MARSHALL COUNTY, MISSISSIPPI
LARGEST SLAVEHOLDERS FROM 1860 SLAVE CENSUS SCHEDULES
and
SURNAME MATCHES FOR AFRICAN AMERICANS ON 1870 CENSUS
Transcribed by Tom Blake, February, 2002
PURPOSE. Published information giving names of slaveholders and numbers of slaves held in Marshall County, Mississippi, in 1860, is either non-existent or not readily available. It is possible to locate a free person on the Marshall County, Mississippi census for 1860 and not know whether that person was also listed as a slaveholder on the slave census, because published indexes almost always do not include the slave census.
Those who have found a free ancestor on the 1860 Marshall County, Mississippi census can check this list to learn if their ancestor was one of the larger slaveholders in the County. If the ancestor is not on this list, the 1860 slave census microfilm can be viewed to find out whether the ancestor was a holder of a fewer number of slaves or not a slaveholder at all. Whether or not the ancestor is found to have been a slaveholder, a viewing of the slave census will provide an informed sense of the extent of slavery in the ancestral County, particularly for those who have never viewed a slave census. An ancestor not shown to hold slaves on the 1860 slave census could have held slaves on an earlier census, so those films can be checked also. In 1850, the slave census was also separate from the free census, but in earlier years it was a part of the free census.
African American descendants of persons who were enslaved in Marshall County, Mississippi in 1860, if they have an idea of the surname of the slaveholder, can check this list for the surname. If the surname is found, they can then view the microfilm for the details listed regarding the sex, age and color of the slaves. If the surname is not on this list, the microfilm can be viewed to see if there were smaller slaveholders with that surname. To check a master surname list for other States and Counties, return to Home and Links Page.
The information on surname matches of 1870 African Americans and 1860 slaveholders is intended merely to provide data for consideration by those seeking to make connections between slaveholders and former slaves. Particularly in the case of these larger slaveholders, the data seems to show in general not many freed slaves in 1870 were using the surname of their 1860 slaveholder. However, the data should be checked for the particular surname to see the extent of the matching.
The last U.S. census slave schedules were enumerated by County in 1860 and included 393,975 named persons holding 3,950,546 unnamed slaves, or an average of about ten slaves per holder. The actual number of slaveholders may be slightly lower because some large holders held slaves in more than one County and they would have been counted as a separate slaveholder in each County. Excluding slaves, the 1860 U.S. population was 27,167,529, with about 1 in 70 being a slaveholder. It is estimated by this transcriber that in 1860, slaveholders of 200 or more slaves, while constituting less than 1 % of the total number of U.S. slaveholders, or 1 out of 7,000 free persons, held 20-30% of the total number of slaves in the U.S. The process of publication of slaveholder names beginning with larger slaveholders will enable naming of the holders of the most slaves with the least amount of transcription work.
SOURCES. The 1860 U.S. Census Slave Schedules for Marshall County, Mississippi (NARA microfilm series M653, Roll 601) reportedly includes a total of 17,439 slaves which ranks as the fourth highest total in the State and the twentieth highest in the U.S. in 1860. This transcription includes 96 slaveholders who held 40 or more slaves and 1 who held 31 slaves in Marshall County, accounting for 5,936 slaves, or 34% of the County total. The rest of the slaves in the County were held by a total of 1,198 slaveholders, and those slaveholders have not been included here. Due to variable film quality, handwriting interpretation questions and inconsistent counting and page numbering methods used by the census enumerators, interested researchers should view the source film personally to verify or modify the information in this transcription for their own purposes. Census data for 1860 was obtained from the Historical United States Census Data Browser, which is a very detailed, searchable and highly recommended database that can found at http://fisher.lib.virginia.edu/census/ . Census data on African Americans in the 1870 census was obtained using Heritage Quest's CD "African-Americans in the 1870 U.S. Federal Census", available through Heritage Quest at http://www.heritagequest.com/ .
