Dwelling Place

by Erskine Clarke

  PEGGY (1842–1866), the daughter of Eve and William (a slave of the Roswell Kings). See genealogical chart “Flora.” She should not be confused with Peggy (1815–1865+). She was trained from an early age to be a seamstress and maid and worked for Mary Jones at Montevideo and Maybank. In 1860 she was “debauched” by William States Lee, a white guest at Maybank, and had his child, Eva Lee, the next year. She served as the wet nurse for Mary Ruth Jones, the motherless child of Charles Colcock Jones (1831–1893), and married in 1862 Henry, a slave from a neighboring plantation. In 1866 Peggy “died of small pox and in great want and neglect in Savannah.”

  PHILLIS. There are five women named Phillis who need to be distinguished, although each has a minor role in the narrative. (1) Phillis the first wife of Hamlet and mother of Prince. A slave of John Jones (1772–1805), she died in 1812. See genealogical chart “Jupiter and Silvey.” (2) Phillis who was a plantation nurse at the Retreat between 1800 and 1810 and was owned by Joseph Jones (1779–1846). (3) Phillis (1811–1862+), a daughter of Flora (1790–1851). This Phillis was married to Niger (1803–1862) and was the mother of Niger (1839–1891+). See genealogical chart “Flora.” (4) Phillis, daughter of Fanny and Prime, who was born in 1829, married first to Paul, a slave on a neighboring plantation, and then in 1853 to Sam, a child of Sam and Rosetta. See genealogical charts “Prime and Fanny Stevens” and “Sam and Rosetta Roberts.” And (5) Phillis, a cook for Julia Maxwell King. This Phillis died in 1858 and had been an “old friend” to Mary Jones. She was the grandmother of Flora (1839–1868+).

  PHOEBE (1809–1857+), the daughter of Jack and Lizzett. Raised under the tutelage of her father and her mistress Sarah Anderson Jones. She was given when she was seventeen to Mary Jones, who was eighteen, to be her personal servant. The previous year she had given birth to Clarissa (1825–1865+) by an unknown father. Phoebe soon became an accomplished seamstress and an indispensable servant to Mary Jones. Phoebe married in 1828 Sandy Jones, a carpenter. They had one child, John. In 1831 Phoebe was carried to Savannah when Charles Colcock Jones (1804–1863) and Mary Jones moved there. When Charles Colcock Jones (1831–1893) was born, Phoebe slept on the floor beside Mary Jones in order to care for the child. She had had to leave her own children at Car-lawter under the care of others. She became a member of the Midway congregation in 1832. When Sandy Jones was away from Carlawter doing carpentry work in 1835, Phoebe began an affair with Cassius. They were both excommunicated from the Midway congregation in 1836. That year their first son was born, Young Cassius (or Cash Jones). Phoebe and Cassius had nine more children, including Jane. Phoebe chafed under the oppression of slavery and struggled to keep her rage from flaring in dangerous ways as she sometimes came close to open defiance. Charles Colcock Jones (1804–1863) did not trust her although he knew that his wife Mary was deeply dependent on her. As long as Phoebe’s father, Jack, was alive, he provided Phoebe some protection from her master’s distrust and growing frustration with her behavior. In 1856 Phoebe and Cassius were sold in Savannah with their children.

  PLENTY JAMES (1800?–1865+), the driver for Nathaniel Varnedoe at Liberty Hall plantation. He was sometimes called Plenty Varnedoe. He was married to a woman who lived at Liberty Hall, but he was suspended in 1846 for a year from the Midway congregation because he had been “living illicitly” with another woman. When his master died in 1856, his will stated, “I will and bequeath to my true and faithful servant driver Plenty one hundred dollars in money.” The driver gave the money to Charles Colcock Jones (1804–1863) and asked him to invest it for him, which he did at 6 percent interest. Plenty James was apparently a person of some means within the Gullah community. He sold a buggy to Cassius in the early 1850s. Shortly after Varnedoe’s estate was settled, Plenty James’s wife was sold to a planter in Albany, Georgia. The old man was able to visit her at least on one occasion through the help of his former pastor at Midway, the Reverend Isaac Stockton Keith Axson.

