Tuesday 2nd March 2010 - Way Back Then in the Land of Cotton

          I was going to miss out the Courthouse, because everything was already fairly clear.  But who am I to deny the fair grown-up ladies of Butler County Clerk's office their right to gaze upon my person?  So it was one final trip up 319 to Thomasville.

          To begin with, I couldn't make head nor tail of the computer Deed index.  But a grown-up gentleman took the trouble to help, and it soon became clear (because he told me) that this index only went back to 1985.  So it was looking through that awful writing again, for possible names.  I made a few guesses at what might be interesting names, but never found anything.  I found the map laying out the present plantation, and found some deed references for neighbouring land, but they went cold in two hops.  And since there was only a grown-up gentleman to help, I couldn't work up a lot of enthusiasm.

 

          I did bump into an interesting story on a page facing something that might have been interesting but wasn't (if you follow me).  Back in 1860, the widow of one Theoseus B Davis paid $2003 for a female negro slave (I didn't need to say negro, did I?) aged 22, and her two "Mulatto" children, a boy of 4 and a girl of 2, being sold as part of her husband's estate in open auction in front of the courthouse.  Now what do you make of that?   To keep it in context, I'm told a "prime field hand" cost around $1800 at that time.  The price, at the very least, indicates the widow was bidding hard against somebody, and determined to win.  Do you thing it possible that the widow knew the father?  Do you think there was any deathbed plea?  Who would bid that high against her: and why?

 

          Later that night I fell in with a nest of Englishmen.  They gather here because this bar shows English football on Sundays.  They fell into discussing the finer points of the beer, just to test my resolve.  Of course, I passed.  One of them showed me some college senior-year essays he was marking.  I don't know how typical they were, but they were, in both literacy and language terms, truly appalling.