Black History Month:Giles County’s African American Community in the 19th Century

Tracing the history of the African American community in Giles County is proving to be a formidable challenge for researchers at the Giles County Historical Society. Last year we
began a research project to draw a picture of life in the 19th century for Giles County’s black residents. Records are sketchy, especially for slaves, whose names were usually not recorded in official documents.

What kinds of documents have provided us with information? From the county’s first decade we have in the 1810 federal census a list of slaveholders, who owned a total of 240 slaves. Slave names, age and sex are not given.

During the first half of the century, names of slaves were rarely noted, except in the personal papers of slaveholders. A few names, however, can be gleaned from probate and other records in the Giles County courthouse. For instance, an estate inventory from 1813 lists “1 old milk cow, 1 copper still, 1 rifle, an old saddle, 1 tomahawk, glass bottles, a Bible, a big coat, three hats, black girl Jinny, black woman Silvy, black man Jack.”

The “Giles County Register of Free Negroes” for the years 1816, 1817, 1818, and 1825 provide us with surnames. The most frequent are Holland, Viney or Vinia, Lewis, and Hendrick or Hendricks. The numbers of free blacks range from around 20 to 40 in a given year.

In 1850 and 1860 the U.S. Government published comprehensive “Slave Schedules”, listing every slaveholder in Giles County and the age, sex, and “color” (black or mulatto) of each slave they possessed. The Federal Censuses for those years also lists individual names of Giles County’s free blacks. By this time the Holland, Lewis and Hendrick names have mostly disappeared, and few Vineys remain.

In these same records new names become prominent, including the families of Samuel Callender, blacksmith; William Scott, shoemaker; Francis Harman, farmer; Daniel Moss, blacksmith; as well as the Collins, the Shavers, and Thomas Beasley, a Staffordsville farmer whose property was worth the considerable sum (at the time) of nearly $2000. Up to the time of the Civil War, the population of African Americans, both enslaved and free, came to nearly 12% of the county’s total population. Today’s figure is a little over 2%.

Last year Historical Society researchers unearth a gold mine of information at the National Archives in Washington, DC. – the Freedmen’s Bureau Census. The Freedmen’s Bureau was
created by the government in 1865 to assist freed slaves with housing, medical care, education, and legal and security threats. In 1865 they conducted a census of freed slaves in the South, and the Giles County list has fortunately survived. For the first time we have the first and last names of former slaves, their ages and the names of their former masters.

We are now looking at the 1870 and 1880 Federal Census records and have noted a rapid drop in the county’s black population. Court records from the time of the Civil War mention large numbers of runaway slaves fleeing the county in the wake of two Union invasions. Enlistment records of the U.S. Colored Troops indicate that several Giles County men joined the Union
Army, and their families may have followed them North during or after the war.

We are still in the preliminary stages of piecing together a picture early Giles’ African American community. The records are now being gathered, transcribed and analyzed, and will eventually be published on our website. But we need help – we are few and the records are many! Perhaps a retired teacher or history buff with spare time would like to help? Contact Kate Delaney at 921-3999, or 921-1050.