Though a fraction of what Wood had asked for, the amount would be worth nearly $65,000 today. "Brandon was a very rich man," Wood later said. (pg 44a-44b), Adams County, Mississippi: 217 enslaved people were listed under Gerard Brandon, trustee for children. 70 slave dwellings were also noted. That story began two centuries ago with Wood's birth in northern Kentucky. It went through a number of owners before becoming an inn and event venue. 1842 wing of the residence. They carried cane knives (used . By the 1850s, the interstate slave trade was booming, and the Whites saw dollar signs whenever they thought of Wood. Plantations in Mississippi In addition to the plantation name and owner, the date the county was formed is also shown. Fortunately for this country the institution of slavery has passed away, he had instructed the jurors, and we should not bring our particular ideas of the legality or morality of an institution of that character into Court or the jury-box. He had cautioned the jurors against an excessive award, claimingfalselythat many former slaveholders already regretted slavery. If you purchase an item through these links, we receive a commission. Smithsonian magazine participates in affiliate link advertising programs. Sign up so you don't miss a single old house!!! By suing Ward for the wages she had lost while owned by Brandon, her lawyers made clear that a verdict for Wood was an acknowledgment of the evils of slavery itself. Brandon told me that Mr.Poole was offered $2000 in gold for Phoebe on his way to Texas, but he was on ahead of wagons and negroes and did not hear of it until too late. Inside, behind the handsomely recessed main entrance, were parlor rugs from the Orient, services of English silver, mantels of the finest Italian marble and great pier mirrors from France., Since the 1860 slave schedule was not searchable at the time, the page numbers are provided for the Mississippi and Louisiana slave schedules., The affidavit says that on the 1st of July, 1863, the pending war, and the exigencies of the times compelled his hasty departure from this state for the state of Texas, where he was detained until February 1864. Most slaves were by their owners design and eventually by law forbidden to learn how to read and write, so they didnt leave us material that so many figures in the past did, Levengood said. ) If some of the enslaved people owned by James Brandon were also taken to Texas by Gerard, it is possible that this is the woman referred to in the journal, who would have been a teenager at the time. The postwar constitutional amendments that abolished slavery and extended national citizenship to ex-slaves enabled Wood to pursue Ward in federal court. In 1889, he was one of the first African-American graduates of what became Northwestern University's School of Law. Wood was among them. Yet Wood v. Ward did not set a sweeping legal precedent. She had not forgotten Ward and sued him the following year. After 1815, as white settlers rushed into the lower Mississippi River Valley, many looked to purchase slaves to cultivate the region's most profitable crop. So you may not know you have Virginia ancestors, but you could.. Home All Old Houses Plantation 1856 Brandon Hall In Natchez Mississippi. (In fact, free black Northerners had been kidnapped for years before the Fugitive Slave Law of 1850.) He owned 700 to 800 slaves on several plantations, and he put me to work at once in the cotton field, she said. She had not forgotten Ward and sued him the following year. Severe rain and wind. It was four years after the Confederate surrender before Wood was able to return up the river, where she tried to locate long-lost members of her family in Kentucky. In 1834, the teenager was bought by a merchant in Louisville and taken from her family. Its an incredibly complicated and tragic institution that were just beginning to understand the dimensions of, Levengood said. : Estate of Sara Brandon Rickey, 2000), 63n6., Thanks to Will Jones for locating Brandons name in the county tax rolls as part of his RA Assignments for Fall 2015., See Map of Robertson County, Portal to Texas History., Sandersons 72 slaves, valued at $64,800 appear in the Freestone County Tax Roles for 1864. Photograph: Jessica Crawford. While the online website is intuitive on how to use, the workshops are being held for users who need more guidance, Levengood said. They also operate tours during the fall and spring pilgrimages. The land on which Brandon Hall now stands first passed into private ownership as a royal grant from the Spanish King Carlos III in 1788. The Liberator: A Weekly Newspaper Devoted to the Cause of Good Government and the Advancement of the American Negro, Los Angeles, California, 29 November 1912, page 5. 1841, d. 1859 in the, Elizabeth Elmina C. Ella Brandon (b. With help from his mothers court-ordered compensation, Arthur bought a house, started a family and paid for his own schooling. Few white Americans wished to dwell on those evils. 3:10 PM EST, Mon February 6, 2012. By the 3rd he paid $53 for a ferry at Trinity, Louisiana (likely to cross the Black River), and then paid $38 to cross Little River on the 7th. Brandon Hall C1856. The study found 3,777 Negro slave owners in the United States. At some point during those hellish days, Wood gave birth to Arthur, whose father is unknown. | READ MORE. The gang located Wood's employer in Cincinnati, a boardinghouse keeper named Rebecca Boyd, and paid her to join their scheme. Most furnishings along with the commercial equipment & supplies will stay. In order to identify records of interest, you must first examine the genealogy of slaveholding families. Thats the kind of things that owners did with slaves. Cookie Policy Gwendolyn Midlo Hall, a New Orleans native who has devoted much of her life to the study of slavery, spent 15 years in the courthouses of Louisiana, as well as in archives in Spain, France and. If he followed the road from San Augustine to Crockett pictured on Texas Map (1865), then he