FORMAT. This transcription lists the names of those largest slaveholders in the County, the number of slaves they held in the County, the Township and Range shown and the first census page on which they were listed. For holders found on page 43 and lower, no Township and Range or other local district was shown. The page numbers used are the rubber stamped numbers in the upper right corner of every set of two pages, with the previous stamped number and a "B" being used to designate the pages without a stamped number. Following the holder list is a separate list of the surnames of the holders with information on numbers of African Americans on the 1870 census who were enumerated with the same surname. The term "County" is used to describe the main subdivisions of the State by which the census was enumerated.
TERMINOLOGY. Though the census schedules speak in terms of "slave owners", the transcriber has chosen to use the term "slaveholder" rather than "slave owner", so that questions of justice and legality of claims of ownership need not be addressed in this transcription. Racially related terms such as African American, black, mulatto and colored are used as in the source or at the time of the source, with African American being used otherwise. The term "County" is used to describe the main subdivisions of the State by which the census was enumerated.
PLANTATION NAMES. Plantation names were not shown on the census. Using plantation names to locate ancestors can be difficult because the name of a plantation may have been changed through the years and because the sizeable number of large farms must have resulted in lots of duplication of plantation names. In Mississippi in 1860 there were 481 farms of 1,000 acres or more, the largest size category enumerated in the census, and another 1,868 farms of 500-999 acres. Linking names of plantations in this County with the names of the large holders on this list should not be a difficult research task, but it is beyond the scope of this transcription.
FORMER SLAVES. The 1860 U.S. Census was the last U.S. census showing slaves and slaveholders. Slaves were enumerated in 1860 without giving their names, only their sex and age and indication of any handicaps, such as deaf or blind Slaves 100 years of age or older were supposed to be named on the 1860 slave schedule, but there were only 1,570 slaves of such age enumerated, out of a total of 3,950,546 slaves. Though not specifically looking for such named slaves, the transcriber did not notice any such information on the enumeration of the transcribed slaveholders. Freed slaves, if listed in the next census, in 1870, would have been reported with their full name, including surname. Some of these former slaves may have been using the surname of their 1860 slaveholder at the time of the 1870 census and they may have still been living in the same State or County. Before presuming an African American was a slave on the 1860 census, the free census for 1860 should be checked, as almost 11% of African Americans were enumerated as free in 1860, with about half of those living in the southern States. Estimates of the number of former slaves who used the surname of a former owner in 1870, vary widely and from region to region. If an African American ancestor with one of these surnames is found on the 1870 census, then making the link to finding that ancestor as a slave requires advanced research techniques involving all obtainable records of the holder.
MIGRATION OF FORMER SLAVES: According to U.S. Census data, the 1860 Marshall County population included 11,376 whites, 8 "free colored" and 17,439 slaves. By the 1870 census, the white population had increased about 14% to 12,917, while the "colored" population had dropped about 5% to 16,499. (As a side note, by 1960, 100 years later, the County was listed as having 7,264 whites, about 36% less than 100 years before, while the 1960 total of 17,239 "Negroes"was about the same as what the colored population had been 100 years before.) It should be noted however, that in comparing census data for 1870 and 1960, the transcriber did not take into consideration any relevant changes in county boundaries.
Where did the Marshall County freed slaves go if they did not stay in the County? Orleans County in Louisiana saw an increase in colored population of almost double between 1860 and 1870, growing to over 50,000, so likely that is where some went. Lowndes and Warren Counties in Mississippi saw increases of 6,000 and 8,000, but no other Mississippi County showed such a significant increase. Between 1860 and 1870, the Mississippi colored population only increased by 1%, about 6,000. States that saw more significant increases in colored population during that time, and were therefore more likely possible places of relocation for colored persons from Marshall County, included the following: Georgia, up 80,000 (17%); Texas, up 70,000 (38%); Alabama, up 37,000 (8%); North Carolina, up 31,000 (8%); Florida, up 27,000 (41%); Ohio, up 26,000 (70%); Indiana, up 25,000 (127%); and Kansas up from 265 to 17,000 (6,400%).
