All children of a female slave were automatically slaves, considered as belonging to the owner of the mother. How lucky you were to find that Freedmans Bank document! It was after emancipation on that I went back to work for Col. Morrow and where I got the name "Lottie," as already explained. Q. Picked by several celebrities (a couple of times even for a girl), adding up to an enthusiastically recommended choice. Robyn. It is not uncommon to see an African American family listed with one surname in 1870 and another in 1880. Herbert G. Gutman, The Black Family in Slavery and Freedom, 1750-1925 (1976). Out of these, the cookies that are categorized as necessary are stored on your browser as they are essential for the working of basic functionalities of the website. Garcia is the Spanish variation of the word Gerald that means a pointed weapon, like a spear. They were all sold to different owners: Connell, Rose, Johnson, and Hughes respectively. Through DNA matches, I believe I have recently found a brother of my mothers great grandfather. Thanks for all you to do keeps us all so enlightened! 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 . A small number of creoles in Louisiana also acquired surnames derived from ethnic identities in Senegal. Phillis Wheatley (May 8, 1753 - December 5, 1784) Source = Wikimedia. Students examine how freed people in the United States sought to define freedom after Emancipation. Ref. Ninety percent of them were African-American, a far higher black percentage than for any other common name. 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. Thats high on my to do list. Some last names recognize certain histories or describe important events or narratives that mean a lot to the family. African Americans tended to use surnames associated with their own families instead of the last slave owner. One frequently occurring name is Rolle. I communicate with them on Facebook. You should give a TED talk! Letter to Armistead Burt of September 1, 1831, sfn error: no target: CITEREFCalhoun1837 (. However, research byLisa D. Cook and colleagueshas revealed evidence of racialized names from the late 19th and early 20th centuries. In another case Sukey Ann and he 4 children were manumitted by their Ashby owner with only their first names. 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. Thank you for your comment, There was often a fluidity to the surnames that enslaved people had. Here, three different former slaves discuss their names and the changes they underwent after Emancipation. 1754 Excerpts from the Courant for June 22 to 29, 1754 at Jamaican Family Search Genealogy Research Library - contain the names of some "runaway slaves" or indentured servants, and information about them. Currently, the most popular Black last name in America is Williams, with a total count of 774,920 people who have the surname. Injurious Names: Naming, Disavowal, and Recuperation in Contexts of Slavery and Emancipation. In The Anthropology of Names and Naming. 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. I found in the Civil War registry, an enslaved man who enrolled in the infantry under the name of Wash Ellis. Bernard Meaning: brave warrior Origin: French 4. 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. I dont know what became of his parents. Dick Lewis Barnett and Phillip Fry were African American veterans of the Union Army during the Civil War. I first wrote about this in this 2009 post: http://justthinking130.blogspot.com/2009/09/calvin-r-yarborough-where-it-all-began.html, And,then, more recently in 2013, here: http://justthinking130.blogspot.com/2013/11/many-rivers-to-cross-my-priscilla.html. Mary Deborah Petite, "1836 Facts about the Alamo and the Texas War for Independence". 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 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. You are the continuation of each of these people.". My father once told me his grandfather ran away from the Carrington place and changed his name to Williams. 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. 2019 (cited under the Anglophone Caribbean) includes a good general introduction to slave naming. 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. "While African-American genealogical research in many ways is like all genealogical research, the era of slavery makes the task especially challenging. Wood were recorded as slave. I love how you have documented the history of your own surname. Thank you for commenting, and continued luck to you in your research. 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. 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) A krio from.Freetown Sierra Leone. One name you find frequently used was Freeman or Freedmen to declare their new freedom. CLICK HERE TO REGISTER NOW! Toussaint Louverture (1743-1803), a former slave, he enslaved a dozen people himself before becoming a general and a leader of the Haitian Revolution. 2023 Nameberry.com.Nameberry is a registered trademark of Nameberry, LLC. Manifests - Alphabetical by Slave Names Return to Slave Manifests main page Click on each Slave name to view information on that voyage. When slave owners married, they often received slaves as wedding gifts and inheritances from their wifes family. 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.". 