  POMPEY (1803–1873+), the driver for Thomas Mallard at the Mallard Place and a watchman for Midway Congregational Church. He was married to Bella, who also lived at the Mallard Place. Pompey was a highly respected driver who was allowed by his master to rent himself out to other planters for various tasks associated with plantation management. He was also able to work as much land as he could, and he frequently hired other slaves to work for him. As a watchman he was deeply involved in adjudicating disputes among slaves of surrounding plantations. After the Civil War, he and Bella took Bacon as their family name, and Pompey made claims to the United States government for substantial losses of livestock and other property taken by Federal troops when they pillaged Liberty County.

  PORTER (1817–1881), son of Lizzy and Robinson, brother of Cato and Cassius, and husband of Patience. See genealogical chart “Lizzy and Robinson.” From an early age he was trained to be a carpenter by working as an apprentice to Sandy Jones and Sandy Maybank. He was noted for his reliability and for his development as a highly skilled carpenter. He and Patience married Christmas 1838 and had nine children, including Titus (1839–1870+) and Beck. He and Patience were both members of the Midway congregation for more than thirty years. After the Civil War, while continuing his work as a carpenter, he became a prosperous small farmer, owning land near Arcadia plantation. He and Patience adopted Way as their family name.

  PRIME (1798–1865+), a slave of Andrew Maybank and husband of Fanny, another May-bank slave. At Maybank’s death in 1834, Prime and Fanny were left in Maybank’s will to Charles Colcock Jones (1804–1863) and Mary Jones. Prime and Fanny had five children, including Titus (1826–1865+) and Niger (1832–1865+). Prime is not to be confused with Prime, the son of Cassius and Phoebe. See genealogical chart “Prime and Fanny Stevens.” In 1852 Prime and his family were moved from the settlement at Maybank to Arcadia. Prime was an agricultural worker, but he was also a woodsman and often had the task of cutting and splitting wood for shingles, fencing, and fires. He owned his own shotgun and became a successful hunter of ducks. In 1862 he and his family were sent to Indianola plantation in Burke County. At the end of the Civil War, he and his family returned to Liberty County and took Stevens as their family name.

  PRINCE(1804–1866+), son of Hamlet and Phillis. He was born at Liberty Hall and spent time at the Retreat settlement, at Carlawter, and White Oak. He was part of the joint property of Charles Colcock Jones (1804–1863) and Jones’s sister Susan Mary Jones Maxwell Cumming until a division of their property in 1839, when he became the sole property of Susan Maxwell Cumming. See genealogical chart “Jupiter and Silvey.” In 1839 Prince followed in the footsteps of his grandfather Jupiter (1740?–1812?) and his father, Hamlet, by becoming the driver at White Oak. He was married to Venus, a slave of Joseph Jones (1779–1846). When her master died in 1846, she became, through a division of property, the slave of James Newton Jones. Three years after James Newton Jones died in 1854, Venus was carried to north Georgia, where she was sold to a stranger. She died shortly after her sale and the trauma of her removal from her husband. In 1863, under the threat of Federal raids, Prince was removed with other slaves from White Oak and sent to southwest Georgia. After the war, he returned to Liberty County, rented land at White Oak, and took Stewart as his family name.

  PULASKI (1779–1852), the husband of Affee (1782–1857+) and a slave of Joseph Jones (1779–1846). Pulaski was born the same year as his master, grew up with him, and became the driver at the Retreat in the 1790s, a position he kept for almost sixty years. Joseph Jones held Pulaski in high regard as together they led in the development of the Retreat into one of the largest and most prosperous plantations of the Georgia low country. Master and driver met regularly in the evenings in the Retreat study to plan the next day’s work. In spite of such a close relationship, there was no question who was the master and who was the slave. When Joseph Jones died, he left special instructions that the old driver and his wife were not to be removed from their home at the Retreat and that Pulaski was to be given annually “an extra suit of
union clothing and six dollars.” Pulaski and Affee had six children and more than fifteen grandchildren. Their son Young Pulaski became a driver for a plantation of the Joseph Jones estate and was sold a year after Old Pulaski died. Neither Old Pulaski nor Young Pulaski should be confused with Pulaski the carpenter who was the son of Niger (1803–1862) and Phillis and was sent to work on the Savannah fortifications.

