Slavery and Freedom in Texas by Jason A. Gillmer

Author:Jason A. Gillmer
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: University of Georgia Press
Published: 2017-10-15T00:00:00+00:00

Postscript

Charles James McDonald Furman, who lived from 1863 until 1904, was fascinated with history. The native South Carolinian was a bit of an eccentric, the great-grandson of the Reverend Richard Furman, the person after whom Furman University is named. Among his other pursuits, McDonald Furman took an interest in the old mixed-race families that used to live in South Carolina. He collected newspaper clippings and wrote letters to people in an effort to gather information on their background. Although he never wrote a book or an article of any length, his research has provided a helpful avenue for those seeking additional information about the people who used to live there, including those who shared a possible ethnic connection.106

One of the letters McDonald Furman received was from A. Rigmaiden, the treasurer of Calcasieu Parish, Louisiana, in 1893. “I suppose you know the kind of people who are called red bones,” Rigmaiden started out, in response to an inquiry from McDonald Furman. “The oldest ones came from sc many years ago. There are a great many of them in this Parish . . . & a good many in Texas too.” Listing the “principal & oldest families,” he named the Ashworths first, followed by the Goins, the Perkins, the Sweats, and the Dials, among others. “They are neither white nor black as well as I can find out,” he said, later adding that “they are not looked on as being negroes, Indians nor white people.” Noting that the families had long occupied the borderlands of race, Rigmaiden confirmed that they still seemed to prefer the company of each other. “These people keep pretty well together & marry amongst themselves mostly.” The self-imposed isolation came as old news to those who knew them. Black people had “no use or love for them & they don’t like the negroes any better,” Rigmaiden said. In 1893, with the state of Louisiana among those convinced that even “one drop” of African blood tainted the entire line, they also were not welcome in the white community, at least among the respectable class of Louisiana. “Occasionally a white man or woman marries among them but if they do it is generally a low class of white people. It is . . . very unpleasant to live about these people for this reason.”107

Following the events of 1856, the family’s standing in Orange and Jefferson Counties continued to suffer. After the violence died down, a few Ashworths who fled to Louisiana crossed back over the Sabine into Texas to join the one or two who had never left. The tax records reveal, however, that it was only those families of the older generations, those who had proved their worth and earned enough respect from the early settlers to continue to live in a country now openly hostile to free people of color. In 1857 and 1858, William was there, as were Sam’s father, Aaron, and a family member named Luke. In 1859, Sam’s uncle Abner came back. But none seemed able to regain their footing, struggling to retain their former positions of wealth and prominence.

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