The Africans Among Us
Years ago when I was doing research bordering on crazy I would get off work, make a beeline to the San Francisco Main Library and copy hundreds if not thousands of pages of the Congressional Record Serial Set. I did this on reading Dr. Daniel Littlefield’s book, “The Chickasaw Freedmen a People Without a Country.”
I made a habit of meticulously go through his footnotes to find out where he found what appeared to be firsthand information about Chickasaw and Choctaw Freedmen history. It gnawed at me that he would have this information that might lead me to my ancestors because one of them was prominently featured in his book.
So without fail, whenever I had some time to go over to the library before jumping on the BART train home, I took full advantage of the time and made sure I had my little copying card full because each copying session probably meant I had to spend at least two to three hours making copies of this incredible resource.
One day I came across something that stuck with me for years. It was a petition by freedmen of the Choctaw and Chickasaw Nations that had a list of names of the people who concluded the Choctaw Nation failed to adopt them after four years and denied them the opportunity to educate their children or any of the privileges stated in the Treaty of 1866; expressed their desire to be “removed” from the Choctaw nation and receive the one-hundred dollar per capita that was spelled out in the same Treaty of 1866. The treaty set aside $300,000 earmarked a portion that the formerly enslaved formerly enslaved population of Choctaw Freedmen was entitled to IF they agreed to leave the nation of their birth.
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| House Miscellaneous Document 46, (42nd Congress, 2nd Session) |
In that memorial to Congress with all of the names of the people who were electing to leave was a curious footnote that caught my attention. On page 2 of the document was the name Sally JONES, a widow who made “her X mark” indicating her willingness to leave but that was not what made me notice? Sally’s name had an asterisk by it and at the bottom of the page it was explained.
The document was written and sent to Congress in 1872, four years after the time the Chickasaw and Choctaw Nations were to adopt their formerly enslaved population and that footnote indicated that Sally JONES was one-hundred and seventeen years old!
Needless to say (but I’ll say it anyway) Sally JONES did not live another twenty-five or more years to be enumerated on the Dawes Land Allotment roll but recently I was taken back to those times when copying the Congressional Record and making new discoveries was all that I lived for (okay maybe just an exaggeration but you get my meaning.)
I was contacted by Lee Etta STARKS, a Choctaw Freedmen
descendant and she was inquiring about one of her ancestors: Easter Powell,
Choctaw Freedmen Roll #4176
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| Choctaw Freedman Card#1300 |
The conversation we had led Ms. Lee STARKS to inform me that her
ancestor's parents were born in Africa and that got crazy me thinking about how
many others who were about one-hundred years of age and may have lived long
enough to be enumerated on the 1900 United States Census. Following our conversation I began searching for other freedmen who were enumerated on the Dawes Freedmen Roll to see if there were others with an ancestor that was born in Africa and possibly
lived among the Chickasaw and Choctaw Indians?
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| 1900 Census Indian Territory Choctaw Nation |
Ms. Lee STARKS’ family history appears to be a very intriguing history and as we discussed it I am convinced Easter POWELL’S story will be told by her descendant I can’t wait to see what she writes about this woman who survived to be counted among the survivors of the removal, lived to experience enslavement and the emancipation of herself and her children.
Easter lived to experience the 19th and 20th
centuries and she left a remarkable paper trail that her descendant has a
treasure trove of documentation to share with her family and future generations
of that family.
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| McCurtain Gazette Sept. 18, 1908 p4c5 |
I was pleasantly rewarded with other centenarians on the Choctaw and Chickasaw Freedmen Rolls. They deserve recognition as survivors and their story deserves to be added to the pages of Indian Territory Freedmen History.
Nancy CARTER-CHOF#1301, age 100
Dock DUNFORD CHOF#814, age 104
John KEMP-CHIF#274, age 98?
Easter OSBORNE-CHOF#521, age 100 d
Adeline ROEBUCK-CHOF#484, age 100
Elvirah THOMAS-CHOF#1139, age 101
Nancy WRIGHT-CHOF#1094, age 100?
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