Thomas mother, younger brothers and sisters remained with the Black family. 42. Miracle, (Old English and Latin Origin) Derived from the first name Mauritius meaning "dark". 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 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. . Nameberry is a registered trademark of Nameberry, LLC. Last updated: November 1, 2003 "Dwelling No." 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 . It was after emancipation on that I went back to work for Col. Morrow and where I got the name "Lottie," as already explained. Students explore the legacies of the Reconstruction era today, reflect on the idea of democracy as a continuous process, and consider how they can best participate in the ongoing work of strengthening our democracy. Place names that were disproportionately popular among Black Americans in history include Boston, Jamaica, York, and Africa. 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. You already know the rich historical terrain of FPOC in Louisiana, what terrific grounds for family research. 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. Unique Surnames to Grenada. Thats high on my to do list. My Louisiana Creole ancestors who were free persons of color and former slaves practiced a unique naming tradition I think comes from Latin cultures. Dear Robyn, Forenames. Eliza Moore (1843 - January 21, 1948) Source = Pinimg. And again, as a white Southerner whose ancesters were NOT slaveowners, your blog is helping me to understand the real and horrible legacy of the peculiar institution. In 1800, Frederick Douglass and Harriet Tubman were able to escape their terrible life of enslavement and were able to help other slaves trapped in a world of forced labour and grant them freedom once again due to the Underground Railroads that helped him, his partner Anna Murray Douglas and many other fugitives sneak away from the horrible It is certainly possible that Wilsons siblings could have been sold away or owned by others. They established and held on to their own cultural traditions in the small spaces that slavery afforded them. Can you steer me in the right direction? The difficulties include using records that provide no surnames, the constant sale and breakup of families, and the lack of identification of fathers. Almost every major tome on slavery discusses slave naming practices in some form or fashion. BRATHWAITE - This name was derived from a geographic location in the north of England. In fact, the previous enslaver widow sold most of the slaves. Slaves were generally listed with just one name and thus with little to none of the genealogical information recorded for free whites. In 1801, the British government took the first census for Great Britain and Ireland. Eugene D. Genovese, Roll, Jordan, Roll: The World the Slaves Made (1974). 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. Are you thinking this woman Eliza Ellis was married to Wash Ellis? After emancipation, they all used the Terry surname because their families had been with the white Terry family for generations. Login Forgot . EDHASA, 2006, 359 pages, (. No, I don't know to whom she belonged before she was brought from Virginia to Kentucky. A 2nd great grandmother for example was baptised Sarah Charlotte Chase; her mother is recorded as being Ann Lewis Chase. Hi Susan, Following the emancipation of approximately 360,000 enslaved people in North Carolina, changes in African American names became indicative of a new value system and sense of self-identity among freedpeople. ", "No matter what you've done for yourself or for humanity, if you can't look back on having given love and attention to your own family, what have you really accomplished? 13 March 2022, 1-2:30pm [PAST EVENT], Eastern Standard Time: Cant find some of your ancestors in the census? It was after emancipation on that I went back to work for Col. Morrow and where I got the name Lottie, as already explained. Who called you by that name and where was it done? ", "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. Enslaved people suffered constant sale, where children were frequently torn away from parents at young ages and spouses were often separated. 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. For personal use and not for further distribution. Your insight is always welcome and I am glad you shared these posts for other readers to see. 43. Im very familiar with the work of Gwendolyn Hall and Elizabeth Shown Mills. > | Index main page>| Index by slave owner's name, 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). Robyn. Seating is limited. Just makes me sad for the human spirit that anyone, let alone hundreds of thousands of people could participate in it. Im jealous;) The common names there (Marie, Louise, etc) would test anyones genealogical skills, so I take my hat off to you. Other common surnames included Jones, Matthews, Sinclair, and Bennett, Price, and Gray.. My maiden surname is Williams. 1. Where did you get the maiden name of Smith from? 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. 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. Place names that were disproportionately popular among Black Americans in history include Boston, Jamaica, York, and Africa. Even worse, during this period, many African Americanssome using surnames for the very first timechanged their surnames once or even several times. Search 30 million given names. The most common of 603 names of female Slaves were Bet, Mary, Jane, Hanna, Betty, Sarah, Phillis, Nan, Peg, and Sary. Wheatley was traded into slavery at the age of 7 or 8 and imported to North America. The association with the infamous Nero, the fiddling Roman emperor, would be unavoidable. Search 31 million family names. This event is $25. They cut it off from OCTAVIA. I especially recommend Mother, Thy Name is Mystery! The given name Athena was derived from the city name Athens, which is of uncertain origins. 