  ROBIN (1778–1870+), the brother of Jack. He came to the Jones family in 1806, when his mistress Sarah Anderson married Joseph Jones (1779–1846). When Sarah Anderson’s estate was divided in 1830, Robin and his wife, Lizzy, became the slave of Mary Jones. He and Lizzy had three children—Elsey, Stepney, and Patience—and became the progenitors of one of the most important families in the Gullah community of Liberty County. See genealogical chart “Robin and Lizzy West.” Lizzy died in 1832 after having broken her thigh. She had been, noted Charles Colcock Jones (1804–1863), a “faithful servant,” a Christian who “died in hope.” She should not be confused with Lizzy, wife of Robinson. Robin was apparently a remarkably strong person who lived at least into his nineties. When he was in his seventies, he was still active as a woodsman, cutting fence rails and shingles. In 1846 he was moved from Carlawter to Arcadia, where his son Stepney was the driver. After the Civil War, he remained at Arcadia, where Stepney coordinated the renting of much of the old plantation, and Patience and her husband, Porter, bought land and established themselves on a nearby small farm. Robin and Stepney declared West to be their family name.

  ROBINSON (1780?–1850+), the husband of Lizzy, and father of Lymus, Cato, Cassius, Porter, and Adam. See genealogical chart “Lizzy and Robinson.” He was a slave of Eliza Greene Low Robarts. As a young man, he had smallpox, which left him both scarred and immune from the disease. Eliza Robarts’s slaves were often mingled with those of Charles Colcock Jones (1804–1863), so Robinson and Lizzy lived together in Sunbury, in Greensboro, at the Retreat, and at Carlawter. They were separated in 1833 when Joseph Jones (1779–1846) bought Hickory Hill plantation for his sister Eliza Greene Low Ro-barts and gave her part of the Montevideo plantation to Mary Jones. Thereafter, Robinson had to make the Saturday afternoon trip from Hickory Hill to his “wife house” at Carlawter until Lizzy’s death in 1837. When Eliza Robarts moved to Marietta in 1849, she made arrangements for Robinson to live at the Retreat settlement. In 1850 he served as a nurse to those who had smallpox and were being held in quarantine in Riceboro.

  ROSETTA (1800–1866), the wife of Sam. She was born a slave of John Bohum Girardeau and was willed shortly after her birth to Susannah Girardeau Jones, who willed her to her son Charles Colcock Jones (1804–1863). When Susannah Girardeau Jones died in 1810, Rosetta was carried, with her master, to Greensboro, where she lived and worked in the household of her master’s aunt, Eliza Greene Low Robarts. There she got to know Sam, who was being trained to be a domestic servant for the Robartses. Rosetta was herself trained to be a domestic under the tutelage of Lizzy. When Eliza Robarts returned to Liberty County, Rosetta lived first at the Retreat and then at Carlawter. She and Sam married in 1818 and had five children, including Lucy, Fanny (the wife of Gilbert), and Sam (the husband of Phillis). After the Civil War her family took the name Roberts. See genealogical chart “Rosetta and Sam Roberts.” Rosetta’s work involved a variety of domestic tasks, including spinning, churning butter, cleaning the house, and, in her old age, watching after the slave children at Carlawter. She became a midwife and was implicated in the 1850s for concealing an infanticide by one of the Robarts slaves. When Eliza Robarts moved to Marietta in 1849, Sam was taken away from Rosetta and his family in order to function as the butler and manager of the Robarts household. He was allowed to return each winter to Liberty County for about six weeks, but Rosetta grieved deeply over the separation and worried that he would find another wife in northern Georgia. After the Civil War, Sam returned to Carlawter and lived with his wife and children. Rosetta died a few months after his return, surrounded by her children, and confessing her confidence in God’s goodness and grace.

  SAM (1798?–1867), husband of Rosetta and progenitor with her of a large and influential family. See genealogical chart “Rosetta and Sam Roberts.” He was owned by Eliza Greene Low Robarts and was, from an early age, trained to be a domestic servant. He quickly became an indispensable and respected manager of the Robarts household. In 1849, when his mistress moved to Marietta, he was separated from his family. While he was allowed to return to Liberty County every Christmas and to stay for about six weeks, the separation was particularly painful for Rosetta. In Marietta his reputation as a wise and dependable servant continued to grow. When the Robartses fled the approaching Union troops in 1864, Sam went ahead of them to middle Georgia to make arrangements for their move. He returned to Liberty County after the war to be with his wife and family. Rosetta died shortly after his return, and he died the following year. They had declared their family name to be Roberts. He is not to be confused with Sam, the black preacher who followed Sharper, or with his own son Sam.

