By Zann Nelson, Apr 30, 2019
I absolutely love the internet! Oh, I know it can be deceptive and invasive and has other, worse attributes, but it also has the ability to connect people and information far beyond our wildest imaginations. That is exactly what happened yesterday, and I want to share the thrill of some anticipated information. Let me first offer a brief refresher so that you can be standing right alongside me on the precipice of these possible revelations.
The potential new information involves the “Louisiana 16 and the Plus-One” research. Most of the readers are familiar with that story but for those who are not, here it is in a nutshell: In 1834, former President James Madison sold several of his enslaved people—supposedly 16—to his distant cousin William Taylor. These unlucky souls were transferred to Louisiana, where Taylor had two plantations, one cotton and one sugar. I have spent two years researching the lives of these individuals with what I think is significant success. I have proven that several of Taylor’s enslaved people were born in Virginia and were of an age in 1834 that would have made them likely candidates to work in the sugar and cotton fields, including a man named Jack Virginia (given the surname by Taylor), his wife Mary, also born in Virginia, and a son named Madison Virginia, born in 1835 in Louisiana.
If this were not enough, we also found an enslaved woman by the name of Jenny, whose first allocated surname was Culpeper. Later, her name was altered to reflect her occupation as a cook, and she and her children carried the surname of Cook from then on. She has become our “plus-one.” It is believed that Jenny came from Culpeper as the slave of Lucy Thom, who married William Taylor in 1834.
We have connected with many of the Louisiana descendants of several of these Virginia natives. However, there are gaps and I am particularly interested in finding more about Jenny and her family in Culpeper.
Now, to the present day. Last Sunday, I received an email from a Thom family descendant who had read the previous stories on my blog, www.HistoryInvestigator.net. She informed me that a cousin had letters and an account book for the farm in Culpeper with written information about the enslaved there. She also thinks that same cousin has papers and other records related to William Taylor’s life in Louisiana. She is visiting this family member who keeps the family archives in May and will be back in touch with what she finds. Here is the most glorious statement in her email: “I hope I can somehow digitize or share those documents with descendants of those people mentioned. I hope I can be of help to your history research and all that you are doing to help people discover their ancestry.”
I am forever grateful to those who share their resources in the quest of true heritage. I will keep posted.
Until next week, be well.
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