The Pates of Mississippi
There comes a point when you’re researching your genealogical history and you learn things that you have to sit with. Each time I found a new ancestor, I felt unparalleled excitement and curiosity. The same rang true when I learned the name of my great-grandmother Mary Pate's (also known as Mama Coot) father. My great-great grandfather, Felix Green Pate was born around 1851 in North Carolina. In 1870, he was living in Prentiss County, Mississippi. He was more than likely born into enslavement.
The interesting thing about Ancestry is that it does a great job of connecting you with hints about the ancestor you’re researching. Imagine my surprise when my great-great-grandfather’s record was associated with an 1860 Slave Schedule from the Census.
If you’re unfamiliar with a Slave Schedule, they aren’t easy to read and it will likely leave you with more questions than answers. For starters and most importantly, there are intentionally no names of those who were enslaved, only the enslavers. The only information you can see on a Slave Schedule is the age, sex, and color of the enslaved.
Felix would’ve been nine or ten years old at the time these records were created. There were five enslavers in the state of Mississippi with the last name Pate on the 1860 Slave Schedules in three different cities, and just about all of them enslaved a boy around Felix’s age. There’s Allen Pate of Tallahatchie. William Pate, who had a plantation in Tishomingo, about 20 minutes away from Prentiss County. The final three enslaved 110 Black Americans in Carroll County - JC, JD, and Eliza Pate. While it’s possible that any of the five of them could’ve enslaved Felix, I found myself growing more curious about Eliza. A woman enslaver?
Before learning of her, I didn’t give women enslavers much consideration. I can recollect in movies how enslaved children and children of enslavers were depicted as friends, playing together and too innocent to recognize any difference between them. How did this white woman enslave and assert ownership over 12 people?
I researched about her more. Eliza was married to JC, Jefferson C. Pate. He passed away in 1859, however on the 1860 Slave Schedules, he is listed as the enslaver for 30 people. JC’s will was difficult for me to read, and it left me wondering if Eliza became the sole enslaver or if they sold some of their enslaved. Either way, she was listed separately from JC which leads me to assume she already had her hand in chattel slavery.
“Slave-owning parents gave enslaved men, women, and children to their young daughters as gifts on special occasions like baptisms, birthdays (especially birthdays), holidays, and marriage, or for no reason at all. They also bequeathed enslaved people to their daughters in their wills. And when human property was transferred to them, these young women came to value the crucial ties between slave ownership and autonomous, stable, financial futures.” - They Were Her Property by Stephanie Jones-Rodgers
I researched about her more. I found Eliza’s name on a United States Army payroll log. She outsourced five of her enslaved to work for the Confederate Army in Grenada Mississippi, in 1863. Unlike the Slave Schedules, this log lists the names of the enslaved. Though I’m slightly relieved not to see great-great grandpa Felix’s name, it’s important to say the name of the five ancestors who are - Dick, Jeff, Leroy, Albert, and Lewis. She even got paid 45 dollars for Lewis who labored for 68 days. Because of Lewis, she made more than anybody else on this payroll log.
“Confederate soldiers were equally prone to seize enslaved people that belonged to slave-owning women who were sympathetic to the rebel cause. Female enslavers were not immune to Confederate impressment programs, and they were obliged to supply the Confederacy with the laborers it needed. The Confederacy paid enslavers for the enslaved people they commandeered, and female enslavers' names appear throughout these documents.” - They Were Her Property by Stephanie Jones-Rodgers
