There was often a fluidity to the surnames that enslaved people had. Eliza Moore (1843 - January 21, 1948) Source = Pinimg. African Americans tended to use surnames associated with their own families instead of the last slave owner. My mothers name was Octavia Smith and it was from her that I got it but where the name came from to her I never knew. Questions about slave naming intersect with some of the major debates in slavery studies (especially regarding Creolization and the formation of Atlantic Creoles) and can illuminate issues about the ethnicity of African slaves, the personhood and agency of those enslaved, the nature of kinship structures among the enslaved, and the survival of African cultural practices in the diaspora. Robinson: A patronymic of the name Robin. slave rebellions, in the history of the Americas, periodic acts of violent resistance by Black slaves during nearly three centuries of chattel slavery. I was only three years old when she died. Isaiah derives from the Hebrew Yeshayahu, containing the elements. Bailey, Word Stories Surrounding African American Slavery. It starts with a young man falling in love with a girl. 1-86-NARA-NARA or 1-866-272-6272, Finding Aids for the National Archives at Atlanta, National Archives Catalog (National Archives Identifier 2767350). The poster on each page *provides the link to the handout* for that lecture, so be sure to copy it. Almost every major tome on slavery discusses slave naming practices in some form or fashion. David Nicolle, Graham Turner: Poitiers AD 732: Charles Martel Turns the Islamic Tide. This is due in part to officials imposing surnames on them based on their last owners. 9 of the Biggest Slave Owners in American History - Atlanta Black Star 1760-1810 Persons declared to be "white by law" or "free" (part 1), (part 2) at Jamaican Family Search Genealogy Research Library. Now, that parent's surname could very well be the surname of the most recent slaveholder or an earlier slaveholder. Louis (M) (English origin) means "famous warrior". In 1850, Ward. -Thich Nhat Hanh, evolve theme by Theme4PressPowered by WordPress, Maryland Genealogical Society Holiday Luncheon, December 2017-2, Washington FHC Annual Conference, May 2011, Baltimore Family History Conference, October 2017-2, International Black Genealogy Summit, September 2016-2, Carroll County Genealogical Society Dinner, June 2018, Baltimore Family History Conference, October 2017, Reginald Lewis Museum, September 2011-2.jpg, Maryland State Archives Family History Festival, October 2014-2, Central Maryland AAHGS Meeting, March 2013, Robyn, Vonda, Andrea and Glenn, NGS Conf., May 2014, Maryland Genealogical Society Holiday Luncheon, December 2017-1, Howard Comm. Since those are the countries from which many of America's original settlers came, it's hardly surprising. LOTTIE had been the name of the nurse before me and so they just continued that same name. 2019 (cited under the Anglophone Caribbean) includes a good general introduction to slave naming. When retained, a given name was generally changed to its full form: Thomas, not Tom; Elizabeth, not Bet. This topic interests me greatly and Id like to do more research. Fernsby, (Old English Origin) Derived from the old English words meaning "fern farmstead". Post Author: Post published: 18 avril 2022; Post Category: . 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. A. Lottie Smith was my name and what they called me before I met Phillip and was married to him. In my own family history, on my Yarborough side, I believe I have uncovered a pattern that my formerly-enslaved great-grandparents, Calvin and Precilla YARBOROUGH may have used in naming their children. Q. I took the name of Jackson for the reason that I preferred to go by my fathers name, rather than the name of my last owner.. 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! Just makes me sad for the human spirit that anyone, let alone hundreds of thousands of people could participate in it. No superior alternative has yet been found. 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 It is mandatory to procure user consent prior to running these cookies on your website. How lucky you were to find that Freedmans Bank document! Changing Names | Facing History and Ourselves Political Participation in the Nineteenth Century Atlantic Portugal and Brazile in the Age of Revolutions, Poverty in the Early Modern English Atlantic, Reconstruction, Democracy, and United States Imperialism, Settlement and Region in British America, 1607-1763, Slavery in British and American Literature, Slavery in Dutch America and the West Indies, Slavery in North America, The Growth and Decline of. Besides the Morrows, whom else did you live with in Louisville? Cook Cook has an Old English origin, and it means 'one who cooks' or 'one who sold cooked meat'. Hello My hat goes off to you and your passionate efforts. Plus, Jonah comes with a ready-made nursery-decorating motif. Drawing on extensive archival records, this digital memorial allows analysis of the ships, traders, and captives in the Atlantic slave trade. -Hugh Kingsmill, "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?" E. Togo Salmon Conference, E. Togo Salmon Conference 1993 Mcmaster University: Goodyear III, Frank H. "Photography changes the way we record and respond to social issues". Some last names recognize certain histories or describe important events or narratives that mean a lot to the family. You can read the introductory maps for a high-level guided explanation, view the timeline and chronology of . Slavery existed in the United States from its founding in 1776 and became the main . 