SLAVEHOLDER LIST:
ALEXANDER, Jas. H., 49 slaves, page 37
ALEXANDER, R. B., 85 slaves, page 34
ANDERSON, J. M., 55 slaves, T3 R3, page 47
ANDERSON, Wm., 44 slaves, page 21B
ARMSTEAD, Jas. P., 46 slaves, page 23
ARNOLD, A., 64 slaves, T2 R4, page 65B
ARTHER?, William, 55 slaves, T3 R1&2West, page 106B
AYERS, Mrs. L. C., 42 slaves, T1 R1&2West, page 87
BAILEY, Wm., 82 slaves, T2 R4, page 62B
BALFOUR, Col. Jno., 54 slaves, page 39B
BATT, Mrs. Minerva, 58 slaves, T1 R1&2West, page 88
BENSON, E. M., 40 slaves, T3 R4&5, page 56
BOGARD, William, 90 slaves, T4 R2, page 123
BOLING, G. W.,. 47 slaves, T1 R3, page 50B
BONNER, Robert H., 45 slaves, T1 R1&2West, page 90
BRITTINGHAM, Mrs. L., 73 slaves, T2 R3, page 55
BROOKS, Alfred, 54 slaves, page 16B
BURTON, Mrs. M., 80 slaves, page 22
CARRUTH, John, 45 slaves, T2 R1&2West, page 98B
CLAYTON, Alexander M., 140 slaves, T2 R1&2West, page 95B
COCK, Joseph, 45 slaves, T3 R1&2West, page 106B
COX, M. J. & W. H., 56 slaves, page 15
COX, M. J., 70 slaves, page 15
COX, Wm. H., 104 slaves, page 16
DAVIS, E. N., 114 slaves, T3 R3, page 46
DAVIS, Hugh, 61 slaves, T1 R1&2West, page 91
DEAN, Joseph, 70 slaves, page 20
DEAN?, Aaron, 45 slaves, page 19
DUNHAM , Wilson, 57 slaves, T2 R5, page 77
DUNLAP, Thos. L., 54 slaves, T4 R2, page 118
EDMONSON, Thomas W., 50 slaves, T3 R1&2West, page 111B
ELLIS, J.? G., 64 slaves, T1 R1&2West, page 93
FINLEY, Mary J., 53 slaves, T4 R2, page 118B
FRANKLIN, Bernard, 45 slaves, T1 R1&2West, page 93B
FRANKLIN, Gideon, 46 slaves, T1 R1&2West, page 90B
GATEWOOD, Thomas G., 47 slaves, T2 R1&2West, page 100B
GAY, Miss Ella, 40 slaves, T3 R5, page 73
GILL, G. W., 50 slaves, page 32B
HANCOCK, Wm. A.?, 45 slaves, page 31
HARDAWAY, J. P., 119 slaves, T2 R1&2West, page 99B
HARPER, M. H., 41 slaves, page 22B
HARRIS, Sherrod, 60 slaves, T1 R4, page 67
HOLLOWELL, Jonothan, 40 slaves, T5 R2, page 127
HULL, William, 72 slaves, T2 R1&2West, page 94B
JACKSON, Andrew, 60 slaves, T3 R1&2West, page 108
JEFFRIES, Wm., 78 slaves, page 29
JONES, Henry, 51 slaves, T4 R2, page 122B
JONES, Mrs. M. Est., Benj. Boling agt for, 47 slaves, page 23
JONES, Weldon?, 223 slaves, page 43
JURYER?, A. A., 52 slaves, T2 R1&2West, page 101B
KILPATRICK, Ebenezer, 64 slaves, T2 R1&2West, page 102B
LEA, Dr. W. H., 57 slaves, T3 R3, page 48
LEGGET, N. E., 47 slaves, T3 R1&2West, page 111
LONG, Frank P., 83 slaves, T2 R1&2West, page 104
LUMPKIN, William B., 104 slaves, T4 R2, page 116B
