By: Donald V. Watkins
Copyrighted and Published on February 21, 2025
This is how it began for the Watkins family in America. Our endurance and unbreakable siprit come from this maternal ancestor -- my great-great maternal grandmother.
This young girl of African descent arrived in America in 1830. She was human cargo in the transatlantic slave trade. Her journey to America began at a slave port on Bunch Island in Sierra Leone. She was brought to America against her will.
We do not know her name or exact age when she was captured. We believe she was in her early teens.
We do not know her country of origin, but DNA reports on the Watkins family bloodline suggests that she came from one of the West Central Africa countries.
We do not know where and how this young girl was captured. We only know that most African slaves were captured through warfare, raids, kidnapping, or the dissolution of African empires.
Once she became ensnared in the transatlantic slave trade, this young girl was crammed into the hellholes of a British slave ship at Bunch Island and fought every day to stay alive during her 8-week hellish journey from Sierra Leone to America.
We know from oral family histories that she was a beautiful young girl. Inside the Watkins family, we credit this girl’s inner strength for our endurance during extreme hardships and our unbreakable spirit in the face of harsh oppression.
This young girl survived her nightmarish transatlantic voyage. Her ship docked at the port of Charleston in South Carolina. She was listed only by gender and number on the manifest of the British slave ship that delivered her to its destination in the New World.
This slave girl arrived in South Carolina approximately 8 years prior to the arrival of Dougald and Katheryn Carmichael. The Carmichaels were my great maternal grandfather William Carmichael's parents, The Carmichaels immigrated to America from Scotland around 1838. They came to America by choice.
Dougald and Katheryn Carmichael, both of whom were born in 1817, arrived in America at the port of New York around 1838 as free white Scottish immigrants. The Carmichael’s initially settled in South Carolina. By 1850, they had moved to Hinds County, Mississippi and were raising a family of four children. One of these children was William, who was 13 years old.
The British Parliament Papers on the Slave Trade
The breakthrough in our research to find my African ancestors and their arrival in America came from admiralty reports reprinted in the British Parliament Papers on the Slave Trade, bills of sale in the U.S. for slaves, and chain-of-title records for slave conveyances in South Carolina and Mississippi. This mix of records documented my great-great maternal grandmother’s perilous journey across the Atlantic ocean and from Charleston to Mississippi.
After arriving in America, this young slave girl was bought and sold at an auction similar to the one depicted in the advertisement below (18 years later).
This slave girl eventually ended up as the chattel property of Michael Daley, a white Irish immigrant in Madison County, Mississippi. Daley, who was married but had no biological children with his wife Bridget, lived and farmed on land he owned in Madison County.
On April 20, 1847, this slave girl (who was now a full grown woman) gave birth to Olivia Williamson on Michael Daley’s farm. The Williamson name had been assigned to Olivia’s mother by her original slave owner. In turn, Olivia's mother (whose first name we do not know) gave the Williamson surname to her at birth.
Oral family histories and subsequent Madison County property records suggest that Daley was Olivia’s biological father. She had Caucasian features and light colored skin The 1870 federal Census for Mississippi listed Olivia Williamson as a “mulatto.”
Prior to 1870, blacks in slaveholding states were counted as "Slaves" or "Free Coloreds." Slaveowners listed the number and description of their slaves on U.S. Census Slave Schedules. The names of slaves were irrelevant for census counting purposes.
Shortly after her birth, Michael Daley arranged for Olivia Williamson's freedom and relocated Olivia and her mother to adjoining Hinds County, Mississippi, where she remained until she married. It appears that Olivia was one of the 13 “Freed Coloreds” in Hinds County, Mississippi on the 1850 Census.
Olivia Williamson NEVER tried to pass for white. By law, Olivia was "Colored."
Since the 1600s, the rule of law in America regarding mixed race people is simple --any person with even one ancestor of black ancestry ("one drop" of "black blood") is considered "Black" (“Negro” or “Colored” in historical terms). This legal principle is called the "One Drop Rule," and it still applies today.
On March 25, 1865, Olivia Williamson and William Carmichael, the son of Dougald and Katheryn Carmichael, married in Crawford Station, Mississippi -- about two weeks before General Robert E. Lee surrendered his 28,000 confederate troops to General Ulysses S. Grant at Appomattox.
After their marriage, Olivia and William Carmichael moved to the city of Canton in Madison County.
On February 26, 1887, Michael Daley signed and recorded a Warranty Deed that conveyed title to all his Madison County property to Olivia Carmichael. With this act, Olivia Carmichael broke the color barrier in Mississippi by becoming the first black female to own land in her name, alone.
We may never know Olivia's mother's African name or the name of her native country. However, we know that she had a will to live that allowed her to survive the harrowing transatlantic journey.
We know that she endured far worse treatment in the slave trade than we could ever imagine today. We also know that she was smart and beautiful.
Finally, we know that her endurance is the source of our strength in the face of the most vicious forms of racism. Her blood runs warm in our veins and her courage birthed ours.
The search for our ancestral roots in Africa continues.
Comments