Enslaved Families of Wiley Washington Pridgen, Sr.

 

When Wiley Washington Pridgen, Sr. of Gonzales County, Texas died on November 6, 1854, he left behind no will, one current wife, one ex-wife, seven sons, thousands of acres of Texas land – and dozens of enslaved people. When an inventory of his estate was made the month following his death, it included a list of 32 slaves – names, ages, monetary values and, in several cases, surnames of some of the enslaved families.

Wiley was far from the first enslaver ancestor I had found, and he was not a direct ancestor. He was my 3^rd great-granduncle, son of Hardy Pridgen of Nash County, North Carolina and brother to my 3^rd great-grandfather Joel Pridgen. Other ancestors owned many more slaves. But I chose to research his enslaved people first for multiple reasons.

•  There was a large amount of documentation, much of which included some surnames of the enslaved.
• The timing of records allowed me to place these enslaved people in specific locations just prior to and during the Civil War. By searching the 1870’s census in these specific locations, I was able to locate many of them past Emancipation.

I knew that Wiley and his first wife Mary had divorced in 1850 and was able to find the documentation for their divorce settlement, including slaves. For a while, this was the furthest back I was able to track many of them. It must have been an unusual situation for that time period because my first clue was a newspaper article mentioning the divorce and division of property, in which Mary received half of the couple’s property, both real and personal. A jury divided that property, including a list of slaves which, once again, included some of the surnames.

Wiley Pridgen Sr. Final Divorce Settlement

Then, while doing a name search for Wiley in court records for Harrison County, Texas, I stumbled on a deed filed in that county (his county of residence at that time) from New Orleans, Louisiana; this deed documented the 1848 purchase of 15 slaves by Wiley from a known slave trader. Every one of these slaves had a surname, approximate age and dollar value. It also gave me the name of the seller, Jonathan Means Wilson, who ran large slave depots in New Orleans and shipped many thousands of slaves into the Upper South into the Lower South; in 1860 the New Orleans census showed that he had the 2nd highest net worth of the 34 self-described slave traders in that city. More importantly, he had a known business association with other trading agents based in Baltimore, Maryland; searching their names turned up hundreds of pages of ships manifests listing enslaved people being brought to the Deep South; on these documents, I have found many of the slaves owned by Wiley Sr.

Purchase of Slaves 07 Feb 1848

The first slavery-related documents I discovered were in Wiley Sr.’s 1854 probate file, which was lengthy. These documents tracked his slaves through the several years of probate, including who was “hired out”, to whom, and for what price. When the estate was finally settled, a document specified which slaves were to go to which heir.

Then, just days after Wiley’s estate had been settled, his ex-wife Mary also died – also with no will. Again, another lengthy probate provided much information about her slaves and how they were divided up among her sons.  Additionally, several of the sons were minors, requiring court appointed guardians. These guardians were the older brothers and the court required regular guardianship reports. The younger sons were, for the most part, away at school, so the guardians likely kept their wards’ enslaved people at their own plantations. One brother in particular was meticulous in his reporting and often included information about the slaves his wards had inherited.

Although the Pridgen family members were all enslavers who thought nothing of owning other human beings, it became evident when following these records that they did, at the very least, strive to keep the enslaved families intact. In general, when a son took ownership of a slave he took the whole family, or they were divided so that one elder brother who had guardianship of a younger sibling owned one member and the younger member owned the others, so that the family stayed together on the elder brother’s property. Once free, many of these formerly enslaved families intermarried and remained in the local area, which made linking them together in my research simpler.

I am still working on identifying those who were enslaved by the Pridgen family, and trying to link them to living descendants.  To date, I have the following family groups (I have included only children born during slavery, and marriages that occurred between those who were once Pridgen slaves):

•          Abram Bryan Family

                   Father Abram born about 1805, died 1874

Mother Vine born about 1813, death unknown (it is unknown whether this couple was married)

Son Jim born about 1834

Daughter Rachel born about 1851(believed twin)

 Daughter Leah, born about 1851 (believed twin)

Son Zack, born about 1853

 Son Peter, born about 1834

§  Abt. 1860 married Married Margaret Turner, born about 1830, died 1917

•         Jim Darby Family

Father Jim born about 1830

 Mother Ellen born about 1832

Daughter Virginia (Jennie) Lind Darby born about 1851

§  About 1871 married Joseph Pleasants

Son Henry Darby born about 1853

Daughter Selina Darby, born about 1855

Daughter Minerva Darby, born about 1857

Son Alfred Darby, born 1860

Daughter Elizabeth Darby born about 1862

•     George Coats Family

Father George Coats born about 1820

Mother Lou Ann Coats born about 1830

 Daughter Virginia Coats born about 1849

Daughter Seraptha Coats, born about 1852

Son John Marshall Coats, born about 1855

Son Dennis Wade Coats, born about 1859

§  About 1869 married Amanda Mack

Daughter Nancy Ann Coats, born about 1856

•         Louis Mack Family

Father Louis Mack, born about 1829

Mother Phyllis, born about 1832

Daughter Amanda Mack, born about 1855

§  About 1869 Married Dennis Wade Coats

Son Nicholas, born about 1851 (son of Phyllis, unsure if son of Louis)

Son Levi, born about 1856

•     Zack Pridgen Family

Father Zack Pridgen, born about 1809

Mother Eliza Pridgen, born about 1820

Daughter Sarah Pridgen, born about 1850

Daughter Caroline Pridgen, born about 1854

 Daughter Ellen/Eliza Pridgen, born about 1854

 

Much of this information has been verified; some is not verified but is strongly indicated. I will continue to research and document what I can.