Lacey Brown Born 1803
I have been thinking about my relatives that lived over 200 years ago. On the Brown Branch in Orange County, Va. my cousin told me about Lacey Brown, a "Freed Man" that was born in 1803. He is about 5 generations away from me on my mother's father's side of the family, the Browns.
Now before we go on, a freedman or freedwoman is a former slave who has been released from slavery, usually by legal means. Historically, slaves were freed either by manumission (granted freedom by their owner) or emancipation (granted freedom as part of a larger group). A fugitive slave is one who escaped slavery by fleeing.
In the United States, the terms "freedmen" and "freedwomen" refer chiefly to former slaves emancipated during the American Civil War. Slaves freed before the war, usually by individual manumissions, often in Wills, were generally referred to as "Free Negroes."
In Louisiana and other areas of the former New France (especially before annexation to the US following the Louisiana Purchase), free people of color were so identified in French: gens de couleur libres. Many were part of the color community, well-established before Louisiana became part of the US. The community in New Orleans increased in 1808 and 1809, with a wave of Haitian immigrants after the Haitian Revolution. This strengthened the French-speaking community of free people of color.
Although the Emancipation Proclamation declared all slaves in states not under the control of the U.S. government to be free (i.e. the Confederacy), it did not end slavery in the Union states themselves. Abolition of all slavery (affecting four million people — not all of them of color) was accomplished as a result of the Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution.
The Fourteenth Amendment gave ex-slaves full citizenship. The Fifteenth Amendment gave voting rights to adult males among the free people. The 13th, 14th, and 15th amendments are known as the "civil rights amendments", the "post-Civil War amendments", and the "Reconstruction Amendments".
To help freedmen transition from slavery to freedom, including a free labor market, President Abraham Lincoln created the Freedmen's, which assigned agents throughout the former Confederate states. The Bureau created schools to educate freedmen, both adults and children; helped freedmen negotiate labor contracts; and tried to minimize violence against freedmen. The era of Reconstruction was an attempt to establish new governments in the former Confederacy and to bring freedmen into society as voting citizens.
Cherokee Freedmen
The Cherokee Nation had allowed slavery before the American Civil War. After the U.S. abolished slavery, the Cherokee were required to allow freedmen full rights of citizenship in their society. This policy was later rescinded, resulting in a controversy within the modern Cherokee Nation, which continues. In the 21st century, the Cherokee Nation, and descendants of freedmen who were formerly owned by Cherokee tribesmen, are at odds over the rights of the freedmen to membership in the Cherokee tribes. (It is an issue because there are benefits that tribal membership grants.) Descendants of freedmen believe that emancipation granted them citizenship in the Cherokee Nation. This controversy is mainly in the Western Cherokee Nation, not the Eastern Nation.
Not unless one of my relatives have information otherwise, I believe that Lacey's Freedmanship came from the State of Virginia or by the owner's Will. My father's people or at least my father did not want to peruse his rights under Cherokee law.
The Near Death of My Father-in-Law
In 1972, I took my ex-wife down to see her relatives. I decided to do some genealogy work on the Brown Family in Charlottesville, the county seat of Albemarle County, Virginia. As I walked into the Hall of Records, I got the book of births of all the browns that was born in Albemarle County. I looked at my Father-in-law when he started sweating and started looking bad. I got him a chair and asked him if I needed to call the hospital.
He said no. So I asked him again what was wrong. He said you are looking at the Brown Family. I said, so, what is wrong with that. He told me that the Brown Family is his family. I told him so what, it is too late to worry about that now,
Being Politically Correct!
Depending on when in history you are talking about, you may or may not be "politically correct." I can remember a time when getting pregnant outside of marriage was a crime. You had to stand in front of the church and everything else. Today, girls say that they are pregnant and then say, "So what!"
Tracking down Lacey Brown business is hard. From the information given to me, Lacey will go away for days to see his White girl friends. (Does this sound familiar.) Then just show up at home again. I find this hard to believe because Lacey was not White. I think if this is the case, interracial laws would interfere with his life. As I said, I could be wrong about Lacey. I was not with him.
However, before 1865, Virginia needed many strong bodied slave. I hope the Brown Family can help me with this? What if Lacey was one of the people donating sperm to slave women and indenture White severance for a price?
In other worlds, could he have been a slave breeder contractor?
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