Although slavery was illegal in Georgia at the time of its creation as the last of the 13 British colonies, Parliament reversed itself 17 years later, revoked its earlier statute and legalized the trade in 1750.
In 1799, a few slaves were freed by separate acts of the Georgia Legislature.* However by 1801 the state outlawed the practice and imposed substantial fines for each occurrence:
Law enacted banning manumission of negro slaves (or “person of color”). Fine of $200And in 1815 the Legislature addressed the issue of wills that called for freeing slaves:
imposed for each offense. Same law made illegal the recording of manumissions by the Clerk of the Superior Court, or any other Officer of the state. Fine of $100 imposed for each offense.
Previous Act amended to allow recording of Wills and Testaments that call forIn 1817 Georgia legislators prohibited bringing slaves into the state** and in 1826 they passed a law prohibiting removing slaves from Georgia by land or sea.***
manumission of slaves as long as said Will does not have for its object the manumission of slaves only. Parts of the said Will pertaining to the manumission of slaves are to be disregarded. Wills whose sole object is the manumission of a slave or slaves cannot legally be recorded.
It is against this legal background that we have to consider the careful wording of Great Uncle Jeremiah's Item 10th.
[Georgia, Probate Records, 1742-1990, images,
FamilySearch, Hancock - Wills and administration records 1831-1840 vol N - image 80 of 376; county probate courthouses, Georgia.]
And my transcription:
Item 10th I give to Jesse G Butts and John Graybill jointly negroes
Coleman Mary and her three children and Pat and John
one choice Horse four Cows and Calves two beds and furna-
ture and all my household furnature except my clock two
Spinning Wheels two pare of Cards and four thousand dollars
in money if the money is in hand if not the amount in
notes the above also the Track of land I purchased of Parker
which land is not to be subject to be sold for the debts of
they or either of them nor shall the negroes be sold by them
or subject to pay any debt of there contracting the money
to be loaned out at Interest for the support of the negroes
and if they can at any time be freed by the laws of the
Country it is my will it shall be done
All the residue of my property I will to be managed
by my executors for five years in a profitable manner having
regard to humanity in there treatment not hiring them to
any person who will abuse them if they cannot have
them freed by the Laws of our Country in that time are
to be equally divided by my brothers and sisters or
their heirs except Epps Warren and James Warren and Eliza-
beth Smith and Susan Johnson as I do not wish them
to have any part in said division.
And I do hereby constitute Jesse G. Butts and John
Graybill Executors to this my last Will and testament
revoking all other wills by me heretofore made this
____ day of December 1831.
Who were these two men that Jeremiah named as his executors? Both men were well-to-do farmers, residents of the same county, and with no known familial connection to him.
[Year: 1850; Census Place: District 101, Hancock, Georgia; Roll: M432_72; Page: 1B; Image: 376. Source: Ancestry.com. 1850 United States Federal Census [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2009. Images reproduced by FamilySearch. Original data: Seventh Census of the United States, 1850; (National Archives Microfilm Publication M432, 1009 rolls); Records of the Bureau of the Census, Record Group 29; National Archives, Washington, D.C.]
John Graybill (probably the John Grabil resident in Hancock County in the 1830 U.S. Census) seems to have been a near neighbor of Jesse Butts as both appear on the same 1830 U.S. Census page, separated by one other household. Note that he employed an overseer to manage his human property.
[Year: 1850; Census Place: District 101, Hancock, Georgia; Roll: M432_72; Page: 1B; Image: 376. Source: Ancestry.com. 1850 United States Federal Census [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2009. Images reproduced by FamilySearch. Original data: Seventh Census of the United States, 1850; (National Archives Microfilm Publication M432, 1009 rolls); Records of the Bureau of the Census, Record Group 29; National Archives, Washington, D.C.]
In Item 10th Jeremiah continued to express his animus towards four of his close relatives:
[I]f they cannot have them freed by the Laws of our Country in that time are to be equally divided by my brothers and sisters or their heirs except Epps Warren and James Warren and Elizabeth Smith and Susan Johnson as I do not wish them to have any part in said division.More importantly, what caused Jeremiah to single out Coleman Mary and her three children, John and Pat?
[I]f they can at any time be freed by the laws of the Country it is my will it shall be done.In the course of my genealogical research I've read a lot of wills and this is the only one with a provision like this. The most generous provision for a favored slave was usually to allow them to choose which of the testator's heirs they would live with thereafter.
Realizing his will would likely cause dissension, Jeremiah addressed that in a codicil, along with several more bequests. We'll look at that part of the will next time.
*This method of applying to the Legislature for permission to free slaves continued to be used but very rarely.
**This was repealed in 1829.
***All of the above legal information including quotes was taken from A Brief Timeline of Georgia Laws Relating to Slaves, Nominal Slaves and Free Persons of Color compiled by Tara D. Fields [PDF] and to be found here.
****I'm showing the 1850 U.S. Census here because it has more information than in the earlier enumerations where Jesse G. Butts and John Graybill appear.
General sources:
Slavery in antebellum Georgia here
Slavery in the United States here
© 2016 Copyright, Christine Manczuk, All Rights Reserved.
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