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. The first published African-American poet & author Phillis Wheatley was born in West Africa. FamilySearch Centers. Best of luck to you, 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. 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. Bailey, Word Stories Surrounding African American Slavery. I was bornthe child of Phillis Houston, slave of Sol Smith. Perhaps this caused some Slaves to ask: Am I my new name or am I still my old name? The highest percentage of African names was found among male slaves in the eighteenth century, when . Spanish areas had male Slave names as Francisco, Pedro, and Antonio; and for females: Maria, Isabella, and Juana. Unique Surnames to Grenada. One ancestor was known as Baber Masse, Elizabeth SENET and Elisabeth Leveille in different documents. i have no way to confirm this. 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. 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. For more details, see the flier here, and you can purchase them here. But I tell you, trying to document that all those names refer to the same person is hard, hard work! When I was born my mother was known as Phillis Smith and I took the name of Smith too. Thanks for adding your very experienced voice to the conversation. Examples include: Francois, Jean, Pierre, and Leon for men; and Manon, Delphine, Marie Louise, Celeste, and Eugenie for women. . Are you thinking this woman Eliza Ellis was married to Wash Ellis? The battle was long and hard-fought, with pro-slavery campaigners arguing that the slave trade was important for the British economy and claiming that enslaved Africans were happy and well-treated. Join my mailing list below to receive my posts and get a free PDF with some of my favorite tips! My surname of SAM originated from Sem or Sam FUSELIER, a free man of color who freed my ancestor,Jean-Louis, out of slavery in 1811. Place names that were disproportionately popular among Black Americans in history include Boston, Jamaica, York, and Africa. Q. The poster on each page *provides the link to the handout* for that lecture, so be sure to copy it. -Kendall Hailey, "If you look deeply into the palm of your hand, you will see your parents and all the generations of your ancestors. Most common last names names: 1-1000 | 1001-2000 | 2001-3000 | 3001-4000 | 4001-5000 Many took the surname of famous or celebrated people; such as 'Lincoln', 'Grant', and 'Washington' was very popular. 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. Thanks for this very thoughtful article. -Elbert Hubbard, "Families are like fudge; mostly sweet with a few nuts." I would appreciate any constructive comments on this question, which can be posted to me via my website address above. Surely the hundreds of black Culbert people living today cannot all be connected to those three cases. Emphasizes the giving and repeated use of names as a performative act of domination. I love that your example shows two brothers, who came to different conclusions about their surnames. Just from the detail in your first comment, I knew there was a good chance you were already familiar with those authors. Thus, the patronymic surname can be effectively regarded as "keeper of the peace." This phenomenon is not unheard of with African American surnames. 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. Runaway ads illustrate how many slaveholders knew the surnames of their slaves. 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 This is another instance of oral history being a key component in tracing African American ancestry. Slaves are identified by given name under their masters. Hi Susan, . . Another myth is once African Americans were sold they never saw their families again. Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. Another slave named Bill who attended the sheep became Bill Shepherd. 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. By the late 19th century, England was home to about 300 surnames with traceable genealogy. 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. Best of luck to you in your research, My maiden surname is Williams. Many of these were names of heroesbut not Lincoln. On another branch, members of the Griffin family from around Campbell County VA all stuck together and are believed to have kept family bonds & name of their father after Emancipation. An 's' at the end of a personal name also meant 'son of', for example Richards, Stevens, Williams and so on. Some of the most common or popular last names in the 1800s included Robinson, Clark, and Smith. A. Mr. Thomas Jefferson of Louisville, bought me when I was three years of age from Mr. Dearing. The difficulties include using records that provide no surnames, the constant sale and breakup of families, and the lack of identification of fathers. A. Mr. Thomas Jefferson of Louisville, bought me when I was three years of age from Mr. Dearing. . We had to register as someone, so we could be citizens. I am searching for information about a woman named Eliza Ellis, from Versailles KY or that area. After I had returned to Louisville from Danville, My sister, Lizzie White, got to calling me Mollie, and it was with her that the name started. Cook Cook has an Old English origin, and it means 'one who cooks' or 'one who sold cooked meat'. 2. How did you ever come by the name of "Mollie"? 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. 