Ed. note: This is the second in a series of Untold Stories that begin to remember the story of slavery in the Montevallo area. Each looks from a different angle at enslavement at King House on the University of Montevallo campus, one of many historic plantations in Alabama originally built by enslaved laborers. This story calls attention to the harrowing history of separation of family members. Next month's installment tells the story of Sukey, a woman enslaved by Edmund King who went to extraordinary lengths to keep the female side of her family whole. It provides insights into the history of slavery in Alabama including the forces that have shaped African American family structure and values.

An inventory of Edmund King's assets shows that at the time of his death in 1863 he owned 28 persons of African descent. They are named in Will Book H, 16, housed in the Shelby County Museum & Archives. Children under the age of twenty accounted for half of the persons sold at a public sale. Most were purchased by King's white descendants.

Emancipation would come just two years later. These young people probably made it out of slavery. Further research will surely turn up information about the lives and experiences of these members of the first-freed generation. For now, their names at least can be said.

We have their names because King's executors compiled a detailed inventory of everything of value in his personal estate, from spoons to candles and table cloths, from ox carts to oxen to enslaved Africans.

These inventories make for painful reading. They display with repulsive clarity the brutality of slavery in Montevallo as elsewhere. Enslaved persons are listed by first name only, sex, and age right after financial assets and just before livestock. You go directly from three-year-old Emeline ("Emeline F 3") to "3 Mules, 3 Horses. . . ." It hurts to see human beings treated as property along with spoons, table clothes, and livestock.

These records evoke the trauma of enslaved families always in danger of being split apart. The risk of separation of family members was often most acute when an owner died.

But they also offer glimpses of the ones who may have made it out of slavery. They are Datcher's "superheroes," and their names can now be honored.

Jim Doyle, 4, and Frizzie, 1, are the "youngest children" of Frank, 55, and Mary, 34. Their older siblings may have already been sold or perhaps gifted to King's sons and daughters when they received their "portion" at majority or marriage. Jim Doyle and Frizzie were purchased by Edmund's son, Frank Ragan King. He purchased three other children, for whom he paid $5,000: Ada, 12, Woodson, 11, and Lora, 8. Frank King lived his entire life in Montevallo, dying in 1884. The five children he is known to have enslaved probably came into freedom right here in Montevallo. Can some part of their stories be recovered?

The inventory of the assets of another of Edmund's sons, Nathaniel, provides names of others who probably lived to see emancipation. In 1863 Nathaniel owned "1 Negro man Alfred aged 35 years" valued at $3000. (The same value was assigned to Nathaniel's carriage.) Six enslaved persons, ranging in age from 2 to 22, had previously been sent to Bienville Parish in New Orleans to be sold by Nathaniel's agent. Their stories are unknown but not their names: Aggy, 24, Tom, 22, Adam, 21, John Wily, 16, Jim, 4, Andrew 2.

Julia's "youngest children" -- Easter, 15, Ella, 2, and Georgiana, 1 -- were sold to Shelby King. He seems to have owned a cotton plantation near Montevallo around this time. Julia's descendants may still live in this area.

Other young people sold for the benefit of King's heirs in 1863 include Henry, 19, Anderson, 12, Lucy, 15, Minerva, 14, Frank, 10, Fanny, 8.

The deeply sad story about one of the names in the bill of sale provides a final glimpse of the brutality of slavery. Martha was just ten days old when she, along with her mother, Sammantha, was sold to a new owner. When the inventory was taken she was still “increase” in her mother’s belly. Imagine, if you dare, what it would be like to deliver a daughter into the world with no hope of delivering her from bondage.

They were born into slavery, these persons whose names can now be said. Their pain must not be forgotten. Estate records tell stories of the grief of separation of family members, yes. They also hold out hope of recovering traces of the first generation to know freedom. Let us begin to remember the lives of the newly freed.

Thanks are due to Bruce Cooper, research assistant at the Shelby County Museum & Archives, for help locating and interpreting Will Book inventories. Peter Datcher is quoted by E. Sparacino, "Saying their names: Museum's new index serves as tool for slave ancestry research," Shelby County Reporter, June 27, 2022. Some people forced to labor on the King Plantation may be buried on the University of Montevallo campus. We would love to hear from members of descendant families. Contact us at MontevalloLegacy@gmail.com.