APPENDIX ITEM

DEEDS, UNBOUND – A story sample

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(200)

Jeremiah Field to His Children

Sd. State and district in concideration of the Natural

Love and affection which I bear unto my Children that is to say 

Malinda A. Field James M. Field Elijah M. Field and Elias E. Field

and also for other Good causes and Conciderations me the said Jeremiah 

Field hereunto moved have given granted and confirmed unto the

above named Children that is to say to Malinda Ann Field and to the

heirs of her body one Negroe girl named Nance and one Negro boy named

Sam and to Elijah Murphy Field and Elias Earle Field two Negroe

boys one named David and the other named Aaron and the right

of the Sd. Negroes to be vested in the sd. children as represented by these

presents as they become of age in whosoever hands custidy or

possession they may be To have and to hold unto the said children

their heirs executors administrators and assigns to their only proper use

benefit and behoof of the Said Children forever and I the sd. Jeremiah

Field do bind myself my heirs executors and administrators firmly

by these presents to warrant and forever defend the same un to the

sd. children as above represented in witness whereof I have hereunto

set my hand and affixed my seal this Thirtieth of December

one thousand eight hundred and Twenty eight and in the

fifty third year of America independency Signed Sealed and

acknowledged in the presents of Jeremiah Field (Seal)

Thos. Garvin  Thos. D. Garvin

The State of South Carolina

Pickens District

Personally appeared Thomas Garvin

before me and made Oath that he saw Jeremiah Field sign

seal and acknowledge the within Deed of Gift to Malinda

A. Field James M. Field Elijah M. Field and Elias E. Field for 

the use and purposes within mentioned and that Thomas D.

Garvin witto himself witnessed the due execution of the 

same sworn to the 2nd Nov. 1829 — Thos. Garvin

before me William L. Keith C C & Exoff Lu

Recorded the 2nd Nov. 1829 and Examined

William L. Keith C.C. & R.M.O

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

NANCE –

written by Susanna Ashton

Nance would have worried about her future with Malinda. Being deeded to a different family member would be frightening for anyone – you know your circumstances will change, and it’s hard to know if it would be for better or for worse. Still, for an enslaved person to be given to an 18-year-old girl, who is poised for marriage, the chances of being taken far away within the near future would have been very worrisome and very real.  And Nance would have been right to be concerned –when in 1829, the enslaver Jeremiah Field deeded Nance as a gift to his teen daughter, Malinda, it meant that their time in that Pickens County household would be short. Malinda married Joseph Donaldson soon and left her family home, taking enslaved people with her.

This particular deed from the Fall of 1829 gives us a glimpse of Nance and what her life might have been like. The prosperous white enslaver, Jeremiah Field, who owned considerable acreage in Pickens County, summoned some friends or neighbors and a lawyer, no doubt, to witness him sign a document that signified his “love and affection” to several of his underage children. He was to die only two years later, so it is possible he was ill and aware that his time on the earth was nearing the end.  He drafted and filed a full Will elsewhere that accounted for all his property, investments, and allocations. This short deed document, however, tells a different, albeit related, story. Listed among Pickens County real estate transactions was a transaction in very real property: it focused on one thing – Field would distribute children to children.

Field’s grown son from his first marriage was left out of this document, and it thus concerns itself only with the younger four Field children, all from a second marriage. Five enslaved children were distributed (Nance, Ben, Sam, David and Aaron), all of whom deserve full stories sketched out in their own right and who may well have been siblings or friends of Nance) but Nance was the only girl exchanged in this transaction and she was, not surprisingly, thus deeded to Field’s only daughter, Malinda.  Since Malinda was given both Nance and Ben, we might imagine the possibility that Ben was Nance’s little brother. But of course, we have no evidence for that notion.

Jeremiah makes it clear in his document that any of Malinda’s children will inherit both young Nance and Ben. Of course, since the state of the mother was what would determine the legal state of enslavement and ownership, any children of Nance would, too, become the property of Malinda.  Jeremiah was entwining these two girls and their futures especially tightly together.

