This Week in Texas Methodist History May 21

Advocate

 Promotes Family Reuniting During Reconstruction

One of the most despicable atrocities associated with slavery in the Southern United States was family separation.  Every type of family relationship could be destroyed at a moment's notice.  Children were torn from their parents.  Siblings had little confidence that they would stay together.  Husbands and wives may be separated and moved hundreds of miles apart.  In other words, it would be hard to imagine a more cruel system.   The reasons of the separations may have been related to inheritance and division of "assets" after a death.  They may have been caused by bankruptcy or debt.  There were even family separations as punishment for some perceived infraction.  

Texas played a large part in the separations in the 1850s and even the early 1860s.  As farms in the regions of the South that had been settled earlier were depleted of their soil fertility by cotton monoculture new lands were exploited in Texas, and thousands of enslaved persons were brought to Texas from as far away as the Carolinas.  During the Civil War some enslavers moved to Texas because it was farther away from the Federal troops to whom enslaved people sometimes ran to achieve their freedom.  

Upon emancipation it was natural for formerly enslaved people to make strenuous efforts to reunite with their loved ones.  That is where the MEC comes in.   For decades after the Civil War the MEC had official structures designed to help newly freed persons.  They did so by establishing schools and promoting church growth and literacy.  They also tried to re-unite families.  The Southwestern  Christian  Advocate published in New Orleans, had a regular column "Lost Friends" in which the Advocate published letters from persons seeking family members.    The letters were published free instead of charging the usual advertising fee, and pastors were encouraged to read the column during worship services.  

The letters are full of references to Texas.  Here are a few from just one week in 1882----Imagine--that's seventeen years after emancipation and the agony of separation is still painful.

Mr. Editor--I wish to inquire about Harriet and Yatt Rainey were in Galveston at the close of the war.  They had a half sister Siney and a brother Martin.  Their Mother's name was Ellen who at the close of the war was in Danville, Kentucky.  Write me at Floresville, Texas,  James Franklin.

Mr. Editor--I wish to inquire about my mother Jane Lampkins.  I used to live in Montgomery, Alabama.  My sisters were Charrie and Clarisa Lampkins.  My brother was Cyrus Brown, sold to John Brown. When I left my mother, I was only 12 years of age.  Any information will be greatly appreciated by Celia Lampkins, now Martha Brown.  San Antonio, Texas.  

Mr. Editor--I wish to inquire about my daughters, Henretta and Lacey Jane.  Their mother Carolina McCullum, belonged to Malcolm McCullum, Cumberland County, North Carolina.  When last heard from she was in Fayetteville in that state. Lizzie was in South Carolina.  Brother-in-law Jasey McCullum, was sold by John McDongall to a negro trader.  My wife was sold to Mr. Leach in Raleigh and two children with her, Alfred and Malcolm.  My name was Robert Carmichael but it now Robert Ray.  Adress me at Industry, Texas.  

Mr. Editor--I wish to find my children, Carloss, Easter, Jane, Frank, and Margaret.   Margaret, the youngest was three years old when I left her in Chickass County.  I was sold to Columbus Williams who took me to Memphis, Tennessee, and sold me to Captain Sam Bullington.  He carried me to near Natchez.  There I remained until after the war.  I heard my children were carried to Kaufman County Texas by Henry Carlisle.  My name was Charolotte Carlisle; first husband Steven Milbrooks; second husband Bill Davis.     Charlotte Ann Davis