Harriet Watkins: part 2

It supprises me how emotional it has been for me to attempt to write about Harriet. I feel like I always have so many questions, yet I find very few answers. I feel like I don't know enough about her and her life. How will I inform anyone about who she was, when I'm still trying to figure that out? I feel like I can't do her justice. 

After Slavery

When were my ancestors told they had gained freedom? Were they told, or did they hear roomers? How did my white ancestors inform their slaves, my black ancestors, that they were free? Were they asked to stay, or told to leave? The range and intensity of emotions they must have experienced is something I still can't fathom. I often think about the TV mini-series Queen and the trauma Queen went through just deciding to leave her 'home' after slavery. Leaving the home she had always known, even though she was treated horribly, to put it mildly. Where her mother and grandfather suffered and toiled. Where her mom,  sister, and grandfathers were buried. It's so painful to watch what she went through, and know my ancestors went through some variation of it. 

I almost said Harriet would have lived at Wheatland Manor for about five years, but that's not really true. W. S. Davis owned the house from 1843 till 1848, so if she lived at this estate, I doubt it was in the main house. I imagine slave quarters were located somewhere on the property, and she would have lived there. Harriet would have been about age 8 to age 13 during that time. Just a little girl, trying to navigate and survive life as a slave. I drove by this house, several times in fact, looking for Truelove's grave. I liked the house and the land. What I saw of it during our wanderings. I would love to have that much land surrounding my house. If I had only known what I was looking at, the feelings would have been much different.

Wheatland Manor, W. S. Davis' home from 1843-1848, Botetourt County: Source Google Maps

Did Harriet and her family gain freedom early, or were they sold to a different owner? The 1865 will of her owner, William Samuel Davis, only mentions 3 slaves; John, Cyrus, and George. This in and of itself is amazing to me. His will is dated January 1st, 1865, and probated December 11th, 1865. The Emancipation Proclamation went into effect exactly 2 years prior, but William still held at least 3 men captive. I can't envision him allowing Harriet and her family to go easily, but I haven't found her mentioned anywhere else as of yet. Regardless, Harriet didn't go far from her previous slave owners, or Wheatland Manor. The 1870 census shows family remaining in Fincastle, Botetourt County, as does the Davis/Rowland families.

Aerial view of Wheatland Manor with surrounding lands. Source GoogleMaps. 

Harriet is always described in the 3 census records I've found her in, as a black woman. In 1870 and 1880, census takers were told to "be particularly careful" when they recorded people as mulatto. So that makes me believe she was medium to dark tone. But that's all I have on what she may have looked like. No photographs or written descriptions. A black woman. What I wouldn't give to have more.

She married a man named Thornton Coleman, and they had 9 children. Like so many at this time, they suffered hardship and loss. Thornton was a farm laborer, while she kept the home. Together they would bury at least 1 child before Thornton himself passed away. But by 1900, Harriet learned how to read and write, something that was kept from her as a child. Something so many take for granted today.

Harriet died sometime before the 1910 census. I haven’t located a death record, letter, or anything that mentions her passing. I don't know where she's burried. I don't know a lot. Where did she go to church? Did she like cooking, or was it just something that had to be done? Who were her parents? How many siblings did she have? Did she ever experience peace? She survived slavery and reconstruction, but did she ever feel free?

There is so much more I want to know.