41. College, Advanced AA Gen Class, September 2011, AAHGS Annual Genealogy Conference, November 2008, Howard Comm. . Perhaps Wash Ellis registered under the name of one of his parents. This lively Old Testament nature name (belonging to one of the three beautiful daughters of Job) may be missing from the current US Top 1000 list, but it ranks highly here on Nameberry making it one to watch! According to the latest search data available, Italian last names and their meanings are searched for nearly, 40,500 times per month. Robyn. 26 September 2021 [PAST EVENT]: Acclaimed genealogist Melvin Collier and I will be presenting an all-new 2-hour lecture titled More Than Just Names: Incorporating Social and Community History Into Your Research from 1:00-3:30 EST (please note it is Eastern Standard Time). You can use the links below to view more common surnames. It gives the age and sex of the slave and the number of slaves of each age and sex. 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. Who called you by that name and where was it done? Thus, the patronymic surname can be effectively regarded as "keeper of the peace." This phenomenon is not unheard of with African American surnames. Practices undoubtedly varied, and different archival sources may yield different conclusions. He stated that he had always been known by his fathers surname Scott, even before he was freed. No, I dont know to whom she belonged before she was brought from Virginia to Kentucky. This database is a compilation of information on over four thousand slaves from Louisiana who were involved in manumission (the formal emancipation from slavery) between 1719 and 1820. Lastly,emancipation itself often provoked many to choose new surnames, one of the few actual freedoms freedmen had. Bernard Meaning: brave warrior Origin: French 4. Students learn about President Andrew Johnson and the Congressional Republican's conflicting visions of how to rebuild the nation after the Civil War. Fernsby, (Old English Origin) Derived from the old English words meaning "fern farmstead". It means 'clerk' or 'secretary'. Garcia is the Spanish variation of the word Gerald that means a pointed weapon, like a spear. Burton, Richard D.E. Names and Naming in Afro-Caribbean Culture. New West Indian Guide/Nieuwe West-Indische Gids 73 (1999): 3558. John C. Inscoe, "Carolina Slave Names: An Index to Acculturation," Journal of Southern History 59 (November 1983). One frequently occurring name is Rolle. Most common last names names: 1-1000 | 1001-2000 | 2001-3000 | 3001-4000 | 4001-5000 . Users without a subscription are not able to see the full content on We use cookies on our website to give you the most relevant experience by remembering your preferences and repeat visits. Private names used in the quarters included Abah, Bilah, Comba, Dibb, Juba, Kauchee, Mima, and Sena. Each is present in your body. Just go to my Vimeo page and make your selection. Students examine how freed people in the United States sought to define freedom after Emancipation. Another interesting fact is that Creole surname use also evolved over time and varied from record to record with the same person. No superior alternative has yet been found." 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. 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. 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. If the former slave had been befriended or assisted in getting established after the Civil War, they might have taken that person's name. A. Mr. Thomas Jefferson of Louisville, bought me when I was three years of age from Mr. Dearing. Q. 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. Copeland This last name comes from Old Norse origin. I am an engineer by day, but my true passion lies in genealogy. 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. Remember me. Your current browser may not support copying via this button. They did so either to take on a surname for the first time, or to replace a name or surname given to them by a former master. My maternal grandmother was an Auber. . It starts with a young man falling in love with a girl. Perhaps this caused some Slaves to ask: Am I my new name or am I still my old name? Whatever you call it, whoever you are, you need one", "Friends are God's apologies for relations. Former slaves often used surnames names of historical figures such as Washington, Jefferson or Jackson. Surnames. Both comments and pings are currently closed. When retained, a given name was generally changed to its full form: Thomas, not Tom; Elizabeth, not Bet. There was often a fluidity to the surnames that enslaved people had. But the meanings of names certainly evolved over time, and some have argued that the principles according to which an individual name was given (e.g., after a relative or ancestor) are at least as important as its apparent meaning and type. Slavery in America was the legal institution of enslaving human beings, mainly Africans and African Americans. 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. The population was more than 16 million and the industrial revolution was under way, which debunks any perception of a broadly colonial society. This event is $20. 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. And you get to tell the story of Jean-Louiss life in slavery and also in freedom. The Washingtons of Wessyngton Plantation: Stories of My Familys Journey to Freedom, A Thank You Letter from Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth, Plantation Records Key Link to African American Past . As a result, many slaves used the surnames of their owners wifes family. 