98
These efforts were part of an endless attempt to lure new groups into the
region; in the 1870s and 1880s, even the traditional pattern of immigration
from the Carolinas, Alabama, and Georgia dwindled to a halt. Any population
growth in Southern Mississippi was due mostly to natural increase. (William
C. Harris, The Day of the Carpetbagger: Republican Reconstruction in Mississippi
[Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1979], p. 382.) The Y&MVRR
and its parent company ICRR were agreed that they wanted to attract "'people
of kindred races, that we may be homogeneous'" to counter the region's
African American majority. (Bradley G. Bond, Political Culture in the Nineteenth
Century South: Mississippi, 1840-1900 [Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University
Press, 1995], p. 206.
A few people did take the company
up on its offer as indicated by the Amite County wills of Swedish-born
Albertina Astron and her brother Nelse Swanson.
99
Eight wills written by women were probated between 1872 and 1900 as compared
to the nine written between 1902 and 1909.
100
While there is no proof that either Tena McDowell or Lucy Jackson were
slaves, the 1900 census listed both as black. Neither was addressed as
either Mrs. or Miss in the legal proceedings involving their estates and
their last names were also those of prominent slave-holding families represented
in the survey. Their inclusion in the will book is remarkable because they
died at a time when race relations in the south, as reflected by mob violence,
were at the nadir. Amite County was by no means unaffected by this terrible
activity. During the height of Reconstruction, the Ku Klux Klan had entrenched
itself in southern Mississippi by establishing several dens in Amite County.
(Harris, The Day of the Carpetbagger, p. 382.) The tragedy of the fifty
year epidemic of lynchings that swept the South is analyzed in remarkable
detail by W. Fitzhugh Brundage in his work Lynching in the New South: Georgia
and Virginia, 1880-1930. By comparing the numbers and characteristics of
lynchings in Georgia and Virginia and further breaking down the incidents
within the geographical areas of each state, Brundage not only traces the
evolution of Southern mob violence but he speculates how different circumstances
affected the number, severity of treatment, and even race of the victims.
Unfortunately for the African Americans of Amite County, sporadic outbreaks
of racial hatred would continue after the Civil Rights movement had begun.
(Allen J. Matusow, The Unraveling of America: A History of Liberalism in
the 1960s [New York: Harper Torchbooks, 1984], p. 77).
101
Elizabeth McNabb of neighboring Pike County exclaimed that none of the
young returning veterans was willing to return to the farm. Each wanted
to be a merchant, doctor, or lawyer. Bond suggests that these men were
reinventing the new South after the plantation-and-slavery-based world
of their fathers had collapsed. (Letter of Elizabeth McNabb, Quoted in
Bond, Political Culture in the Nineteenth Century South, p. 182-83.)
102
Spurlock's grandfather Allen Spurlock had settled in this northeast part
of the county in 1811 and died in his late eighties in 1864. Allen's eldest
son Thomas Jefferson Spurlock Sr. practiced medicine in the area. T.J.
Spurlock Jr continued this tradition working with his father beginning
in the late 1850s.
103
Eldest son Aaron Robinson had established himself near the community of
Gillsberg in southeast Amite County and presumably left most of the day
to day management of the estate to his younger brother. Casey and Otken
list Aaron Robinson as one of the wealthiest men in the county because
according to the 1850 census, Robinson had $5000.00 in real estate alone.
John G. Robinson owned $3000.00 at the time and by the time of his death
four years later, owned fifty slaves. The youngest brother Andrew whose
well being was the responsibility of John G. Robinson, was no longer living
in Amite County either at the time of the 1850 census or his mother Temperance's
death a year later.
104
Will of Temperance Robinson, 1851, Amite County Will Book, Vol. II, p.
15.
105
Robinson's inventory dated December 16, 1854 lists forty-one slaves twelve
of whom were men over the age of twenty-one. Robinson probably utilized
most of his labor force on his own estate because he also owned twenty-two
plows and twenty-five hoes to cultivate the 1400 bushels of corn and 1200
lbs of fodder that fed the eight mules, four horses, forty-five head of
cattle, ten hogs, eight oxen, and seventy-two of sheep. Robinson may have
also grown some cotton or at least processed it for his neighbors for a
gin stand worth fifty dollars is enumerated. No cotton or cotton seed was
included in the list, but the time of year may have been a factor. Also
absent are any home furnishings other than "one lot kitchen furniture and
cooking utensils." Any beds, chairs, dishes, and other items may have belonged
to Amanda's mother Thursey Ann Jenkins Robinson, but there is no record
from whom she may have received such items. The Robinson household was
not without luxuries of class for included in John G. Robinson's estate
are three side saddles that could have been used by Amanda, her sister,
and mother. They also would have had the option of riding in the pleasure
buggy valued at $325.00. (Inventory of estate of John Robinson, 1854, Amite
County Probate Record, Vol 18, p. 523.)
