Im getting from my colleagues through Facing History have been just invaluable. Several of the other slaves were sold to various slave owners. Florence, Fiorella, Fleur, and Flower are translations, but we like Flora best of all. 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. 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). Im jealous;) The common names there (Marie, Louise, etc) would test anyones genealogical skills, so I take my hat off to you. Another slave named Bill who attended the sheep became Bill Shepherd. He was a planter with 20,000 acres of land in East Florida and was at the forefront of slavery in The . 1. Runaway ads illustrate how many slaveholders knew the surnames of their slaves. Index by slave owner's name | Surname unknown or illegible. The Washingtons of Wessyngton Plantation: Stories of My Familys Journey to Freedom is proudly powered by WordPress Entries (RSS) and Comments (RSS). Renate, 26 September 2021 [PAST EVENT]: Acclaimed genealogist Melvin Collier and I will be presenting an all-new 2-hour lecture titled More Than Just Names: Incorporating Social and Community History Into Your Research from 1:00-3:30 EST (please note it is Eastern Standard Time). Of course my mother wasnt a Bradley fore she married. Slavery in America was the legal institution of enslaving human beings, mainly Africans and African Americans. I love to hear from my readers. You already know the rich historical terrain of FPOC in Louisiana, what terrific grounds for family research. My great grandfather Wilson Percival was born in South Carolina and I believe he took his surname from last slave owners family. David Nicolle, Graham Turner: Poitiers AD 732: Charles Martel Turns the Islamic Tide. 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 . Whatever you call it, whoever you are, you need one" 7. 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 "The past is not dead. Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts South Atlantic Creole Archipelagos I was only three years old when she died. I hope you dont mind my sharing those posts. Names of prominent slaveholderse.g. Also included here are common names among slaves, many of which were classical and had ties to the Bible or mythology, such as Keziah and Venus. Numerous historical sources confirm that enslaved people had surnames that they used among themselves and in many cases were known by their slaveholder. Perhaps Wash Ellis registered under the name of one of his parents. Are you thinking this woman Eliza Ellis was married to Wash Ellis? I hope youll sign up to receive my postsif you do, youll get a free PDF with some of my favorite tips! 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. This financial assistance was available to all Civil War veterans and their families. And now that it's been chosen by Gwen Stefani and Gavin Rossdale, it could take off as their first son's nameKingstonhas. Another myth is once African Americans were sold they never saw their families again. Slavery's reach is still with us, and part of the gift of doing African-American genealogy is recovering the stories of those caught in its grasp who could not in their own time leave their own witness.". Osprey Publishing 2008. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1997. A krio from.Freetown Sierra Leone. While Smith remains the most common U.S. surname, for the first time, two Hispanic namesGarcia and Rodriguezmade the top 10. A. Lottie Smith was my name and what they called me before I met Phillip and was married to him. Most did not want to use their former owners surname, even through about 20% did use the slave owners name. Recently, I was looking for more information on Wesley Thompson, who was born about 1835 and who was living in Morgan County, Alabama with his wife, Nellie, and five children in 1880. No, I dont know to whom she belonged before she was brought from Virginia to Kentucky. 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. This event is $12. I focused on surnames but many of these books also discuss first names. 43. State of residence is Missouri unless otherwise noted. This phenomena makes research very complicated when you dont know the mothers surname. Thanks for this very thoughtful article. Fortunately, the French and Latin were excellent record keepers and the Catholics were obsessed with knowing the kinship of everyone. Interestingly, the five most common American surnames as of 2010 haven't changed that much over time and are Smith, Johnson, Williams, Brown, and Jones. Rounding out the Top 40, here are the next 30 most common names among African-Americans and Caribbean people: Taylor (Jayceon Terrel Taylor "The Game") Wilson (Charlie Wilson) Moore (Shemar Moore) White (Barry White) Lewis (Carl Lewis) Walker (Jimmie J. J. Walker) Green (Al Green) Thompson (Kenan Thompson) Washington (Denzel Washington) The difficulties include using records that provide no surnames, the constant sale and breakup of families, and the lack of identification of fathers. ", "If you can't get rid of the skeleton in your closet, you might as well make it dance! 