common last names for slaves in the 1800s

Daniel Odgen, Magic, Witchcraft, and Ghosts In The Greek and Roman Worlds, p. 119, Laurence Vidal, Los Amantes de Granada, Ed. Derived from the word anull that is the Catalan language dominantly used in southern France, Anouilh means 'slow worm'. 17. But opting out of some of these cookies may affect your browsing experience. Youll often see the word degraded used in the academic references; these were all attempts at degradation. I have found only one very rare example of a slaveholders inventory, that lists the slaves along with their surnames. 1412 S. Spoede Rd., St. Louis, MO 63131-2557. please contact the History and Genealogy Department. This may reveal your family used the surname of the slave owners wifes family. . Dorothy, Doris or Dora: Meaning 'gift of God', this Victorian girl's name was popular in the 19th century. Where did you get the maiden name of Smith from? Love you, These cookies will be stored in your browser only with your consent. Until recently, scholarly consensus was that early African American names did not differ significantly from those of white Americans. I am generally called Cap Sherrod but I was married under Cap Ross and have voted under the name Ross, A good many people call me Cap Sherrod because I belonged to Sherrod but I calls myself Cap Ross.. Evie (F) (English origin) means "life" or "lively". College, Advanced AA Gen. Class, September 2009, Alice, Robyn and Lajoye, CM AAHGS, September 2017, Robyn and Andrea, NGS Conference, May 2014. These require Microsoft Word and a Windows platform. While enslaved almost all had just one Christian name. Theres always more to learn! 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 This is due in part to officials imposing surnames on them based on their last owners. Edited by Gabriele vom Bruck and Barbara Bodenhorn, 178-199. . This lifelong quest has helped me to better know my familys past. 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. Relish, (Old French Origin) Derived from relaisse meaning "flavor or taste". Samuel had only two slaves: the man that could be Wilson and a 42-year-old woman. Picked by several celebrities (a couple of times even for a girl), adding up to an enthusiastically recommended choice. Karen Halttunen, Murder Most Foul, p. 175. Several of the other slaves were sold to various slave owners. He decided that he didnt want to be known as Cap Sherrod and that he would vote and marry under his choice of names. 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. Toussaint Louverture (1743-1803), a former slave, he enslaved a dozen people himself before becoming a general and a leader of the Haitian Revolution. Thomas Black Cobbs was owned by a small slave owner Catherine Black. Ho Joanne, Login Forgot . Spanish areas had male Slave names as Francisco, Pedro, and Antonio; and for females: Maria, Isabella, and Juana. Dear Robyn, A small number of creoles in Louisiana also acquired surnames derived from ethnic identities in Senegal. Through DNA matches, I believe I have recently found a brother of my mothers great grandfather. 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.". Have you visited the Whitney Plantation yet? Leo (M) (Russian origin) means "lion". As a result, many slaves used the surnames of their owners wifes family. Q. In ancient history, Lysander was the name of an esteemed Spartan naval commander and his literary cred comes from one of the two star-struck young men in Shakespeare's. There are so many examples of every kind of scenario, and I think it just speaks to the variety of experiences our ancestors had. 1. For more information about the records covered in this index,please contact the History and Genealogy Department. 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. After emancipation, he became William Smith. Tell me the name you were called before you met Phillip Fry? We also use third-party cookies that help us analyze and understand how you use this website. As a newspaper that publishes in the spirit of the Black Press, the Black Voice News has given voice to the voiceless and shined a light on systemic inequities and disparities since 1972. No superior alternative has yet been found." My father once told me his grandfather ran away from the Carrington place and changed his name to Williams. Minerva is the long-neglected name of the Roman goddess of wisdom and invention, the arts and martial strength, one of the. New surnames were created from a local regions name such as Smithfield the name taken might be Smith or Field. EDHASA, 2006, 359 pages, (. 2. 