likely passed through Nacogdoches as well. Chew constructed the first permanent dwelling consisting of a three-room brick house about twenty by sixty feet, built sometime between 1809 and 1820. The defendant was Zebulon Ward, a white man who had enslaved Wood 25 years before. They led me to archives in nine states in search of her story, which I tell in full for the first time in my new book, Sweet Taste of Liberty: A True Story of Slavery and Restitution in America. The Civil War began, followed in 1863 by the Emancipation Proclamation, but Wood's ordeal continued. , had a good dinner & supper, spent a pleasant evening. Asthma & cramp colic. Begins November 13th & 14th" entry, discusses hunting for deer. All rights reserved. By the 1850s, the interstate slave trade was booming, and the Whites saw dollar signs whenever they thought of Wood. A Note to our Readers Dudley I think will die. Arrival of Mrs Spark and her son, other Mississippi refugees, who had found and brought Jack Lancaster. The Robertson County Tax Rolls for 1866 show him with 25 horses and no real estate. Often they appeared in the records of the owners who owned slaves as human property, which to us sounds so obscene and alien, said Levengood, whos also a historian. I suffer much mentally.. Slave traders met the demand by buying slaves in Virginia, Kentucky, and Maryland and selling them in the cotton states. But Wood and her lawyers had argued that the case was about much more than damages from abduction. In November 2015, I retraced some of this route by car when coming back from Natchez. The value of his real estate was $18,000. Unfortunately Charlotte Brandon Stanton Merrill had little time to enjoy her undivided ownership of Brandon Hall because on January 27, 1914 the plantation, house and land, was sold at auction to one George Hightower as a result of default on promissory notes held by the First Natchez Bank. Main house has an 18 foot wide grand entrance hall, 7 bedrooms and 7 baths, (one 1/2 bath), wet bar, commercial kitchen, elevator, fireplaces, large floored attic, basement apartment and copper roof. All they needed was someone to do the dirty work of enslaving her again. I am aware of the hands that built it, and the literal blood, sweat, and tears that entailed. The site is open from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. and the final tour starts at 4 p.m. and was bought for Miss Perking of Buckingham.. In the 1860 census, a 43-year-old Gerard Brandon is listed as a farmer in Adams County, Mississippi. about opposition to refugees, particularly if they had much property, and the slogan rich mans war & the poor mans fight. Another refugee who had fenced up a spring. this property for them for I have seen sights of trouble more than I can ever describe or make them sensible of. Begins August 13 entry. Land he sees will do fine for small Farmers of from 1 to 20 hands to make a living on, but to plant extensively or make a fortune I should never come here except on the creeks. Hasnt seen good hogs. Ward's lawyers stalled, claiming that Wood's failed antebellum suit for freedom proved his innocence. Visit our corporate site at https://futureplc.comThe Week is a registered trade mark. Future US LLC, 10th floor, 1100 13th Street NW, Washington, DC 20005. On November 15** went ot hear a Mr. The Brandons had numerous slaves and most likely used them for tobacco growing, resulting the in the prosperity that enabled the construction of the ca. Gangs worked throughout the antebellum period to capture free black men, women, and children and smuggle them into the South, under the cover of the Fugitive Slave Law of 1850, which required the return of runaway slaves. Learns that some have been plotting to start off for Miss. The value of his real estate was $170,000 and his personal estate was $400,000. Elsewhere in the database is a stark description of the sale of slaves and goods in a February 11, 1858, typed letter from slaveholder William Daniel Cabell of Benvenue in Nelson County, Virginia, to his wife, Elizabeth Nicholas Cabell. She was suing him for $20,000 in reparations. In the same tax rolls is a J. Ancestry places birth on December 5, 1864., See also this genealogy page and the Gerard Brandon children website., See Steven Brooke, The Majesty of Natchez (Gretna, La. Poole gone to the field. Homesick thoughts, trying to read his Bible. p.3: Deaths on Trip to Texas, continued onto 4. Begins August 11 entry. Begins September 15 entry. MORE VIRGINIA SLAVERY RESOURCES. The traders put Wood up for sale at Natchezs infamous Forks of the Road slave market. There are 10 enslaved women between 31-48 years old listed as mulatto on this schedule. It will not be held responsible or liable for its use and accuracy. In 1807, at the death of Benjamin Harrison III (1743-1807), his will divided the . On July 1, 1863, just days before the U.S. Army arrived to free thousands of people around Natchez, Brandon, determined to defy emancipation, forced some 300 slaves to march 400 miles to Texas, far beyond the reach of federal soldiers. Friends visit from Waco. And when the carriage finally rolled to a stop outside of Covington, Wards men were waiting. The Unknown No Longer: A Database of Virginia Slave Names website is the first online resource listing slaves names across all of slaveholding Virginia, the nations oldest state which had the largest enslaved population, numbering a half million people, at the outbreak of the Civil War in 1861, society officials said. Some point during those hellish days, Wood gave birth to Arthur whose. The fall and spring pilgrimages a Note to our Readers Dudley I think die. Was a very rich man, '' Wood brandon hall plantation slaves said hear a Mr &... Wood and her son, other Mississippi refugees, particularly if they had much property, and literal... The amount would be worth nearly $ 65,000 today extended national citizenship to ex-slaves enabled Wood to Ward... 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brandon hall plantation slaves