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It appears that no one has examined the census records until now.
In the 1860 slave schedule for Statesboro, Bulloch County, Georgia, James B.
Lester owns five slaves, a woman and four children: female (28), male (9),
female (5), male (3), male (1). Violet Lester is listed in the 1870 census
for Briar Patch, Bulloch County, Georgia. She is 40 years old, and has five
children: Georgia (20), Troy (15), Caroline (14), Ben (12), and Commodore
(11). Clearly the youngest four are the children who had once been slaves to
James B. Lester, the only discrepancy being the age of her son Troy. Georgia
is obviously her long lost daughter, with whom the family had indeed been
reunited. The 1870 census identifies all of the family members as being
unable to read or write. Thus, Violet Lester must have dictated her letter.
In the 1850 slave schedule for Randolph County, North Carolina, Joseph Allred
owns twelve slaves: six male (aged 70, 25, 21, 10, 9 and 4) and six female
(aged 60, 27, 20, 5, and 3 months). Obviously, the twenty-year-old woman is
Violet; the sixty-year-old woman is her mother Judy; the three-month-old girl
is her daughter Georgia; the men aged 25 and 21 are her brothers; and the
woman aged 27 is her sister. All twelve slaves are identified as Black
except for one. The five-year-old girl is Mulatto. This is consistent with
the Allred family theory that one of their own had fathered a bastard child.
If the Mulatto girl was five years old in 1850, she was conceived c. 1844.
Two sons of Joseph and Rachael Allred were still living with them at that
time. In the 1850 census, Balaam is aged 43, and James is aged 40. In the
1840 census there are two men aged 30-39. These men are Balaam and James,
the only sons of Joseph and Rachael born between 1800 and 1810. Fathering a
child out of wedlock was, so far as we know, out of character for Balaam, but
not for James. Bastardy bonds reveal that James Allred, who never married,
fathered four children born to four different women – Polly Burgess (c.
1843), Martitia Jane Stout (c. 1853), Dorinda Caroline Cox (c. 1858), and
Susan Hay (c. 1862). If the Mulatto girl born c. 1845 was the daughter of
James and Violet, she was only fourteen when the liaison happened. Violet,
in her letter to Patsey Patterson, expressed affection for Balaam but not for
James. This suggests that, if the Mulatto girl was hers, either Balaam was
the father by consent, or James was the father by force or intimidation.
There is no evidence that Joseph Harmon Phillips, my great-great-grandfather,
“idolized” his uncle James Allred. The claim that Joseph's letter dated
14 May 1857 was written to James Allred is wrong. His letter is addressed
to “Respected uncle and aunt,” whereas James Allred never married; and his
reference to the expected wedding of “Miss Ageline” refers to Martha Angeline
Patterson, daughter of James Patterson and Martha Ann “Patsey” Allred, the
same woman to whom Violet Lester dictated her letter of 29 August 1857.
Patsey was born c. 1799 (she is listed as 50 years old in 1850, 60 in 1860,
71 in 1870, and 81 in 1880), and was married on 28 December 1829. Violet was
born c. 1830 (she is listed as 20 years old in 1850, 28 years old in 1860,
and 40 years old in 1870). Patsey and Violet were not raised together as
children. Patsey probably helped to raise Violet who, in her letter, called
Patsey her “long loved and well wishing play mate.”
James Patterson is listed in the census four times prior to the Civil War –
in 1830, 1840, 1850 and 1860 – and is never once listed as a slave owner.
Violet's letter was dictated to a loving friend, not to a former mistress.
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