Research Tip: Slaves and Slavs in the U.S. Census (and how to tell the difference!)

"No census taken between 1790 and 1860 contains even one slave's name."

Harriet C. Frazier, Runaway and Freed Missouri Slaves and Those Who Helped Them, 1763-1865, (McFarland & Company: 2004), p. 12.

Most genealogists will not find this statement particularly surprising. We all know that, except for a very few free blacks, African-Americans were not enumerated by name in the federal census until 1870. The only problem with this bit of conventional wisdom is that it isn't true!

In fact, a number of slaves are listed by name in several states in several census years. To find them, put the word "slave" in either the first name or the surname search box in your Favorite Commercial On-line Research Website (you know who I mean!).

Searching "slave" as a first name, and leaving the surname box empty, yields several census results. Of course, there are the 1850 and 1860 Slave schedules, but these don't list the slaves by name. Then there are the Mortality Schedules for 1850-1880, but again these don't list the slave's names . There are names on these schedules, but they are the names of slaveholders (although there are several instances where the names of slaves appear--see for example, the 1860 slave schedule for Oglethorpe County, Georgia, Ancestry.com. 1860 U.S. Federal Census - Slave Schedules [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: The Generations Network, Inc., 2004. Original data: United States of America, Bureau of the Census. Eighth Census of the United States, 1860. Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, 1860. M653, 1,438 rolls). Where are there names of slaves? Patience, Grasshopper, patience.

In the 1840 census of Nansemond, Virignia, there is a person described as "Demsey of Stallings (slave)". However, there appear to be at least two "free colored persons" living in this household, so it is not entirely clear that "Demsey of Stallings" really is a slave. I should note that on this census there are several individuals listed thusly "(first name) of _______." They are all "free colored persons."

In the 1820 census of St Mary's County, Maryland, there is a person described as "Slave Backey of Boutte." Examining the document, it appears that there are three or perhaps four individuals in the household and they all appear to be slaves. Even so, I would understand if someone felt that this example seems a bit ambiguous.

So try this: put the word "slave" in the surname box and leave the first name box empty. Now on the 1840 census, there are a number of persons, mainly in Mobile, Alabama, with the apparent surname "Slave." But notice how they all have the same middle initial: "A"! So it's not "Nancy A. Slave;" it's "Nancy, a slave." You can tell this by noticing that there are no marks or numerals in the corresponding columns for "free white people" or "free colored people." The household seems to be enumerated just in the "slaves" columns. Thus there are at least 13 slaves named in the 1840 census of Mobile, Montgomery County, Alabama. And there are several others around the country: "Delilia, a slave," and "James, a slave" are found in Knox County, Tennessee, while "Shedrick, slave" resides in Loudon County, Virginia. "Franky, a slave, owner unknown," was counted in Wake County, North Carolina. [Can a person be a slave if their owner is "unknown"?].

The 1860 census has several bondpersons listed in Wilmington, North Carolina, including "A Mute Slave."

Searching "slave" as a first name and separately as a surname yields a treasure trove of results other than federal census records. There are state census records. And moreover, there are birth, death, and even marriage records for slaves in a number of states. Many of these records name slaves. And they reveal much about the social brutality of slavery. Search for the word "slave" as a surname in the Ancestry.com database "Rockingham County, Virginia Births, 1853-1857," and you'll see what I mean.

Searching for the word "slave" as a name also results in quite a few immigration and passenger records for African-Americans prior to 1860. For example, on 12 June 1820, Michel Allain arrived at the Port of New Orleans from Cuba with "his slave, a black man named Louis," according to Ancestry.com's New Orleans Passenger Lists, 1820-1945.

Tina Turner's Great-Grandfather was a Slave, But What's Slav Got to Do With It?

One thing to be careful about is that "Slave" may in fact be a legitimate surname or at least a transcription of a legitimate surname. It appears that a number of people from the Baltics and other eastern European states were either named or referred to as "Slave." So you can be sure that Slave Dimitriss who arrived in New York on 21 April 1910 from Southampton was not a former African bondman. But records can be tricky. How can you with great confidence tell a slave from a Slav?

