However, before we get started in our discussion regarding 1870 1 want to make the following point of clarification: Although the various official records, which have been discovered in our esearch spell my Paternal Great Grandfather’s first and last name in various ways I will always refer to him as Nathaniel Millbrook. I am choosing refer to my Paternal Great Grandfather Nathaniel Millbrook primarily because his sons my Paternal Grandfather Simon Millbrook’s complete most comprehensive 1 900 Federal census has the family surname spelled “Millbrook’.
In addition when Simon Millbrook died on February 18, 1958 in Simsboro, Arkansas the state issued the death certificate in the surname of “Millbrook”. In regards to his first name the 1900 census for his wife Lucy list he couple with son they called Nathaniel after his father. The information for Simon’s death certificate was supplied by a David Millbrook. All known facts at this time indicate that Davis Millbrook could both read and write in 1958. A close examination of the information presented in the official record reveals the following: 1 .
My Paternal Great Grandfather was born in the state of Georgia during the year of 1844. Because he was born into slavery a precise record of his birth was not created, so his exact birth month and date are unknown. 2. At the end of the Civil War when the 3. 8 million former slaves were heoretically free to start their new lives of freedom, including choosing the names by, which they would be known, many former slaves choose to use the names of their former slaveholders. The records beginning with the 1 870 Federal Census, are the first official records where the former slaves were actually referred to by a first and last name.
In the census of 1 870, my Paternal Great Grandfather is referred to as Nathan Middlebrooks. You see his name appearing on row* 3 of 1 870 census attached to this installment. Column# 4 list his age as 26 years old; this makes his birth year as 1844. It hould be remembered that although Nathaniel’s surname is shown here to be Middlebrooks, columns 16 and 17 say he could not read or write at the time, so there was no way for him to verify what the census-taker wrote down.
It is also important to recall that 1870, is only 5 years after the Civil War ended and very Written by: Otis MillbrookJr. 8 February 2015 Page 1 few slaves were taught to read and write anyvuhere in the old Confederacy prior to the end ofthe war. Many former slaves did not adopted the names of their former slaveholders some instead took entirely different names and derivatives. The article located at: http://rootsrevealed. blogspot. com/2012/04/aint-gonna-take- massasname. html details the name choices made by the former slaves and recommend its reading.
Why and if the name Middlebrooks was chosen for Nathaniel and entered in the 1870 as his family surname cannot be ascertained with 100% certainty at this time. However the choice of surname by Nathaniel was most likely influenced one or a combination of the following reasons: a. The 1860 Federal Slave Schedule show that in the state of Georgia where Nathaniel Was born there was 49 white slaveholders with the last ame of Middlebrooks and one these individuals were holding Nathaniel captive, along with rest his family, when freedom finally came in 1865.
So, at the end of Civil War Nathaniel and his family could have chosen simply to keep using the surname of their last slaveholder. b. At the end of the Civil War Nathaniel and his family may have chosen a surname similar to Middlebrooks. But, at the time in 1 870, census taker asked Nathaniel and family what their surname was, the census-take may have misunderstood what he thought he heard in answer to his question. Ifthe census taker misunderstood the answer to the question of ‘What’s your urname” than he would have written it down incorrectly. . The surname of Middlebrooks was a very widely known name in the preCiviI War era, especially in the state of Georgia in the regions Southwest, South and Southeast of Atlanta. The surname Middlebrooks seems to have been popular in the slave trade business in regions Southwest, South and Southeast of Atlanta, where cotton was the dominant crop. Nathaniel and family may have chosen the surname Middlebrooks because he was born in the regions previous mentioned and surname was widely known. d.
In addition another possible cause of erroneous misspellings found in ocuments like census records, where names like Millbrook(s), get misspelled and become names like Middlebrooks, fear among our people of such groups as the Ku Klux Klan, could have caused so much fear that interaction with whites such as census-takers was kept to minimum; they simply just wanted to get any interactions with whites over as quickly as possible. So they did not want bother with correcting error and mistakes. Written by: Otis Millbrook Jr. page 2 3.
In the 1 870 Federal Census for Pike County, Georgia where my Paternal Great Grandfather resided you will observe the following distinct pattern of he former slaves as being listed predominately with an occupations of “farm laborer’, “keeping house” and “at home”. The people that had the occupation of ‘farm laborer” were usually the people who worked the fields and were mostly black. The people that had an occupation of “keeping house” worked indoors for the former slaveholders, people listed with an occupation of “keeping house” were also usually black.
The “at home” occupational category, was normally reserved for elderly black person or for a black adult with some type of physical limitation. Small children were given no occupational lassification in this census. If you do a close analysis Of the attached pages 193 and 194 of the 1 870 census, (for Pike County, Georgia) you will notice the following: a. Page 194, row 8, columns 4, 5, 6 has a horizontal row drawn across the columns this line acts as a divider.