In 1829, in addition to more general thoughts of mortality, Jeremiah might have had other issues weighing on his mind that led him to formalize this gift. Perhaps Nance was deeded to Malinda before Malinda was to marry and move away. Surely, Nance would have felt both hope and fear, knowing that being officially enslaved by Malinda would mean she would be forced to leave all she knew. It might be a better situation, or it might be far worse.

As it was to play out, however, while Nance and Malinda were to leave South Carolina for Cherokee County, Georgia, they weren’t to be isolated from their families and communities for long. In Georgia, they joined or were joined by, three of Malinda’s brothers. Even the patriarch, Jeremiah Field himself, was to come. We can know that from his grave in that county, which marks his death in 1831.[1]  Assuming those Field family households moved with at least some of the enslaved people they had held in bondage in South Carolina, it suggests that Nance would have had at least some of her own familiar family and friends nearby. We can hope she found some comfort in that.

We cannot be confident about Nance’s age at the time of the Deed, and the phrase used in the deed, “girl”, could certainly refer to a woman of almost any age in the careless parlance of the time. Nonetheless, we can make informed guesses by looking at the 1830 Federal Census, which lists everyone still living in the Jeremiah Field household in Pickens County a year after the enslaved children were transferred. In that 1830 census record, which includes what is often termed a ”slave schedule,” we get a picture of a busy, bustling house, farm and plantation labor camp in Pickens: there are forty people held in bondage by Field at this location, – to find Nance we can see that six enslaved girls under the age of 10 years of age are listed; four enslaved girls between 10 and 23 years of age are named; and there are also two enslaved women between the ages of 26 and 54.[2]

The names of captives aren’t listed, but since custom and practice frequently assigned or “deeded” young, enslaved people to young white people close in age, we can guess that the girl named Nance, who was given over to Malinda, would have been one of the teenagers between 10-23.  While enslaved children could be ripped from their families at any age, a girl of 10 or older would have been commonly understood by enslavers as able to survive without her mother and to be old enough to help Malinda establish herself in a new household.

Indeed, Malinda married Joseph Davison a few years later and moved with him to Cherokee County, Georgia. By the 1860 Census, we can see that Malinda and Joseph Donaldson’s household featured two Black women who might have been Nancy.[3]

There is a good chance that Nance survived the horror of bondage and was able to carve out a family household of her own. While certainly is rare to be certain in this kind of work, a probable story for her future does emerge:

In the 1880 census, we can see a free Black woman named “Nancy Donaldson” lives in the same small county of Cherokee, Georgia, near all the other white Field family members.[4] She is listed as working (still?) as a housekeeper, is listed as a widow, and is supporting or being supported by three teenage grandchildren who are all working as farm laborers. This isn’t certainly the same Nance of 1829 – Nance might have changed her name at Emancipation, taken a husband’s name, died, or moved further away. But as a lifelong caregiver who carries the name of a former enslaver (now Donaldson), and remains close to where can know she lived for the bat least a stretch of her enslaved life (Canton, Georgia), it seems likely that this Nance Donaldson was a young girl given like a toy, to another young girl in Pickens County SC.

Life must have been hard, but it seems that Nance was able to build a family unit out of love for her own.  She is with three grandchildren, after all. This Nance would not allow any of her grandchildren to experience the separations she had endured.

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[1] See Jeremiah Field’s grace marker in the Fields Chapel Methodist Church cemetery in Sutallee, Cherokee County, Georgia, United States of America. Ancestry.com. U.S., Find a Grave® Index, 1600s-Current [database on-line]. Lehi, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2012.

[2] See “Jeremiah Field” Year: 1830; Census Place: Pickens, South Carolina; Series: M19; Roll: 173; Page: 319; Family History Library Film: 0022507

[3] See “Nancy Donaldson” in the US Census of 1860. Year: 1880; Census Place: Canton, Cherokee, Georgia; Roll: 139; Page: 124a; Enumeration District: 020

[4] See Nancy Donaldson in the US Census of 1860. Year: 1880; Census Place: Canton, Cherokee, Georgia; Roll: 139; Page: 124a; Enumeration District: 020