First, look at the geographical area to which the record refers. Slaves tend to be found in the South; Slavs, not so much. Slavs generally are found in northern cities; Slaves, not so much. Then look to the time period. Slaves are generally so referred to prior to 1865; Slavs generally later than that. Look at first names as a clue. If there is a place of birth or race listed in your record, that's a clear giveaway.

Of course, for every rule, there is the ambiguous case. So for example, what's up with 18 year-old Ellen L. Slave of Waterbury, Connecticut, enumerated on the 1860 census of New Haven County, Connecticut? Answer: we could take a guess, but we really don't know without more. Or how about the "Slaves" of Edmonson County, Kentucky on the 1860 census? Well, this is probably just a transcription error.

"Slave" also turns up as a surname from the United Kingdom, especially Ireland and Scotland.

Other Searches

Other non-standard searches to find African-Americans include searching the word "Negro" as a first name or surname or the word "colored" as a first name or surname. These searches yield information that when combined with other information may help identify pre-1870 African-American ancestors. For example, a search on the word "colored" results in over 100 records in Ancestry.com's St Louis City Death Records.


The Last Word

We've seen that it is not true that slaves did not appear by name in the census until 1870. We've also learned that a number of records can be accessed by racial description in a name search. That, of course, is because of the way records were kept in a different era. And speaking of racial descriptions in a different era, some of you may be wondering the same thing I was wondering. I'll get to that in the next post.

Sacramento African-American Genealogy Seminar

The Sacramento Regional Family History Center will hold its third annual seminar on African-American genealogy on Saturday, March 8, 2008. Registration is $20 with lunch, or $15 without lunch. Preference will be given to advance registrants. The Sacramento Regional Family History Center is located at 2745 Eastern Ave in Arden-Arcade. The center's phone number is 916-487-2090. It's open on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 10 a.m. to 9:30 p.m.; Wednesday from 10 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.; and Friday 10 a.m. to 7 p.m.

Black Catholics In America: Who Was The First African-American Priest?

The answer is . . . it depends on who you ask. And sometimes the same person will give two different answers!

The contenders are Father James Healy (1830-1900), ordained 1854; and Father Augustine Tolton (1854-1897), ordained 1886.

The simple genealogical data would seem conclusive: James Healy was the first African-American priest. But it's not quite that simple.

The 1830 census of Jones County, Georgia, helps tell part of the story. That census shows a household that consists of a single white man and a number of slaves. Despite the characterization on the census, the slaves are in fact Michael Healy's wife and children. According to Africana: The Encyclopedia of the African and African-American Experience, co-authored by Henry Louis Gates, Jr., Michael Healy had been an Irish soldier in the British Army who deserted in the War of 1812. He eventually made his way to Georgia where he acquired land and slaves. He began a relationship with a slave named Mary Eliza Smith and had children with her. Some reports claim that Healy and Mary Eliza were married by an itinerant preacher. Such a marriage would have been illegal under Georgia law at the time.

Michael Healy acknowledged his children and was concerned for their welfare and education. He arranged for Mary Eliza and three of their sons, Hugh, Patrick, and James, to be sent north so that the boys could be educated.

The Healy sons were enrolled in a Quaker school in New York State. Sometime later, they transferred to Holy Cross College in Massachusetts. James was the valedictorian of the 1849 graduating class. While at Holy Cross, James felt the call to the priesthood.

Blacks were not admitted to American seminaries at the time, so James went first to a Canadian seminary in Montreal and then to the Sulpician seminary in Paris. In 1854 in Paris, he was ordained a priest of the Boston diocese. Healy spent some time as secretary to the bishop and then as an assistant pastor. In 1866, he became pastor of St James Church, the largest parish in Boston.

Father Healy was a strong spokesman for Catholics in what was then a hostile environment. His work at St James led to his being selected as bishop of Portland, Maine, in 1875.

Many parishioners apparently did not realize that the light skinned Father Healy was of African descent. He did not particularly make that fact known. For several years, he declined to attend the Congress of Colored Catholics, expressing the view that, "We are of that Church where there is neither Gentile nor Jew, circumcision nor uncircumcision, barbarian nor Scythian, slave nor freeman, but Christ is all and in all."

