I always thought that a child of a slave belonged to the slave owner - even if the child was father by a white man other than the owner.  In researching my great great grandmother Easter Nelson, I found that her first child, my great grandmother Edmonia was fathered by a relative of her owner's wife - Lewis Dulin.  I know amything is possible - but can it be that a child fathered by a white man in 1858 would be raised as a free child by relatives of the mother? I have found a census record for a child named Edmonia Nelson born in 1858 living with free mulatto Nelsons in the same county in 1870. Of course I have no evidence that this Edmonia Nelson is the same Edmonia that Easter Nelson bore, but is it possible?  

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