This is a listing of poeple enslaved* by the Avery-family. I’ve divided them into family groupings. I hope it will help their descendants in their searches for their family history. I’ve also added a brief history of the Avery family to help put these enslaved Africans and Americans in a wider historical context and timeline.
*A note on the terms I’m using. Race and racial slavery are such painful and difficult issues in our collective history that I am trying to do my small part by reexamining even the terms used to discuss it. The words we use reflect our beliefs; using different words can undermine those beliefs. So, for instance, rather than calling the people on this list “slaves,” they are “the enslaved” – which describes what was done to them but does not define them by it. And it places culpability squarely where it belongs – on those people like my ancestors who engaged in the enslavement of other human beings.
I also use the term “racial slavery” for slavery as it was practiced in the U.S. Slavery, of course, has been practiced, and practiced in different ways, throughout human history. The Cherokee took those defeated in battle as slaves, but then often eventually adopted them into the family with full familial rights. Slavery as practiced by whites in the U.S. was an institutionalized system of degrading, devaluing, and using people of African descent. Our economy was built on it and an entire field of pseudo-science was created to justify it (e.g. different races were believed to be different species).
The Avery family of Swan Ponds, Burke County, NC
Waightstill Avery, who founded the Swan Ponds plantation (I don’t say he “built” it because, of course, it was built by enslaved people), was born in 1741 in Groton, Connecticut. He was educated at Princeton University. In 1778, in New Bern, NC (on the east coast) he married a young wealthy widow, Leah Probart Franks. After a few years in eastern N.C., Waightstill and Leah moved to Burke County, N.C. in the foothills of the Appalachian mountains in western N.C. Swan Ponds plantation, just outside Morganton, was established. They had four children – Polly Mira Avery, Elizabeth Avery, Isaac Thomas Avery, and Selina Louise Avery. Leah and Waightstill lived at Swan Ponds until their respective deaths. Waightstill Avery died in 1821 and Leah died in 1832.
Their son, Isaac Thomas Avery (1785-1864), inherited the plantation and some portion of the enslaved population. In 1815 he married Harriet Eloise Erwin (1795-1858). The Erwins were a wealthy local family. They owned a plantation called Belvidere and, presumably, some of those enslaved by the Erwins went with Harriet to Swan Ponds. They had ten children (that survived into adulthood): William Waightstill Avery, Isaac Erwin Avery, Mary Martha Avery, Justina Harriet Avery, Alphonso Calhoun Avery, Laura Myra Avery, Willoughby Francis Avery. Three of their sons – William Waightstill Avery, Clark Moulton Avery, Isaac Erwin Avery – died in the Civil War, fighting on the wrong side of history. Their father died in 1864 after hearing of the deaths of William and Clark.
After emancipation, many of those who had been enslaved (having few options) stayed in the area. There are still many Avery descendants, both black and white, in the area around Morganton.
The people the Avery family enslaved (and who died before emancipation) are buried in unmarked graves near the small Avery family cemetery. I hope to raise enough money to put a permanent marker of some kind near or on the place where these enslave people lie, and on it all their names.
Enslaved family groups on the Avery plantation
Tina [from Franck family, with Leah]
Son Lenoir, b. 1766
Venus
Daughter Ester, b. 1766
Son Jon b. 1769
child Benna, b. 14 May 1772
Balaam, b. 11 April 1774
Jim, b. 10 April 1776
Pete born 3rd Nov. 1778
Diana born 13th Dec. 1780
Adam born 25 Dec. 1783
Sarah born Dec. 1785
Wile
Children Lilph & Rose b. 15 April 1770
E____
Son Ben, b. march 1788
Peggy
Son Owen
Rachel
Son Perry
Manual (Emanual?)
Two sons
Mary (purchased Sept 6, 1814)
son Jim, b. April 1816
Barbara
Daughter Chassey, b. August 1816
Romeo & Big Luie have 9 children at home Dec. 1815
- Mara 7. Eliza or Liz
- Pat 8. Dashee
- Jacob 9. Mimee
- Nan
- Vinee
- Jos. (or Joseph, and possibly given to Harriet Avery Chambers in Isaac Thomas Avery’s will)
Eliza [possibly daughter of Romeo & Big Louie becayse she named a son Romeo?]
Twins, Jacob & Mary, b. 12 Sept. 1829, d. Sept. 1840 from fever
Daughter Luann, b. 18 Aug. 1841
[same as Eliza?]
Eliz
Twins, Romeo & Sully
July hath 8 children 1815
- Hampton
- Dick
- Henry
- Peter
- Chenee
- George
- Sally
- Ginny
Monday hath 7 children living at home 1815
- Stephen
- Luie M.
- Will
- Anthony
- Emperor
- Sue
- Jack
Diana hath 6 children living at home 1815
- Ab (Abraham, Abner, or Absalom?)
- Li
- Isam
- Balam
- Celia
- Cinthia
[Same Diana? Son Cyrus, b. 10 Jan. 1838 “bought by Forney and paid.”]?
Bet hath two children (could be Betty or Elizabeth)
- Abe (Abraham?)