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! Last updated: November 1, 2003 "Dwelling No." 6. He was sold to my master William Orr and he always went by the name Edward Orr after that.. The same family may appear with different surnames in the 1870 and 1880 federal census records, and may appear in other records with either, both, or a third surname altogether. Some scholars of slavery have come to view the names and naming of enslaved people as agauge of many aspects oflife and culture during enslavement and of howcustoms changed over time. I am the applicant for pension on account of having served in Co. B. . It starts with a young man falling in love with a girl. I am awar eof the different naming traditions practiced in that area and I thank you for sharing them here for my readers. According to the latest search data available, Italian last names and their meanings are searched for nearly, 40,500 times per month. I also see that in 1900 she is listed as widow with 1 child living, so you may have luck trying to find out who her child was. It can be a difficult path, but just might be reachable. Florence, Fiorella, Fleur, and Flower are translations, but we like Flora best of all. By the late 19th century, England was home to about 300 surnames with traceable genealogy. However, a small change to searching on C?lbert, which accounts for the variations in spelling expands that initial list to 877 enslaved people owned by people with those names. In instances where slaves were sold from their families and they did not retain their previous owners surnames, they named their children for parents, sisters and brothers to keep a connection with their families. Most common last names names: 1-1000 | 1001-2000 | 2001-3000 | 3001-4000 | 4001-5000 Places; Login. "The past is not dead. 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. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2006. Rodriguez (Rodriguez is Spanish for the son of Rodrigo. The name.Auber.is also.in.Haiti and.is of.French orign. For more details, see the flier here, and you can purchase them here. Rank. "Injurious Names: Naming, Disavowal, and Recuperation in Contexts of Slavery and Emancipation." In The Anthropology of Names and Naming. I love that your example shows two brothers, who came to different conclusions about their surnames. 2023 Nameberry.com.Nameberry is a registered trademark of Nameberry, LLC. by John C. Inscoe, 2006; Revised May 2022 by NC Government & Heritage Library. Choose the best name for your child. Copy this link, or click below to email it to a friend. An 's' at the end of a personal name also meant 'son of', for example Richards, Stevens, Williams and so on. However the frequent rebellions by . . 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. Students learn about President Andrew Johnson and the Congressional Republican's conflicting visions of how to rebuild the nation after the Civil War. Use the form below to get in touch with me and I'll get back to you as soon as possible. It starts with a young man falling in love with a girl. My mother's name was Octavia Smith and it was from her that I got it but where the name came from to her I never knew. This category only includes cookies that ensures basic functionalities and security features of the website. Bernacki: Teatr; Mamontowicz-ojek: Szkoa Tyzenhauza s. 53, 54, 70, 86-89, 92; Wierzbicka: Sze studiw; Muzyka 1969 nr 2 (J. Prosnak). LOTTIE had been the name of the nurse before me and so they just continued that same name. A great and timely article. However, research byLisa D. Cook and colleagueshas revealed evidence of racialized names from the late 19th and early 20th centuries. 6. 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 . A. Lottie Smith was my name and what they called me before I met Phillip and was married to him. They called me "OCK". Robyn. ", "Happiness is having a large, loving, caring, close-knit family in another city;)", "Where does the family start? is for you. 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. 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. It is from this myth that the plant genus, Phoebe is the Latin variation of the Greek name Phoibe, which derived from. Recently, I was looking for more information on Wesley Thompson, who was born about 1835 and who was living in Morgan County, Alabama with his wife, Nellie, and five children in 1880. This phenomena makes research very complicated when you dont know the mothers surname. In 1836, William Turbeville died leaving an estate with several slaves who were brothers: Turner, Nelson, Simon, Jordan, and Jacob. Garcia is the Spanish variation of the word Gerald that means a pointed weapon, like a spear. If the name is spelled Rodrigues, the name is Portuguese but has the same meaning) 3. Along with records from churches,manumission societies, enslavers, and estate settlements, these documents provide a vast pool of data from which to trace patterns and trends from the colonial period through emancipation. Thanks LaBrenda! . If the slaveholder or another free white man was their father, many Creoles did use either is first or last name as a surname. They established and held on to their own cultural traditions in the small spaces that slavery afforded them. I was called mostly Lewis Smith till after the war, although I was named Dick Lewis Smith After the War, I was wearing the name Lewis Smith, but I found the negroes were taking the names of their fathers, like the white folks. Societies. In 1801, the British government took the first census for Great Britain and Ireland. CLICK HERE TO REGISTER NOW! I hope this post also helps us to think about how the surnames former slaves had were connected to their experiences in slavery. Many took the surname of famous or celebrated people; such as 'Lincoln', 'Grant', and 'Washington' was very popular. Another slave named Bill who attended the sheep became Bill Shepherd. 