106
A publication celebrating Amite County's sesquicentennial in 1959 describes
the Spurlock home as a local example of doric architecture with handcarved
mantles over fireplaces "five feet eight inches in breadth, and the height
of the main body of each being about thirty feet."
107
The couple's son was born in mid 1862 and their only daughter Julia Spurlock
did not arrive until 1867 suggesting that Dr. Spurlock may have worked
for the war effort outside the county.
108
All were within section twenty-seven of Township Three North and Range
Six East in the Peoria Quadrangle of Amite County.
109
Neither of these brothers married in Amite County suggesting that they
did not live long after their father died. Both of Amanda's sisters who
were living in 1850 were dead before 1865.
110
Gideon Sleeper's confidence in his wife's management capabilities was not
hampered by the fact that as of the 1840s , Margaret Sleeper could not
sign her name. In all of the estate papers and subsequent accounts of her
children's clothing and educational requirements, Margaret Sleeper signed
her name with an "x." (Will of Gideon Sleeper, 1838, Amite County Archive
File 176) Margaret Sleeper, however, was not unfamiliar with managing a
deceased husband's estate. She had married fellow Georgian and early Amite
pioneer Taliaferro Stribling in 1815 when she was only fifteen years old.
When Stribling died in 1823, Margaret and her brother William McDowell
managed his estate worth $1597.70. (Casey and Otken, Amite County, Mississippi,
Vol. I, p. 422.) She married Gideon Sleeper the following year. Her early
first marriage may explain her illiteracy for it would have hampered her
taking advantage of the rare educational opportunities available in Amite
County at the time. In the eight years before Stribling died, Margaret
gave birth to at least five children who would become wards of Gideon Sleeper
after their 1824 marriage. None of these children are mentioned in Sleeper's
will.
111
Land Records, Conveyance Book I, Amite County Mississippi, p. 227.
112
Will of Julia Anderson, 1902, Amite County Will Book, Vol. II, p. 350.
113
William Webb may have been related to Amite attorney George. F. Webb and
might have moved his wife Susan to be nearer his relatives during the war.
George F. Webb had a son, also named William, who was only four years older
than Susan's husband making it possible that the two Williams were cousins.
William Webb's brother Samson G. Webb did marry in Amite County in 1863
to a Maggie A. Webb. This marriage may have marked this branch of the family's
first arrival in the area. (1850 Census, Amite County Marriage Records.)
114
The 1880 U.S. Census Soundex for Mississippi has proven to be unreliable
on several occasions.
115
Will of Susan Webb, 1910, Amite County Will Book, Vol. II, p. 393. The
census of 1900 indicates that nephew William P. Webb, his wife Bertha,
and their daughters two year old Annie and three month old infant Margaret
were living in the elder Webb's household. The young couple may just have
returned from a shortlived or unsuccessful venture in Texas for the infant
had been born in Texas; her toddler sister and parents were born in Mississippi.
Had they had a permanent domicile in either state in June 1900, the William
P. Webbs would have been enumerated in their own home.
Susan only identifies her relationship
with W.P. Webb. Her husband's will, written after her death, gives a fuller
explanation of the family ties. Susan and William seemed to have been very
determined to keep this property in the family. While Susan only implies
this desire by her stipulation that the estate transfer to Mary McLain's
own family rather than to her husband should she die without children,
in William's will he specifically states that no surviving spouse would
retain control of the estate left to the other. (Will of William Webb,
1915, Amite County Will Book, Vol. II, p. 387.)
116
Not only does William Y. Webb remember W.P., Charles, and Annie Webb in
his testament, but he also leaves money and property to his six surviving
siblings and half siblings.
117
Nephew W.P. Webb was entrusted with acting as executor of her estate, an
act he repeated for his uncle nearly ten years later.
118
In March 1862 Gabriel Harrington enlisted in Amite County Defenders in
Company K of the 33rd Mississippi Regiment. He and Charles N. B. Street,
son of Victoria and Henry G. Street, were killed in battle at Franklin,
Tennessee in October 1864.
