Members About to Remove West...

Minutes From the Monroe Mission Church 16 September 1837

“A resolution was passed that the following members, who are about to remove west of the Mississippi, receive letters of dismission and recommendation, …Tennessee Bynum, Daniel and his wife Kissander, Harry and his wife Sally, Bob and Amy, Abram and his wife Dinah, Agnes, Manuel, Juda, Apphia, Billy, Mimey Colbert, Titus, Sally, Fanny and Silpha. Concluded with prayer. T.C. Stuart, Mod.”

 

Daniel, Kissander and Tennessee Bynum

 

   The minutes of the Monroe Mission in Mississippi contain some of the most important history that documents the culture, history, and relationships of the enslaved and their enslavers. To put into proper context the resolution that was passed in 1837, it is essential to look at the records left that document both, the slave and their “enslaver.” 

 

   All the actions recorded by the church present just a glimpse of life and how these Chickasaw slave holders interacted with their slaves, unfortunately it doesn’t inform us of what the day-to-day life was like this community. Since the focus is on those that came west with the Indians, what were the outcomes of this relationship? What can be learned about the people that worshipped at Monroe Mission more than sixty years later, when the Chickasaw Nation began to create records of their citizens and former slaves to distribute land allotments from 1898-1914?

 

   Three individuals mentioned in the minutes of September 16th, Daniel his wife Kissander and Tennessee Bynum are identified as worshippers at Monroe Mission as early as 14 September 1828. Apparently, Daniel was a religious man and had been a member of the church before this date when his “infant daughter Emelina” was baptized in the church at the same time Mimy’s infant daughter Kitty.

 

   Daniel and “Cassander” appear to be active members of the church and would have their son Isaac baptized about two years later 1 August 1830. To illustrate just how much the slaves of this area took part in the church, several other enslaved people, had their children baptized; Abram and Dinah’s son Israel, Crissa’s daughter Rose and Molly’s daughter Delpha all were active members and took full advantage to see their children become part of their religious beliefs. In June of 1833, Charles, the son of Daniel and Kissander was baptized which leaves very little doubt that the slaves living in Mississippi and held in bondage by the Chickasaw members of this church were at the very least, allowed to practice “their religious beliefs” within the same walls as their slave-owners.

 

   What this information also does is provide the names and relative ages of some of the slaves who would “remove” west of the Mississippi as stated in the 1837 memo that provided papers for them when they arrived in Indian Territory.

 

   Because we know from these records that Daniel and Kissander were a couple and had at least three children born to them prior to 1837, those are five names to look for as survivors that would receive land allotments circa 1898. The ages of Daniel and Kissander are not given in any of the records of Monroe Church, but one thing does seem consistent, the two are a couple and researching the Dawes Cards should provide their names on the rear of a card for any children they had before or after the removal to Indian Territory?

 

   From 1837 to 1898, a span of six decades would pass with Daniel and Kissander would experience every event that happened along the Trail of Tears as they travelled with Tennessee Bynum to Indian Territory. It is not known when Daniel and Kissander died but there is enough evidence by the ages of the children they gave life too that they were in Indian Territory when Kissander gave birth to their daughter Hannah in 1846.

 

   Newton Burney states Arthur Stevenson is son of Dave Stevenson and Sallie was the daughter of Ike Stevenson, both Ike and Dave were brothers of Newton's wife Chris, by different mothers. He further states that both Dave and Ike “belonged to Tennessee Bynum.” This would mean both Dave and Ike were the brothers of Emeline Stevenson and all three were the children of Daniel and Kissander.

   There are other examples that demonstrate the complexities of relationships between slaves and their enslavers, and a few of them have a direct connection to the worshippers at Monroe Mission. The descendants of Daniel and Cassander is one that illustrates, without a doubt, how the issues of race, identity and citizenship among the Five Slave Holding Tribes can be easily distorted when there are omissions in the historical record.