Property Owning Free African-American Women in the South, 1800-1870

Abstract

A reasonable reward will be paid for the recovery of any part of the articles missing," a notice in the Columbian Museum and Savannah Advertiser announced on April 11, 1814. "Silver Smith's and other persons dealing in silver, gold or plated ware, answering the description of the above, are requested to stop the same, and to give to either of the subscribers information of the same." It took nearly a full column to list the missing articles: a dozen large spoons, half dozen tea spoons and one soup ladle, all of silver, a dozen tea spoons and ladle stamped Carrol [of Philadelphia] and engraved with the letter L, two pair of decanter stands, three mahogany dining room tables, a tea table, round stand, three chests of drawers, a dozen chairs, six feather beds, four Marseilles quilts with fringe, one large blue and white counterpane, two lace shawls, one large laced quilt, a dozen wine glasses, four fluted decanters, a mahogany case with two rows of brass hoops, a spy glass marked London with mahogany case, clothing, jewelry, a tambour frame, and numerous other items. The notice explained that on the first night of spring a fire had swept through the residence of Selinah and Lydia Levingston. With the help of neighbors, the two women had carried their belongings into the street, but in the confusion that followed many of their possessions had been carried off by thieves. 1 Such notices were common enough during the early years of the nineteenth century, as fires and thefts plagued nearly every town and city in the South. What set this incident apart was that the two subscribers were free women of color. Their plea was entered under the names of their white "guardians." But how could two black women in Savannah acquire such a large personal estate? And how common was it for African-American women to own property? It seems doubtful that the Levingstons could have amassed such holdings by selling embroidered goods, as the listing of a tambour frame might suggest. It also seems doubtful that they could have acquired such items working at the menial occupations common to most free black women in the city. It is probable that they were somehow connected with whites, perhaps as mistresses of their male guardians. In any event, the record is not clear concerning how they obtained their possessions , only that they owned a remarkable list of valuables.