  SANDY JONES (1793?–1843), a highly skilled carpenter who was owned by John Jones (1772–1805). He was among those slaves purchased by Joseph Jones (1779–1846) in Riceboro in 1808 and given back to the widow and children of his brother John. He was part of the joint property of Charles Colcock Jones (1804–1863) and his sister Susan Mary Jones Maxwell Cumming until a division of their property in 1839. In 1828 he married Phoebe. They had one son, John. After the younger Phoebe had an affair with Cassius and married him, Sandy Jones’s health began a steady decline. He died of “inflamed lungs” after having been “in feeble health” for several years. He was a member of the Midway congregation and died with “good hope.”

  SANDY MAYBANK (?–1861), a carpenter and slave of Andrew Maybank who became the property of Charles Colcock Jones (1804–1863) and Mary Jones when Andrew May-bank died in 1834. Of all the carpenters owned by various members of the Jones family, he was the most skilled and valuable, bringing the highest wages when he was rented to neighboring planters. He learned to read and write at an early age and was consequently able to carry with him instructions about the work that he was to do. He was married to Mary Ann, the daughter of Sharper. She was owned by Joseph Jones (1779–1846) and lived at the Retreat settlement. In 1842, while he was working at the plantation of William Quarterman Baker, he had an affair with Baker’s slave Mag. The next year the Midway congregation suspended him for adultery. He and Mag had two children, and Sandy continued to have two families for a number of years. In the early 1850s he stopped living with Mag and began living only with Mary Ann, although he continued to see and support his Baker family. He was consequently received back into full communion with the Midway congregation. When his health began to fail in the late 1850s, he was sent to Augusta to be under the treatment of Dr. Joseph Jones (1833–1896) and for “a change of air” in the hopes that “his health may be improved thereby.” He died in 1861 of pneumonia. His funeral was in the chapel at Montevideo, and he was buried in the slave cemetery at Carlawter. Charles Jones called him “our old friend and faithful servant.”

  SHARPER (?–1833), a slave preacher hired from his owner by the Midway congregation to preach and minister among the slaves of Liberty County. For more than two decades, he rode from three to seven miles in the evenings to preach and visit in the settlements of Liberty County. In the early 1830s, Charles Colcock Jones (1804–1863) believed him to be the most influential person in the Gullah community. His freedom to move about among the various settlements provided him an intimate knowledge of the Gullah people and their traditions. He was an important mentor for Jones in his missionary work. Sharper’s wife belonged to Joseph Jones (1779–1846) and lived at the Retreat, and his daughter Mary Ann was the wife of Sandy Maybank. Sharper was a man of a little “below middling stature,” with a “smooth, benevolent forehead, and of a pleasant countenance.” When he preached, a slight impediment gave a distinctive character to his speech and “added to the interest of his
address.” His prayers were elegant and deeply moving. He died in 1833 after eating green plums. His funeral, held at night on the green before Midway Church, was attended by hundreds of slaves. He was buried about a mile north of Midway Church in an old slave cemetery.

  SILVEY (1740?–1812?), see Jupiter (1740?–1812?).

  STEPNEY (1812–1898+), the son of Robin and Lizzy and the brother of Elsey (1809–1870+) and Patience. When Charles Colcock Jones (1804–1863) purchased Arcadia in 1846, he selected Stepney to be its driver. Stepney proved to be a good driver and helped to turn Arcadia into the most prosperous of the Joneses’ plantations. He was married first to Cate, a slave of Susan Mary Jones Maxwell Cumming. She was allowed to live at Arcadia but became a “clay eater” in the early 1850s. She was sent to Maybank, where it was hoped that a better diet and the threat of an iron mouthpiece would cure her of the dangerous practice. While she was at Maybank, Stepney had an affair with Daphne, who was seventeen years younger than he, lived in the Arcadia settlement, and was the daughter of Flora (1790–1851). Their son Pharaoh was born the year after Cate was sent to May-bank. Stepney and Daphne married three months after Cate died in 1853. Stepney was admitted to membership of the Midway congregation in 1859. He owned his own horse and buggy and his own shotgun and was known for his ability as a duck hunter. He was sent in 1863 to Indianola, where he was the driver. He made numerous trips by himself between Burke County and Liberty County during the Civil War. After the war, he took over the management of Arcadia and then coordinated the renting and then purchasing by freed people of much of the land of the old plantation. He and father Robin claimed West as their family name.