-
Charity Southgate
By Fran Carr
108 Montjoy Street may be an empty lot now, but around 1850, it was the location of Charity Southgate’s home. Charity struggled to get to the point of home ownership. Her story is quite likely the most interesting to be found in all of Pendleton County.
Charity was born on 8 Jun 1806 in Loudoun County, Virginia. She was the daughter of Martha “Patsy” Palmer and an enslaved man who was a house servant in the home of Patsy’s brother-in-law, Robert Foster. The laws at that time stipulated that the status of the mother determined the status of the child. Since Patsy Palmer was White and free, Charity was free. The fact that Charity’s mother was white was well-known and that fact would follow Charity on her journey to freedom.
When Charity was about two or three years old, she was given to Asher Pullen with instruction to take her with him to Bardstown, Kentucky. Pullen was a family friend. Charity remained with the Pullen family in Nelson County and it was accepted by them that she was to be free. However, in a court case in 1836, Pullen’s son-in-law stated that Charity lived among the other enslaved people, was hired out to work, and that Pullen paid taxes on her as he did his own enslaved people. He was to have received $30 for taking Charity but the Palmer family never paid him.
In 1815, Jonathon Reed/Reid came from Virginia to take her to Falmouth. Jonathon Reid was
acting as power of attorney for Phillip Palmer. Reid brought her to the home of Samuel Wilson. The following correspondence, with all the spelling errors of the day, is the beginning of her ordeal.
Mr. Samuel Wilson, Esqr.
Falmouth, KY
Union July 8, 1822
Dear Cousins
I am happy to embrace the preasent opportunity of riting to you. I am in good health and spuirits, and the girls have not yet got compleat possession of my hart. The sometimes they make it flutter. Your friends in This State is in good health. The crops of small grain is extreemlye light, we had a very large meetin on the fourth instant in one mile of Union whare an elegant Oration was delivered by Mr. Collins and an elegant dinner was provided and we enjoyed our selves under our own vine and fig tree none daring to make us afraid.
I rote to Cousin A. Porter and Kennet but have received no answer. I am ambitious to heare from you I hope you will favour me with a letter on the reception of this. Give my best love to Uncle and aunt and all my relations. If god spaires me I will see you in Ky again.
Mr. Philip L. Palmer will hand you this scroll. I wish you to treat him as a brother for he is worthy of your attention.
I remain Yours Sincerely
Jonathon Reid
“A. Porter” and “Kennet” most likely refer to Andrew Porter and his sister Margaret Porter Kennet, the wife of Press Graves Kennet. There is a possible family connection between Samuel Wilson and the Porter family as well, as one of their sisters married a Wilson. Reid’s connection is not understood at this time but the letter indicates he and the Porter siblings were cousins, although that term was often used loosely. These connections may have been why Charity was brought to Falmouth.
The correspondence continues:
Mr. Wilson You will please let Mr. Palmer have Charity he is the proper owner and will present you my order for The girl.
Yours
Jon’a. Reid
And:
Mr. Saml. Wilson
Sir please deliver the above described Girl to A. McCrady and oblige
Yours
Philip L Palmer
Wilson apparently refused to do such.
By 19 Oct 1824, Minor Winn had also obtained an order from Jonathon Reid directing Wilson to deliver Charity to him. It was Winn’s intent to take Charity to New Orleans and to sell her there, making her a slave for life. At that time a case in Pendleton County Circuit Court against Samuel Wilson and David L. Palmer by Joshua Purnell, next friend of Charity, a woman of Colour was filed. Charity was suing for her freedom on the grounds that she was born a free person due to her mother’s status. Because she was enslaved, she could not bring suit in court on her own accord but had to do so through another person who was White. Very little is known about Joshua Purnell except that, according to depositions given in this case, he was from “the emancipating society”. Nothing more is known about the Emancipation Society.
Philip Palmer authorized Anthony McCrady to sue Samuel Wilson with the intent of recovering Charity. The following correspondence lays out further instructions:
I authorise Anthony McCrady to sell the within Girl name Charity if may think proper to do so and receive the money for the same.
