Antebellum Sumter County

Topic: Early Versions - Performers
Ruby Pickens Tartt did not identify the sources for her version of "Come by Here." He or she may have been one of the people born before the Civil War whom she interviewed for the Federal Writers’ Project in 1937 and 1938. [1]

Most often the people who talked with Tartt referred to their former owners by their first names, like Marse Abner. [2] Occasionally they used a last name as a place name in a way that indicated it was familiar to all: Oliver Bell said he was "born on the DeGraffenreid place." [3]

About half the last names they mentioned did not appear in Tom Blake’s list of plantation owners who reported at least forty slaves in the 1860 census. [4] That means they were possessed by men like Tartt’s mother’s ancestor, Hiram Chiles, who had smaller holdings. [5]

Some lived on plantations with middling-sized quarters. Charlie Johnson said he was "born ere on Whitefield place." [6] R. H. Whitefield claimed 51 bondsmen in 1860. [7] Laura Clark said "Mr. Garrett" was the one who brought her from North Carolina. [8] In 1860, the estate of R. W. Garrett reported 92 chattel. [9 ] She remembered his overseers as bad. [10]

The only ones who lived on a larger plantation were Amy Chapman [11] and George Young. [12] They indicated they were owned by the former governor, Reuben Chapman. [13] His overseers were remembered as particularly brutal; one raped Amy. [14]

Before the war, cotton was sent down the Tombigbee river where commission agents like Tartt, Stewart [15] handled the sale. [16] They filled much the same role as Henry Laurens had in Charleston before the American Revolution. [17]

Tartt was told other, more ruthless men also brought people to Sumter County. Adelle Lemon said her grandmother was a free-born mulatto in North Carolina who was kidnapped and sold in Alabama. [18] Carrie Pollard said her aunt likewise was born free in North Carolina, snatched, and sold in Sumter County. [19]

Some local plantation owners went east themselves to find slaves. Laura Clark said Mr. Garrett bought ten children, including herself, in North Carolina. [20] Amy Chapman remembered Reuben Chapman returned to his native Virginia to buy her mother in Petersburg and her father in Richmond. "They was drove down to Alabama like cattle." [21]

Others who told Tartt about their origins mentioned locations, but didn’t elaborate. Ank Bishop said his mother was "brought out from South Carolina in a speculator drove" and sold to Liza Larkin. [22] Oliver Bell only talked about his family born "on the DeGraffenreid place," [23] but his daughter said his mother, her grandmother, was sold from Winston-Salem, North Carolina, when she was a teenager. [24]

There also was local traffic between Sumter and neighboring counties in Mississippi. Carrie Pollard said her mulatto aunt’s husband and children were sold in DeKalb while she was midwifing a white birth. [25] Angie Garrett reversed the path: he was born in DeKalb and sold to someone with a steamboat on the Tombigbee "’cause the property was in debt." [26]

Nettie Henry and her mother were sent to Meridian, but her father was owned by someone else. She remembered:

"Then his folks just kinda went to Texas, I don’t know exactly except maybe it wasn’t so healthy for them around Livingston. They didn’t go to the War or nothing." [27]

["den his folks jus’ kinda went to Texas, I don’ know why zactly ’cep’ maybe it warn’t so healthy for ’em ’roun’ Livingston. Dey didn’ go to de War or nothin’."]

Henry gave more details about her mother:

"The Chile’s place was at Livingston, Alabama, on Alamucha Creek. That’s where I was born, but I just did get borned good when Miss Lizzie—she was Marse Chile’s girl—married John C. Higgens and moved to Meridian. Me an my mother and my two sisters, Liza and Temp, was give to Miss Lizzie." [28]

["De Chil’s place was at Livingston, Alabama, on Alamucha Creek. Dat’s where I was born, but I jus’ did get borned good when Miss Lizzie—she was Marse Chil’s girl—married Marse John C. Higgins an’ moved to Mer-ree-dian. Me an’ my mammy an’ my two sisters, Liza an’ Tempe, was give to Miss Lizzie."]