Father Augustine Tolton was born in 1854, the same year Bishop Healy was ordained. He was born in Ralls County, Missouri, the son of slaves. Some reports say that his father left the family to join the Union Army, but my cursory search found no evidence of that. In any event, during the Civil War, the family escaped slavery and moved to Illinois, a free state. One report claims that the slaveowner, a man named Elliott, actually freed the Tolton family. An extension of that story and likely apochryphal, says that upon being freed, young Augustine was baptized in the waters of Brush Creek, with Mrs. Elliott as his godmother.

The family ended up in Quincy, Illinois. Augustine attended Catholic schools in Quincy and heard the call to Holy Orders. But black men still were not permitted to attend American seminaries. In 1880, he went to Rome to attend seminary. He was ordained in 1886 and returned to the diocese of Alton, Illinois.

Father Tolton became well known in Illinois and was either loved or hated. At some point, he was transferred to Chicago. Some say this move can as the result of the antipathy of a white priest in the diocese.

In Chicago, Father Tolton initially was assigned to a basement church that later became known as St Monica's. His reputation grew and he did not hesitate to travel and speak to various groups of Catholics. Unlike Bishop Healy, Father Tolton attended and spoke at the 1890 Congress of Colored Catholics.

Father Tolton died of heat stroke in 1897, at the age of 43.

So who is considered the first black priest in America? Some say it can't be Bishop Healy, because he never "proclaimed" himself black. Less charitable folks say that Healy was "passing." But by the racial rules in place then and now (although different "rules" now) Bishop Healy is properly considered the first man of African-American ancestry to be ordained a priest. Father Tolton is properly considered to be the first man with two slave parents to be ordained a priest.

Black History Month: Black Catholics in America

I have obliquely alluded, in this space, to the fact that I am of the Roman Catholic faith. This may come as a surprise to a lot of folks, some of whom believe a black Catholic is rarer than a campfire at the North Pole. Frequently, when people learn that I'm a Catholic, they say, "When did you convert?" Well, in my case, I didn't convert--I'm a so-called "cradle Catholic." But I will admit that I'm just a second generation Catholic.

I come from a maternal line that has a lot of Baptist preachers. Most prominent of these would be my great-grandfather, James William Long (1866-1945). He was a deacon at Kansas City's renowned Paseo Baptist Church before becoming pastor of Sunrise Baptist Church. My mother's uncle, Henry Willie Gines (1903-1980) was a Baptist preacher as was his son, Frank William Gines (1935-1999). My aunt, Delorise Gines, has a ministry that grew out of her participation at Paseo.

So how did I end up Catholic? Well, the earthly answer goes like this: my grandmother, Annie Florida Corrine Long, had a stormy relationship with her father, the aforementioned Rev. James William Long. I don't know all the details, but I'm sure it was not helped by her desire to be a dancer in Kansas City's vaudeville revues. When she left her parents' house in the 1920's, she became a dancer and never opened a Bible nor set foot in a church (except for weddings and funerals) ever again. Her children, including my mother, grew up "unchurched," for the most part.

But, as a teenager, my mother had three close friends, who, in today's vernacular, "hung out" together. They took turns going to each other's churches. One girl was Baptist, one Methodist, and one Catholic. As a result of these friendships, my mother eventually became very active in the Methodist church. She was a leader in a statewide Methodist teen group. Even while she did this, my mother continued to attend her other friends' churches and continued to study religion on her own. Ultimately, for reasons personal to her, my mother at age 16 became a Catholic.

Meanwhile, in Texas, my father was having religious experiences of his own. I don't know of any clergy on my father's side and I don't really know of any specific religious preferences in his family (with one exception). But because the Depression-era schools in Aransas County, Texas, refused to educate black children, the first school my father attended was a Catholic grade school. This evidently made an impression on him and he, too, became a Catholic as a teenager.

When my parents met in college, their Catholicism was something they had in common.

As I grew up, the only other black Catholic family I knew of was that of my paternal great-uncle, Herman Walker (1906-2002). And I don't think he was born a Catholic; rather I think he converted when he met and married his wife Ida, a French Creole Catholic from Louisiana. But he was a devout Catholic. His funeral program noted that he had attended St. Nicholas Catholic Church in Houston for sixty-six years and that he was a member of The Knights of Columbus and the Holy Name Society.

