Free Men in an Age of Servitude by Lee H. Warner

Author:Lee H. Warner [Warner, Lee H.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Biography & Autobiography, Cultural; Ethnic & Regional, General, Social Science, Ethnic Studies, American, African American & Black Studies, History, United States, State & Local, Discrimination
ISBN: 9780813195117
Google: CeMzEAAAQBAJ
Publisher: University Press of Kentucky
Published: 2021-12-14T05:20:50+00:00

SEVEN

George’s Family

At George Proctor’s departure the family unit was intact and would remain so for a decade. Toney the patriarch was ninety-nine and, for his age, active and lucid. Nancy, thirty-four, had five of the surviving children in her care: Charlotte, age nine; Georgianna, age six; John, who had accompanied his father to St. Marks for his departure, age four; Mahainam Stewart, three years old; and George, the baby, who was one. A sixth child, Mary, who would have been three years old, appears to have survived but evidently was not with the family in 1850. The final member of the household was George’s cousin Lydia Stout, later Smith, age twenty-nine.1

Nancy does not appear to have been a strong, dominant personality, which is not to judge her role as a nurturer or as a mother. Nowhere does any picture of her personality appear. None of the children, significantly, with the possible exception of Georgianna and Mary who—probably because of marriage—disappear from view, named any of their children after Nancy.2

Lydia Stout was a free mulatto: her presence in the house was ambiguous. If George had understood that Nancy might require help in his absence, it would aid in explaining Lydia Stout’s presence. John remembered that his father had “persuaded” Lydia to come to Tallahassee “to be a governess” for the children. John also remembered that Lydia was from the Bahamas, although she told the census takers that she had been born in Florida. A substantial person in her own right, Lydia would marry the Methodist pastor James Smith. She became a school teacher and was a pillar of the black community throughout her life.3

At the time of his departure, the entire family was probably legally considered the slave property of George, even though they were recorded as being free in the 1850 census. The location of the household is unclear. While the family would be under the care—and ownership—of the Rutgerses later in the decade, in 1850 they appear to have been residing in the country, and the Rutgerses remained in town.4

As the bonds of slaves became critically important to Southerners, and without George and his connections to the power structure, the family’s situation grew precarious. It is unlikely, though, that their sale was routine; some critical event must have precipitated the act. The sheriff had received the execution in 1846, three years before George departed, and he had held it for four years.

The most likely conclusion is that news of the Sonora disaster arrived, and the money from George stopped coming. George was making money until the fire, and he was sending a portion of it back to Tallahassee. But after the fire and the large adverse judgment that resulted in the sale of the Florida House a year later, it is hard to conceive how the payments to Tallahassee could have continued. The sale of the family occurred early in February 1854.

Proctor had left the family with a person he thought would protect them in all circumstances. A “gentleman”

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