Tag Archives: Slave Names

Pryor Slave Story: Anthony Pryor Free Man During Civil War

pryor slaveI’ve got another story from the Civil War that reveals the name of a slave named Pryor and their former master. I would think if anyone is tracing this Pryor line they would become stumped because this man named Pryor wasn’t last enslaved by a Pryor family. It’s an interesting letter from The Liberator, the famed abolitionist newspaper in Boston.

“Can’t Take Care of Themselves — Would Starve if They were Set Free.” Here is one of the keenest retorts to this ridiculous outcry in the shape of a letter written to Anthony Pryor, one of the colored people at Fortress Monroe, by his late mistress. Rev. Mr. Lockwood certifies to its authenticity.

ANTHONY — I have heard that you were making a great deal of money, and as we are in Williamsburg and have no support, and William is away and I cannot hear from him, I send you this to let you know that we are in need of everything. I have no meat, no money of any kind that will pass. I want you to send me some bacon, and sugar, and coffee, and any other things you can get that I need. I have no money to buy a thing with. You have had twelve months’ freedom to make money in. It is time to do something for me and my children. They are in want of clothes, and the winter is coming on. If you do not send me some money, they will perish with cold, for wood is very high, and I am not able to buy any now to cook with. We have done all in our power for you until you left us, and can you hear of your master’s children starving, and you able to work and help them? No, I cannot think it. I should like to see you. If you can give ma a little help every month, it would keep us from want. Send what you can get for me by John King. He will bring it safe. He is doing all he can for his mistress. He does not let them want for anything. I never should have sent this if I had not been in want, as you have not done any thing for me all this time. If you consider yourself free, it is your duty to do what you can for me and my two children. I shall expect you to do all you can. If John King does not come up soon, you can send them by Sam Simpkins. He belongs to Miss Eliza Jones. Tell him to bring them to Mrs. Tilford. We are there now. Send them as soon as you can.
From your mistress, Hannah D Westwood
(Published in The Liberator, 3 Oct 1862)

The audacity? The white mistress writing to her black slave begging for money during the Civil War.

The location? Fortress Monroe is likely Fort Monroe in Hampton, VA.

It would be interesting to know the circumstances that led to Anthony Pryor’s freedom because this article was written DURING the Civil War and BEFORE the Emancipation Proclamation in January 1863.

There’s an Anthony Pryor (born about 1841) on the 1870, 1880, and 1900 Census schedules, living in Elizabeth City, VA. He was recorded as black at times and as mulatto at other times. He was living with with Lucy Ann Pryor, identified as Lucy Whitlock on their son Joseph Andrew Pryor‘s social security record. Anthony and his son took on the occupation of plasterers.

In 1870, Hannah D. Westwood and her husband William T. Westwood were counted living in Isle of Wight, VA. Two children born before and during the Civil War were living in the household: Mary E 11 and Hannah D 9. The value of William’s personal property was $100. Military records reveal that before this letter was published in The Liberator, Hannah’s husband William Thompson Westwood had enlisted as a Confederate soldier. Perhaps the Westwoods were feeling the shortages of the War or the loss of income from her husband being away from home with the military. Or perhaps both.

It takes desperation and gall to write to your ex-slave asking for financial assistance.

George L Pryor, black attorney and politician

george-pryor-black-lawyer

George L Pryor is on the 1900 Census in Norfolk. He was recorded as born May 1857 and “black” which means he was an African American born before the end of slavery. He and both of his parents were born in Virginia and his profession is recorded as “lawyer”.

He married Mary Sewell in Norfolk in 1888. His parents were recorded as P Pryor and L. A. Pryor.

George L is on the 1880 census in Elizabeth City, VA in the household of Peter Pryor and Lucy A. Pryor. George’s occupation at that time was “school teacher.” Both Peter and Lucy were recorded as “black” and Peter’s profession was recorded as carpenter and Lucy was a seamstress.

The 1870 Census was the first census after the end of slavery. Peter Pryor and his family, including George, were recorded in Elizabeth City. Peter was a carpenter and owned a house worth $1200 and had a personal estate valued at $200. Peter was recorded as a mulatto at this time, indicating he was part white.

