Mississippi

Affidavits of good behavior, no. 1.

NOTE: I found these documents before my trip to Aberdeen. They, in fact, spurred me to go.

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I’ve been hunting for digitized evidence of the trade of Wilson County slavers like Wyatt Moye, Robert S. Adams, Stephenton Page Jr., and Joshua Barnes in Aberdeen, Mississippi. I finally found some in a deed book dated 1847-1850. (Wilson County, of course, had not yet formed, but these and other traders lived or had lived in parts of Edgecombe, Nash, Wayne, or Johnston Counties that are now Wilson County.) These registered affidavits attest to the affiants’ personal acquaintance with an enslaved person who had been sent from North Carolina to Mississippi for further sale.

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Deed Record 13, page 643. Chancery Clerk’s Office, Monroe County, Mississippi.

Know all men by these presents that we Zadock Peacock and Washington M. Stanton, Citizens and free holders of the State of North Carolina & County of Edgecombe hereby certify we are acquainted a negro woman by the name of Beady that Wyatt Moye sent to Mississippi by Stephenton Page, Junior, that said Slave is about nineteen years of age, very tall black slave, furthermore certify said Slave has never been guilty of convicted of arson Burglary or felony in Said State within our knowledge or belief. Given under our hands & Seals Feby 28th 1849.    /s/ Zadoc Peacock, W.M. Stanton

Deed Record 13, page 644. Chancery Clerk’s Office, Monroe County, Mississippi.

Know all men by these presents that we Josh Barnes and L.D. Farmer, citizens and free holders of the County of Edgecombe & State of North Carolina do hereby certify we are acquainted with negro boy about Seventeen or Eighteen years of age, a very black Slave weighs about one hundred & twenty or thirty pounds said Slave Joshua was sold by Delpha Wiggins to Moye & Adams furthermore that said Slave has not been guilty or convicted of murder arson Burglary or other felony within our knowledge or belief in said State. Signed this 27th day of  Feby 1849.    /s/Joshua Barnes, L.D. Farmer

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  • Zadock Peacock — Zadock Peacock (1790-1852) lived in the Saratoga area. He was a slaveowner, but does not appear to have been a trader.
  • Washington M. Stanton — Washington May Stanton (1808-1854) lived in the Stantonsburg area. He was a committed slaveowner, but does not appear to have been a trader.
  • Wyatt Moye — Moye was a former sheriff of Greene County, N.C.; the North Carolina state legislator who introduced the bill to incorporate the Town of Wilson; and, notoriously, a slave trader and money lender. He seems to have settled in Monroe County, Mississippi, full time shortly around 1850, but spent his last decade between his Aberdeen home and his business concerns in Saint Mary Parish, Louisiana.
  • Stephenton Page Jr. — Page probably lived in the Saratoga area. He is listed in the 1850 census of Edgecombe County as a constable. Page worked as an agent or factor with Moye & Adams, but in 1850 went to court in a dispute with them over their share of proceeds from a slave sale he handled in Mississippi.
  • Joshua Barnes — “Father of Wilson County.” Farmer and state legislator, Barnes was a large-scale slaveowner and was involved in the numerous sales of enslaved people south via the United States’ internal slave trade.
  • L.D. Farmer — Larry Dew Farmer (1818-1887). Farmer appears in the 1850 census of Edgecombe County. By 1860, Farmer lived in the Town  of Wilson and reported to the censustaker that he owned $32,350 in personal property, most in the form of enslaved people.
  • Delpha Wiggins — Delphia Wiggins appears as a 22 year-old in the household of her kinsman Larry D. Farmer in the 1850 census of Edgecombe County. The timing of her sale of Joshua, shortly after her 21st birthday, suggests he represented her share of inheritance from her father Blake H. Wiggins, who died in 1828. She had no use for a teenaged farmhand, and the best prices were down south.
  • Moye & Adams — Wyatt Moye and Robert S. Adams were partners in this slave-selling firm, which was based in Aberdeen, Mississippi.

Documents reproduced at www.familysearch.org.

Juneteenth along the Tombigbee.

 

Yesterday, late afternoon, in a north Mississippi local government office.

Me: Are y’all open tomorrow?

Black woman behind counter: [Quizzical pause.] … Yes.

Me: Juneteenth?

Her: What?

Me: Juneteenth.

Her: [Another pause. Locks eyes with me, suppresses rueful laugh.] Aw, naw. Yeah, we’re open. They don’t celebrate that here.

