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Tue, 29 Apr 2008 22:51:11 -0500 |
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<Of course another reason (or rationale?) might have been fear that their
slaves would suffer even more if they had their "freedom" -- and a lack of
their former paternal oversight, care and discipline.>
The free African American Mayo family seems to have done very well without
the "paternal oversight, care and discipline" of Joseph Mayo. Joseph tried
to free his slaves by his 1780 will, but it was not until 1789 that the
administrator of his estate managed to procure an act of Assembly which was
carried out by the High Court of Chancery in 1789.
Several members of the family settled in Mecklenburg County. Fortune Mayo
owned 3 cows, 2 calves, 5 sheep, a mare & colt, 14 hoes, 4 axes, a set of
cooper's and carpenter's tools, 25 barrels of corn, 400 pounds of seed
cotton and many household items by 1795 when she died.
Susanna Mayo bought 50 acres in Mecklenburg County in December 1797 from
John Chavis Walden, an African American who had been free since colonial
times. She was head of a Mecklenburg County household of 13 "free colored"
in 1820. There were 16 members of the family who headed households in the
1810 Virginia census. Fortune Mayo's children and other members of the Mayo
family married into African American families that had been free since
colonial times in both Mecklenburg County, Virginia, and Warren County,
North Carolina.
Paul
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