Today I give a hat tip to my cousin Marissa who followed up on a blog post of mine from last year. Back in November 2015 I blogged about a petition from Jones County, NC in 1847 that may have included slaves associated with my own family ancestry. In the petition, six white slaveholders, John S. Koonce and wife Susan, Isiah Wood and wife Elizabeth, Benjamin Brown, Asa Brown, Zachius Brown, Mary Brown, Orne Brown, and Isaac Brown requested division of ownership of six slaves – likely, selling them and splitting the proceeds. The six slaves were named as James, Jonas, Mariah, Allen, Hannah, & Susan (sometimes called Harriett).
The names in bold are names that belong to former slaves in my own family history with the surname Koonce, so that led to my interest in this record. Well, thanks to Marissa, I now know that they were indeed sold at public auction.
On January 1, 1848 they were sold as follows:
- Jonas, Mariah, and a slave named Chaney were all sold to Joseph Brock (total $1250.25)
- Allen and Sarah were sold to Benjamin Brock for $300 and $297 respectively
- Susan (or Harriet) was sold to Franklin Thompson for $180
- James was sold to Stephanie Humphrey for $718
The documentation for this sale appears in the estate file records of William Brown (Elizabeth Wood’s 1st husband).
The documentation notes that the sale was advertised first, so an interesting follow-up would be to search for newspaper announcements.