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. All children of a female slave were automatically slaves, considered as belonging to the owner of the mother. One thing for sure, historians are always expanding our knowledge on this topic.BTW, I am a big fan of your website and your work in the field! Even tiny steps are huge in someones life. Where did you get the maiden name of Smith from? I found in the Civil War registry, an enslaved man who enrolled in the infantry under the name of Wash Ellis. My Vimeo ON Demand video page lists six videos you can choose from to watch for 3 months ($15 each): -Finding the Last Slaveowner: Guidance and Case Studies, -Cluster Research: Using Groups of People to Find Your People, -Using Deed Records to Uncover Your Family, -Putting it All Together: Making Sense of All the Research You've Done and, -More Than Just a Name: Incorporating Social and Community History Into Your Research. Students consider how US history books, films, and other works of popular culture have misrepresented the history of the Reconstruction era. Expand or collapse the "in this article" section, Slave Names and Naming in the Anglophone Atlantic, Slave Names on Emancipation and after Slavery, Expand or collapse the "related articles" section, Expand or collapse the "forthcoming articles" section, African Retailers and Small Artisans in the Atlantic World, Alexander von Humboldt and Transatlantic Studies, Atlantic New Orleans: 18th and 19th Centuries, Black Atlantic in the Age of Revolutions, The, Chinese Indentured Servitude in the Atlantic World, Cities and Urbanization in Portuguese America, Colonial Governance in the Atlantic World, Comparative Indigenous History of the Americas, Criminal Transportation in the Atlantic World, Domestic Production and Consumption in the Atlantic World, Economy and Consumption in the Atlantic World. Thanks for all you to do keeps us all so enlightened! 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. Drawing on extensive archival records, this digital memorial allows analysis of the ships, traders, and captives in the Atlantic slave trade. slave rebellions, in the history of the Americas, periodic acts of violent resistance by Black slaves during nearly three centuries of chattel slavery. Born in Union County, South Carolina, he was sold to his last enslaver in 1858 and then brought to Mississippi. Mary Deborah Petite, "1836 Facts about the Alamo and the Texas War for Independence". For more information about the records covered in this index,please contact the History and Genealogy Department. That alone can make if difficult to research an African- American family during those years. Baby Name Generator. I was bornthe child of Phillis Houston, slave of Sol Smith. But opting out of some of these cookies may affect your browsing experience. The name James has been a popular Victorian male names in the 1800s. -William Faulkner, "Call it a clan, call it a network, all it a tribe, call it a family. Another common practice was to select a surname that fit the personality of an individual, such as Hardy or Rambler. Louisiana, U.S., Slave Manumission Records, 1719-1820. Claudia Bautista,Santa Monica, Calif. You must have JavaScript enabled to use this form. I have been a researcher, writer, lecturer and teacher for over twenty years. Slavery existed in the United States from its founding in 1776 and became the main . How did you ever come by the name of "Mollie"? You can also look up Charleston Manifests by Slave Owner These records are also available through the National Archives Catalog (National Archives Identifier 2767350). Just from the detail in your first comment, I knew there was a good chance you were already familiar with those authors. FamilySearch Centers. In fact, it's not even past. Herbert G. Gutman, The Black Family in Slavery and Freedom, 1750-1925 (1976). 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 . Used by permission of the publisher. In Greek mythology, Daphne was the nymph daughter of Peneus, a river god. Going back a decade to the 1850 Slave Schedule, both William Wood and Samuel O. You can find many more examples of the above in my post, The Mind of the Slaveowner. -George Burns, "Where does the family start? Jackson: This name is a patronymic of Jack. Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts South Atlantic Creole Archipelagos I was called by that name all the time I was with the Morrows. They are recorded with the Ashby surname on subsequent documents. A Wessyngton slave named Bill who was the plantation's blacksmith was known as Billy the Smith during slavery. It means 'bought land'. Recognizable patterns of change in names and naming practices are evident from the mid-eighteenth century to the early nineteenth century and on through the 1860s. But I tell you, trying to document that all those names refer to the same person is hard, hard work! 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. In the late 1830s, Nathaniel Terry of Todd County, Kentucky died leaving a plantation of fifty slaves. See footnotes for source information. Besides the Morrows, whom else did you live with in Louisville? The majority of these slaves used the surname Lewis instead of Washington. Even many given names of ancestors eventually became a surname, such as Todd or William. Hi Jim, This old French surname has Germanic origin, and means 'noble'. Since those are the countries from which many of America's original settlers came, it's hardly surprising. Most did not want to use their former owners surname, even through about 20% did use the slave owners name. . One ancestor was known as Baber Masse, Elizabeth SENET and Elisabeth Leveille in different documents. The names they gave their children provide a valuable, if limited, index of that process over time. Wood were recorded as slave. Olympic speed skater Apolo Anton Ohno might inspire some parents. My father would be 105 if he were alive.