Derived from the word anull that is the Catalan language dominantly used in southern France, Anouilh means 'slow worm'. The table below shows the most common last names with statistics on the heritage and ancestry of those with the surname. Im jealous;) The common names there (Marie, Louise, etc) would test anyones genealogical skills, so I take my hat off to you. 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 phenomena makes research very complicated when you dont know the mothers surname. . Well, Ive gone off on a tangent again;) But thank you again for writing and thank you for the cemetery work (especially trying to include African-Americans you are doing that will be of benefit to others. Just from the detail in your first comment, I knew there was a good chance you were already familiar with those authors. When I was born my mother was known as Phillis Smith and I took the name of Smith too. Enslaved people often transferred such names to later generations in modified form or relied on African naming traditions, such as "day names" or names reflecting the order of birth among siblings. I am the identical person who served in the said companies under the name of Lewis Smith. Examples include: Francois, Jean, Pierre, and Leon for men; and Manon, Delphine, Marie Louise, Celeste, and Eugenie for women. 1. Burton, Richard D.E. Names and Naming in Afro-Caribbean Culture. New West Indian Guide/Nieuwe West-Indische Gids 73 (1999): 3558. Were there any famous slaves? After the war ended and slavery was abolished, they exercised their freedom by changing their names. Another common way of distinguishing people would be 'son of', for example Johnson (son of John), Richardson, Wilson, Harrison etc. 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 I made up my mind I'd find me a different one. 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. ", "If you look deeply into the palm of your hand, you will see your parents and all the generations of your ancestors. Several of the other slaves were sold to various slave owners. Many took the surname of famous or celebrated people; such as 'Lincoln', 'Grant', and 'Washington' was very popular. Thanks for your comment, A. Lottie Smith was my name and what they called me before I met Phillip and was married to him. For more information or to contact an Oxford Sales Representative click here. 1. They were all sold to different owners: Connell, Rose, Johnson, and Hughes respectively. 3. They are recorded with the Ashby surname on subsequent documents. I communicate with them on Facebook. Frederick Douglass (1818-1895), born into slavery in Maryland and escaped to the Northeast in 1838, where he became an internationally renowned abolitionist writer, speaker, and diplomat. 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.. Each name was a clue to her origins. Q. I did a post sometime ago about Slavery Studies, where I named some of the top books on the subject. Baptiste Meaning: derived from the name Bautista; the Spanish form of Baptist Origin: Spanish 3. This financial assistance was available to all Civil War veterans and their families. CLICK HERE TO SAVE YOUR SEAT! ", "Families are like fudge; mostly sweet with a few nuts. This potential brother had been sold to a local and remained there in SC. Please submit permission requests for other use directly to the publisher. Harris: A patronymic meaning son of Harry. 18. In 1911, Barnett and Fry's widow, Mollie, both applied for pensions from the government. Ones occupation also set the naming method, such as Sheperd, Cooper, or Smith. "The past is not dead. Who called you by that name and where was it done? This blog is where I share family history methods, resources, tips and advice, with an emphasis on slave research, slavery and its aftermath. 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. These people are referred to as slaves, or as enslaved people. Slaves are identified by given name under their masters. Ninety percent of them were African-American, a far higher black percentage than for any other common name. Forenames. After emancipation, he became William Smith. Thank you as always, your posts are so helpful. Augustin Meaning: a descendant of Augustine Origin: English 2. Therefore, a few of the most common first names of the time such as Mary (rank 815) and Sarah (1010) will appear in the list and surnames which correspond to personal names (e.g. Bradley was the last man owned em. Hello 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. The origins of this last name date back to the pre-medieval period. 42. Danish West Indies, Denmark, Records of Enslaved People, 1672-1917 Even worse, during this period, many African Americanssome using surnames for the very first timechanged their surnames once or even several times. -William Faulkner, "Call it a clan, call it a network, all it a tribe, call it a family. Thank you so much for your kind words. Enslaved women were raped, creating children with white fathers who in most cases did not claim them and even sold them away. 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. Letter to James Edward Calhoun, August 27, 1831. Anouilh. 