This Chiles may have been a distant cousin of Hiram’s. Hiram’s grandfather had a number of children, as well as several brothers. Elizabeth Chiles Higgens [29] had a daughter [30] who married Nathaniel Abney Chiles. At one time, his father, Henry Chiles, lived in the county north of Sumter and west of Maregno. His mother, Elizabeth Fluker, spent time in Livingston. [31]

End Notes
1. Her work for the Federal Writers’ Project was discussed in the post for 23 January 2019. Virginia Pounds Brown and Laurella Owens republished some of her slave narratives with a biographies of Tartt and some of the individuals she interviewed. Alan Brown and David Taylor also reprinted some of the interviews, along with biographical details on the individuals interviewed.

Virginia Pounds Brown and Laurella Owens. Toting the Lead Row. University: The University of Alabama Press, 1981.

Alan Brown and David Taylor. Gabr’l Blow Sof’. Livingston, Alabama: Livingston Press, 1997.

2. Bettie Tolbert. "Lost to the Refugee Wagons." 127–139 in Brown and Owens. 137.
3. Oliver Bell. "That Tree Was My Nurse." 134–137 in Brown and Owens. 134.

4. Tom Blake. "Sumter County, Alabama: Largest Slaveholders from 1860 Slave Census Schedules and Surname Matches for African Americans on 1870 Census." Ancestry website.

5. Hiram Chiles was discussed in the posts for 23 January 2019 and 1 September 2019.

6. Charlie Johnson. "Reckon You Might Say I’s Just Faithful." 130–132 in Brown and Owens. 130.

7. R. H. Whitefield claimed 51 slaves in 1860 according to Blake. [4]
8. Laura Clark. "Children in Every Graveyard." 123–126 in Brown and Owens. 123.
9. The estate of R. W. Garrett reported 92 slaves in 1860 according to Blake. [4]
10. Clark. 123.

11. Amy Chapman. "The Masters Good but Overseers Mean. 128–129 in Brown and Owens. 128.

12. George Young. "Peter Had No Keys ’ceptin His." 120–122 in Brown and Owens. 120.
13. Reuben Chapman was mentioned in the post for 1 September 2019.
14. Ruby Pickens Tartt. "Amy Chapman’s Funeral." 79–83 in Brown and Owens. 80.

15. John Paul Campbell. The Southern Business Directory and General Commercial Advertiser. Charleston: Press of Walker and James, 1854. Advertisement for Tartt, Stewart, and Company, 37. Tartt’s husband’s father, Thomas Morrison Tartt, worked in his uncle’s commission house in Mobile before the war. [32]

16. Wikipedia. "Cotton Factor."
17. Henry Laurens was discussed in the post for 13 January 2019.

18. Adelle Lemon. "My Grandmammy Fancied Her Butler." 139–140 in Brown and Owens. 139.

19. Carrie Pollard. "A Husband Couldn’t Be Bought." 132–133 in Brown and Owens. 132.
20. Clark. 123.
21. Amy Chapman. 128.
22. Ank Bishop. "Gabriel Blow Soft! Gabriel Blow Loud!" 126–128 in Brown and Owens. 126.
23. Bell. 134.
24. Daughter of Oliver Bell, Bernice Johnson. Quoted in Brown and Taylor. 8.
25. Pollard. 132.
26. Angie Garrett. "Turned Lose without Nothin." 140–142 in Brown and Owens. 140–141.
27. Netty Henry. "Meridian, Mississippi." 55–59 in Brown and Taylor. 55.
28. Henry. 55.
29. Mary Taylor. "Elizabeth Chiles Higgins." Find a Grave. 31 May 2017.
30. Mary Taylor. "Annie Elizabeth Higgins Chiles." Find a Grave. 20 April 2016.

31. "Nathaniel Abney Chiles, 1853 - Circa 1924." My Heritage website. This website agglomerates information and seems less reliable than most. The birth dates given for Nathaniel’s parents were before there was settlement in the areas where it indicated they were born.

32. T. A. Deland and A. Davis Smith. "Thomas Morrison Tartt." From Northern Alabama, Historical and Biographical. Birmingham: Smith and Deland, 1888. 233.