The Washington Post - USA (2022-02-20)

C6 EZ RE THEWASHINGTONPOST.SUNDAY,FEBRUARY 20 , 2022

Source:Post researchand reader submissions THE WASHINGTON POST

0

10

20

50

40

30

60% Slaveholdersidentified

sinceJan. 10

1789-91

1st Congress

1921-23

67th Congress

ShareofCongress that wasslaveholding

Slaveholdinglawmakers

identifiedin initialPost story

Post readershelpedreveal even largershare of

enslavers whoservedinCongress

Morethan half the men electedtoCongressfrom 1789to1819were

slaveholders, the researchshowed.ReadershelpedThe Post identifydozens

moreenslaverssince the initial storypublishedon Jan.10.

COURTESYOF PADDYBOWMAN

Anoral historyfromEstherMaePrentissScott, pictured,helpedconnect thedotsandidentifyRep.SeargentSmithPrentiss of Mississippi as anenslaver. Heservedin theHousein the1830s.Shediedin 1979.

wrotethatifDinahhad future

children,she wantedeachof Di-

nah’s next fourchildrento go to

fourdifferentpeopleamongher

beneficiaries.

David B. Mattern, ahistorian

wholivesin Charlottesville,said

he spent more than 30 years

editingthe papersof James Madi-

son,one of 12 Americanpresi-

dentswhoenslaved people.He

pointedThePosttowardaletter

fromMadison’s wife,Dolley, to

her sister Anna,in whichDolley

complainedabouther enslaved

maidand asked aboutAnna’s.

“I wouldbuy amaid but good

onesare rare &ashigh as 8&

900$—Ishould liketoknow

whatyou gave for yours,”Madi-

son wrote.Alongwithan 1820

census thataPost journalist

found,Madison’s letter helped

demonstratethatAnna and her

husband,Rep.RichardCutts of

Massachusetts, were slaveown-

ers, addingCutts to the database.

By far the mostprolific con-

tributorhas beenLukeVoyles,a

26-year-oldpursuinghis PhDin

historyatthe UniversityofAla-

bama,whohas identified 39 en-

slavers and counting.

Voyles was alreadywell-versed

in methodsof combingcensuses

and historical journals for his

own dissertation research,which

focuses on the Confederateveter-

ans who became congressmen

after the CivilWarand the influ-

encetheyhad on the courseof

Americancivil rights.

Thethought of alistofall the

enslavers in Congresshad

crossedhis mindas he worked on

his listofmore than300 Confed-

erates whoserved in Congress.

Whenhe was readingthe news

lastmonth and sawThe Post

article, he joked thathis first

thoughtwas, “Gosh darnit, some-

bodydid it.”

Voylesgotinterested in civil

rightsas achild in rural Missouri

readingbiographies of presi-

dents, thenstudiedAfricanhis-

toryincollegebefore turninghis

attentionto the AmericanSouth.

He doveintohelpingwithThe

Post’s project, often late at night

after aday of teachingand work-

ing on his dissertation.He would

turn on classicalmusicfromYou-

Tube, thenlookat handwritten

19th-centurydocumentsuntilhe

foundthe namehe was looking

for.

“Itwas justagreatway of

trying to do the rightthing,trying

to do somethingethicalin my

downtime,”hesaid.“When you

do find the name,it’s abig rush.

But alsoyou knowthatyou’ve

donesomethingthat’sverymean-

ingful.”

ThePost’soriginalstorysaid

that enslavers represented 37

states in Congress. Voyles has

madethat38states —hefound

an 1850 censusdemonstrating

that Charles Debrille Poston,

knownas the “Father of Arizona”

and its firstdelegate to Congress,

was an enslaver.

AdriánBlancocontributedto this

report.

researched congressmen who

representedtheir home states.

One RamapoCollegeclass gotto

work researching several New

York congressmenas aclass as-

signment.Workers at Alabama’s

statearchives department

searchedfor recordsfromtheir

state.

Andfor some, the database

inspiredtheirownprojects. Sar-

ah Cate Wolfson,ahigh school

juniorin NewYork City, started

makingalistofNew York mayors

whoenslaved people,whichshe

hopesto publish.Herfather, who

pointedout ThePost’sarticle to

Wolfsonand inspiredthe 16-year-

old to starther own project, once

served as NewYork’sdeputymay-

or.

“It’sopenedmy eyes to how

intrinsicallylinked NewYork and

enslavementwere,”Wolfson said.

“I feellikeyou don’t need astreet

namedafter someonewho owned

slaves whoyou don’t even know

about. There was amayor named

RichardVarick—Ididn’t even

knowheexisted before starting

this. What’sthe pointof having a

Varick Streetifit’stied to not a

greatperson?”

Readersturnedup manyforms

of records.Vera Cecelski,a30-

year-oldmanager of ahistoric

site in Durham,N.C., sentwills

and probate recordsdemonstrat-

ing thatseveral congressmen

from herstate were enslavers. In

one will, Rep.GeorgeMumford’s

auntleft himan enslaved girl

namedFlora. Mumford’s aunt left

an enslaved womannamedDi-

nahtoanother nephew. She

slaved man named Richmond

whomhe broughtto the battle-

field with him and who becameill

and died there.

Bacon’s additiontoThe Post’s

databaseof enslavers in Congress

makes him one of the lastformer

enslaversto serve as aU.S.law-

maker —herepresentedGeorgia

in the Senate from 1895 to 1914.

(Helefthis markon the District

by successfullycampaigningto

have the streetnamedGeorgia

Avenuere-designated to its cur-

rentlocation.In his homestate,

he has acountyinhis name.)