George L Pryor appears to have been a prominent African-American engaged in politics.

  • 1880 speaker at Republican gathering in Hampton, VA (Richmond Dispatch, 28 August 1880)
  • 1881 appointed clerk in the pension office (Baltimore Sun, 9 April 1881)
  • 1884 represented Norfolk, VA at the Republican National Convention.
  • 1888 represented Norfolk, VA at the Republican National Convention.
  • 1896 second vice president of Republicans in Norfolk, 4th Ward.
  • 1897 secretary for the development of the first colored beach resort
  • 1898 recognized by the Federal government as an agent to prosecute cases before the Department of Interior. He was disbarred from this practice in 1898 without explanation. (National Archives)
  • 1900 he was the president of the Central Republican League. (Virginian-Pilot, March, 15, 1900)

1901 appears to have been a rough year for George L Pryor. The Times in Richmond reported that he was also a clerk at the Navy Yard and was fined for charging illegal fees in a pension case as a government employee.

My curiosity is piqued on how out of slavery George L Pryor became a lawyer. How did he get from point A to point C?

Kansas Runaway Slaves — Dick Pryor Remained

pryor slaveH H Hart was 66 years old when The Wichita Daily Eagle published an article titled “Saw Slaves At Work in This State” 6 April 1913. The article included an account of his encounters with a slave named Dick Pryor.

Mr. Hart came to Kansas with his father, Thomas Hart, and wife. They settled in Linn county, near the present town of Paris. Close by was a large farm owned by a man named Pryor. This Pryor’s slaves ran away until only one remained, Dick Pryor. In April 1858, this slave escaped with the aid of several anti-slave men. In 1859, Thomas Hart died after casting his vote at the Lecompton election against slavery.

Hart and the former slave met up again during the Civil War.

In 1863, when H. H. Hart was 16 years old, he enlisted in Company 1 of the Sixth Kansas Cavalry. He served with this company until the war was over. During the war he again met Dick Pryor, the slave who escaped in 1858. He had enlisted in the First Kansas colored infantry, and was fighting for the Union.

I took a quick look through the census records to see if I could find these people. I think I can trace H H Hart to Linn County, KS

1925 – Harvey H Hart died and is buried in Sedgwick County, KS.
1920 – Harvey H Hart born 1847 in IA is on the census in Baca Co. with wife Elizabeth and children Ivan and Cecil.
1910 – Harvey H Hart with wife Elizabeth and children was working in a soldiers hospital in Wyoming. John W. Hart who appears to be a brother of Harvey’s was also counted on the census – Harvey and John had parents born in the same states (OH and TN).
1900 – H H Hart with wife Elizabeth and son Ivan were counted in Chautauqua County, KS. Again his parents were born in OH and TN.
1880 – H H Hart was in Greenwood Co., KY with wife Mattie, who appears to be a first wife. Again his parents were born in OH and TN.
1870 – Harvey Hart born 1847 in IA, counted on the census in Labette Co., KS
1860 – This is when the info takes a curve… I can find an Absalom Hart born about 1848 in IA living with a woman who is possibly is mother E Hart born in MO. The family was living in Linn County, KS. There’s a John Hart in the household that matches up with the John who was counted with Harvey in 1910.
1850 – The census in Keokuk County seems to straighten out the kinks in the 1860 census: Thomas Heart (sic) b. 1823 OH, Elizabeth E Hart b. 1827 TN, John W. Hart b. 1844 in MO, and Absalom H Hart b. 1847 in IA. So it looks like Harvey, for part of his life went by the name Absalom.

I haven’t found Dick Pryor in any records.

Pryor Slave in Richmond Tobacco Factory Fight

ye-olde-pryor

A slave named Aleck Bagby, owned by Dr. Sam’l Fauntleroy, of King and Queen, on yesterday evening bit off the entire lower lip of Fleming Pryer, a slave, owned by W. R. Robinson, Esq., in a fight, at the factory of the latter, on Franklin, below 20th street — Dr. James Dove was summoned in haste, and stitched on the dissevered part.
— Richmond Dispatch, Richmond VA 4 March 1861

Samuel G Fauntleroy is on the 1850 census in King and Queen County and states his profession as physician, but do the slaves or their owners lead back to a Pryor?

