Read on Twitter
Long thread on slave ancestry (after a visit to @aahafauquier). I am descended from an enslaved woman & a propertied white confederate soldier. What I found: scenes of bondage, interracial union, a black church burned down, recovered property, & the first black head of HUD.1/N
The white man lived near the Beale plantation where the former’s mother, known as ‘Beale’s Bella’ (b. 1820), was enslaved (the Beale plantation is listed in 1810 as having 52 slaves). We still own the house they lived in together. 2/N
Since being a child, I visited that house in Bealeton, Virginia - we called it Old Lady Grey. This house was special not only for the hours we spent on its wraparound porch. It was inhabited by Margaret Holmes, born a slave in 1845, and a white man named Mortimer Weaver. 3/N
They had 9 children together, the 4th of whom was my gr-grandad Joe Weaver (b. 1874). Joe married Effie Cosby (yes, that Cosby line) and they had my grandfather, Blakely Weaver. Oral history, land/military/census records, wills, and other docs from the AAHA archive reveals: 4/N
Mortimer met Margaret on the Beale plantation. She was sold to another state, Mortimer successfully located her (probably in North Carolina) and brought her back to Virginia where they began a family. 5/N
Mortimer joined the Confederate army in 1861 (4th Calvary Regiment). Initially denied “due to being partially crippled; [he] went in person to General J.E.B. Stuart and volunteered, impressing the General so much as to be detailed as Scout and courier for him.” 6/N
Captured by Union soldiers in 1864 (at Old Lady Grey house, we think) after trying to “escape by jumping out of the upstair window and broke his leg.” He became a POW in May of 1864, was sent to a prison in Washington, DC, then to DE, and eventually paroled at age 24 in 1865. 7/N
Mortimer supported Margaret and their 9 children. They lived in the house that is still in our family. She passed in 1897 and he lived until 1912. This short history is the bulk of what I can grab hold of. Historian, genealogist I am not. Questions follow: 8/N
How were the land assets transferred to Mortimer & Margaret’s children? We still hold several acres of Mortimer and Margaret’s land that was passed down at some point. A deed reveals a third party (Andrew Sillings) gave Margaret Holmes 2 acres of land for $40 in May 1882. 9/N
But before his death, Mortimer gave his entire estate of 119 acres to his sister Fannie in 1909. And yet, in the 1910 Census, Joe Weaver (his son, my great-grandad) is listed as owning his own house, suggesting property was conveyed somehow, someway. 10/N
Another son of Mortimer and Margaret was Robert Clifton Weaver, whose own son Robert Weaver, Jr. eventually rose to serve in the Johnson administration, becoming one of the first black cabinet members. Did he also receive property? 11/N
What was the relationship between father and kids? The 9 children appear as & #39;Holmes& #39; in the 1880 census but by 1910 they are all listed as Weaver (while Mortimer is alive). Yet, Mortimer died alone in the Robert E. Lee Camp Soldiers& #39; Home in Richmond, Va. in 1912...
and is listed as single, not widowed, after pleading for entry into the home as crippled and infirm. Is he estranged from his living children by then? 13/N
Parentage & racial classification ?s: In the 1870 Census, Margaret is listed as a 25 year old mulatto domestic servant in William Beale’s household. 3 children are listed directly underneath her with her last name – Thomas (6), Gustavus (2), Fannie (1)... 14/N
By 1880, only 2 of them (Thomas and Gustavus) appear, and Thomas is classified as black, not mulatto like the 6 other children MH has had by then. G& #39;s name now appears as ‘Mortimer Gustavus’. Did Margaret have her son Thomas with someone else (not Mortimer)? And where is Fannie?
How did the larger community react to this relationship, nearly a century before such unions were legalized? One glimpse: During life, Mortimer defended Margaret’s honor by committing a hate crime, setting the local black St. Baptist church on fire.16/N
Specifically, "when Margaret went to join the church, not only did they refuse her membership but gave her a severe lecture regarding her immoral life style. Margaret was devastated, so Mortimer in retaliation set fire to the church.” What was the white community response? 17/N
In one record, Bella is described as an & #39;indentured servant& #39; that was released. She appears in census records on the Beale plantation but in the will/inventory of William Beale, she is not listed among the many enslaved (who, appear just before hogs & mares, disgustingly). 18/N
Finally, how prevalent are histories like this in the slave south? Our story bears striking resemblance to one of a SC family detailed in the NYT https://nyti.ms/2R6oh6A ">https://nyti.ms/2R6oh6A&q... though Weaver did not marry Holmes. 19/N
