The Story of Eliza Thorne (1865 to 2015)

 Darnell L Williams

At the start of America, a State was a country in the United States

Eliza Thorn  is one of the most famous of my ancestors and was the most resourceful slaves that I have ever studied in my family. She is reported to be half Cherokee and heard the emancipation proclamation on the court house steps in Culpeper, Va. when the Union troops moved in to the City in 1865.  

How  Slavery  Started

Please keep in mind, slavery started out as allowing people to work their way over to America. It became a slippery slope. It ended as an institution that allow people to own other people and their descendents forever.

http://www.understandingrace.org/history/gov/colonial_authority.html.

In the Commonwealth of Virginia, the legislature created laws that govern how White Women, mixed children, and slaves were treated. Here are some of the laws as written and passed by the governor.

http://www.virtualjamestown.org/laws1.html

If you want to read more about Virginia Slave laws, go to; wo+acts+in+1682+that+combined+Native+Americans+and+Africans+into+one+category+as+%E2%80%9Cnegroes+and+other+slaves.%E2%80%9D

Virginia passed two acts in 1682 that combined Native Americans and Africans into one category as “negroes and other slaves.” Here is why my family placed Eliza Thorne as half Cherokee (Nationality). To them it means half Native American. No record was found that showed that Eliza's other half was all African or part. For example; being Cherokee and Sapi was mix breed. Being Cherokee and Nigerian was mixed breed as well. To the state they are all Negroes. To the local people, it may not be the same as the state.

Before I go on with Eliza Thorne, I want you to see what Ray Akins said about Ancient Native Americans. "When I was growing up as a child I knew my Grandparents were of Indian descent but like many Blacks I did not know the importance of that information and ignored my rightful heritage." 

http://theindigenousamerican.blogspot.com/

Discovering Eliza Thorne

After finding out about Eliza Thorne in the early 1970s from my Uncle Joe Blue (Blue is the Cherokee Klan that the Blue family came from),  I took a stand and told Eliza's story for the past 45 years.   This is what Uncle Joe told me after I found my way to his house. I had only been to his house one time at 7 years old and  from that memory, my wife Amanda Ann Williams (II in the Porter family) drove to his home in Central Virginia from West Mifflin, Pa. This is a 5 h 54 min (315.3 mi) trip just on memory. We did not have cell phones, PC or tablets, just maps to tell us how to get to a general area.

Upon seeing the picture of Eliza Thorne in his living room, he told me about Eliza coming out of slavery.  Uncle Joe said, "Eliza Thorne was a slave for Colonel Slaughter and his family.  If you stood in Clara and Tom Porter's Yard (Ann's mother and father) in 1970 and looked up the closest mountain, you could see a falling down structure. It was the mansion of Colonel Slaughter. This is where Eliza Thorn worked as a slave.  

Slaves had spare time and could do what they wanted  in that time.  Eliza was a carpenter. I seen the furniture that she made in Uncle Joes house and it was in perfect condition in the 1970s. She made a lot of money.  As proof, after the Civil War, she bought a Conestoga Wagon, a team of horses and drove down Rt. 29 South  to a place called Stony Point and settled in a place called "Free Union."   She moved with her sisters; Maria, Jane, and Violet.  Here she bought 11 Acres of land. She stayed here until she died.  Eliza had three husbands; the Thorns, West, and Walkers and had children by all three. Some of her descendants became Medical Doctors and specialist, others because administrators and Computer Technicians.  Yet some served in the US Military.

From Va. Slave to Jamaicans, here is how my line progressed from 1850 to 2015.

0. Eliza Thorne and Eliza Thorne II  (Culpeper Va. Slave, freed in 1865)

1. Eliza Thorne II had Eliza West

2.  Eliza West had George W.  Blue (Descendant of the Cherokee Blue Klan)

3. George W. Blue had Eliza Lucinda Blue (Married John Brown at Free Union Baptist Church in Free Union, moved to Steeton, Pa)

4. Eliza Lucinda Blue had Jean Julia brown (From Stony Point, Va. to Steelton, Pa.)

5. Jean Julia Brown had Darnell Lamont Williams (From Steelton to the Pittsburgh, Pa.  Area)

6. Darnell Lamont Williams had Stephanie Ann Williams and Amanda Ann Williams III

     (From the Pittsburgh, Pa. to the Harrisburg, Pa.  Area)

7.  Stephanie Ann Williams had Daniel Lamont Tulloch and David Tulloch (The Jamaican descendants, husband Damine is a National)       

Later, we will talk about the times, technology, and laws that affected this family changing it in ways that Eliza Thorne could not have dreamed  of! 

To see more, click on the FAMILY GENEALOGY at the bottom of the screen.