Philip L Palmer
Febrary 5, 1825
In a deposition given by Samuel Wilson in 1840, he gave Charity to McCrady in 1825. There is no mention of a sale. According to Wilson, McCrady then sold her to Andrew S. Hughes of Carlisle. A bill of sale, dated 23 Jun 1827, from him to Martin F. Willet stated that Hughes received $200 for both Charity and her child, that she could not be removed from the state, and that she was to be freed at the age of twenty-eight. It also stipulated that another child, Elsey, the son of a White man, was to receive his freedom at the age of twenty-one. Willet was also entitled to any increase by Charity or her daughter, Lucy. Hughes would also testify that Charity married Allen Hobday, enslaved by John Hobday, in 1825 at his home and that their marriage was recorded in his bible.
In this same deposition, Hughes said that he sold Charity to Martin Willet. Another bill of sale shows that Martin F. Willet, of Bourbon County, sold Charity and two children (Lucy and Rebecca) to Jared Woodsworth of Pendleton County for $275. Samuel Wilson reported that Woodsworth sold her back to Martin Willet.
According to a suit brought by Charity in 1836 to obtain the freedom of her children, she was to be held as a slave until 28 Jun 1834, her twenty-eighth birthday. Then, she was to be freed, ten years after filing her case.
Martin Willet died before 1843. A paper he had in his possession stated his doubt that Charity could prove she was the daughter of a White woman. However, he went on to state that “in order to remove all doubts and uncertainties, I do hereby Emancipate and set at liberty the said Negroe mulatto woman named Charity, as soon as she attains the age of twenty-eight years.”
In 1836, Charity, now a free person, brought suit to have her children freed on the grounds that she, their mother, was wrongfully enslaved and as a free person, her children were also free persons. In this suit her children were listed as Lucy, Elsey, Rebecca, Charlotte, and Minerva (minors). Nancy Fisher and Jarod Woodsworth were named in this suit. Nancy was holding Elsey. It acknowledged that Woodsworth had claims on Minerva for life. Her attorney was J.W. McCann/e of Williamstown.
This case continued on until 10 Dec 1847 when Charity’s children received their freedom. The court determined that they should have been freed at the same time as their mother, thirteen years earlier. Additionally, the descendants of Martin Willet along with Nancy Fisher were to pay a sum of $1,000 to the wrongfully enslaved children and a bond for such was executed the same day.
In 1846, Charity, a laundress, purchased her husband’s freedom. At some point, the family took the name Southgate. Allen Southgate appeared as head of household in the 1850 census. He most likely died between then and the 1860 census as Charity was the head of the household then.
Roughly twenty-five years after Charity filed for her freedom, she and all members of her family were free. The road to freedom was just the first step in an incredible family legacy. Three sons served in the military, Elsey Hughes and his half-brother, William Lazarus Southgate, in the Civil War as part of the US Colored Troops and Abraham Southgate as a Buffalo Soldier. William went on to become a “pension” lawyer, helping many local men, White and Black, file for their military pensions. A daughter, Polly, was hired to teach at the Brandywine School in Pendleton County. The school was co-sponsored by Freedmen’s Bureau and the American Missionary Society. Polly purchased the freedom of her first husband, Caleb Hitch. Caleb was the first person of color to vote in Pendleton County.
Additional descendants include teachers, Imogene and Grace Ayers (later Merritt) and Sharon McGee Chapman; famed college football coach, John Ayers Merritt; and Russell Wilson of the Seattle Seahawks. Her son, Abe Southgate became a pastor as did descendants, Willis Ayers, and Harry and Abram Crozier.
Charity was an active member of the A.M.E. Church, having donated the land for the first church to be built on. At the time of her death, about 1868, she owned lots 93 and 97 & 98 in Falmouth. Her estate appraised at $24.50 and sold for $20 total. She was known to have purchased the freedom of other enslaved persons in the county and to have helped her family acquire their homes.