A Dickens Tale: A Slave Owner and his Slave Family

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Anita Wills on October 4, 2009 at 12:57pm

Art,
You did an excellent job on linking these lines together. Kudos!

Anita

Permalink Reply by Marie Mullenneix Spearman on October 4, 2009 at 1:21pm

I learn from these discussions and sources - thank you. The photos you share are especially wonderful. It does seem to prove your family tradition, but how much more research you need to do to satisfy the Genealogical Proof Standard is beyond my expertise.

Coincidentally, I just began reading a family history of Michael Morris Healy who had a similar legally unrecognized marriage with Eliza Clark, one of his slaves, with whom he fathered 10 children, 9 living to adulthood. This was Georgia 1830s, and the author James M. O'Toole (Passing for White: Race, Religion and the Healy Family, 1820-1920), references a book I read several years back on the Sayre/Hunt families by Adele Logan Alexander (Ambiguous Lives: Free Women of Color in Rural Georgia, 1789-1879). Judge Hunt was a bachelor with a legally unrecognized wife and children.

From my perspective, if your research does not result in a book, please seriously consider writing your findings and/or search narrative for journal publication. Our grandchildren need to know that amidst the sea of unspeakable brutality against women of color during slavery, there were islands of long term relationships where men and women cherished one another despite all the odds, and laws, against them. And our genealogical/historical community always learns from the path of your research.
Marie Mullenneix Spearman

Permalink Reply by Art Thomas on October 5, 2009 at 7:27am

Marie,

Thanks so much for your review and response. I have much, much more work to do before even considering this as an article for publication in a genealogical journal. There are additional materiels that could have been displayed that would have shown more detail to the story, this was for "starters" in making the determination that I am on the right track.

A FYI, An application for a State Genealogical Society was intially rejected because it didn't meet their review board's Genealogical Proof Standard (GPS). The "questioned" portion of the application was a lack of maiden names for women and this was in a time frame from 1735-1816. These women were all slaves and I used the surname of the enslaving families, in parens, with the slave disclaimer, for their maiden names. Following some "discussion" their requirement for maiden names of slave and Indian women was lessened. This was 8 years ago, I hope by now some of the "differences" in AA research is now being considered when using the GPS by those who accredit/certify genealogical research.

Again, thanks for your response
~Art

Permalink Reply by Angela Walton-Raji on October 4, 2009 at 1:46pm

Good information Art,

Looks like more than once the race was "adjusted" to make K.H. Dickens a person of color. When Lucy, their daughter died it is also clear that he was identified as her father.

Have you checked to see if any info on Milly appears in Barnetta's Cohabitation records? I see that there was a tie to Princeville---wasn't that the historic black community devastated by floods a few years ago?

I am curious---how is K.H. Dickens identified before 1870---is he enumerated as white or was he enumerated as a free man of color?

-Angela-

Permalink Reply by Art Thomas on October 5, 2009 at 7:50am

Hello Angela,

Yes, the race designation for K.H. Dickens seems to have been "adjusted" on some census records. Kelly Dickens has been definetely identified as NOT a person of color and the reason for the differences are purely speculative. :))

The "union" would not appear in Barnetta's book because he wasn't a slave and there was NO allowance for interracial marriages in NC during this period. Interestingly, my grandmother, Flora (Lawrence) Dickens, the wife of Lafayette Dickens, has her parents recorded in Barnetta's book. Peter & Louisa Lawrence were officially declared man and wife in 1866 following 29 years of cohabitation in Edgecombe County, NC.

Yes, Lucy's death was in Princeville, the community devastated by floods several years ago.

K.H. Dickens was identified prior to 1870 as "white". If I remember correctly he is found in 1850 living with. or near, his uncle, Dr. Joseph J. W. Powell, and you see him as white in the 1860 census. Powell was a large landowner in both Halifax & Edgecombe County with a signifcant number of slaves. Dickens was given/inherited some land from his uncle's Coolmore plantation in Edgecombe County upon Powell's death in 1861.

~Art