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Maria Howcott of
Chowan county |
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On 15 June 1895,
64-year-old Miles Howcott
applied in Washington county North Carolina for a licence to marry his second wife Roxana Hassell. [1] When
making the application Miles stated that his father was Henry Bartee and his mother
Mariah Howcott. The application described both of Miles’ parents as coloured and stated that both were dead.
The only slaveholders
in North Carolina with the Howcott surname during in the 19th century were
Nathaniel & Sarah Howcott of Chowan county and their descendants, so it
is in records relating to these people that information relating to Maria has
been researched. [2] A number of references have been found to Maria as being
held by various members of the Howcott family between 1820 and 1845. Although
it is not certain, it is likely that the references all relate to the same
individual. “Murier” was one of
three slaves whom Nathaniel Howcott left to his wife Sarah when he
signed his will on 13 May 1820. Sarah made her will on 15 March 1823, leaving
four slaves, including a “girl” called Maria to her sons Nathaniel and John B
Howcott, both of whom were
then minors. Sarah Howcott died on 23 August 1827. [3] The accounts that
the orphans’ guardians submitted of the management of their assets vary in
detail. For instance, in some years the credits for hiring out slaves were
expressed as a single figure for all the slaves during that period, but in
other years each slave hired out was identified along with a specific figure.
Sometimes, the names of slaves appear in connection with payments made from
the estate but these records may also be incomplete. The slaves left by
Sarah to her sons John and Charles were divided between them in a document
dated 18 March 1828. [4] In this, Maria was again described as a “girl” and,
along with three “men” was allocated to John B Howcott. Her valuation was
given as $250, the same figure being shown for Daniel and Wallace but lower
than the $350 ascribed to Daniel. For the year 1828, the payments received
for hiring “Girl Maria” amounted to $19.75. [5] By that stage, Maria had
reached child-bearing age, as on 7 February 1829, $2 was paid to Mrs Young for “Attendance on Maria when lying in”. [6] As
Miles was born about 1830, he may have been the child born on that occasion.
There appear to be no later references to Maria in the guardians’ accounts. In the 1830s, John
B Howcott moved south to Canton, Mississippi. He sold at least one of his
slaves to his brother Charles R Howcott, who paid him $450 on 7 May 1835 for
Wallace. [7] It is likely that John B also sold Maria and Miles to Charles at
around the same time. In any event, Maria and Miles were listed, one after
another, in the schedule of the slaves who were held by Charles R Howcott at
the time of his death in 1845. [8] No subsequent
record of Maria has been found. She does not appear in the 1870 census, which
is the first enumeration in which individuals who had been held in slavery
were recorded by name, so it is likely that she had died or perhaps changed
her surname through marriage before then. Notes [1] North Carolina, county
marriages, 1762-1979 – Miles Howcott & Roxana Hassell [2] The
Howcott plantation was at Greenhall Road, probably around the present-day
junction with New Road, about five miles north of Edenton. [3] From a newspaper
account included in “Abstract of Vital Records from Raleigh NC newspapers
1820-1829”, compiled by Lois Smithers Neal (Spartenburg, SC, 1980). [4] North
Carolina Estate Files, 1663-1979 – Nathaniel Howcott (image 7 of 120) [5] North
Carolina Estate Files, 1663-1979 – Nathaniel Howcott (image 75 of 120) [6] North
Carolina Estate Files, 1663-1979 – Nathaniel Howcott (image 74 of 120) [7] From a
bill of sale in Chowan county deeds, book W, page 329. [8] North
Carolina Estate Files, 1663-1979 – Charles R Howcott (image 9 of 40) |
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