The Accidental Slaveowner. Revisiting a Myth of Race and Finding an American Family

410 Pages·2011·2.96 MB·English

by  Mark Auslander

The Accidental Slaveowner
The Accidental Slaveowner
Revisiting a Myth of Race and Finding an American
Family
MARK AUSLANDER
© 2011 by the University of Georgia Press Athens, Georgia 30602
www.ugapress.org
All rights reserved
Designed by April Leidig-Higgins Set in New Baskerville by Copperline Book
Services, Inc.
Printed digitally in the United States of America Library of Congress
Cataloging-in-Publication Data Auslander, Mark.
The accidental slaveowner : revisiting a myth of race and finding an American
family / Mark Auslander.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN-13: 978-0 -8203-4042-5 (hardcover : alk. paper) ISBN-10: 0 -8203-4042-1
(hardcover : alk. paper) ISBN-13: 978-0 -8203-4043-2 (pbk. : alk. paper) ISBN-
10: 0 -8203-4043-x (pbk. : alk. paper) 1. Slavery — Georgia — History — 19th
century. 2. Women slaves — Georgia — Social conditions — 19th century. 3.
Kitty, 1822–1851 — Biography. 4. Slaveholders — Georgia — Biography. 5.
Andrew, James O. (James Osgood), 1794–1871 — Biography. 6. Bishops —
Georgia — Biography. 7. Methodist Episcopal Church, South — History — 19th
century. I. Title.
E445.G3A97 2011
975.8′041 — dc22 2011012913
British Library Cataloging-in-Publication Data available ISBN for this digital
edition: 978-0-82034192-7
Dedicated to
Lee Bradley Caldwell (1925–2010)
Ellen Schattschneider
John Pliny (“J. P.”) Godfrey Jr.
and the memory of all enslaved persons
owned by James Osgood Andrew
Contents
List of Illustrations
Preface and Acknowledgments
Prologue
Part One. Memory, Myth, and Kinship
1 The Myth of Kitty
2 Distant Kin: Slavery and Cultural Intimacy in a Georgia Community
Part Two. Slavery as a Mythical System
3 “The Tenderest Solicitude for Her Welfare”: Founding Texts of the Andrew-
Kitty Narrative
4 “As Free as I Am”: Retelling the Narrative
5 “The Other Side of Paradise”: Mythos and Memory in the Cemetery
6 “The Most Interesting Building in Georgia”: The Strange Career of Kitty’s
Cottage
Part Three. Families Lost and Found
7 Enigmas of Kinship: Miss Kitty and Her Family
8 “Out of the Shadows”: The Andrew Family Slaves
9 Saying Something Now
Appendix 1. Guide to Persons Mentioned in the Text
Appendix 2. Timeline
Appendix 3. Kitty’s Possible Origins
Appendix 4. Kitty’s Children
Appendix 5. The Greenwood Slaves, Postemancipation
Notes
Bibliography
Index
Illustrations
FIGURES
1.1. Schneider on American kinship
1.2. The “white” myth
1.3. Kitty’s marriage to the “legally free” Nathan Shell as a relationship of law
7.1. Distribution of Nathan Boyd’s enslaved family
7.2. Nathan Boyd’s family
7.3. Family relations of Emma
7.4. Family of Russell Nathan Boyd
7.5. Family of Alford (Alfred) Boyd
8.1. The McFarlane slaves
8.2. Slave transfers in the Greenwood estate, 1805–55
8.3. Additional slave transfers by Ann Leonora Mounger Greenwood
8.4. Likely slave transfers by Bishop Andrew after the death of Ann Leonora
Mounger Greenwood
PHOTOGRAPHS
Following page 180
Oxford cemetery. Bishop Andrew obelisk in foreground; Kitty memorial at base
of water oak.
Kitty’s Cottage, ca. 1930
Kitty’s Cottage in Salem Campground, 1948
Kitty’s Cottage, 2010
Oxford African American community, early twentieth century
First Afrikan Presbyterian (Lithonia) performs Ancestral Walk and African
Naming Ceremony, Kitty’s Cottage, June 19, 2008.
Cynthia and Darcel Caldwell, with Oxford Mayor Jerry Roseberry, Old Church,
Oxford, Ga., February 6, 2011
Oxford College students and community members read names of enslaved
Oxford residents, Old Church, Oxford, Ga., February 6, 2011.
Darcel and Cynthia Caldwell, with historical documents on the Miss Kitty story,
February 3, 2011
Dr. Joe Pierce Jr. and Aaronetta Pierce next to Unraveling Miss Kitty’s Cloak
Detail from Lynn Marshall-Linnemeier’s Unraveling Miss Kitty’s Cloak