Artis | Fourth Generation Inclusive

October 17, 2012

Jacob Ing’s children.

In the name of God I Jacob Ing of the County of Nash and State of North Carolina being of sound mind and memory do this 8th day of April A.D. Eighteen Hundred and Sixty Seven, make this my last Will and Testament as follows (viz)

I will and direct that my Executor hereinafter named Sell my real and perishable Estate either private or publick at his discretion, and the proceed therefrom together with all species of Property of every discription be disposed of as follows (to wit)

I give and bequeath to Mary Reynolds, wife of Benjamin Reynolds, Elizabeth Boon wife of Jesse Boon, Selah White, wife of James White, Sally Reynolds, wife of William H. Reynolds, William C. Jones, Matthew Jones, also old Chaney Freed woman (formally my house servant) also Lucinda Artist (dead) to her Children if any surviving (all colored) to be Equally divided in Nine parts, and distributed as above directed. In case any of the above named persons dies before the execution of this will, leaving Children, in that event their child or children will take the parents intended shear to them and their heirs for ever. (carried forward)

I do hereby nominate and appoint my friend Jesse H. Drake the sale executor of this my last will and Testament ratifying this and no other to be my last. In Testimony whereof I have hereunto set my hand and seal the day and year above written.

Jacob Ing

April 30th 1869. I Jacob Ing of the County of Edgecombe and State of North Carolina do make this my Codicial to my last will and Testament, bearing date the 8th day of April 1867. I will and direct that said will be so amended that altered that the said old woman Chaney therein provided for I loan her the lot and improvements whereon I now live (in Battleboro) during her natural life and at her death the same be sold and proceeds Equally divided amongst the surviving Legatees there mentioned. In Testimony whereof I have hereunto Set my hand and Seal the day and date above written.

Jacob Ing

Easter Jones, also known as Hester, was the mother of Jacob Ing’s children. The family appear together in the 1850 census of Nash County: Jacob Ing (64, white, farmer) and Easter Jones (55), John Jones (20) (and his wife Dolly, 21), Matthew Jones (18) and Lucy Jones (16), all mulatto.

Lucinda “Lucy” Jones married Adam T. Artist on 10 October 1855 in Nash County. Their children Noah, Mary Jane and Augustus Kerney Artis inherited her share of her father’s estate.

Wills, Nash County Records, North Carolina State Archives; Estates Records, Wayne County Records, North Carolina State Archives; Marriage Records, Register of Deeds, Wayne County Courthouse, Goldsboro NC; 1850 federal census schedule.

An earlier post shows Ing’s application for a marriage license for his daughter Elizabeth and Jesse Boon.

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October 17, 2012

Grandfathered in.

The following Wayne County free men of color registered to vote, naming Absalom Artis, as their qualifying ancestor under the Grandfather Clause: A.B. Artis, age 29; Mack Artis, age 52; Joseph Artis, age 21; Nathan Artis, age 42; and Donnie Artis, age 21. Albert Artis, age 58, named Absalom’s son Edwin Artis. All the voters lived in Nahunta township except Nathan, who lived in Saulston.

With an express design to disenfranchise black voters, in 1900, North Carolina passed a constitutional amendment requiring that voters be able to read and write a section of the state constitution and pay a poll tax. To avoid disenfranchising illiterate whites, the amendment contained a “grandfather clause,” which exempted a registrant from the literary requirement if he or a lineal ancestor was eligible vote on 1 Jan 1867. A number of free men of color were thus able to thwart the law’s intent.

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October 15, 2012

Where are they now? No. 1.

L.H. was born in the mid-1960s in Wilson NC. She is descended from:

(1) Robert Aldridge [1819-ca1899, Duplin/Sampson/Wayne County] via John W. Aldridge [1851-1910, Wayne County]

(2) Vicey Artis [ca1810-ca1868, Greene/Wayne County] via Adam T. Artis [1831-1919, Greene/Wayne County]

(3) Margaret Balkcum [1836-195, Sampson/Wayne County]

(4) Leasy Hagans [ca1800-ca1865] via Louisa Hagans [1824-ca1875, Nash/Wayne County]

(5) Patsey Henderson [ca1795-??, Onslow County] via James Henderson [1815-ca1890, Onslow/Sampson/Wayne County] via Lewis Henderson [1836-1912, Onslow/Sampson/Wayne County]

(6) Aaron Seaberry [1818-ca1905, Wayne County] via Frances Seaberry [1845-1878, Wayne County]

and (7) an unknown Skipp of Onslow County.

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October 14, 2012

Give and grant all my right over said children.