Despite their apparent invisibility, black Catholics have played important roles in the Church in America due originally and derivatively to the nation's French and Spanish heritages. In fact, the first blacks in America were Catholics. They helped settle America's oldest European-established city, St Augustine, Florida, in 1565.

Over the next few posts, we'll tell the stories of significant African-American Catholics.

Black History Month: Guinda, California

For those who know the Capay Valley in Yolo County, California, it's a place of great natural beauty, almond orchards, a few wineries, and (lately, unfortunately), Indian "gaming." Few folks know that the Capay Valley town of Guinda is rich in African-American history.

Read more here.

Black History Month: Dr. Rebecca Davis Lee Crumpler

Today is the 177th anniversary of the birth of Rebecca Davis Lee Crumpler, the first black woman in America to graduate from medical school and practice as a physician. [Early sources say that this distinction belongs to Rebecca Cole; however, it appears that Crumpler graduated several years before Cole]. Sources say she was born in Delaware and that her parents were Absolum Davis and Matilda Webber.

Apparently, little biographical matter exists about Rebecca Crumpler. It is known from her own writings that as a child she spent much time with an aunt in Pennsylvania who attended to the sick and may have been either a nurse or a midwife. In 1852, Rebecca moved to Charlestown, Massachusetts, where she worked as a nurse. She worked for various doctors for the next eight years.

In 1860, several of the doctors she worked for wrote letters recommending Rebecca to the New England Female College of Medicine. This was the world's first medical school for women [it later merged with Boston University to become Boston University School of Medicine--the first coeducational medical school in the world]. Rebecca was accepted and graduated in 1864. One of her professors was another pioneering woman physician, Dr. Marie Elizabeth Zakrzewska.

After graduation, Dr. Crumpler remained in the Boston area for awhile. But when the Civil War ended, she moved to Virginia to help poor people, mostly black, who had been affected by the war. She was married to a black physician, Dr. Arthur Crumpler.

At some point, exactly when is not clear, the Crumplers returned to the Boston area. They appear on the 1870 census living in Boston, and on the 1880 census living in Hyde Park, Massachusetts.

In 1883, Rebecca Crumpler wrote a book titled A Book of Medical Discourses, which was a reference book for women as well as guide to public health issues.

For a woman physician, finding work in the latter part of the nineteenth century was difficult, as even Dr. Crumpler's white female colleagues were discovering. For black physicians, work was not easy to find, either. By the time she wrote her book, Rebecca Crumpler was no longer actively practicing medicine. On the 1880 census, her occupation is listed as "keeping house," and her husband was said to be a "porter."

Rebecca Crumpler died in 1895 at the age of 64.

African-American Lives 2 Premieres Tonight

The second series of Henry Louis Gates, Jr.'s African-American Lives premieres tonight at 9:00 pm on most PBS stations. This is a "must-see" for all genealogists and family historians--all families for that matter. Check local listings for exact times.

One Drop

A GeneaBlogie Book Review

Bliss Broyard grew up in the wealthiest part of Fairfield, Connecticut, one of the wealthiest communities in the nation. She lived a life of privilege as one of two children of New York Times book critic and essayist Anatole Broyard. Her handsome, witty father was well-known in literary and social circles. But Bliss would find out that he was really unknown to her.


She always thought there were hidden things in her house and family, Bliss did. As a youngster, Bliss would search the house for evidence of secrets she had a feeling were there. And then there were the questions. Why did she seem to have so few relatives on her father's side? Why did she never see those few relatives, though they lived not far away? Why did she not know about her grandmother's death until nearly nine months after it happened? And just whose ashes were in those cardboard boxes in her father's closet?

As Anatole Broyard lay dying of cancer in 1990, his wife urged him to reveal his secret to his children. Anatole demurred and deferred despite his family's entreaties. Finally, two days before her husband passed away, Sandy Broyard told daughter Bliss and son Todd the secret: "Your father is part black."

