Tag: Black

Another Milestone

This time at the Jefferson County museum in Charles Town.

Website Narratives of Four Descendants of Jefferson County Enslaved and Free African-Americans On the iPad to the left, you can access genealogical research and family stories by several descendants of enslaved and free black Jefferson Countians.

Monique

Monique Crippen-Hopkins, a certified paralegal, blogger, family historian, and genealogist, is a descendant of the Thompson family of Jefferson County. Influenced as a young person by the importance her mother placed on genealogy and later in life by the loss of relatives who had been the repositories of family history, she began researching her family’s origins in 2006 and in 2013. Ms. Crippen-Hopkins’s blogging has led to exciting journeys and discoveries. She is writing a book on her family’s history.

Joyceann

Joyceann Gray, a U.S. Army retiree, author,family historian, and genealogist, is a descendant of the Hatter and McCord families of Jefferson County. Her historical and genealogical research is primarily focused on her family’s movements from Virginia to Liberia, Canada, Kentucky, and several other states. Mrs. Gray’s novel, Yes We Remember, is based on historical records and family stories of her ancestors. She is a contributor to the online encyclopedia Blackpast.org/contributor/gray-joyceann and has presented her research in several venues in the mid-Atlantic states.

Shelley

Dr. Shelley Murphy, a coordinator and faculty member for the Midwest African-American Genealogy Institute, is a descendant of the Goins family of Jefferson County. She has been an avid genealogist for 30+ years, researching the Marsh, Yates, Goins, Johnson, Sims, Myers, Roper, and other families in Jefferson and Loudoun counties. She attends and presents at local and national genealogical conferences and has 20+ publications with the Charlottesville Genealogy Examiner, familytreegirl.com blog, and the Central Virginia Heritage. Jim Taylor,

Dr. Shelley Murphy, a coordinator and faculty member for the Midwest African-American Genealogy Institute, is a descendant of the Goins family of Jefferson County. She has been an avid genealogist for 30+ years, researching the Marsh, Yates, Goins, Johnson, Sims, Myers, Roper, and other families in Jefferson and Loudoun counties. She attends and presents at local and national genealogical conferences and has 20+ publications with the Charlottesville Genealogy Examiner, familytreegirl.com blog, and the Central Virginia Heritage. Jim Taylor,

Jim Taylor

Jim Taylor, life-long county resident and former high school teacher and coach, is a descendant of the Payne and Dotson families of Jefferson County. He is one of four founders and currently an officer of the Jefferson County Black History Preservation Society (JCBHPS), has written a number of books on African-American history in Jefferson County, and is a member of the board of directors of the Jefferson County Historical Society. See the JCBHPS website at http://www.jcblackhistory.org.

 

A funny thing happened along this journey of mine

Is it fate or is it destiny or maybe a coincidence. Better yet, could it be our Ancestors have led us back to where our roots began to grow in this country?

Please read and make up your own mind!!

My research has taken me first to Liberia, Canada, then back to Charles Town West Virginia.   I have uncovered the following information that draws me back to St. Philips in Brooklyn NY:

  • Franklin D. Hatter enslaved by Andrew H. Hunter (prosecutor of the John Brown Trial) somehow convinced A. Hunter to sponsor his four (4) children in Mt. Zion Episcopal Church for baptism. This took place in 1855.
  • After the Civil War, the white congregation of Mt. Zion donated enough money to have the colored erect their own Church. St. Philips Episcopal Church, Charles Town WV (first Sunday school was taught by Bushrod Washington (nephew of George Washington)

Which is still an active church to this day.

  • Franklin Hatter’s father was James Hatter (his enslaver not known for sure) his brother Ruben Hatter was enslaved by Samuel Walter Washington (Brother of George Washington)
  • James Hatter’s Mother Charlotte, Aunt Sarah and grandfather Frances (b.1735) were enslaved by John Ariss the architect for “Harewood Plantation” in Charles Town, WV  he freed them in his will (1802) with the condition that they stay in serve to his wife until she dies… but not the children (two for sure; James and Ruben).
  • Harewood Plantation is the original home of Colonel Samuel Walter Washington erected in 1773.
  • His descendant S.Walter Washington added on modern living quarters and continues to live there presently.
  • The Hatter name first arrived in Loudoun County, VA in 1702. England King William in an effort to repay his friends (Huguenots) who had supported his war efforts paid for their passage to the Virginia colonies.

How ironic

  1.  I now live in the same county (Loudoun) as the first known ancestor arrived.
  2.  I now live 45 minutes from Charles Town where my ancestor lived and worked.
  3. They went to church at Mt Zion and St. Philips; Methodist-Episcopal churches.
  4.  So many years later I was raised in St. Philips (Episcopal) Church in Brooklyn, baptized and confirmed.