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. If searching for a slave owner with the same surname of your ancestor fails, check marriage records for the slave owners. . The existence of those surnames in the area would help to verify, but also, you are fortunate to have the important oral history of that name change in the first place, since so many of us dont. Such resistance signified continual deep-rooted discontent with the condition of bondage and, in some places, such as the United States, resulted in ever-more-stringent mechanisms for social control and repression in slaveholding areas. But there was also the detective Nero Wolfe, hero of many mystery stories. It is certainly possible that Wilsons siblings could have been sold away or owned by others. This category only includes cookies that ensures basic functionalities and security features of the website. You can read the introductory maps for a high-level guided explanation, view the timeline and chronology of . -Hugh Kingsmill, "No matter what you've done for yourself or for humanity, if you can't look back on having given love and attention to your own family, what have you really accomplished?" The highest percentage of African names was found among male slaves in the eighteenth century, when . Ive taken back reclaimed some of that lost memory, especially that of my enslaved ancestors. In the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries African-American slaves retained Africanisms in their naming practices. For more details, see the flier here, and you can purchase them here. Thanks for all you to do keeps us all so enlightened! Surnames (not always those of former owners) would then be adopted as family names by former slaves and their descendants. Place names that were disproportionately popular among Black Americans in history include Boston, Jamaica, York, and Africa. Allard. Ninety percent of them were African-American, a far higher black percentage than for any other common name. They called me OCK. These people are referred to as slaves, or as enslaved people. Elaine Fantham, Helene Peet Foley, Natalie Boymel Kampen, Sarah B. Pomeroy, H. A. Shapiro. These cookies do not store any personal information. Slavery was coexistent with the founding in 1670 of the first permanent colony in South Carolina, and early official records occasionally contain the names of slaves.3 An inventory of the estate of Francis Jones in 1693 lists 'a negro man Jack' and 'a negro Woman name Jugg.'4 An inventory of the Enslaved people suffered constant sale, where children were frequently torn away from parents at young ages and spouses were often separated. Whatever you call it, whoever you are, you need one", "Friends are God's apologies for relations. In 2001, I began a process of transcribing names of some of the largest slaveholders and matching the surnames with numbers of African Americans on the 1870 . In French-speaking Louisiana, Slave names reflected the dominant language and thus were generally different from those in the English colonies. When retained, a given name was generally changed to its full form: Thomas, not Tom; Elizabeth, not Bet. How did you ever come by the name of "Mollie"? I have been a researcher, writer, lecturer and teacher for over twenty years. When I was born my mother was known as Phillis Smith and I took the name of Smith too. Until recently, scholarly consensus was that early African American names did not differ significantly from those of white Americans. I was called by that name all the time I was with the Morrows. . Bailey, Word Stories Surrounding African American Slavery. . 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. 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. Thanks LaBrenda! Eliza Moore (1843 - January 21, 1948) Source = Pinimg. Another interesting fact is that Creole surname use also evolved over time and varied from record to record with the same person. Q. Best of luck to you in your research, Cora: We first fell in love with this short baby girl's name from Downton Abbey, but Cora was already popular in the 1800s, meaning 'maiden' or 'good'. Feel free to contact me directly if you have more questions or need some assistance. 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. And this example from another pension file shows how even the given name of this enslaved woman was held under little regard: Testimony of Mollie Russell (widow of Phillip Fry), September 19, 1911: Q. I belonged to him until emancipation. 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. I love how you have documented the history of your own surname. My mother's name was Octavia Smith and it was from her that I got it but where the name came from to her I never knew. But the Slaves generally had two namesthe one given by the slave owner (e.g. Finding the Slave Who Bore Philomene Daurat. There is also another historian, Gwendolyn Midlo Hall who did work on African ethnicities in Louisiana, you can read more of that here if you havent seen that yet: http://whitneyplantation.com/the-louisiana-slave-database.html, Again, I applaud you for doing the research on the history of the areas where your ancestors livedmany researchers dont realize how crucial that understanding is. 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. "More than half of the surnames are derived from the Christian or fore-name of the father," [1] and based on a total of 3,253,800 people, nearly 18 in every 100 persons was known by one of these fifty surnames. 42. Search 30 million given names. Robyn. Former slaves often made up surnames based on their occupations. 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. This lifelong quest has helped me to better know my familys past. 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. At her death when Thomas was ten, he was sold to Solomon Cobbs who lived nearby. Your current browser may not support copying via this button. College, Advanced AA Gen. Class, September 2009, Alice, Robyn and Lajoye, CM AAHGS, September 2017, Robyn and Andrea, NGS Conference, May 2014. The name James has been a popular Victorian male names in the 1800s. . The name of the tragic mythological Trojan princess who was given the gift of prophecy by Apollo, but was condemned never to be believed, Cassandra has been used for striking characters in movies and soap operas. The fifty most common Victorian surnames in England and Wales for 1853 are listed in alphabetical order below.

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