This stunning revelation sent Bliss Broyard on a genealogical and historical journey of personal self-discovery and quest to find her father's true ancestry. She chronicles that journey in One Drop: My Father's Hidden Life--A Story of Race and Family Secrets (Little, Brown & Company, 2007; 514 pp.; available at Amazon.)

This crisply written book is deep in history and genealogy as Bliss travels to New Orleans, Los Angeles and New York City to find her relatives. She uncovers the unique social history of French and Spanish Louisiana where, at least early on, planters walked about openly with their slave mistresses and children. She finds the descendants of French soldier Etienne Broyard, people united in family but divided by race. She worries first how her black relatives will accept her, and then what her white relatives will think of her.

She comes to understand the pressures that led her father's parents and other relatives to "disappear" by "passing for white."

The book's rich historical narrative goes to prove my favorite aphorism that all history is personal. Bliss discovers, among other things, that her family played a role in one of the most significantly notorious decisions of the United States Supreme Court. Her ancestor Paul Broyard, a "colored Creole," was one of the Louisianans who set up the test case of Plessy v. Ferguson (1898). In that case, the Supreme Court upheld the segregationist principle of "separate but equal." This case validated the Jim Crow laws of many states. That had not been the desired outcome for Paul Broyard and his comrades. The Court would overrule Plessy half a century later in Brown v. Board of Education (1954).

Bliss Broyard sets out the social and legal background that gave rise to Plessy and shows us the inside details of the case.

As she discovers historical and genealogical facts, Bliss wrestles with the question, "Who am I?" Both her white relatives and her black relatives tell her, "You're Bliss." But this is not an easy adjustment. She remembers having told racist jokes about black people. Some of her black relatives question her motives and remind her of her wealthy, privileged life. Some of her white relatives deny that there are any black members of the family.

Key to Bliss Broyard's journey is an understanding of the multiracial Creole culture of Louisiana. That culture as it historically had existed, came crashing down by the 1920's, in large part due to Jim Crow.

Ultimately, Bliss brings her family together and learns lessons about race and family that few of us will ever learn. She comes to appreciate "the complexity and responsibility of legacy," as she and her husband, a Sephardic Jew with roots in Spain, Greece and Turkey, contemplate parenthood. All of her explorations bring her closer to her Norwegian-American mother.

One Drop is everything a genealogical narrative ought to be--historical, cultural and personal. It traces the history of Louisiana from pre-European times to post-Hurricane Katrina days. There is an afterword that discusses Bliss's DNA explorations. In short, every genealogist will find something of interest here.

Bliss Broyard is one of twelve individuals whose ancestry is examined in the second series of Henry Louis Gates' acclaimed program, African American Lives. The new series comes to PBS starting Wednesday, February 6, 2008. Check local listings for exact times.

Trying Again Pays Off Again: Updating "The French Negroes of Illinois"

Last year, I did a major series on the so-called "French Negroes of Illinois," focusing on the Micheau family of Prairie du Rocher, Illinois. In that series, I traced the origins of the French Negroes of Illinois from slaves brought from Haiti by Pierre Renault, who was seeking silver and gold.

Also in that series, I recounted the story told by George Micheau (1852-1942) in a letter of how his family escaped from slavery in 1864. The family had been held by one John Highly of Washington County, Missouri.

Yesterday, my research into this family took a dramatic turn.

I was following my admonition to re-examine areas that one has explored before. I was checking various websites for the several permutations of "Micheau." I was on the Washington County (Mo.) Genealogical Web Page when I spotted a link there that I had not seen before. It was a link to a page about the African-American history of Washington and Iron Counties, Missouri. That page had a list of slave emancipations. To my surprise, among these was George "Misho"
who later moved his family to Randolph County, Illinois! This would be George Micheau, Sr. (1812-?), father of the George who wrote the letter described above. See here and here.

Well! Well? Well . . . .

According to the website, Washington County court records show that in 1846 George Micheau, Sr., was given a license to live as a free man in Missouri upon the posting of a bond secured by one Steven D. Mullowny. In 1850, the census shows him living with a white couple, Garland and Clarissa Nuckols. The 1850 slave schedule also shows that Garland Nuckols of Washington County owned two slaves: an 18 year old girl and a 1 year old girl.

