In 1986, Mary Freeman Ellis published The Way It Was, a memoir of life with her father, noted stonemason Oliver Nestus Freeman. Early in the work, she wrote that Nestus Freeman’s father, Julius Franklin Freeman, was born in Johnston County, North Carolina.
Julius Freeman moved to Wilson County before 1870, when he appears in the first post-slavery census as a 21 year-old carpenter living with Alfred Boyit, 26, and his wife Eliza, 29, in the household of white farmer John R. Farmer, 56. [Alfred Boyette was also born Johnston County, and research links him to George Boyette (owner of the extant Boyette slave cabin) and his son James Boyette, who settled in Oldfields township, Wilson County.] I have found no formal records placing him in Johnston County or identifying his birth family. (Note, however, Nestus Freeman of Ohio, born just a few years before Julius Freeman, and likely a relative.)
“Julius” and “Nestus” were uncommon names among enslaved people in this area. Recently, however, while researching for a Johnston County client, I encountered both names among records of people enslaved by members of the extended Sanders family, who were wealthy plantation owners. I also found “Olive,” which was the name Julius Freeman gave one of his daughters and, of course, the feminine version of “Oliver,” the first name of two of his sons — Oliver Lovett Freeman and Oliver Nestus Freeman. In addition, I found “Lydia,” the name of Julius Freeman’s eldest daughter, Lydia Freeman Norwood.
The evidence is thin, but suggestive. Then, as now, some given names gained local popularity and were used repeatedly among unrelated people. Nestus seems to have been such a name, as it is used as early as the 1830s among Johnston County white families. However, the clustering of four given names that Julius F. Freeman passed to his own offspring may signal a link between him and the enslaved communities held by the extended white Sanders family.
Baldy Sanders’ slave records, which have been digitized by Johnston County Heritage Center, include a register of births (and some deaths) of people Baldy Sanders enslaved. The register includes Oliff [Olive], whose birthdate is not specified but can be inferred as January 1841; Julius, who was born 9 August 1851 and died 3 June 1852; and Lydia, born 12 July 1863.
Mary Boddie Sanders’ estate file, opened in 1843, contains a reference to Lydia, whose ownership passed to her son John F. Sanders.
In 1863, North Carolina’s Confederate General Assembly ordered that tax lists included enslaved people name. Few of these assessments survive, but Johnston County’s lists show:
- Julius, age 18, blind, enslaved by Sarah Sanders
- Olive, 22, enslaved by Sarah Sanders
- Julius, 18, enslaved by William E. Sanders
- Lydia, 3, enslaved by William E. Sanders
- Nestus, 17, enslaved by William E. Sanders
- Julius, 21, enslaved by Willis H. Sanders
- Lydia, 20, enslaved by Willis H. Sanders
- Nestus, 24, enslaved by Willis H. Sanders
- Olive, 41, enslaved by Willis H. Sanders