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. this page. Unique Surnames to Grenada. And please do share posts that interest you. One of my grandfathers in Africa was called Jeaceo, and so I decided to be Jackson. ", "If you can't get rid of the skeleton in your closet, you might as well make it dance! Part of what drives me in this research, I think, is the feeling that I am reclaiming their stories, their names, and their very being, even if what I uncover is just a tiny bit. 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. 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. However the frequent rebellions by . It means 'raven'. It is these single names that have been most often studied. They called me OCK. James: (M) (Latin origin) means "heel" or "supplanter". 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. Distinctively Black names were thought to have risen from the Civil Rights and Black Power Movements, which promoted the use of names with connections to Africa. Rank. Hi Jann, Slavery | Tennessee Encyclopedia Thanks for commenting and continued luck in your research, 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 addition to time and place, a likely variable is whether the birth rate, in a severely overworked and maltreated population, was sufficient to ensure a relatively stable population over several generations, or whether the high mortality associated with slavery led to declining numbers and hence to the frequent acquisition of new slaves. ", "Families are like fudge; mostly sweet with a few nuts. > | 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). Bernard Meaning: brave warrior Origin: French 4. 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. List of slave owners - Wikipedia In many cases this is ignored and children use their fathers name! As a result, many slaves used the surnames of their owners wifes family. Best of luck to you in your research, Throughout the colonial period, as many as one-fifth of the enslaved people in North Carolina retained African names; Quash, Cuffee, Mingo, Sambo, Mustapha, and Sukey were among the most common recorded. PDF Slave Names in Colonial South Carolina - Latin American Studies In fact, the previous enslaver widow sold most of the slaves. It is certainly possible that Wilsons siblings could have been sold away or owned by others. common last names in the 1800s - conference.ase.ro Jamaican Surnames - Jamaican Family Search Kaplan, Justin, and Anne Bernays. Brutus) and a private name (e.g. Archambeau. BRATHWAITE - This name was derived from a geographic location in the north of England. Thanks LaBrenda! Slaves were generally listed with just one name and thus with little to none of the genealogical information recorded for free whites. Going back a decade to the 1850 Slave Schedule, both William Wood and Samuel O. Well, Ive gone off on a tangent again;) But thank you again for writing and thank you for the cemetery work (especially trying to include African-Americans you are doing that will be of benefit to others. Students consider what it means to be free by learning about the choices and aspirations of freedpeople immediately after Emancipation. Therefore, a few of the most common first names of the time such as Mary (rank 815) and Sarah (1010) will appear in the list and surnames which correspond to personal names (e.g. They called me OCK. This page is currently showing names ranked from 1 to 1000. Herbert G. Gutman, The Black Family in Slavery and Freedom, 1750-1925 (1976). Robyn. Robyn. But if Romeo and Venus are now deemed baby-appropriate, why not Apollo? . "Injurious Names: Naming, Disavowal, and Recuperation in Contexts of Slavery and Emancipation." In The Anthropology of Names and Naming. These cookies will be stored in your browser only with your consent. i have no way to confirm this. Besides the Morrows, whom else did you live with in Louisville? Spencer is a name that has everything: it's both distinguished sounding and accessible, dignified but Spencer Tracy-like friendly. Slavery's reach is still with us, and part of the gift of doing African-American genealogy, "The past is not dead. Robyn. Eugene D. Genovese, Roll, Jordan, Roll: The World the Slaves Made (1974). 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. Jonah, the name of the Old Testament prophet who was swallowed by the whale, only to emerge unharmed three days later, is increasingly appreciated by parents looking for a biblical name less common than Jacob or Joshua, yet not too obscure. What are the most popular last names in the UK? Location the owner of ones ancestor is crucial for an African American genealogist to trace his family before 1870. Another myth is once African Americans were sold they never saw their families again. Hi Rodney, Have you visited the Whitney Plantation yet? I communicate with them on Facebook. ", "Call it a clan, call it a network, all it a tribe, call it a family. Instead a wide variety of surnames came about that would be the family name for future generations. The top 5 most common Hispanic last names from