This is my 13th year participating in the A to Z Challenge. This year I will be writing about the families that were once enslaved on the plantation of Foster and Marietta Ray in Lebanon, Kentucky.
I first learned what plantation my grandmother Pearl’s family were enslaved on when I discovered her uncle Thomas Allen who was part of the United States Colored Troops during the Civil War. The information was in his petition file. Since then I have found more information and more names of the members of that community.
I found several news items from 1845 that appeared in the local Lebanon paper and mentioned that Foster Ray had asked for and received permission to bring in nine enslaved people for his “personal use”. At this time it was illegal to bring people into Kentucky and resell them, but keeping them for yourself was okay. I assumed that these were nine unrelated people until I found another item saying that the group was a family, Basil and Dinah and seven of their children – Felix (12), John (11), Agnes (10), Betsy (8), Treesy (6), Virginia (2) and Basil (1).
I found Basil and Dinah in only one record, a baptismal record for Basil at St. Augustine Catholic Church. I assume they died before slavery in Kentucky ended with the ratification of the 13th Amendment on December 18, 1865. It was one of the last places in the U.S. to emancipate enslaved people.
All the children survived to be free and I found records for them – census, marriage, death records and the Will of Marietta Ray Foster, who left bequests to several of them along with two of my family members. I had assumed that all of them were unrelated and started separate family trees for each. I also assumed that they took the name of “Ray”. They didn’t. All but Basil took the name “Primus”. Which I assume was the name their parents used.
While looking for a picture to illustrate this post, I came across the one below. It was another mother with seven of her children. They were born in Maryland, as was the Primus family. You can click on the picture for more information about Anna Marie Jackson and her family who were not from the Foster Ray plantation.
I will write about several members of the Primus family during this challenge.
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Previous posts in this series.
Foster Ray – Slaveholder
Marietta Ray Foster’s Death and Will – 1872
Thomas Ray Allen 1847 – 1907
Agnes Primus
Clara Hoskins Green – Thomas’ Mother