Part 8: The Williams Family

The State of Alabama, the home of Sussie Cribbs of Columbus 

My father's family had  a harsh life. If any Africans are part of the Williams family, chances are they came from Benin, a nation in present day West Africa. I do not consider DNA Test evidence of who people are. People and nations move all over the world. For example, Ethiopia was on the coast of the Indian Ocean, 2,000 years ago. Today that is Somalia. West of Somalia is Ethiopia.  So from that, your evidence dealing with DNA becomes less true as time goes on.  

Since the test that Williams J Williams III (Hypo) took matches DNA from the nation of Benin data base of the last 300 years, I must say that this says something in relation to evidence.  

The Slave Trade

The best-known triangular trading system is the transatlantic slave trade, that operated from the late 16th to early 19th centuries, carrying slaves, cash crops, and manufactured goods between West Africa,Caribbean or American colonies and the European colonial powers, with the northern colonies of British North America, especially New England, sometimes taking over the role of Europe.  The use of African slaves was fundamental to growing colonial cash crops, which were exported to Europe. European goods, in turn, were used to purchase African slaves, which were then brought on the sea lane west from Africa to the Americas, the so-called Middle Passage.

A classic example is the colonial molasses trade. Sugar (often in its liquid form, molasses) from the Caribbean was traded to Europe or New England, where it was distilled into rum. The profits from the sale of sugar were used to purchase manufactured goods, which were then shipped to West Africa, where they were bartered for slaves. The slaves were then brought back to the Caribbean to be sold to sugar planters. The profits from the sale of the slaves were then used to buy more sugar, which was shipped to Europe, restarting the cycle. The trip itself took five to twelve weeks.

The first leg of the triangle was from a European port to Africa, in which ships carried supplies for sale and trade, such as copper, cloth, trinkets, slave beads, guns and ammunition.  When the ship arrived, its cargo would be sold or bartered for slaves.

On the second leg, ships made the journey of the Middle Passage from Africa to the New World. Many slaves died of disease in the crowded holds of the slave ships. Once the ship reached the New World, enslaved survivors were sold in the Caribbean or the American colonies.

The ships were then prepared to get them thoroughly cleaned, drained, and loaded with export goods for a return voyage, the third leg, to their home port, from the West Indies the main export cargoes were sugar, rum, and molasses; from Virginia, tobacco and hemp. The ship then returned to Europe to complete the triangle.

Slave Trade in Alabama

   

As American slavery evolved, an elaborate and enduring mythology about the inferiority of black people was created to legitimate, perpetuate, and defend slavery. This mythology survived slavery’s formal abolition following the Civil War.

    

Since slaves were relatively cheap, coming to Alabama from Africa and the Caribbean, the slave owners could bring in slaves, working them around the clock until they die of over work. Then the owners would just say "Next" and bring in new slave workers and start the process all over again. 


Each State Slavery Laws were different. Alabama was one of the worst states for slaves. My mother's side of the Family in Virginia was better for workers but even they attacked and killed Natives Americans and took children into slavery.

http://www.eji.org/files/Slavery%20in%20America.pdf

The Montgomery Slave Trade

Coming out of the "Trail of Tears"

The ancestors of William J Williams was  Cherokee. His people were removed in the removal process called the "Trail of Tears." Here, the US Army moved the Cherokees as a nation, at gun point, to Oklahoma for resettlement.

Most people who may know about the  "Trail of Tears," may not know about the next removal.  The Oklahoma Land Rush of 1889 was the first land rush into the Unassigned Lands. The area that was opened to settlement included all or part of the present-day Canadian, Cleveland, Kingfisher, Logan, Oklahoma, and Payne counties of the US state of Oklahoma. The land run started at high noon on April 22, 1889, with an estimated 50,000 people lined up for their piece of the available two million acres (8,000 km²).

The Unassigned Lands were considered some of the best unoccupied public land in the United States. The Indian Appropriations Bill of 1889 was passed and signed into law with an amendment by Illinois RepresentativeWilliam McKendree Springer, that authorized President Benjamin Harrison to open the two million acres (8,000 km²) for settlement. Due to the Homestead Act of 1862, signed by President Abraham Lincoln, legal settlers could claim lots up to 160 acres (0.65 km²) in size. Provided a settler lived on the land and improved it, the settler could then receive the title to the land.

Great Grand Father James Williams left Oklahoma and took his family to Houston Tx. He got a job fishing. One night as James came home from work, the KKK shot and killed him in cold blood. 

President Coolidge stands with four Osage Indians at a White House ceremony

The Indian Citizenship Act of 1924, also known as the Snyder Act, was proposed by RepresentativeHomer P. Snyder (R) of New York and granted full U.S. citizenship to America's indigenous peoples, called "Indians" in this Act. While the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution defined as citizens any person born in the U.S., the amendment had been interpreted to restrict the citizenship rights of most Native people. 

The act was signed into law by President Calvin Coolidge on June 2, 1924. It was enacted partially in recognition of the thousands of Indians who served in the armed forces during World War I.

Picture of Black Indians

Great Grandfather James Williams 

When James was killed around 1912, it was legal to kill him. He had no rights just like many natives in the United States at that time. Here is why it was better to be registered in the US as a NEGRO than a native. At least Negroes had some legal protection. 

My Grandfather William J Williams(Born 1880; Died 1929) married my Grandmother Susie Cribbs and lived in Houston for about a decade after the death of James Williams. She was an officer in the Eastern Stars. For the Eastern Stars, she traveled around the country doing Eastern Stars work.    

After the death of my aunt (Small Child) in Houston due to "Yellow Fever" moved. It was hard to make a living after World War I ended. They finally ended up in Homestead Pa., after my Great Grandfather landed a job with the Homestead Sanitation Department on the garbage Truck. In the 1920's, Sanitation Workers made minimum wage, not like today. My Aunt Nanny said that he looked like he just came off the reservation. 

   

My father was born in Houston, Tx. (Born Oct. 1916; Dead 1974) and moved to Homestead with his parents. They helped many of Susie's people move to Homestead from the deep south.