One must wonder if the two slaves might be the wife and child of George Micheau. The young woman seems to match the age of George's [later] wife, Margret. Perhaps he was living in the Nuckols household to be near them and ultimately purchase their freedom. No record has been found showing that George and Margret had a female child. The 1870 census shows them with six sons.

So wait a minute . . .

If George Micheau was a free man in 1846 (and as late as 1850), how is it that he was a slave in 1852 [George, Jr., was born in 1852 and his letter suggests he was born into slavery] or in 1864 when his family escaped from John Highly? And just who are Steven D. Mullowny and Garland and Clarissa Nuckols?

There are some possible explanations for this apparent discrepancy. But first, we need more information. Next step: get the original documents from the Washington County court.

Obviously, there's more to be known about the Micheaus. Once again, looking again has paid off again.

Page 161

So I've been tagged by Chery at Nordic Blue for the "161" meme. In this meme, one dislcoses the contents of the sixth sentence on page 161 of one's current read. I've read a lot lately, but when the tag came in, I was in the midst of Dudley Taylor Cornish's The Sable Arm, which tells the story of black troops in the Civil War. This 1956 work was perhaps the first serious scholarly work devoted to this topic and as one reviewer said, it's "readable, interesting, sound, with interesting insights."

My great-great-grandfather, Zeke Johnson, served from 1864 to 1866 in Company D, 18th United States Colored Troops.

The prospect of Negro troops, while not overwhelmingly popular in the North at first, provoked outrage and fear of slave rebellions in the South.

Page 161, sixth sentence:

"I shall," he [Jefferson Davis] told his Congress, "unless in your wisdom you deem some other course more expedient, deliver to the several [Confederate] State authorities all commissioned officers of the United States that may hereafter be captured by our forces . . . that they may be dealt with in accordance with the laws of those [Confederate] States providing for the punishment of criminals engaged in exciting servile insurrection."

Cornish, Dudley T., The Sable Arm: Black Troops in the Union Army, 1861-1865, (with Forward by Herman Hattaway) (Univ. of Kansas Press, 1987)

Darius, what have you found in your local library lately?

History Detectives on PBS

If you've not seen History Detectives on PBS, you've been depriving yourself of a real treat. For five seasons now, the show has explored historical mysteries, explaing, confirming, discovering and debunking. About 75% of the matters investigated are things submitted by viewers.

This Monday, July 9, 2007, the show tracks down the identity of a man in a photograph of the Grand Army of the Republic from the late 1800s. He turns out to be the great-grandfather of genealogist-photographer-GeneaBlogie- reader George Geder. See the story in The [Santa Fe] New Mexican.

George is a recent and welcome correspondent here, but he's been long active in genealogy. His genealogy website is found at http://geder.wordpress.com/. He's got a photographic restoration business called Indigital Photographic Services. Both are worth a visit!

History Detectives airs Monday, July 9 at 9:00 pm local most places, but check your local listings.

Cue the Twilight Zone Theme Music!

A little less than twenty-four hours ago, I learned for the first time that my great- great- grandfather was held in slavery in Clay County, Missouri by a man named Henry Wilhite.

Tonight as I was going to bed, I grabbed a book off the shelf to read myself to sleep. I wasn't looking for a particular book, just any book. The book I grabbed turned out to be In Search of the Racial Frontier:African-Americans in the American West, 1528-1990, by Quintard Taylor, a professor of history at the University of Oregon. [I've had the book for nine years and never cracked it open before tonight]. I skipped around in the book and finally came to pages 75-76, discussing ex-slaves in Oregon. This passage leapt off the page and nearly knocked me back:

[Amanda] Johnson, born in Clay County, Missouri, in 1833, was brought to Oregon in 1853 by her owner, Nancy Wilhite.

Coincidence? I don't think so . . . .