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. Robyn, Unraveling the origins of FPOC and slaves in Francophone Louisiana takes some thinking outside the fact, meticulous research ,familiarity with the local culture, history and a bit of serendipity on your side. 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. Index by slave owner's name | Surname unknown or illegible. Thomas mother, younger brothers and sisters remained with the Black family. It can be a difficult path, but just might be reachable. Thanks for your comment, 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. 3. After emancipation, he moved back with his mother, brothers and sisters and used the Cobbs surname. Evie (F) (English origin) means "life" or "lively". Thanks for writing this post! In freedom, Jean-Louis was known as Louis SEM or Louis FUSELIER until finally using SAM. Q. My maternal grandmother was an Auber. ", "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. Finding State Laws About Slaves and Free Blacks, More Suggestions for White Slaveholder Descendants, http://justthinking130.blogspot.com/2009/09/calvin-r-yarborough-where-it-all-began.html, http://justthinking130.blogspot.com/2013/11/many-rivers-to-cross-my-priscilla.html, https://www.historicpathways.com/articles.html, http://whitneyplantation.com/the-louisiana-slave-database.html. No, I don't know to whom she belonged before she was brought from Virginia to Kentucky. Special slave censuses were kept in the early 1800s. 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'. Explore the most common surnames in England. I truly believe they used surnames of each of their former owners for some of their childrens middle names. You are the continuation of each of these people." So just a few things to be aware of when researching any African-American ancestors. Beginning in the early nineteenth century, more biblical names were given to enslavedchildren, a reflection of the widespread attempts to Christianize enslaved communities. Just makes me sad for the human spirit that anyone, let alone hundreds of thousands of people could participate in it. CAs Push to Restore Voting Rights to System-Impacted Individuals Still in Custody, Eli Lilly to Cap Out-of-Pocket Insulin Costs, Asm. Search 31 million family names. ", "If you can't get rid of the skeleton in your closet, you might as well make it dance! 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 . Hello It gives the age and sex of the slave and the number of slaves of each age and sex. Even worse, during this period, many African Americanssome using surnames for the very first timechanged their surnames once or even several times. If searching for a slave owner with the same surname of your ancestor fails, check marriage records for the slave owners. You can find many more examples of the above in my post, The Mind of the Slaveowner. When they were sold away they remembered their loved ones and they created extended kinship networks. Many took the surname of famous or celebrated people; such as Lincoln, Grant, and Washington was very popular. Many of the graves are unmarked or the markers have been damaged, but many descendents still live around here, so we hope to identify as many of the possible graves as we can. As a newspaper that publishes in the spirit of the Black Press, the Black Voice News has given voice to the voiceless and shined a light on systemic inequities and disparities since 1972. Accueil > > Avr > 18 > Uncategorized > common last names for slaves in the 1800s. Plus, Jonah comes with a ready-made nursery-decorating motif. When retained, a given name was generally changed to its full form: Thomas, not Tom; Elizabeth, not Bet. There are so many examples of every kind of scenario, and I think it just speaks to the variety of experiences our ancestors had. This meant that army records documented their service with their old names instead of their new ones. 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. Rather than being derived from the supernatural world, European given names were a mere handle or tag. For example, Roll, Jordan,Roll has an entire chapter called The Naming of Cats, discussing slave names and The Slave Community has a very good chapter called The Slave Family. Two other books I like are Been In The Storm So Long by Leon Litwick (pgs 247-248)and Joining PLaces: Slave Neighborhoods in the Old South by Anthony Kaye. 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. -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." Please subscribe or login. It comes from the same Greek root as 'ambrosia', the food of the gods, said to confer immortality. Where did you get the maiden name of Smith from? The Language of Names. A. Lottie Smith was my name and what they called me before I met Phillip and was married to him. Relish, (Old French Origin) Derived from relaisse meaning "flavor or taste". I also have a Slavery and Freedom Collection available for $20. This causes many researchers to wrongly conclude that enslaved people did not have surnames until after emancipation, which was not the case. 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. Here, our list of notable early African American names. Derived from the word anull that is the Catalan language dominantly used in southern France, Anouilh means 'slow worm'. 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.. She was a Murphy.. Start your year off with tips and strategies that can help you in the new year & beyond. It is mandatory to procure user consent prior to running these cookies on your website. 