W. R. Robinson is on the 1860 Non-Population Schedule, recorded as a manufacturer of tobacco.

It should be noted that Dr. James Dove was also summoned to a Richmond scene

I may have found Bagby– an Alexander Bagby worked in a tobacco factory in Richmond:

1870 Census, Henrico county, Richmond Clay Ward
Alexander Bagby 44 male B works in tobacco fac. Virginia.
Elizabeth 44 female B keeping house Virginia
Jeremiah 18 male B works in tobacco fac. Virginia.
George 17 male B ? Virginia.

Fleming Pryor was also on the 1870 Census and the 1880 Census:

1870 Census, Goochland County, VA
Lickenhole, page 120b, house Fleming PRYOR 67 black male born VA

1880 Census Richmond, Henrico County, VA
Richmond, page 487c, Fleming PRYOR 71 black make born VA, parents both born in VA, sick with old age. Edith wife 59 washer woman born VA, parents both born in VA. Edith Pryor 27. Martha 14.

Fleming Pryor died in 1886 in Richmond. He was recorded as a “factory hand” and he was born in 1824 in Hanover County, VA.

Bagby’s owner Samuel G. Fauntleroy connects to a Pryor. Samuel Fauntleroy with Elizabeth Antoinette DeNeuville Pryor (the widow of Brazure Williams Pryor) witnessed the will of Robert B. Boyd in 1838.

1838 Will – Will of Robert B Boyd 1838. Records of King and Queen Co. King and Queen C.H. Virginia. Will Book 1, page 102. Will of Robert B Boyd. Dated 30 May 1838. Prob. 11 June 1838. Friend Christopher John D PRYOR Esqr to be guardian “of my two children Mary Francis and Roberta Byrd Boyd. Two uncles Beverly D. Roy and Augustus G. D. Roy to have blooded horses. Wife Mary A Boyd. Exor: “my friend George K Carlton. Wit: E.A. PRYOR, Samuel G Fauntleroy, Junius x PRYOR. This will recorded 2nd Nov 1869

There are so many pieces connected to this simple 1861 news piece. Slaves such as Alexander Bagby were hired out to factory owners like W. R. Robinson. Maybe Fleming Pryor was another rented slave or perhaps Robinson acquired him from a Pryor or Fleming family. Does his name shed light on a Virginia Pryor family?

Pryor Slave Master on the Mississippi River

Landscape

I’ve been looking at slave stories for insights into Pryors and where they were living and working. An account of Allen Sidney (born 1805 in NC) gives his account of slavery which entailed a time working on a riverboat for a Captain Pryor.

My master was ambitious. He built a flat-boat, bought a lot of cattle, wild hogs, apples and truck, went to New Orleans and sold at a fair profit. Then he anted more capital to do a bigger business, and borrowed $500 from a planter and negro trader named John Brown, and gave me as security. I was taken to Brown’s place, where he had 400 to 500 slaves. I worked in his cotton field till next spring, when along came a speculator with 200 to 300 slaves all chained together. Brown bought the whole lot, and next morning I was chained with the rest and we were marched to Memphis, Tenn., some 400 miles away, through the Chickasaw nation.** Here Brown sold me with other slaves to a rich man named Capt. Pryor, who lived in Memphis and owned a big farm nine miles out of the city.

In 1825, when I was twenty-one years of age, Capt. Pryor bought a steamboat at Pittsburgh, and brought it down to Memphis. I believe it was the first steamboat on the Lower Mississippi. It was called the Hard Times. I was what is a likely boy, and he thought a good deal of me. He said to me: “Allen, you go to Memphis, go on the steamer and watch her.” So I went there and stayed on her night and day. Then he sent North and got an engineer named Parker, and he ran the boat that winter back and forward between New Orleans. I helped Parker, and by Capt. Pryor’s orders he showed me how to work the engine.

After running on the river that winter Capt. Pryor built a machine shop at Memphis, put Parker in charge of it, and I worked under him there. I was on the boat in winter and in the machine shop in summer for seven years.