Though I have no roots here, Mississippi always moves me, maybe shakes me, deeply. Last evening, I stood on the banks of the Tombigbee River and nearly dropped to my knees as the sun set on its swirling chocolate-brown waters. I don’t have roots here, but I probably have people here. Unknown and unknowable descendants of men, women, and children sold out of North Carolina and Virginia to the cotton plantations of the Deep South.

I’m in Mississippi on the trail of slave traders — men esteemed in the annals of Wilson County history. By chance, today is Juneteenth. The courthouse is open, and I am here to find us.

Lane Street Project: a moment to help our Mississippi sisters and brothers.

Leasondra May-Clayton cannot visit her ancestors’ historic graves because they are buried on private property that her family does not own. The landowner has denied access to the burial site unless she pays him $2.2 million. The State of Mississippi does not have a law granting access to cemeteries on private property. As a result, May-Clayton cannot restore the Landon Road Cemetery to the respectful resting place it once was.

May-Clayton and thousands more Mississippians need your help. House Bill 309 was introduced to the 2024 Legislature in an effort to grant access to cemeteries located on private property while protecting the owner from civil suit. Please help this bill pass by sharing this information and contacting a Mississippi State Legislator to urge them to vote “YES” on HB 309. You may also support the effort by signing a petition at Change.org, https://chng.it/GGLFbmsnBR
Composite photo courtesy of Black Cemetery Network.

The Wyatt Moye house, built with blood money.

Slave-trading was good money.

In the area that became Wilson County, Wyatt Moye and Robert S. Adams were perhaps the major players in the domestic slave trade, moving humans from eastern North Carolina into the Deep South, where prices were high and demand insatiable.

It was a lucrative business, and both men eventually settled in Aberdeen, Monroe County, Mississippi. An 1852 newspaper ad touts Adams and his business partners’ arrangements: “They will keep at their depot in Aberdeen, during the coming fall and winter, a large lot of choice Negroes, which they will sell low for cash, or for bills on Mobile.”

Both Adams and Moye moved into large homes in town to signal their wealth. We’ve seen R.S. Adams’ grand Greek Revival mansion (which checks every antebellum architecture box); Moye’s more modest house was close enough that they’re in the same historic district, North Aberdeen. (Descriptions of the houses’ history describe Adams and Moye as “bankers.” It is true that they formed a money-lending concern in Aberdeen. Their wealth, however, was built on buying and selling enslaved people.)

Built circa 1855 and now known as the I.Y. Johnson House, Moye’s house was recently purchased for restoration after decades of deterioration.

I.Y. Johnson House, 108 West Canal Street, Aberdeen, Mississippi. Front and side facades. March 11, 2010, W. White, photographer.

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Wyatt Moye wore a lot of hats, including “general” (of what?), sheriff of Greene County, North Carolina state legislator (he introduced the bill to incorporate the Town of Wilson), and, as we’ve seen, slave trader and money lender. He seems to have been in Mississippi full time shortly after 1850, but spent his last decade between Monroe County and business concerns in Saint Mary Parish, Louisiana. He is listed in both Mississippi and Louisiana in the 1860 census.

In the 1830 census of Greene County, N.C., Wyatt Moye reported owning 27 enslaved people.

In the 1850 census of Edgecombe County, N.C.: Wyatt Moye, 55, no occupation listed; [second] wife Louisa, 37; and daughter Louisa V., 17. [Judging by their neighbors, the Moyes appear to have lived in the Stantonsburg area of what is now Wilson County.]

In the 1850 slave schedule of Lowndes County, Mississippi, Wyatt Moye reported 27 enslaved people.

In the 1860 census of Western Division, Monroe County, Mississippi: trader Wyatt Moye, 66; [third] wife M.M., 44; W.A. Rover, 33, lumber dealer; and D. Farmer, 25, laborer. Moye reported owning $5500 in real property and $7500 in personal property (which would have included enslaved people).

In the 1860 slave schedule of Western Division, Monroe County, Mississippi, Wyatt Moye reported 8 enslaved people.

But also: in the 1860 census of Western Division, Saint Mary Parish, Louisiana: Yatt Moye, 50, planter; wife Mary, 32; Margaret Fisher, 21; and W.J. Deson, 42, agent. Moye reported a whopping $100,000 in real property and another $100,000 in personal property. [One hundred thousand dollars in 1860 is roughly $3.5 million today.]

In the 1860 slave schedule of Western Division, Saint Mary Parish, Louisiana, Wyatt Moye & Company is listed with 119 enslaved people.

Wyatt Moye died in 1862 in Saint Mary Parish. His body was returned to North Carolina for burial in Calvary Church cemetery, Tarboro.