- Rose
Felix hath 3 children
- Tina
- Lip
- Primus
And one grandchild
- Sam
Mary
son Jim
Barbary
Daughter Chiney
Rochele
Twins, Two smart healthy daughters, b. Sept. 1818
Sara
Son Moses
Wilsey
Son Billy “being a Mulatto” b. 2 Jan. 1805
15 August 1837
Chany
Boy child b. 28 March 1838
Aggy
Child (no name) b. 8 April 1838, d. 4 weeks old
May
Boy child died soon after birth
Abb
Boy Child b. 24 August 1838, d. same day
16 April 1829
Maria
Child Robert Ad___ b. 14 May 1829
Sophia
Son b. August 1829, d. 4 days after birth
Milly
Daughter Polly, b. 19 Nov. 1841
September
Linda and Abnus
Daughter Hulda, b. 20 Sept. 1854
Caty & Alfred
Daughter Milly, b. Swan Ponds in January
Son Anthony, b. 22 Oct. 1854
Catherine
Son Balaam, b. 22 Oct. 1852, d. 1852
Jenny (& Cathe?)
Son Willoughby Francis, b. 18 March 1855 (the fact that her son is named Willoughby Francis could indicate that the child was fathered by Willoughby Francis Avery)
(mentioned in Willoughby Francis Avery’s will in 1876)
Sophia
Daughter Jane
Daughter Lovina, b. Nov. 17 1856
Son Ephraim, b. January 26, 1861, d. Dec. 4, 1862
March 25th 1855
Cindy
Daughter, Mineva (Minerva?)
two boys, b. Dec. 15th 1860 died soon after the birth
Mary Esther
Son John Carson, b. June 24, 1855? (The Carsons were also a well-to-do local family who had many enslaved Africans/Americans. This boy could have been fathered by one of them.)
[same woman?]
Esther
Daughter Mary, b. March 10th 1862
Margaret (owner Isaac Erwin Avery)
Son Clingman August 2, 1855?
daughter Lititia, b. Dec. 6, 1862
[same Margaret as Isaac T. Avery’s Margaret?)
Cinthy (Abbi’s daughter) [same Abb as Abb Boy Child b. 24 August 1838, d. same day?]
Son Elisha, b. August 26 , 1855?
Ann
Daughter Matilda, b. December 20 1850
19th February 1857
Louisa
Daughter Lila
Celia
Son Samuel, b. 10th March 1857 at Swan Ponds
[same as below?]
Celia
Son Capt. James Wilson, b. August 4th 1861, d. 26 April 1862
[same as above]?
Cecelia (in Yancey, NC)
Daughter Ann, b. December 1856
Angelina
Twin sons b. 16th May 1857, William & The other died in October 1857
Elmina
Daughter Missy, b. August 14
Margaret (owner Isaac Thomas Avery)
child named ___ , b. Nov. 23 (1855?) died at 5 months old
Daughter Elvira, b. October 12, 1860
Cindy was delivered of two boys, b. Dec. 15th 1860 died soon after the birth
Julia & Homer’s
Son Romeo, b. January 6, 1861
1861
Thine had at the Crab Orchard (in Plumtree, NC) in Mitchel
Daughter Louisa, b. About the 20th of August
Mary (Thines’ daughter)
Son Logan, b. 30 September 1861
Angelina
bore three children on Jan 19, 1862 – two sons and one girl Rachel. Of the boys, one died in May & one in August
Martha
Daughter Sally, b. February 20, 1862
Surak (Sarah?)
Son Will Phifer, b. Sept. 11th 1862
(The Phifers were also a local white family. The use of the Phifer name could indicate that one of the Phifer men had fathered the child.)
Silvia
Daughter called —— , b. & died October 24, 1862
Roxanna & Lige (Elijah)
(There are many stories about an enslaved man named Elijah or Lige, which I’ll post soon. He was – through the Avery family’s telling of the stories – the prototypical “faithful slave” of Southern myth. Obviously his own version of events would be different and fascinating! If anyone descended from Lige reads this, I’d love to hear from you.)
daughter Anna
Cecilia & Alfred’s
Daughter Delphy, b. in Mitchell [Crab Orchard in Plumtree?] in 1862
(Alfred possibly given to Clark Moulton Avery in I.T. Avery’s will, though Clark was dead by then.)
Minty
son called ________, b. July 26th 1864
From Isaac Thomas Avery’s will
(Isaac Thomas Avery, b. 1785, d. December 1864)
Bequeathed to W.W. Avery:
Poiter +
Dorcas
Daughter Delia
Son Balaam
Son Julius
Daughter Mary
Son William
Bequeathed to Harriet J. Chambers:
Jo or Joseph
Annie
Son Hardy
Son Nelson
? M___
daughter Minny
Bequeathed to Mary. M. Chambers:
Albert
Agey
Son William
Son Turner?
Son Stephen
Son Harris
Daughter Mariah
Unnamed baby
Jane
Caroline
Bequeathed to Clark M. Avery:
A couple
Loress (or Louu) and Alfred
Elvira (died before 1865)
Daughter Linda
Son Joe
Daughter Emma
