King William County, Virginia 1860 slaveholders and 1870 African Americans

 KING WILLIAM COUNTY, VIRGINIA

LARGEST SLAVEHOLDERS FROM 1860 SLAVE CENSUS SCHEDULES

and

SURNAME MATCHES FOR AFRICAN AMERICANS ON 1870 CENSUS

 

Transcribed by Tom Blake, July 2003

 

PURPOSE. Published information giving names of slaveholders and numbers of slaves held is almost non-existent. It is possible to locate an ancestor on a U.S. census for 1860 or earlier and not realize that ancestor was also listed as a slaveholder on the slave schedules, because published indexes almost always do not include the slave census. 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 would have been counted 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 the largest holders will enable naming of the holders of the most slaves with the least amount of transcription work. Surname matching of slaveholders with 1870 African Americans is intended merely as suggesting another possibility for further research by those seeking to make connections between slaves and holders.

 

SOURCES. The 1860 U.S. Census Slave Schedules for King William County, Virginia (NARA microfilm series M653, Roll 1392) reportedly includes a total of 5,525 slaves. This transcription includes 85 slaveholders who held 20 or more slaves in King William County, accounting for 3,500 slaves, or about 63% of the County total. The rest of the slaves in the County were held by a total of 281 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 King William County, the number of slaves they held in the County and the first page number on which they were listed. No local districts were shown on this enumeration. The page numbers used are the numbers rubber stamped in the upper right corner of every other page of the census, with the intervening pages being reported here with a B added to the number of the preceding page. 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.

 

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.

 

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 Virginia in 1860 there were 641 farms of 1,000 acres or more, the largest size category enumerated in the census, and another 2,882 farms of 500-999 acres. Linking names of plantations in this County with the names of the large holders on this list 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, and the transcriber, though not specifically looking for such named slaves, did not notice any such information while doing this transcription, except for 100 year old male black Cuffy held by Wm. N. Berkley on page 272B and 100 male black Hinds held by Wm. Hill on page 287B. 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 King William County population included 2,589 whites, 416 “free colored” and 5,525 slaves. By the 1870 census, the white population had increased almost 14% to 2,943, while the “colored” population had decreased about 25 % to 4,455. (As a side note, by 1960, 100 years later, the County was listed as having 3,999 whites, about a 54% increase, while the 1960 total of 3,551 “Negroes”was about 40% less than what the colored population had been 100 years before.) In comparing census data for different years, the transcriber was not aware of any relevant changes to County boundaries.

 

Where did the freed slaves go if they did not stay in the same County? Between 1860 and 1870, the Virginia colored population declined by about 36,000, to approximately 513,000, a 6.5% decrease. Two Virginia Counties that showed a significant increase in colored population between 1860 and 1870 were Henrico, with an increase of over 7,000, and Norfolk, with an increase of over 10,000. States that saw significant increases in colored population during that time, and were therefore possible places of relocation for colored persons from King William County, included the following: Georgia, up 80,000 (17%); Texas, up 70,000 (38%); Alabama, up 37,000 (8%); Florida, up 29,000 (46%); North Carolina, up 38,000 (8%); Ohio, up 26,000 (70%); Indiana, up 25,000 (127%); and Kansas up from 265 to 17,000 (6,400%).

 

SLAVEHOLDER LIST:

 

