- A third steamer Cape Girardeau was christened 100 years ago (3/26/24)
- Cape Girardeau christens its namesake (3/19/24)
- The humanist philosophy of Lester Mondale (3/12/24)1
- Cape Osteopathic Hospital opens its doors (3/5/24)
- 8 killed and a million dollars damage done in 1924 tornado (2/27/24)1
- Jackson's militant priest, county recorder at odds over marriage licenses (2/20/24)
- Streaking fad comes to Cape (2/13/24)2
Wills shed light on slavery
I've always known that if I looked hard enough and dug deep enough there was a good possibility I would find my ancestors owned slaves. Not on Mom's side, but Dad's.
My dad's family migrated to the Midwest from the South Carolina and Georgia area, stopping for a while in Tennessee. In this line, I've found American Revolutionary War patriots, as well as War of 1812 veterans. (There seems to have been a long line of military service among the Hoopers, Rasberries and Sanders.)
One of the patriots I'm researching is my fourth great-grandfather, Church Hooper. He owned slaves. I learned of this when I stumbled upon his will from 1808 in Davidson County, Tennessee. It reads, in part: "In the first place, I give and bequeath to my son Thomas Hooper and to my daughter Elizabeth Joslin the two little negroes now over at Thomas Hickman's, named Lewis and Lamb and my son Thomas Hooper is to have his choice of the two."
The inventory of Church's estate, furnished to me by the Tennessee State Archives, further notes that Hooper owned four slaves, but, unfortunately, doesn't name them.
Probate records are a great source of information for the genealogist. What I was attempting to find in this particular will was proof of the names of Hooper's children. What I found instead was the heart-breaking confirmation that my patriot ancestor did indeed own other human beings. I'll be posting information on Lewis and Lamb on an African-American genealogical website, in the hopes that someone might see it and recognize stories from his own family tree.
Here's another example of a will preserving the names of slaves. In this case, however, the slaves were owned by residents of Cape Girardeau County:
A couple of locally-published books offer information on slaves and slaveholders from Cape Girardeau County. While "The Slaves and Slave Owners of Cape Girardeau County" by Edison Shrum is apparently out of print, "Invisible Chains -- Slavery in Cape Girardeau County" by Bob White can still be purchased through the Cape Girardeau County Archive Center.
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