119
Henry Bates' parents and grandparents were pioneers from South Carolina
who had come to Amite County at about the same time as the Gayden-Batchelor
family. Richard's grandmother Jane Bates had inherited from her husband
Richard Bates in 1822, his slaveless estate including property in Amite
County. (Estate Papers of Richard Bates, 1822, Amite County Archive File
11) Jane Bates, in turn, left to her son Richard Bates, Jr her farm, "all
her head of stock, sheep, and heads of hogs, an all the farming utensils."
(Will of Jane Bates, 1841, Amite County Will Book, Vol. I, p. 210.) Henry
Bates would eventually inherit a portion of his fathers estate, in addition
to land already granted to him by his father, when Richard Bates, Jr died
in 1867. (Will of Richard Bates, Jr., 1867, Amite County Will Book, Vol.
II, p. 128.)
Henry Bates headed his own household
when at age twenty two he married Harriet McKnight but an all to common
family tragedy forced Henry Bates to turn towards others. Soon after their
daughter was born in 1859, Harriet died. Despite owning over $7000 in personal
property, at the time of the 1860 census, Henry Bates and his infant daughter
Harriet were living with his former in-laws, the McKnights. Because Thomas
McKnights was estimated as having a personal property worth over thirty-thousand
dollars, these relatives were probably able to accommodate Bates and his
daughter easily. When Bates married Louisa McKenney the next year, however,
baby Harriet moved with them and was reared by her father and step-mother.
Harriet probably continued close contact with her dead mother's family,
but she and Louisa must have formed a good relationship for when Louisa
wrote her will in 1909, she referred to Harriet as her daughter and bequeathed
her an equal share in her estate. (Will of Louisa Bates, 1911, Amite County
Will Book, Vol. II, p. 353.) Most women who wrote wills in Amite County
did either gave step children a token remembrance or left them out of their
will entirely because they had already inherited from their father.
120
Louisa and Henry's surviving children included sons Henry M. Bates, Jr.,
Leslie C. Bates, Elliot Bates, and daughters Henrietta Bates Moore and
Dora A. Bates Weathersby.
121
Daughter Lula Bates had married F. H. Faust in 1884 and died in 1898 at
the age of thirty three. Her children included in their grandmother's will
were Dora, Edith, Etta, and John L. Faust.
122
Will of Elizabeth Reid, 1919, Amite County Will Book, Vol. II, p. 411.
The couple did not appear in any of the census, marriage, or cemetery records
available in Houston.
123
Mississippi in mid-century may not have been such a hazardous place to
give birth, at least as compared to some other southern states. In a study
of mortality statistics from the 1850 federal census, historian Sally McMullen
found that Mississippi had a comparatively low rate of white women dying
in childbirth. Of the 1,549 white women who died in the year 1850, only
thirty-two did so in childbirth. This 2.3 percent indicates that Mississippi
maternal morality rates in childbirth were a little below the national
average. New Hampshire had the lowest death rate at 1.2 percent and Florida
the highest at 5.4 percent in the year 1850. (Sally G. McMillen, Mothers
in the Old South: Pregnancy, Childbirth, and Infant Rearing [Baton Rouge:
Louisiana State University Press, 1990], Appendix One, Table III.)
124
Although Aletha Dixon was thirty-eight the year she died, she had given
birth the year before to her eighth surviving child, William K. Dixon.
A ninth and problematic pregnancy could have spurred her to write her will
in May 1858. Elizabeth Craft was also thirty-eight at the time she wrote
her will in May 1853; she and her new husband Thomas Craft may have decided
to start their own family whild she could still have children. At age twenty-seven,
Nancy Sleeper was the youngest known testatrix in the survey. Nancy and
her husband Gideon Sleeper already had three children, the youngest of
whom was about eighteen months old at the time of her death. Her will was
written at her deathbed by her brother-in-law; her decline may have been
sudden. Because almost no information about Elizabeth Reid is available,
she is not considered here.
125
Many of the women surveyed wrote wills in order to bequeath certain slaves
to certain people. Perhaps for some, this was a form of personality matching.
A child might be close to a particular slave or the specific needs of a
child might be anticipated by the mother. By making a careful consideration
or selection, the woman could enrich family members' lives after her death.
Furthermore, it may be that the ante-bellum plantation mistress, who in
many instances had more day-to-day contact with slaves and their needs,
might have intended to emphasize the importance of certain slaves as more
than the dollar value attached to them.
126
All of the maps included in Sam Bowers Hillard's work Hog Meat and Hoe
Cake indicate that Amite County farmers grew a variety of food stuffs,
livestock, and cash crops such as cotton. The most of the inventories indicate
these different products with rarely one dominating over the others.
127
Land Records Conveyance Book I, in Casey and Otken, Amite County, Mississippi,
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