Mariah was born a slave, survived a massacre and gained the respect of an affluent White community. After slavery, she was a servant at “Beauvoir” home of Confederate President Jefferson Davis.
The history of my family has been passed down from generation to generation. The story of my 3rd great grandmother Mariah, born a slave, survived a massacre, fought the KKK and owned acres of land, known as the “Lands of Mariah Johnson,” as family tradition would dictate, I passed the stories down to my children.
In 2005, after my mother passed away, immersed in grief I decided to fulfill a promise. I promised my mother that I would research our family’s history. While researching, I realized that my ancestors lived in a world submerged in violence. To understand historical violence, I went back to college. In 2007, I received a Bachelor of Human Services, major: Community Violence Prevention and Intervention.
In this expedition to the past, I and co-researcher G. Johnson have received documents from, and formed relationships with: Arkansas Archives and History, Louisiana‘s Hill Memorial Library, New Orleans Public Library, Mississippi Department of Archives and History, Amistad Research Center, Tulane University, LA, Harrison County Library, Alabama Archives and History, and South Carolina Department of Archives and History.
Through obtaining court records, death records, obituaries, wills, land deeds, “Slave Bills of Sale,” newspaper articles, written bibliographic works and Civil War records. Genealogist G. Johnson and I have documents supporting: Mariah’s ancestry (slave bills) dating back to 1785, Civil War records of Mariah’s husband in the Colored Union Troops. Her brother in-law, a slave, was the bodyguard (body-servant) of Confederate President Jefferson Davis.
During our historical journey, we have discovered information of great significance, which has not ever been revealed. We have unearthed an unwritten history, a history that must be told, it is our legacy. Through this research, all of the names, places and stories confirm and supports Mariah’s stories.
By 2009, my co-researcher and I had proven all of Mariah’s stories. However, the slave massacre remained an enigma that had given rise to much supposition. After many years of researching slave massacres’ we did not find any recorded incidents that were similar to what Mariah detailed. I knew that it happened and I refused to give up. We had been working with Peggy Lloyd an archivist in Arkansas.
In 2011, Peggy told me about a legend with the locals of Lafayette County, Arkansas. She said, “I recently came across a story that gave me pause. There is a legend in Lafayette County, Arkansas, of killings in slavery times and bodies were thrown into a lake which is an old oxbow lake of the Red River. The lake is called “Spirit Lake” and the locals are very superstitious about it.”
I knew that this was it. Mariah described in detail, the massacre on the river bank. Several documents reveal that William Martin Burton owned land and operated a cotton plantation in Lost Prairie along Oxbow Lake which is known as Spirit Lake. In addition, during the time of his ownership of this land, he was in the possession of Mariah and family. Peggy and her team of archaeologists are conducting research in that area.
After 7 years of research, finally, another brick wall was demolished. With supporting documents, and a team of an archivist and archaeologists, one day, maybe soon, the nameless faces of the dead can rest in peace.
The voyage of Mariah’s life begins during the Antebellum period, where a prominent plantar was respected and admired, while the slaves were the burning flesh, the torn meat, the naked bones, the very skeleton that supported the financial wealth of the institution of slavery. This celebrated, yet tragic time in our history was politically and socially accepted; it was the way of the Old South.
Mariah and her family were owned by the Binford family, then Colonel William Martin Burton and Daniel Polk Logan. The splendor of their stories is, although, they were slave owners, in time they viewed their human property as human beings. Therefore, my work illustrates the institution of slavery and its belief system through the interrelationships of slaves and their masters.
Mariah’s passage through slavery is not easy as she encounters rough waters before the Civil War period. She is an eye-witness to a violent slave massacre that took place in Arkansas. Colonel William Martin Burton, Mariah’s Master, takes his human property, Mariah and her family out of Arkansas and into Bossier/ Caddo Parish, Louisiana.
During the Civil War Mariah’s brother in-law Ben Williams (a Black slave) becomes Confederate President Jefferson Davis’ personal body guard (body servant).
After the Civil War, the journey of Mariah’s departure to transcend from human property to a human being was met with opposition as she and her family channeled through the violent Reconstruction Era. However, a human bond between master and slave was formed as she gained the respect of the affluent White community.
During her lifetime, Mariah told all who would listen, about the massacre. More than likely she told Jefferson Davis. She wanted the world to know about the brutality of slavery.
Ann Lee
http://sites.google.com/site/mariahandchloey/home
Read: "Human Property Hanging in the Family Tree Yields a Harvest." Free Kindle Ebook download at Amazon on April 25, 2012
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00727LLKC/?tag=buzz0f-20
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