This indenture this 16th day of August 1823 between Celia Artis of the County of Wayne and state of North Carolina of the one part, and Elias and Jesse Coleman of the other part (witnesseth) that I the said Celia Artis have for an in consideration of having four of my children raised in a becoming [illegible], by these presence indenture the said four children (to viz) Eliza, Ceatha, Zilpha, and Simon Artis to the said Elias and Jesse Coleman to be their own right and property until the said four children arives at the age of twenty one years old and I do by virtue of these presents give and grant all my right and power over said children the above term of time, unto the said Elias and Jesse Coleman their heirs and assigns, until the above-named children arives to the aforementioned etc., and I do further give unto the said Elias and Jesse Coleman all power of recovering from any person or persons all my right to said children — the [illegible] of time whatsoever in whereof I the said Celia Artis have hereunto set my hand and seal the day and year above written, Celia X Artis.

Deeds, Register of Deeds Office, Wayne County Courthouse, Goldsboro.

[Sidenote: Celia Artis (1800-1879) was a prosperous free woman of color whose husband, Simon Pig, was a slave. (She purchased and eventually freed him, and he adopted her surname.) Because Celia was not legally married, her children were subject to involuntary apprenticeship. This deed records her determination to guard her children from uncertain fates by placing them under the control of men she trusted. Despite the wording of the deed, it is likely that the children continued to live with their mother after their indenture. By mid-century, Celia Artis was one of the wealthiest free women of color in Wayne County, having amassed 750 acres of land in northern Wayne County. — LYH]

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October 14, 2012

A small boy of Culler.

March the 29th 1831

Beet known to the onerable Cort of Wayne County that I had a small boy of Culler Bound to me Two or three years ago I am going to the Westan Contry and I have Left the boy with Stephen Woodard and I Wish the Cort to Binde the Same to sd Woodard and releas me and my Secureety — Woodard Daniel

Only one indenture involving Woodard Daniel survives, that for 12 year-old Lewis Artis in 1824. However, records show that Stephen Woodard bound 9 year-old Willie Hagans in 1831, and we can assume that this was the child that Daniel gave up. Woodard bound 8 free children of color between 1820 and 1831.

Apprenticeship Records, Wayne County Records, North Carolina State Archives.

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October 14, 2012

Artis was borned.

Mary Artis was borned 24 day of April in the year 1846

Penninah Artis was borned the 3rd day of August 1848

Lewis Artis was borned the 12th day of December in the year 1850

William G. Artis was borned the 10th July in the year 1853

Benajy C. Artis was borned the 22nd January 1859

make indentures James Scott surety

These children appear in the household of their parents, Asa and Pherebe Artis, in the 1860 census of Nahunta township, Wayne County. When were they indentured? Why? Were they suddenly orphaned?

Apprenticeship Records, Wayne County Records, North Carolina State Archives.

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October 10, 2012

Free colored slaveholders in Wayne County, 1850.

Hillary Croom — 55 year-old black female; 32 year-old black male.

Levi Winn — 55 year-old black male; 22 year-old black male.

Sheppard Best — 80 year-old black female.

Tabitha Read — 50 year-old black male; 50 year-old black male; 60 year-old black male; 55 year-old black female.

Celia Artice — 60 year-old male.

Arthur Cotten — 50 year-old black male.

Rhoda Read — 70 year-old black male.

Luke Hall — 70 year-old black male.

Celia Artice and sisters Rhoda and Tabitha Read owned their husbands. The ages of slaves held by other free people of color in the county suggests that they, too, had secured title to loved ones.

1850 United States Federal Census, Slave Schedule, Wayne County NC.

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October 7, 2012

1 grubing hoe, 1 irone Square, 1 saw & drawing knife

The “Account of the Sale of the property of Ablassom [sic] Artis decest Sold by Jesse Hollowell Admr for Confederate money this March 9th 1864” chronicled the disposal of Absalom Artis‘ possessions. His estate included household goods, farm implements, carpenter’s tools, a cow and calf, and 5 “chickings.” Most of the buyers were Absalom’s free colored neighbors and kin: Green Simmons, Jacob Artis, Patrick Artis, Joseph Artis, John Artis, Edwin Artis, Oliver Guy, Edmond Artis, Charity Hagans and Levi Winn.

Records of Wills and Estates, Wayne County Records, North Carolina State Archives.

[Sidenote: The Civil War is raging. Absalom Artis has died of old age. Folk gather at the sale of his estate, hoping for a good deal on a harness or maybe a hammer. The crowd, standing shoulder to shoulder to peer at each item, is unusually mixed. Of the 21 buyers listed in the account, only ten were white. The others, 10 men and a woman, were members of Wayne County’s resilient little free colored community. Most were desperately poor, clinging to their precarious toehold on liberty. Others, like Absalom Artis and many of his kin, had managed to achieve a measure of comfort (material, anyway) that equalled or bested that of their white neighbors. They stepped up and laid down their Confederate dollars like the next man.

I am an Artis, but not descended from Absalom. The connection between him and my Artis forebear is lost to time, but the Artises collectively comprised one of the largest free colored families in antebellum North Carolina. They had been freed generations before in southside Virginia. — LYH]

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