Walter Scott of Spokane, Washington: A Brief Study

So last Wednesday, I had a long to-do list and I was making good progress. I took a break, went to my reading list and came across this great post by Miriam Midkiff. She'd spent Sunday of Memorial Day weekend visiting and photographing veterans' gravesites in the Spokane area. An excellent project! She posted a number of photos at Find-A-Grave. One of these was that of Sgt. Walter Scott, Company K, 27th Regiment, United States Colored Infantry. Noting that African-Americans are “a definite minority” in the Spokane area, Miriam wrote, “I'd love to find out more of his story!” Oh, no! I groaned. Because . . . I . . . was . . . busy. I didn't have time to take that on, as Miriam all but invited me to do! Doesn't she know that I'm an addict when it comes to tracking down stories like that?!

Oh, well . . . can't help myself!

Walter Scott was probably born in Ohio in 1847. If he was born in Ohio, which is suggested by most census records, he probably was born in Clermont County just across the Ohio River from Kentucky. Clermont County was a hotbed of abolitionist activity. There were numerous Underground Railroad sites in Clermont County, six of which have been preserved to this day. Walter may have been born near New Richmond, which hosted an Underground Railroad station. We have no record of his parents' names or his siblings' names. However, we have some clues that further research might bear out. These are mentioned below.

The fact that he lived in an area with so much Underground Railroad activity may suggest that he was born elsewhere and brought to Ohio by runaway parents or relatives. Perhaps 40% of those escaping by Underground Railroad passed through Ohio and a number of these stayed there.

Walter enlisted in the 27th Regiment, United Sates Colored Infantry, apparently at or soon after the time it was organized in 1864. He would have been seventeen years old. The 27th had a short but illustrious wartime experience. The unit went first to Maryland. From there, they pushed into Virginia, moving as far south as the James River. Part of the 27th's mission was to guard federal trains moving through enemy territory. They then participated in the siege of Petersburg and Richmond from June 1864 to December 1864. The 27th then moved into North Carolina where they helped capture Fort Fisher in January 1865 and then they were involved in the capture of Wilmington in February 1865. By April 1865, the 27th Regiment moved on Raleigh and was part of the occupying force there. In May 1865, the 27th was present at the surrender of Confederate Gen. Joseph E. Johnston. The men of the 27th Regiment were mustered out in September, 1865.

Walter Scott's service must have been exemplary. That's because, in less than two years, this teenager rose from private to sergeant. Only the best soldiers, black or white, were promoted to sergeant so rapidly. Most of Scott's fellow enlistees left the Army as privates. Scott left the Army at or shortly after the time the regiment was disbanded.

In 1870, he was back in Ohio, married to a woman named Josephine, said to have been born in Mississippi. They had a year old baby also named Walter. Living with them was 108 year old Phoebe Smith. The 1870 census did not show relationships, so it is not clear who this person is. She could be the grandmother or great-grandmother of either Walter or Josephine or she may not be related to them at all.

In 1870, Walter was working as a steamboat deckhand on the Ohio River. [Interestingly, Robert Fulton's first commercial steamboat, operating between Albany and New York City, was nicknamed “Clermont,” same as the county in which Scott resided.] On the 1870 census, Scott and his family are described as “mulatto,” suggesting that he had one white parent, most likely his father. The birth place of his father is blank, while his mother is said to have been born in Virginia. Also on the 1870 census is a 49 year old black man named Willis Scott, also living in Clermont County and working as a steamboat steward. Willis Scott is said to have been born in Virginia.

By the time of the 1880 census, Walter and Josephine were still in Clermont County, Ohio, but now with four children: the aforementioned Walter, May, age 9, Minor, age 7, and Martha, age 2. Walter had continued to work on the steamboat.

We don't know what the Scott family did in the twenty years between 1880 and 1900, except that they moved from Ohio to Spokane, Washington. In Spokane at the time of the 1900 census, Walter and Josephine resided with their daughter “Alfa” Keene [Martha], who had been widowed and their granddaughter, Josie Keene. Walter was working as an “expressman.”

Now of course, the most interesting question is raised. In 1900, Washington state had a black population of just over 2,500. So why did Walter Scott move his family across the continent to the Pacific Northwest? To answer that question, we may have to go back to the Army.

After the Civil War, the Army, as it does after every major war, reorganized and downsized. Two black infantry regiments were retained and designated the 24th and 25th Regiments. Two black cavalry regiments were retained and designated the 9th and 10th Cavalry. These four regiments were shifted to the west where conflicts with the Indians were becoming more intense and new settlements were being established. These regiments became known as the Buffalo Soldiers.