the 1920s are: 1. I would still recommend all of these books, except the first one listed for obvious reasons. It is from this myth that the plant genus, Phoebe is the Latin variation of the Greek name Phoibe, which derived from. Also, the government seemed to be in a almighty hurry to have us get names. . In these cases, unless the name change had been passed down in the family by oral history, it would be impossible to trace the family back any further. The resources Im getting from my colleagues through Facing History have been just invaluable. Nonetheless, this is a situation where two brothers selected different surnames. Sabe, Anque, Bumbo, Jobah, Quamana, Taynay, and Yearie) used in the Slave quarters. Slavery. All of them are alive in this moment. Others who wanted no connection to their former owners used surnames like Freeman or Freedman. . Q. Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. 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. The, For descendants, I would add the substantial emotional impact of seeing an ancestor's name attached to a dollar value, or being valued in a list with silverware and cattle. Abel, et al. i did a simple search of the 1860 slave schedule using the name Culbert and came up with slaveholders in MS,VA,NC,AL,GA and SC holding 17 enslaved people. In the context of The Bahamas, the surname appears to originate with Denys Rolle, an American Loyalist who re-settled on Exuma, one of the so-called Out Islands of The Bahamas, sometime in the mid-1780s. At her death when Thomas was ten, he was sold to Solomon Cobbs who lived nearby. Join my mailing list below to receive my posts and get a free PDF with some of my favorite tips! Prior to the emancipation of the American slaves in 1863, those African-Americans held in bondage had usually just one or two given names. It was after emancipation on that I went back to work for Col. Morrow and where I got the name "Lottie," as already explained. According to the latest search data available, Italian last names and their meanings are searched for nearly, 40,500 times per month. 1754 Excerpts from the Courant for June 22 to 29, 1754 at Jamaican Family Search Genealogy Research Library - contain the names of some "runaway slaves" or indentured servants, and information about them. Each is present in your body. They are part of Records of the U.S. Customs Service . Oxford Bibliographies Online is available by subscription and perpetual access to institutions. Gradually, to show contempt for Slaves, the captors used Buck and Wench for naming the genders till they became trade terms, like Filly and Shoat.Contempt for the male was removing his honorific attachment to fatherhood and manhood by being addressed as Boy. Once the vigorous years of his prime were passed, he was allowed to assume the title of Uncle. Females were called Gal, girl, or the name of some animal. Thanks for writing this post! No, I don't know to whom she belonged before she was brought from Virginia to Kentucky. Thomas Black Cobbs was owned by a small slave owner Catherine Black. Hi Rodney, Derived from the word anull that is the Catalan language dominantly used in southern France, Anouilh means 'slow worm'. Garcia is the Spanish variation of the word Gerald that means a pointed weapon, like a spear. Register now! Edited by Gabriele vom Bruck and Barbara Bodenhorn, 178199. On the U.S. Federal census that year, Wesley's birthplace was recorded as Alabama, the same as his father, and his mother's birthplace was South Carolina . In the. The names they gave their children provide a valuable, if limited, index of that process over time. Once the slaves were freed they found they did need another name besides a given name. If the former slave had been befriended or assisted in getting established after the Civil War, they might have taken that persons name. Here, three different former slaves discuss their names and the changes they underwent after Emancipation. Thank you for your comment, These require Microsoft Word and a Windows platform. This phenomena makes research very complicated when you dont know the mothers surname. 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. Chapter 4 gives a brief and introductory outline of naming in the United States during slavery and its consequences in African American culture. Relish, (Old French Origin) Derived from relaisse meaning "flavor or taste". For more information or to contact an Oxford Sales Representative click here. Ebba: One of the more unique girl names from the 1800s. 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. 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. The Complexity of Slave Surnames > Reclaiming Kin A. Lottie Smith was my name and what they called me before I met Phillip and was married to him. Wood were recorded as slave. . I am awar eof the different naming traditions practiced in that area and I thank you for sharing them here for my readers. how the surnames former slaves had were connected to their experiences in slavery. Most Popular African Last Names Or Surnames. I was called by that name all the time I was with the Morrows. common last names in the 1800s - stmatthewsbc.org Who called you by that name and where was it done? Turner was deeply religious,. I found in the Civil War registry, an enslaved man who enrolled in the infantry under the name of Wash Ellis.