Shameful history, but dedicated to truth

The men, women and children total 21.

Their names were Anderson, Ann, Cape, Caroline, Dick, Evaline, Fanny, Flora, Frank, Green, Harriet, Henry, Jesse, John, Lewis, Mary, Nancy, Orrin, Sam, Seaborn and Tamer.

There are plenty of reasons to be happy with the DNA I’ve been dealt.

I come from a long line of hard-working farmers, preachers and even kings.

My great Uncle Glen Hubbard Stevens, a paratrooper, died on the battlefield at Normandy on D-Day, June 6, 1944.

But I’m drawn to the part of our family history that’s shameful — life on a Chambers County, Alabama, farm, the workplace for at least 21 people my ancestors owned.

This summer marks the 160th anniversary of the filing of Theophilus Stevens’ will in 1857.

I know a little about my four times great-grandfather’s children. I’d like to know more about Cape, Seaborn, Tamer and the rest of the slaves he forced to work in the eastern Alabama community that served as a backdrop for the 1988 movie “Mississippi Burning.”

All I know are their first names and the dollar values assigned to them.

Combined, the court record shows their “price” was about $12,000, equivalent to about $300,000 in today’s economy.

Lewis and Nancy were considered the most valuable, at $1,000 each.

Harriet and Caroline were considered the least valuable, at $350 each.

Ann, Cape and Dick were not assigned a price, as they were to remain the property of Celia Stevens, the soon-to-be widow of Theophilus Stevens.

And the slave named Jesse, willed to my three times great-grandfather Fleet Cooper Stevens, was assigned a price of $700. The 100 acres of land that Fleet Cooper received in the will was worth about $500.

Mauridell Bennett, my dad’s cousin, spent hundreds of hours researching our family tree over several decades. She was still working on it when she died four years ago.

I am grateful for her work, and especially for her dedication to truth.

I’ll spend some time this summer continuing her effort. It won’t make anybody feel better about where we’ve come from, but telling the stories might help us remember we can do better.

David Stevens is editor for Clovis Media Inc. Contact him at: [email protected]

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