Both the 24th and 25th Infantry were at one time or another stationed at Fort George Wright near Spokane. This installation opened in 1899. There were in those regiments a number of men who had made the Army a career after the Civil War. Several had made sergeant; a number were from Ohio and Kentucky. It's easy to suppose that Walter Scott knew some of these men and had been in contact with them. So Scott's contacts in the Army may have told him about the social climate for Negroes in the Northwest. This climate was observed and described by Booker T. Washington during a tour of the region in about 1913. In a letter to the New York Age, Washington wrote: "As one travels still further in the direction of the Pacific Ocean, conditions among our people change, sometimes for the better, sometimes for the worse, but on the whole for the better."¹

Washington commented specifically about relationships between the community and the black soldiers:

I spent three pretty busy days in Spokane and spoke nine times to various kinds of audiences, One piece of information which was given to me by both white and colored people, especially by whites in Spokane, interested me very much and that was that the 25th Infantry, a Negro regiment of the United States Army,made a better record when in camp at Fort Wright near Spokane than any other soldiers that have ever camped there. One of the members of the Chamber of Commerce told me that the citizens of Spokane were practically unanimous in their regret that the colored soldiers were replaced by white ones. The members of the 25th Infantry made an exceptional record for fine and orderly conduct. It was very noticeable in Spokane that the reputation which these soldiers made had gone a long ways towards giving the white people a higher regard for the colored people in that vicinity.²

Washington goes on to note other examples of cordial racial relations in Spokane, Seattle, and Tacoma. It's not hard to imagine that this benign atmosphere was conveyed to Walter Scott by some of his Army buddies, who probably urged him to relocate. [It must be said that by the time of world War II, Spokane's regard for black soldiers seems to have cooled. In an official Army study entitled The Employment of Negro Troops, it is noted that "Spokane, Washington, citizens objected to stationing Negro Air Forces units at nearby fields, for they felt that their own Negro populations were too small to provide social contacts for Negro men.”]

Perhaps on the strength of such rosy assessments, the Scotts left Ohio and moved to Washington state. By 1910, Josephine had died. Walter was working as a porter at a hardware store. Walter the younger was a janitor; hid wife Blanche was a masseuse. Younger son Minor was a laborer at a smelter in the Tacoma area.

It's not clear to me that the Scotts were necessarily better off in the Pacific Northwest than they had been in the Old Northwest. Booker T. Washington's letter may provide a clue as to why:

One finds in a city like Spokane a few colored people who are succeeding in the professions and in business, and those men are well thought of. The principal drawback to the people in the city grows out the fact that they are barred, as I stated in my former communication, from the trades. As of yet, I have found no place where the trades unions give the colored man any chance at the trades. It seems pretty well understood in this part of the world that a colored laborer must be a porter, messenger, or something of that kind.³

This attitude on the part of working class unions may not have been motivated completely by racial animus. One must suppose that the government's use of black troops to suppress labor demonstrations had something to do with it as well.

In any event, Walter Scott moved out west for the same reason other Americans did: to find greater opportunity for his family. He died sometime between 1920 and 1930. His son Minor died in 1952 after working as a longshoreman in Seattle.

This is just a glimpse inside a much more complex story. Thanks, Miriam [seriously!] for opening up an area many of us don't know much about: the history of African-Americans in the Pacific Northwest.

Footnotes

1. The Booker T. Washington Papers, L. Harlan & R. Smock,, eds. (Univ. of Ill. Press 1982), Vol. 12:1912-14, p. 141, online at http://www.historycooperative.org/btw/Vol.12/html/141.html.

2. Ibid.

3. Ibid., p. 142

Casting Call: Follow-up

About six weeks ago, we wrote here about the next iteration of the PBS series African-American Lives. Applications for one "regular person," i.e., non-celebrity, were taken until May 4. The selection process is now underway or over. E-mails have gone out to the non-selectees. The e-mail (which I have seen) says that there were about 2000 applicants.

The new series will air in 2008.