40. It was after emancipation on that I went back to work for Col. Morrow and where I got the name "Lottie," as already explained. Copeland This last name comes from Old Norse origin. Are you thinking this woman Eliza Ellis was married to Wash Ellis? Ethereal and delicate, Cassandra was in the Top 70 throughout the 1990s but is now descending in popularity. I am a farmer. Thus, the patronymic surname can be effectively regarded as "keeper of the peace." This phenomenon is not unheard of with African American surnames. ", "If you look deeply into the palm of your hand, you will see your parents and all the generations of your ancestors. I was only three years old when she died. There has been disagreement about whether it was slaveholders or the enslaved who gave the recorded names. Fortunately, the French and Latin were excellent record keepers and the Catholics were obsessed with knowing the kinship of everyone. The following is a list of historical people who were enslaved at some point during their lives, in alphabetical order by first name. Elijah is derived from the Hebrew name Eliyahu, composed of the elements. Hi Donna, 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). In French-speaking Louisiana, Slave names reflected the dominant language and thus were generally different from those in the English colonies. Augustin Meaning: a descendant of Augustine Origin: English 2. Although enslavers often assigned names to newly acquired enslaved peoplethat were whimsical, satirical, or condescending in intent, the frequent appearance of classical names-Venus, Cato, Hercules, Bacchus, Pompey-reflect enslavers' own educations and libraries. Q. Another slave named Bill who attended the sheep became Bill Shepherd. I am an engineer by day, but my true passion lies in genealogy. This page is currently showing names ranked from 1 to 1000. If a surname was needed, the slave owners family name might be used. Names of prominent slaveholderse.g. Slavery existed in the United States from its founding in 1776 and became the main . ", "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. Join my mailing list below to learn about upcoming webinars. One name you find frequently used was Freeman or Freedmen to declare their new freedom. 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. I love how you have documented the history of your own surname. Even worse, during this period, many African Americanssome using surnames for the very first timechanged their surnames once or even several times. Email:genealogy@slcl.org Even that feels like something. They are part of Records of the U.S. Customs Service . 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. In Greek mythology, Daphne was the nymph daughter of Peneus, a river god. The Voice of the Black Community in California, Last Updated on October 14, 2010 by Paulette Brown-Hinds. In the 1760s Anglo-American frontiersmen, determined to settle the land, planted slavery firmly within the borders of what would become Tennessee. In fact, it's not even past. This is another instance of oral history being a key component in tracing African American ancestry. There are issues, too, about how to interpret the recorded names, which have been classified in different ways depending on researchers interests. Q. Anthropologist Meyer Fortes's observation that the naming practices of any society "epitomize personal experiences, historical happenings, attitudes to life, and cultural ideas and values" holds particularly true for African American enslaved people. Runaway ads illustrate how many slaveholders knew the surnames of their slaves. Former slaves often made up surnames based on their occupations. 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. Extensive records of slaveholding over several generations exist for a number of North Carolina plantations, most notably the Skinner and Hayes plantations in Chowan County; Pettigrew plantations in Tyrrell, Washington, and Wake Counties; Bennehan-Cameron plantation in Orange County; Hargrove plantation in Granville County; Arrington plantations in Nash and Edgecombe Counties; Avery plantation in Burke County; and Lenoir plantation in Caldwell County. In 2001, I began a process of transcribing names of some of the largest slaveholders and matching the surnames with numbers of African Americans on the 1870 . Just from the detail in your first comment, I knew there was a good chance you were already familiar with those authors. The slave schedules of 1860 Arkansas do not give the names of the slaves. It was after emancipation on that I went back to work for Col. Morrow and where I got the name Lottie, as already explained. I have been a researcher, writer, and lecturer for over twenty-five years. 