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. LOTTIE had been the name of the nurse before me and so they just continued that same name. Trinidad and Tobago. Minerva is the long-neglected name of the Roman goddess of wisdom and invention, the arts and martial strength, one of the. Miracle, (Old English and Latin Origin) Derived from the first name Mauritius meaning "dark". I would still recommend all of these books, except the first one listed for obvious reasons. Alfred "Teen" Blackburn (1842-1951), one of the last living survivors of slavery in the United States who had a clear recollection of it. 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. 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. 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. I am the identical person who was named called and known as Dick Lewis Smith before the Civil War and during the Civil War and until I returned home after my military service . When they were sold away they remembered their loved ones and they created extended kinship networks. We had to register as someone, so we could be citizens. Your insight is always welcome and I am glad you shared these posts for other readers to see. However the frequent rebellions by . ", "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. Q. American slave owners or slaveholders were owners of slaves in the United States which typically worked either as agriculture laborers or house servants. And please do share posts that interest you. In the. . Bailey, Word Stories Surrounding African American Slavery. The majority of these slaves used the surname Lewis instead of Washington. Just go to my Vimeo page and make your selection. . Thanks for writing this post! One given name the childs family selected and kept secret and one the child was known by given by the slave owner. Clark is a common surname of Anglo-Scottish origin. 3. How lucky you were to find that Freedmans Bank document! 2. These cookies will be stored in your browser only with your consent. Thank you for your comment, In Greek mythology, Athena is the name of the daughter of Zeus who was the goddess of wisdom, warfare, handicrafts, mathematics, and courage, among others. Q. This meant that army records documented their service with their old names instead of their new ones. . You also have the option to opt-out of these cookies. Many of the former slaves and some free people of color took the first name of their father, mother and sometimes former slaveowner as their last. James: (M) (Latin origin) means "heel" or "supplanter". LOTTIE had been the name of the nurse before me and so they just continued that same name. Edmon S. Conner Recalls About His Career", "Law and the Cultural Production of Race and Racialized Systems of Oppression", "Runaway Slaves and Servants in Colonial Virginia", Slavery in the Courtroom: An Annotated Bibliography of American Cases, "Soldier of Furtune: John Smith before Jamestown", "YSTUMLLYN, JOHN ('Jack Black') (d. 1786), gardener and land steward | Dictionary of Welsh Biography", "Strong, Jonathan (c. 17471773), de facto freed slave", "Juan Francisco Manzano | Slave Narratives | The MoAD Salon | MoAD - Museum of the African Diaspora", "Relatos sobre la India Juliana. A. - Jane Howard, "Friends are God's apologies for relations." Ref. Turner was deeply religious,. In fact, it's not even past. Although it is not widely known, some African Americans used surnames before they were emancipated. 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. No, I don't know to whom she belonged before she was brought from Virginia to Kentucky. In the 1760s Anglo-American frontiersmen, determined to settle the land, planted slavery firmly within the borders of what would become Tennessee. Former slaves also interchanged surnames on census records. 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. By the late 19th century, England was home to about 300 surnames with traceable genealogy. All of them are alive in this moment. So far Ive found no one who can give me any information about how these people assumed the Culbert surname. Perhaps Wash Ellis registered under the name of one of his parents. These cookies do not store any personal information. Im very familiar with the work of Gwendolyn Hall and Elizabeth Shown Mills. One of my grandfathers in Africa was called Jeaceo, and so I decided to be Jackson. 5. Pinckney, Randolph, and Rutledgeappear only incidentally among any list of modern Black peoples names. The Language of Names. He decided that he didnt want to be known as Cap Sherrod and that he would vote and marry under his choice of names. Prior to the emancipation of the American slaves in 1863, those African-Americans held in bondage had usually just one or two given names. Louis (M) (English origin) means "famous warrior". They were Nelson Nunn and George Nunn and they may have changed their names to Crosby too because they were my fathers children.. Other common surnames included Jones, Matthews, Sinclair, and Bennett, Price, and Gray.. A. . Index by slave owner's name | Surname unknown or illegible. Women tended to have two names, and slaves often just had one. The Genealogy Source Table Collection includes 10 blank, editable source tables for death certificates, city directories, obituaries and funeral programs. ", "If you can't get rid of the skeleton in your closet, you might as well make it dance! My great great grandfather in Mississippi took the surname of the previous SC enslaver, whose widow sold him away. It is from this myth that the plant genus, Phoebe is the Latin variation of the Greek name Phoibe, which derived from. . Best of luck to you in your research, I was called by that name all the time I was with the Morrows. Numerous historical sources confirm that enslaved people had surnames that they used among themselves and in many cases were known by their slaveholder. Place names that were disproportionately popular among Black Americans in history include Boston, Jamaica, York, and Africa. Facing History & Ourselves, "Changing Names," last updated May 12, 2020. She served that family for a long time, perhaps more clues to her past lie in his family roots. Currently, the most popular Black last name in America is Williams, with a total count of 774,920 people who have the surname. For him, this meant claiming his new identity as a freedman and a citizen. One frequently occurring name is Rolle. 