BARKER?, Wm., 40 slaves, page 268B

BERKLEY, Wm. N., 64 slaves, page 272B

BLAKE, Sarah C., 27 slaves, page 257

BRAXTON, Mary, 86 slaves, page 284

BRAXTON, Wm. P., 56 slaves, page 284B

BRAXTON, Wm. H., 38 slaves, page 285B

BROWN, Archie, 40 slaves, page 254B

BROWN, Mrs. H., 22 slaves, page 254B

BURKE, Robert, 30 slaves, page 278

BURRUS?, H. D., 29 slaves, page 266

BURRUS?, Josiah, 41 slaves, page 256B

CAMPBELL, H., 42 slaves, page 277

CARTER, Thos. H., 119 slaves, page 257B

CLEMENTS, G. J., 33 slaves, page 268B

COCKE, John, 30 slaves, page 274

COOK, John, 65 slaves, page 258

CORDWELL, John, 59 slaves, page 260

CORR, Henry, 33 slaves, page 263

COULTER, H. T., 27 slaves, page 269

DABNEY, Mary C., 43 slaves, page 273B

DABNEY, W. W., 23 slaves, page 267B

DOUGLAS, B. B., 33 slaves, page 275

DREWERY, Martin, 22 slaves, page 269B

EDWARDS, Geo., 41 slaves, page 269

EDWARDS, J. B., 31 slaves, page 256B

EDWARDS, Warner, 31 slaves, page 269

EUBANKS, Richd., 21 slaves, page 279B

FAUNTLEROY?, Jon. M., 25 slaves, page 255B

FONTAINE, W. S., 30 slaves, page 269B

FOX, Mary, 27 slaves, page 273

FOX, R. W., 22 slaves, page 273B

GARLICK, M. C., 27 slaves, page 271B

GARY, Wm. M., 39 slaves, page 268

GREGG, D. H., 43 slaves, page 264B

GREGORY, F., 43 slaves, page 284

HARRIS?, R., 49 slaves, page 283

HILL, C. J., 23 slaves, page 259

HILL, Edwd., 53 slaves, page 271

HILL, Harriet, 29 slaves, page 258B

HILL, R. P.?, 25 slaves, page 282B

HILL, Wm., 33 slaves, page 287B

HILLYARD, R. H., 50 slaves, page 270

HUTCHINSON, W. W., 22 slaves, page 282

HYATT, P. H. & Wm. R., 63 slaves, page 255

JOHNSON, J. C., 82 slaves, page 276

JOHNSON, Wm. C., 22 slaves, page 264

JONES, Thos. S., 52 slaves, page 265B

KING, James H., 24 slaves, page 258

KING, R., 33 slaves, page 260B

LATANE, J. S. & W. T., 54 slaves, page 279

LEE, Wm. H., 46 slaves, page 287

LEWIS, John, 27 slaves, page 270

LIPSCOMB, Sterling, 34 slaves, page 287B

LITTLEPAGE, Lewis, 28 slaves, page 258B

MARTIN, F., 39 slaves, page 286B

MCGEORGE, J. F., 27 slaves, page 274B

MOORE, Ann F., 45 slaves, page 262B

MUNDAY, R. H.?, 100 slaves, page 285

NELSON, Henrietta?, 30 slaves, page 281B

NEWMAN, J. J., 21 slaves, page 259

NORMENT?, S. T.?, 25 slaves, page 281

PEMBERTON, Margaret, 21 slaves, page 259B

POLLARD, Lewis, 21 slaves, page 286

ROANE, James, 23V65

ROANE, Mary E., 38 slaves, page 288

RYLAND, W. S., 40 slaves, page 273

SALE, Dandridge, 31 slaves, page 271B

SCOTT, Anderson, 135 slaves, page 275

SLAUGHTER, P. H., 25 slaves, page 263

SPILLER, Wm., 32 slaves, page 278

STEVENS, L. A., 30 slaves, page 281B

SUTTON, E. M., 65 slaves, page 281

SWATHMEY?, Wm., 37 slaves, page 270B

TAYLOR, Geo., 121 slaves, page 280

TAYLOR, J. W., 24 slaves, page 255B

TAYLOR, Wm. P., 105 slaves, page 261B

TIMBERLAKE, Henry, 43 slaves, page 267B

TOMKIN, R. W., 22 slaves, page 270B

TOMLIN, H. B., 32 slaves, page 283B

TRENT, M. B., 48 slaves, page 272

WALKER, J. H., 29 slaves, page 274B

WARD, D. F., 70 slaves, page 262

WHITE, Jas. G., 21 slaves, page 279B

WINSTON, D. M., 20 slaves, page 255B

WORMLEY?, C. W., 49 slaves, page 256

 

 

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)

 