My Research Library to date

Black History Books on my shelf

 

African American Topeka – Sherri Camp

African Canadians in Union Blue – Richard M. Reid

Annie’s Trip to Grandma’s – Barbara Rose Page

A North-side View of Slavery The Refugee – Benjamin Drew

A Promise Fulfilled – Julia J. Cleckley

Baby Steps to Freedom – Joyce Middleton

Black Indians – William L. Katz

Black Women of the Old West – William L. Katz

Black Homesteaders in the Great Plains – R. Edwards, M.B.Eckstrom, & J. K. Friefeld

Black Pioneers of Science & Invention – Louis Haber

Black Frontiers – Lillian Schlissel

Crossing the Border – Sharon A. Roger Hepburn

Downwind from the smoke – Lyn Messersmith

Exodusters – Nell Irvin Painter

From Midnight to Dawn – Jacqueline L. Tobin

From the Memoirs of Lora “A time Gone By” – Lynetta Jordan

Ground Tied – Lyn Messersmith

Images of America African American Topeka- Sherrita Camp

Incidents of the life of a slave girl – Harriet Jacobs

In Motion- the African-American Migration Experience – Howard Dodson & Sylviane A. Dioue

Kindred – Octavia E. Butler

Lay Down Body Roberta Hughes Wright & Wilbur B. Hughes III

Legacy to Buxton – Second Edition A. C. Robbins

Lena Horne – Leslie Palmer

Lina Derritt, Petitioner, v. State Board of Real Estate Examiners Record and Pleadings – John Pegg, /William B. Saxbe

Look to the North Star – Victor Ullman

Magazine of the Jefferson County Historical Society – 12/2011

Orange Morgan’s 38,325 Mornings – Forrest M. Stith

Refugees from Slavery – Benjamin Drew

Rumors of the Truth – Lyn Spencer DeNaeyer Messersmith

Selected Writings and Speeches of – Marcus Garvey

Sketches of Ancient History of the six Nations – David Cusick

Slave Testimony – John W. Blassingame

Sunrises and Sunsets for Freedom – Forrest M. Stith

The Ancient black Hebrews and Arabs – Anu M’Bantu & Gert Muller

The Blacks in Canada A History – Robin W. Winks

The Booker T. Washington Collection – Booker T. Washington

The Family Tree Historical Maps Book – Allison Dolan

The Faces of my people – Monique Crippen

The Freedom-Seekers – Daniel G. Hill

The Green Collar Economy – Van Jones

The Philosophy of Negro Suffrage – Jerome R. Riley

The Houses in Buxton – Patricia L. Neely

The Last American Highway – Stew Magnuson

The souls of Black Folk – W.E.B DuBois

They came before Columbus – Ivan Van Sertima

The Whitetop Tribe – Len Rineholt

Tulsa Tale of two cities- Greenwood – Dorothy Moses DeWitty

Up from Slavery – Booker T. Washington

When I was a slave – Norman R. Yetman

Women’s Slave Narratives – Annie L. Burton and others

Getting back on track

Now that the New Year is here and the holidays distractions are behind us,  it’s time to get back on tract!

During the course of my researching various family members  I have run across  the terms Mulatto, White and Black all in the same census of one family.  So I stopped and took a bit of a turn to research the words and why they might be used in this context.

  • The term “black” is often used in the West to describe people whose skin is darker. In the United States, it is particularly used to describe African-Americans. The terms for African-Americans have changed over the years, as shown by the categories in the United States Census, taken every ten years.
  • In the first U.S. Census, taken in 1790, just four categories were used: Free White males, Free White females, other free persons, and slaves.
  • In the 1820 census the new category “colored” was added.
  • In the 1850 census, slaves were listed by owner, and a B indicated black, while an M indicated “mulatto.”
  • In the 1890 census, the categories for race were white, black, mulatto, quadroon (a person one-quarter black); octoroon (a person one-eighth black), Chinese, Japanese, or American Indian.
  • In the 1930 census, anyone with any black blood was supposed to be listed as “Negro.”
  • In the 1970 census, the category “Negro or black” was used for the first time.
  • In the 2000 and 2012 census, the category “Black or African-American” was used, defined as “a person having their origin in any of the racial groups in Africa.” In the 2012 Census 12.1 percent of Americans identified themselves as Black or African-American.*

* “Through the Decades”. United States Census Bureau. Retrieved 2015-01-01

HMMMMMM