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. Slavery is a social-economic system under which people are enslaved: deprived of personal freedom and forced to perform labor or services without compensation. Others who wanted no connection to their former owners used surnames like Freeman or Freedman. Index to "Descriptive Recruitment Lists of Volunteers for the United States Colored Troops for the State of Missouri, 1863-1865" (NARA Microfilm Publication M1894 - 6 rolls) For more information about the records covered in this index, please contact the History and Genealogy Department. Many took the surname of famous or celebrated people; such as Lincoln, Grant, and Washington was very popular. A. 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. But I tell you, trying to document that all those names refer to the same person is hard, hard work! Special slave censuses were kept in the early 1800s. Most did not want to use their former owners surname, even through about 20% did use the slave owners name. I did not even check the 1850 slave schedule. This article is from the Encyclopedia of North Carolina edited by William S. Powell. I was only three years old when she died. Societies. Here, three different former slaves discuss their names and the changes they underwent after Emancipation. Several names have been added under the letter representing the person's last name. Elaine Fantham, Helene Peet Foley, Natalie Boymel Kampen, Sarah B. Pomeroy, H. A. Shapiro. Places; Login. 7. Phillis Wheatley (May 8, 1753 - December 5, 1784) Source = Wikimedia. 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. 2019 (cited under the Anglophone Caribbean) includes a good general introduction to slave naming. After emancipation, he became William Smith. Enslaved people remained legally nameless from the time of their capture until their purchase by American enslavers. 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. 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. Unfortunately, I am not knowledgeable enough about African and Caribbean research in the areas you name. Students consider how US history books, films, and other works of popular culture have misrepresented the history of the Reconstruction era. ", "Happiness is having a large, loving, caring, close-knit family in another city;)", "Where does the family start? Cook Cook has an Old English origin, and it means 'one who cooks' or 'one who sold cooked meat'. Benson, Susan. There are also a few problems with the original dataset in name transcription such that a small number of first names were transposed with last names. There has been disagreement about whether it was slaveholders or the enslaved who gave the recorded names. Some last names recognize certain histories or describe important events or narratives that mean a lot to the family. LOTTIE had been the name of the nurse before me and so they just continued that same name. . Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. I also have a Slavery and Freedom Collection available for $20. You already know the rich historical terrain of FPOC in Louisiana, what terrific grounds for family research. Is this the same woman Eliza I see living with Thomas Crenshaw in 1880 and 1900? However, many African Americans faced a problem when they applied for their pensions. Your current browser may not support copying via this button. 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. 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. If the slaveholder or another free white man was their father, many Creoles did use either is first or last name as a surname. Best of luck to you, A krio from.Freetown Sierra Leone. Plus, Jonah comes with a ready-made nursery-decorating motif. Lastly,emancipation itself often provoked many to choose new surnames, one of the few actual freedoms freedmen had. College Advanced AA Gen. Class, November 2012, Robyn, Aaron, Karen, Katherine and Michael, October 2014, African-American Family History Conference, February 2015, African-American Genealogy Group Conference, October 2016, Central Maryland AAHGS, with Alice Harris, September 2015, Howard Comm. 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.". I make extensive use of tables for organization, analysis and citation in my research, and they have proven very popular with genealogists. 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]. The Voice of the Black Community in California, Last Updated on October 14, 2010 by Paulette Brown-Hinds. 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. Since those are the countries from which many of America's original settlers came, it's hardly surprising. Mary Deborah Petite, "1836 Facts about the Alamo and the Texas War for Independence". Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts South Atlantic Creole Archipelagos The first published African-American poet & author Phillis Wheatley was born in West Africa. See footnotes for source information. Are you thinking this woman Eliza Ellis was married to Wash Ellis? Copeland This last name comes from Old Norse origin. (Media Note: If you quote a post, please credit me by name, Robyn N. African Americans tended to use surnames associated with their own families instead of the last slave owner. On the 30 rolls of NARA Microfilm Publication M1895, Slave Manifests of Coastwise Vessels Filed at New Orleans, Louisiana, 1807-1860 (30 rolls), are reproduced manifests filed with the collector of customs at New Orleans, Louisiana, of slaves transported in coastwise trade to or from New Orleans during the period 1807-1860. Surnames (not always those of former owners) would then be adopted as family names by former slaves and their descendants. In fact, the previous enslaver widow sold most of the slaves. A. In the context of The Bahamas, the surname appears to originate with Denys Rolle, an American Loyalist who re-settled on Exuma, one of the so-called Out Islands of The Bahamas, sometime in the mid-1780s. 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. 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. Evidence indicates that many enslaved parents named their children after the first generation or so of family members brought to America. 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. The following is a list of historical people who were enslaved at some point during their lives, in alphabetical order by first name. Drawing on extensive archival records, this digital memorial allows analysis of the ships, traders, and captives in the Atlantic slave trade. Thanks for all you to do keeps us all so enlightened! Some of them developed a long-term relationship with one of the female slaves. 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. 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. CAs Push to Restore Voting Rights to System-Impacted Individuals Still in Custody, Eli Lilly to Cap Out-of-Pocket Insulin Costs, Asm. 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. This event is $25. Got.the name.Auber.. Hi Roxana, It means 'raven'. It is not uncommon to see an African American family listed with one surname in 1870 and another in 1880. Q. Herbert G. Gutman, The Black Family in Slavery and Freedom, 1750-1925 (1976). Farley, (English Origin) Victorian-era last names meaning "fern woodland". This entry was posted on Friday, August 28th, 2009 at 11:46 am and is filed under Civil War, Genealogy & DNA, Interviews. -Kendall Hailey, "If you look deeply into the palm of your hand, you will see your parents and all the generations of your ancestors. The given name Athena was derived from the city name Athens, which is of uncertain origins. 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. Chapter 4 gives a brief and introductory outline of naming in the United States during slavery and its consequences in African American culture. Injurious Names: Naming, Disavowal, and Recuperation in Contexts of Slavery and Emancipation. In The Anthropology of Names and Naming. Slavery existed in the United States from its founding in 1776 and became the main . You are the continuation of each of these people.". Another common practice was to select a surname that fit the personality of an individual, such as Hardy or Rambler. I belonged to him until emancipation. When I was born my mother was known as Phillis Smith and I took the name of Smith too. Slaves were generally listed with just one name and thus with little to none of the genealogical information recorded for free whites. But once freed most immediately chose surnames, with or without keeping their accustomed name. In French-speaking Louisiana, Slave names reflected the dominant language and thus were generally different from those in the English colonies. The association with the infamous Nero, the fiddling Roman emperor, would be unavoidable. 1. There has been much debate among scholars, historians and genealogists whether enslaved African Americans used the surnames of their last owners, previous owners, or a surname that had no connection to slavery. "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. Mining the Census: Are You Finding Every Clue? Thats a goal that I am working towards. My mother then told me my fathers name was John Barnett, a white man, and I took up the name Barnett., My mothers name was Jane and she was called Jane Nunn because she belonged to the Nunns. Dick Lewis Barnett and Phillip Fry were African American veterans of the Union Army during the Civil War. Q. Besides the Morrows, whom else did you live with in Louisville? 3. Hi Susan, that lists the slaves along with their surnames. Fernsby, (Old English Origin) Derived from the old English words meaning "fern farmstead". However, the common practice by slaveholders was to only use the given names of enslaved people in documents such as estate papers, court and deed records. Many names, whether African derived or English, refer to birth circumstances, including both the ubiquitous day-names, which derive from the West African Akan-Twi language group, and others such as birth order and time of birth (e.g., day of the week, month, or season).
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