BARKER?, 549, 38, 0, 95, 38, 0

BERKLEY, 69, 26, 41, 25, 0

BLAKE, 889, 60, 2, 92, 59, 2

BRAXTON, 601, 389, 38, 460, 388, 38

BROWN, 27013, 3601, 33, 6106, 3513, 33

BURKE, 452, 54, 2, 95, 54, 2

BURRUS?, 45, 7, 1, 12, 7, 1

CAMPBELL, 2897, 314, 4, 542, 308, 4

CARTER, 7164, 1833, 29, 2810, 1810, 28

CLEMENTS, 364, 68, 0, 100, 66, 0

COCKE, 37, 9, 0, 13, 9, 0

COOK, 3149, 384, 3, 693, 380, 3

CORDWELL, 2, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0

CORR, 16, 0, 0, 1, 0, 0

COULTER, 70, 0, 0, 6, 0, 0

DABNEY, 337, 219, 18, 255, 219, 18

DOUGLAS, 906, 94, 0, 176, 93, 0

DREWERY, 3, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0

EDWARDS, 3741, 335, 8, 616, 327, 8

EUBANKS, 127, 9, 0, 27, 9, 0

FAUNTLEROY?, 66, 66, 3, 66, 66, 3

FONTAINE, 51, 28, 0, 33, 28, 0

FOX, 820, 152, 6, 259, 151, 6

GARLICK, 24, 16, 10, 17, 16, 10

GARY, 263, 45, 1, 61, 41, 1

GREGG, 224, 16, 0, 27, 15, 0

GREGORY, 726, 178, 1, 226, 163, 1

HARRIS?, 11315, 1877, 33, 2995, 1847, 33

HILL, 6675, 1025, 57, 1627, 1007, 57

HILLYARD, 27, 3, 2, 4, 3, 2

HUTCHINSON, 367, 20, 0, 54, 19, 0

HYATT, 56, 0, 0, 3, 0, 0

JOHNSON, 33402, 4458, 60, 7797, 4773, 60

JONES, 27193, 3894, 9, 6648, 3807, 9

KING, 4979, 484, 8, 923, 469, 8

LATANE, 11, 11, 0, 11, 11, 0

LEE, 6357, 1012, 14, 1786, 987, 14

LEWIS, 8797, 1513, 18, 2588, 1483, 18

LIPSCOMB, 385, 110, 17, 148, 110, 17

LITTLEPAGE, 19, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4

MARTIN, 5318, 436, 1, 820, 429, 1

MCGEORGE, 6, 5, 1, 5, 5, 1

MOORE, 8698, 722, 6, 1434, 697, 6

MUNDAY, 85, 15, 0, 21, 15, 0

NELSON, 3371, 377, 21, 742, 371, 21

NEWMAN, 649, 126, 0, 228, 124, 0

NORMENT?, 10, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0

PEMBERTON, 93, 13, 0, 20, 13, 0

POLLARD, 631, 241, 26, 337, 240, 26

ROANE, 173, 120, 16, 133, 120, 16

RYLAND, 26, 11, 0, 20, 11, 0

SALE, 78, 44, 1, 49, 44, 1

SCOTT, 8407, 1609, 13, 2560, 1588, 13

SLAUGHTER, 717, 128, 0, 217, 127, 0

SPILLER, 51, 7, 0, 17, 7, 0

STEVENS, 11271, 145, 1, 226, 142, 1

SUTTON, 8, 1, 0, 1, 0, 0

SWATHMEY?, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0

TAYLOR, 11696, 1887, 38, 3129, 1849, 38

TIMBERLAKE, 109, 55, 1, 66, 55, 1

TOMKIN, 2, 1, 0, 1, 1, 0

TOMLIN, 75, 9, 0, 15, 9, 0

TRENT, 219, 143, 9, 183, 143, 9

WALKER, 8492, 1161, 6, 2024, 1142, 6

WARD, 2525, 248, 2, 457, 236, 2

WHITE, 9567, 1395, 10, 2247, 1359, 10

WINSTON, 853, 317, 4, 424, 317, 4

WORMLEY?, 113, 74, 4, 96, 74, 4

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