MARSH, Est 3 minors, 56 slaves, T3 R1&2West, page 107
MARTIN, Col. J. D., 101 slaves, page 40
MARTIN, K. G., 45 slaves, page 35
MARTIN, Mrs. A. B., 40 slaves, T3 R3, page 74
MASON, Tompson, 95 slaves, T1 R1&2West, page 88
MATHEWS, J. W., 58 slaves, T3 R1&2West, page 108
MAYER, Adrian N., 71 slaves, T4 R2, page 116
MCALEXANDER, William, 40 slaves, T2 R3, page 69
MCGEE, Hugh, 46 slaves, T6 R2, page 126B
MCGOWAN, Catharine, 76 slaves, T6 R2, page 125
MINOR, Dabney, 42 slaves, T3 R1&2West, page 108B
MISS. C. RAIL ROAD, 54 slaves, Holly Springs, page 85B
MOORING, J. Est of, R. A. Malone agt., 67 slaves, page 36
MOORING, James Estate, 65 slaves, T5 R2, page 124
NONNELLEY, Mrs. D. J., 50 slaves, page 24
NORRIS, Benj., 40 slaves, T1 R3, page 51B
PARHAM, Richard, 8 slaves, T1 R1&2West, page 88B
PEEL, R. H., 40 slaves, page 19B
PIPKIN, H. A., 50 slaves, T2 R4, page 63
POINTER, David, 64 slaves, T4 R2, page 117B
POTTS, E, F., 83 slaves, T5 R1, page 120
RAIFORD, Robt., 40 slaves, T2 R4, page 62
RECORD?, J. & J. W., 69 slaves, T3 R1&2West, page 107B
ROOK, John, 57 slaves, T2 R1&2West, page 100
ROYLSTON, T. T., 46 slaves, T4 R1, page 121B
SAND, Mary E., 57 slaves, T1 R1&2West, page 89B
SHIELDS, Mrs. Mary E., 51 slaves, T1 R1&2West, page 89B
SMITH, George W., 89 slaves, T3 R1&2West, page 110B
SMITH, William B., 65 slaves, T2 R1&2West, page 96B
STANBACK, E. W. & P. N., 43 slaves, T3 R5, page 71B
STANBACK, P. N., 48 slaves, T2 R5, page 64B
SUGG, B., 46 slaves, page 28B
TAYLOR, G. F., 45 slaves, page 38B
TAYLOR, W. S., 31 slaves, T3 R3, page 53
TREADWELL, Timothy L., 48 slaves, T2 R1&2West, page 98
TUNSDALL, Wm. H., 73 slaves, T3 R4, page 70
WALKER, Mrs. Sarah C., 40 slaves, T6 R2, page 124B
WALL, Martha A., 61 slaves, T3 R1&2West, page 113
WALL, Willaim, 49 slaves, T3 R1&2West, page 112B
WHITE, Clark C., 47 slaves, T3 R4, page 70
WITHERS, A. Q., 54 slaves, T3 R5, page 72
WOOD, F., 43 slaves, page 20B
SURNAME MATCHES AMONG AFRICAN AMERICANS ON 1870 CENSUS:
(exact surname spellings only are reported, no spelling variations or soundex)
(SURNAME, # in US, in State, in County, born in State, born and living in State, born in State and living in County)
ALEXANDER, 3460, 313, 41, 250, 169, 22
ANDERSON, 8173, 838, 30, 621, 455, 16
ARMSTEAD, 440, 59, 14, 34, 29, 7
ARNOLD, 945, 78, 8, 61, 39, 4
ARTHER?, 19, 5, 1, 4, 4, 1
AYERS, 155, 11, 4, 9, 6, 3
BAILEY, 2281, 194, 22, 132, 98, 12
BALFOUR, 7, 4, 3, 2, 2, 2
BATT, 28, 4, 2, 2, 2, 0