No, I can not say that I was very much abused when I was a slave, but I have seen many slaves treated very cruelly. One time two of Capt. Pryor’s slaves ran away. He took bloodhounds and hunted them down. When they were brought back to the plantation they were stripped naked and tied to logs face down. The colored overseer gave them each 100 lashes on the back…

Three months afterward Perry fixed it all up, and came back with papers which he shewed to Capt. Pryor. I went away with him, and found he had moved to a little town called Amsterdam, Tenn.

The Courier-Journal, Louisville, 12 August 1894

It would be interesting to know which Pryor he was talking about. I set about to see if I could find documentation to show what was real in his story.

The article started out identifying Allen as a well-known figure in Detroit, that he was about 90 and that he lived in Windsor since 1856 (just across the river from Detroit in Ontario, Canada). I located a death record for an Allen Sidney aged 95 who died in Essex County, Canada and was born in Kentucky. On the 1891 Census there was an Allen Sidney aged 86, born in the US living in Windsor. Back further, there’s an Allen Sidney age 73, origin African, counted with a Cassey Sidney age 62, living in Windsor. An 1889 death record from Windsor for Cassa Sidney born in the US identifies her as the wife of Allen Sidney. I think this is the subject of the article.

frost-woodenware-detroit

The 1894 article also stated Sidney was employed by Frost’s Woodenware Works  in Detroit for 37 years. I found an 1870 US Census entry in Wayne County, MI for Milton Frost, a wooden ware manufacturer.

There’s a Simeon Perry age 67 born in NC living in Kenton County, KY on the 1850 Census.

Since Allen Sidney claimed to have worked on a boat named Hard Times I looked and found some references to a barge by that name.

For New Orleans: Will leave on Monday, 4th inst., the barge NATCHEZ and HARD TIMES, which offers cheap and desirable conveyance for 100 to 150 horses and cattle. Shippers will find it their interest to call on bard, opposite Pearl st. or to R. BALDWIN Jr. & Co., No 5 Com. row.
The Courier-Journal, Louisville, 4 Mar 1839

FOR SALE. The superior cotton barges “Hard Times” and “Natchez” are offered for sale on accommodating terms having both undergone thoro’ repair last fall’ they draw 24 inches light, and will carry 250 tons or 1200 bales on 4 1/2 feet water; for further particulars apply to GLOVER & BRENHAM, 38 Camp street.
The Times Picayune, New Orleans, 23 Jan 1839

Who do I think was Captain Pryor? I was hoping that the big clue in the article that he lived on a big farm on the outskirts of Memphis would pan-out. There are no Pryors on Census records that seem to match. It could mean that he was missed on the census or perhaps we’re dealing with a location issue. Did Sidney mean Capt. Pryor was 9 miles up or down river? If off by a few miles it could be a location in Tennessee, Louisiana, Mississippi, or Arkansas, or even Kentucky.

I think Joseph E Pryor of Pope County, IL is an excellent possibility. I know you’re probably thinking that Illinois isn’t Tennessee and it isn’t mentioned in Sidney’s account. This Pryor was recorded as a “pilot” on the 1850 Census.

1850 Census, Pope Co., IL
Page 283A, 513/513 Joseph PRYOR 64 pilot VA, Elizabeth 52 VA, Joseph 26 stone cutter KY, Tabitha Magu 16 KY

It appears that Joseph Pryor of Pope County may have been doing business in Memphis, TN because after his death probate was filed in Shelby County.

1852 Estate – Robert L Smith and B. A. Massey appointed special administrator for estate of Joseph E PRYOR, deceased. Dated 1 December 1852.

There’s also a possibility that Allen Sidney was affiliated with a Kentucky Pryor. The riverboat would stay-over in Covington, KY (Kenton county).  A History of Blacks in Kentucky: From Slavery to Segregation, 1760-1891, Volume 1, by Marion Brunson Lucas discusses the activities of Tom Dorum, a conductor on the Underground Railroad. Sidney’s own account and this book mentions Dorum’s assistance with Kentucky slaves escaping to freedom in Canada through Pittsburgh, PA.

Well, I’m open to ideas as to the identity of this Captain Pryor.

** Chickasaw Nation – In 1825 the Chickasaw nation was an area in the northern most area of Mississippi (see map and be sure to click on the year 1825).