- Joined
- Nov 26, 2016
- Location
- central NC
Angel Oak Plantation, July 1849.
Poster for slave sale auction in Clarksburg, Kentucky on January 10, 1855, six years before the start of the American Civil War.
Slaves generally had two names–the one given by the slave owner (e.g. Brutus) and a private name (e.g. Sabe, Anque, Bumbo, Jobah, Quamana, Taynay, and Yearie) used in the slave quarters. The private name offered them a sense of power over their captors and provided their children with a sense of heritage and pride. They wanted their children to enter the inhumane system of slavery protected by a sense of selfhood and history.
Of the 972 names of male slaves recorded between 1619 and 1799 the leading ones were Jack, Tom, Harry, Sam, Will, Caesar, Dick, John, Robin, Frank, Charles, Joe and Prince. The most common of 603 names of female Slaves were Bet, Mary, Jane, Hanna, Betty, Sarah, Phillis, Nan, Peg, and Sary.
Although masters often assigned names to newly purchased slaves that were whimsical, satirical, or condescending in intent, the frequent appearance of classical names such as Venus, Cato, Hercules, Bacchus, and Pompey reflected the planters' own educations and libraries. Slaves themselves sometimes chose names denoting weather conditions at the time of their child's birth or some distinctive feature of his or her appearance. Geographic names were common, as were the names of ships or distant ports for slaves born in places such as Wilmington, NC or New Bern, NC. Beginning in the early nineteenth century, more biblical names were given to slave children, a reflection of the widespread attempts to Christianize slave communities and their greater exposure to Bible stories.
References:
Cheryll Cody, "'There Was No Absalom on the Ball Plantation': Slave-Naming Practices in the South Carolina Low Country, 1720-1865," American Historical Review 92 (June 1987).
Herbert G. Gutman, The Black Family in Slavery and Freedom, 1750-1925 (1976).
John C. Inscoe, "Carolina Slave Names: An Index to Acculturation," Journal of Southern History 59 (November 1983).