Otherreaderswhowantedto

contributeto ThePost’sdatabase

brariesand churchesaboutthe

Blacksoldiersfromhis Maryland

countywho foughtfor the Union.

Andhe sentdocumentsto The

Post to demonstratethatBrown

belongson the listofenslavers.

Mary Louisa Bacon Sturges

sawher great-great-grandfather

Augustus Octavius Baconon The

Post’s listofpeopleto research.

She had donesomegenealogyon

her family,and sentdocuments

showingthatBacon wasaGeor-

gia enslaver as ayoungman—

including letters thatBacon

wrotehometo his familyduring

his timeas aConfederatesoldier,

in whichhe wroteaboutan en-

Watsonknewher grandmoth-

er,and her grandmotherknew

Monroe Prentiss. Slaveryfeels

not so far away sometimesto

Watson,wholivesin Princeton,

N.J. “Wehaven’t beenthatlong

fromthatsituation.Peopleseem

to thinkit was forever ago, and it

wasn’t,” she said.“Theynot only

survived,but Iexisttodaybe-

causeof theirstrength and their

abilitytocope and to makethe

bestofwhatlife gave them.”

Watson was one of manyread-

ers whowroteto ThePostabout

theirfamilies.Someweredescen-

dantsof congressmenand others

of the peoplethe congressmen

enslaved.

TheresearchthatChris Pupke,

whoworksin wildlifeconserva-

tion and livesin Centreville,Md.,

had conducted on his familyled

him to acongressman.Pupke, 51,

foundthatanancestor of his had

beenamajorenslaver,leaving

morethan100 enslaved peopleto

his heirswhenhe died.

Oneof thoseenslaved people

was AlfredCooper.Pupketraced

Cooper’s story—eventuallyhe

was enslaved by Rep.John Brew-

er Brownof Maryland,who gave

Cooper his freedom when he

joinedthe militarytofightfor the

Union duringthe CivilWar.

“I don’t find it an obligatory

connection.There are members

of the familythatsay,asHenry

Louis Gates says, guilt is not

inheritable,”Pupkesaid. “ButI

also feel likethere’s astoryhere to

be told thatneeds to getout there,

andsomebodyneedsto tell it.”

He givespresentationsat li-

Thelistofcongressmenstill
left to researchremainslongas
well —itshrank from677names
to 587. In otherwords:Youtoo
can help.
Watson,67 and retiredfroma
careerin IT at Rutgers University,
was reading ThePost’sstory
about congressional enslavers
when shewas surprisedto see a
familiar name: Rep. Seargent
SmithPrentissof Mississippi.He
was on ThePost’slistofcongress-
menwhostill neededto be re-
searched.
Prentiss, who served in the
House of Representativesfrom
1838 to 1839,is knownto histori-
ans as one of the wealthiestmen
in Mississippiin his timeand as
an exceptional orator.Daniel
Webster is said to have called
Prentissthe greatestspeechmak-
er he ever heard. But Watson
knowshimfor somethingelse:
She has Prentissesin her family,
whotook thatnamefromthe
manwho enslaved them.
Watson pointedaPostreporter
to the oral history, in which a
Radcliffe researcherrecordedan
interviewwithWatson’s grand-
mother45 yearsago. In the inter-
view, EstherMaePrentissScott
remembered her grandfather
MonroePrentisstellingher about
his brutaljourneytoAmerica.He
was smuggled in secretlong after
theU.S.prohibitiononthe impor-
tationof enslaved people took
effectin1808,kidnappedfrom
Africaand taken firsttoHolland
and then to Seargent Smith
Prentiss’sMississippiplantation.
“Hesaid theywere in the hull
of the ship likesardinesin acan,”
Scott, whodiedin 1979, told the
interviewer.
Heartbroken by his separation
fromhis brotherJefferson,who
was enslaved on adifferentplan-
tation, Monroenamedhis son
Jefferson—also borninto slavery
—inhonorof his brother,Scott
recalled.
TheBlack Prentisses under-
stood the originsof theirname.
“I’mwearing aslave name
now,” she recounted.“Mymother
diedwithaslave name,Prentiss,
and my grandfatherdiedwitha
slave name....He gotthatPrent-
iss fromSeargent S. Prentiss....
Well, I’mnot ashamedof it.”
Seargent SmithPrentissis now
on ThePost’slistofenslavers.
AndWatsonsaidshe’s proudto
helppreserve the memoryofher
grandmother’s grandfather.
“We’renot that far out of slav-
eryitself,” she said.“I couldreach
backone personaway.”
Watsonknewher grandmoth-
er,agifted bluesmusicianwho
performedwithMa Rainey and
BessieSmithas ayoungwoman.
Scottworkedasamaid in Missis-
sippi and then eventuallyfol-
lowedher daughterto the na-
tion’s capital,whereshe became
the beloved“MotherScott” of her
Columbia Heights church. She
recordedan album at age79,
whichWatsonrecentlydigitized
and madeavailableon YouTube.

ENSLAVERSFROMC1

Readers help identify dozens more enslavers in Congress

GEORGEGRANTHAMBAINCOLLECTION/LIBRARYOF CONGRESS

LEFT:AletterfromfirstladyDolleyMadisonhelpeddemonstratethatRep.RichardCutts of Massachusettswas anenslaver.RIGHT:Sen.

AugustusOctaviusBaconof Georgia,whoservedfrom 189 5to1914, wasanenslaver.Adescendanthelpedidentifyhimas such.

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