BENSON, 733, 98, 17, 68, 59, 9
BOGARD, 30, 22, 12, 14, 14, 6
BOLING, 115, 18, 4, 8, 6, 2
BONNER, 658, 58, 8, 37, 21, 4
BRITTINGHAM, 14, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0
BROOKS, 4486, 381, 22, 266, 189, 8
BURTON, 1530, 106, 25, 68, 52, 15
CARRUTH, 8, 2, 2, 1, 1, 1
CLAYTON, 686, 81, 6, 56, 46, 1
COCK, 45, 7, 2, 3, 3, 2
COX, 2288, 265, 31, 172, 138, 15
DAVIS, 13725, 1397, 42, 1038, 743, 22
DEAN, 901, 120, 45, 74, 60, 27
DUNHAM , 136, 5, 0, 7, 2, 0
DUNLAP, 454, 68, 9, 27, 24, 6
EDMONSON, 117, 19, 10, 17, 13, 8
ELLIS, 2094, 281, 8, 212, 158, 4
FINLEY, 325, 31, 11, 15, 12, 5
FRANKLIN, 1934, 189, 14, 180, 122, 7
GATEWOOD, 251, 37, 17, 18, 18, 11
GAY, 433, 38, 1, 27, 22, 1
GILL, 591, 49, 12, 31, 24, 8
HANCOCK, 392, 30, 5, 18, 15, 2
HARDAWAY, 124, 14, 3, 10, 9, 1
HARPER, 1363, 223, 21, 132, 113, 12
HARRIS, 11315, 1074, 61, 736, 547, 31
HOLLOWELL, 62, 13, 5, 4, 2, 1
HULL, 207, 29, 7, 16, 14, 3
JACKSON, 19100, 1543, 27, 1241, 831, 9
JEFFRIES, 302, 84, 56, 22, 21, 10
JONES, 27193, 2500, 125, 1785, 1318, 68
JURYER?, 0, 09, 0, 0, 0, 0
KILPATRICK, 97, 24, 7, 11, 8, 3
LEA, 227, 27, 6, 18, 17, 3
LEGGET, 13, 6, 1, 4, 4, 1
LONG, 1828, 143, 14, 86, 56, 7
LUMPKIN, 162, 13, 6, 5, 1, 1
MARSH, 391, 43, 5, 23, 19, 5
MARTIN, 5318, 573, 52, 399, 323, 21
MASON, 2858, 204, 12, 130, 84, 3
MATHEWS, 1877, 185, 15, 117, 101, 11
MAYER, 45, 4, 0, 1, 0, 0
MCALEXANDER, 8, 5, 5, 3, 2, 2
MCGEE, 854, 171, 5, 108, 70, 2
MCGOWAN, 144, 32, 8, 28, 16, 2
MINOR, 660, 89, 4, 61, 54, 1
MOORING, 27, 1, 1, 2, 1, 1
NONNELLEY, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0
NORRIS, 750, 45, 9, 31, 21, 3
PARHAM, 424, 15, 3, 6, 2, 0
PEEL, 65, 9, 4, 5, 4, 2
PIPKIN, 53, 4, 3, 3, 3, 2
POINTER, 163, 28, 18, 19, 13, 6
POTTS, 317, 55, 10, 35, 29, 9
RAIFORD, 112, 39, 13, 28, 26, 6
RECORD?, 31, 4, 4, 4, 3, 3
ROOK, 52, 22, 20, 10, 9, 9
ROYLSTON, 3, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0
SAND, 24, 5, 0, 3, 2, 0
SHIELDS, 471, 61, 0, 52, 38, 0
SMITH, 29087, 2581, 104, 1912, 1396, 50
STANBACK, 49, 13, 0, 6, 6, 0
SUGG, 135, 18, 10, 8, 8, 5
TAYLOR, 11696, 1028, 51, 684, 488, 23
TREADWELL, 115, 2, 2, 3, 2, 2
TUNSDALL, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0
WALKER, 8492, 814, 38, 576, 405, 15
WALL, 535, 103, 27, 66, 52, 11
WHITE, 9567, 883, 14, 623, 456, 7
WITHERS, 281, 13, 6, 8, 5, 2
WOOD, 2672, 179, 4, 133, 97, 3
Marshall County, MS GenWeb (County genealogical resources)
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