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. . 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. LOTTIE had been the name of the nurse before me and so they just continued that same name. Others were more promiscuous. Enslaved women were raped, creating children with white fathers who in most cases did not claim them and even sold them away. 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. If the former slave had been befriended or assisted in getting established after the Civil War, they might have taken that person's name. 6. 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). I have been a researcher, writer, lecturer and teacher for over twenty years. 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. how the surnames former slaves had were connected to their experiences in slavery. You can read the introductory maps for a high-level guided explanation, view the timeline and chronology of . Jackson: This name is a patronymic of Jack. This mini-lesson helps students define the term, learn what forms reparations can take, and consider what reparations should be offered for slavery and other racist policies. "Albumen print of enslaved women and their children near Alexandria, Virginia." Baby Name Generator. common last names for slaves in the 1800s. 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. 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. Thats a goal that I am working towards. Facing History & Ourselves uses lessons of history to challenge teachers and their students to stand up to bigotry and hate. LOTTIE had been the name of the nurse before me and so they just continued that same name. Proving their identity as former soldiers often revealed some of the most detailed explanations for former slaves choice of surnames. 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. 2023 The Voice of the Black Community in California. Some of these examples come from the wonderful book, Voices of Emancipation: I served [in the War] as Henry Lock, the Lock being my old Massas name but since the War I have taken name of Rollie., [Edward] was owned by Drury Stovall and went by the name of Edward Stovall. However, many African Americans faced a problem when they applied for their pensions. Names of prominent slaveholderse.g. This event is $12. that lists the slaves along with their surnames. Dear Robyn, Thank you so much for your kind words. The population was more than 16 million and the industrial revolution was under way, which debunks any perception of a broadly colonial society. Search 30 million given names. Encyclopedia of North Carolina, University of North Carolina Press. Letter to James Edward Calhoun, August 27, 1831. Going back a decade to the 1850 Slave Schedule, both William Wood and Samuel O. This potential brother had been sold to a local and remained there in SC. I am the identical person who served in the said companies under the name of Lewis Smith. I focused on surnames but many of these books also discuss first names. I did not even check the 1850 slave schedule. 1. Now, that parent's surname could very well be the surname of the most recent slaveholder or an earlier slaveholder. 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. slave rebellions, in the history of the Americas, periodic acts of violent resistance by Black slaves during nearly three centuries of chattel slavery. While Smith remains the most common U.S. surname, for the first time, two Hispanic namesGarcia and Rodriguezmade the top 10. Join me as I present this NEW webinar that covers why we miss our ancestors in these records and presents numerous strategies to assist in finding every clue in census records. 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. Former slaves often used surnames names of historical figures such as Washington, Jefferson or Jackson. Sabe, Anque, Bumbo, Jobah, Quamana, Taynay, and Yearie) used in the Slave quarters. I hope this post also helps us to think about how the surnames former slaves had were connected to their experiences in slavery. The link was not copied. 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 . No superior alternative has yet been found. 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. Robyn. If a surname was needed, the slave owners family name might be used. He decided that he didnt want to be known as Cap Sherrod and that he would vote and marry under his choice of names. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2006. In many cases this is ignored and children use their fathers name! Each is present in your body. Robyn. Corbin Corbin has an Old English origin. In the 1760s Anglo-American frontiersmen, determined to settle the land, planted slavery firmly within the borders of what would become Tennessee. The given name Athena was derived from the city name Athens, which is of uncertain origins. Youll often see the word degraded used in the academic references; these were all attempts at degradation. I have found only one very rare example of a slaveholders inventory, that lists the slaves along with their surnames. It means 'bought land'. Harris: A patronymic meaning son of Harry. Table 7. You could not be signed in, please check and try again. So I asked my mother and she told me my father John Barnett, a white man, and I took up the name of Barnett . Several names have been added under the letter representing the person's last name.