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. 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. They cut it off from OCTAVIA. Slavery. ", "Call it a clan, call it a network, all it a tribe, call it a family. I was only three years old when she died. Middle Tennessee, where tobacco, cattle, and grain became the favored crops, held the . All of them are alive in this moment. 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. My fathers name was John Crosby and he lived in the town of Geneva, Alabama, I had two brothers and one sister. Of course my mother wasnt a Bradley fore she married. In 1911, Barnett and Frys widow, Mollie, both applied for pensions from the government. Former slaves often made up surnames based on their occupations. Trinidad and Tobago. Introduction. I was called mostly Lewis Smith till after the war, although I was named Dick Lewis SmithDick was the brother of John Barnett whom I learned was my father . Oxford Bibliographies Online is available by subscription and perpetual access to institutions. The surname Williams occurs roughly 550 times per 100,000 people in the U.S. You can find explanations for each of the table columns below, or use the following links to view more last names for different ancestries. 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. Hi Rodney, 2019 (cited under the Anglophone Caribbean) includes a good general introduction to slave naming. Rounding out the Top 40, here are the next 30 most common names among African-Americans and Caribbean people: Taylor (Jayceon Terrel Taylor "The Game") Wilson (Charlie Wilson) Moore (Shemar Moore) White (Barry White) Lewis (Carl Lewis) Walker (Jimmie J. J. Walker) Green (Al Green) Thompson (Kenan Thompson) Washington (Denzel Washington) 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. This happened mostly on large plantations where several individuals had the same first names and a surname was used to distinguish them from one another. I dont know what became of his parents. 1760-1810 Persons declared to be "white by law" or "free" (part 1), (part 2) at Jamaican Family Search Genealogy Research Library. Who called you by that name and where was it done? Surnames. Major types on which most would agree are European place and literary names, European personal names in hypocoristic (pet or diminutive) form, biblical and classical names, and names of African origin. Robyn. What remains utterly amazing to me is that in the worst of circumstances, and in spite of every attempt to crush any idea that slaves were anything other than commodities, slaveholders did not succeed. Olympic speed skater Apolo Anton Ohno might inspire some parents. This old French surname has Germanic origin, and means 'noble'. Finding the Slave Who Bore Philomene Daurat. There is also another historian, Gwendolyn Midlo Hall who did work on African ethnicities in Louisiana, you can read more of that here if you havent seen that yet: http://whitneyplantation.com/the-louisiana-slave-database.html, Again, I applaud you for doing the research on the history of the areas where your ancestors livedmany researchers dont realize how crucial that understanding is. Abara: Originating from the Igbo group of West Africa, Abara means 'spirit'. A. Mr. Thomas Jefferson of Louisville, bought me when I was three years of age from Mr. Dearing. Register now! Thanks for writing this post! They cut it off from OCTAVIA. Brief, but stimulating and thoughtful for students coming new to the subject. 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. In 1911, Barnett and Fry's widow, Mollie, both applied for pensions from the government. A Wessyngton slave named Bill who was the plantation's blacksmith was known as Billy the Smith during slavery. Famous name bearers: many King Louis of France, Sandra Bullock's son and actor Louis Partridge. Brown: A common last name derived from an ancestor's complexion or the color of their hair. The resources Im getting from my colleagues through Facing History have been just invaluable. In the. John C. Inscoe, "Carolina Slave Names: An Index to Acculturation," Journal of Southern History 59 (November 1983). Enslaved people remained legally nameless from the time of their capture until their purchase by American enslavers. . South Atlantic Creole A Spanish America After Independence, 1825-1900, Tudor and Stuart Britain in the Wider World, 1485-1685, Warfare, Medicine, and Disease in the Atlantic World.

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