Fig. 35. Jane Richards Bunn’s Bible
Biblical identity was deeply entrenched into slave and African American culture but certainly not the American establishment. As blacks assimilated into American culture, the Children of Israel identity was discarded because blacks viewed their enslavement with shame and themselves as victims. The Israelites view their enslavement as part of their sacred past, and they hold it as a testimony of the power of their God. This difference in the view of slavery makes blacks entrenched in being a victim, and it gives purpose to Israelis to be victors.
The tradition of relating to the Bible for identity was maintained in my family. My dad’s mother lived to be close to one hundred years old, and I was often very curious about her past. Her name was Leona White, and her maiden name was Bunn. I often asked her to talk about the old days. Her mother was Jane Richards Bunn, and her grandmother was former slave Matildia Richards. She was not well acquainted with her Grand Mother Matildia, and only knew her as “Mammy.” Frequently, she would say, “You need to find my mama’s Bible.” I searched for the Bible and found it stored by a cousin in Arkansas. When I received the Bible, I was disappointed to find in it only a record of the deaths and births of ancestors. My great-grandmother could not read or write, so a literate cousin had made death and birth recordings. The Bible contained her history and thus her identity.
African American genealogy is different from other groups because of slavery. Before liberation slaves had no last names and were property. I was fortunate to work with a wonderful African American genealogist named Sandra Craighead. Most of what I know of my ancestors is a result of Sandra’s hard work.
The paper “The Genetic Ancestry of African Americans, Latinos, and European Americans across the United States, The American Journal of Human Genetics” states that African Americans are three-fourths African and one-fourth European. My great-grandma Jane was a mulatto as well as her sister Aunt Lou. My great-grandmother, Jane Richards Bunn, had a white father, which was not uncommon for that time period. For years, we were not curtain of who Jane’s father was. Tradition said that he was from a family named Buchanan. The Buchanans treated Jane and her family as if she was a family member of theirs. One of the Buchanan doctors saved my aunt Mae Wilma White Wyatt’s life when she was a very ill little girl. After my grandfather died, Dr. Buchanan offered to care for my grandmother in his home. However, with online genealogy and DNA services, we were able to discover that her father was not a Buchanan but a Harrington. Mr. Harrington was just a poor white farmer with a family of his own. Black women belonged to slave owners and were protected by them during slavery times. Once black women were freed, they were vulnerable to sexual abuse by men that were not their owners. Her uncle was a nineteen-year-old Confederate soldier, named Henry A. Harrington. He was a member of the Second Regiment, Arkansas Mounted Rifles, Company E from Clark County. He died on May 5, 1862, in a Mississippi hospital. Her father was too old to serve in the army during the Civil War.
Aunt Lou (Jane’s sister) was a mulatto as well. Since Harrington did not live near Jane’s mother, it is unlikely that he fathered both children. Jane’s mother, Matilda, had a twin sister named Nancy. Nancy had a mulatto child born during the same period as Jane.
Matilda Richards was a slave and received the surname Richards from her mother’s owner following the Civil War. The Richard family owned Matilda, her sister Nancy and their mother Maria. All three ancestors were from Tennessee and move to Arkansas with the Richard’s in the 1850’s. My great-grandmother was born several years after slavery ended.
Fig. 36. 1860 Slave Schedule: Elkins Township Arkansas
During slavery days, Matilda; her sister Nancy; and her mother, Maria, are recorded in the 1860 Slave Schedule as nameless property. Only the age and sex are recorded in the slave schedules. The 1860 census recorded free Americans only. When we look at the 1870 census, we see that Great-Grandma Jane and her sister were both mulattos, but no father is present in the house. They had taken the last name of their previous owner, which was Richard. Most of the Richard family wealth was in their slaves so following slave liberation the Richard’s were broke. The Richard’s moved out of the area and my family remained in their slave cabins.
Fig. 37. 1870 Clark County Arkansas Census
Genealogy Study performed by Sandra Craighead
Fig. 38. Clara White and My Great Grand Father Rev. Charley White, 1867-1934, holding his Bible.
My great-great-grandma Clara Taylor White was born a slave in Mobile Alabama. Her father was born in the District of Columbia and his name was Charles Taylor. Since both Grandma Clara and her dad were born in cities, they were probably house servants, since field slaves were born in rural areas. Grandma Clara was also a midwife. She would have been typical of the people interviewed for the slave narratives. She recalled that her father was sold to a nearby farm and they saw him on weekends. She also recalled that she admired her owners’ furniture and dreaming of one day owning similar furniture.
Grandma Clara was liberated in Texas. She was married to George Sharp and their son was my great grandfather Charley Sharp. George Sharp died and Grandma Clara remarried in Arkansas. Grandpa Charley White took his last name from Clara’s second husband Jerry White. We are fortunate to have a copy of her picture.
My family was deeply religious on both my mother’s and father’s sides. My mother’s dad, Sam Bragg, was a minister of the Church of God. Sam’s father was David Bragg who was born a slave on the Bragg farm in Ouachita County, Arkansas.
On my father’s side, my great-grandfather Charley White, the son of Clara White, established a church in Holly Grove, Clark County, Arkansas. Grandpa Charley was a preacher, and his picture is shown with his Bible. My ancestors are buried in the cemetery across the street from the church. Following WWII there was a mass migration of people from rural places like Holly Grove to cities like Flint Michigan; however the love for their home was not forgotten. My father attended that church’s annual homecoming as he aged well into his eighties.
Most African American families were liberated after the Civil War; however my wife Nancy’s family was an exception. Nancy’s great-great-great grandfather William Douglas was freed by a will fifty years prior to the Civil War. Elizabeth Douglas willed William his freedom upon her death in 1809. She died at the age of 23 and had inherited her slaves a short time prior to her death. William was in trust to a free black lady before being freed. The remainder of Elizabeth’s slaves was a family in trust to her brother. Her brother was in dept however and those slaves were never freed.
Elizabeth Douglas lived in Accomack, Virginia which was populated by 38% black of which 50% of them were free. Virginia however was not accommodating to free blacks. Virginia laws such as laws that prohibited black prayer meetings made Virginia inhospitable to free blacks. In 1820 William moved from Northumberland, Virginia to Aliceton, Kentucky in a wagon train of free blacks. Kentucky was one of two states that was not inhospitable to free blacks and had available land. Kentucky did not have laws restricting the education of blacks like that of Virginia and Ohio, the neighboring free state to the north of Kentucky. In 1820 William’s son Wednesday was born. Wednesday’s son Wallace Douglas became a member of the 114th United States Colored Troops at Camp Nelson Kentucky. William was also the name of Wallace’s son which was my wife Nancy’s grandfather.
Douglas family history is courtesy of Pat Spaulding.