Enslaved Individuals: Martha, b. abt. 1831-32

Martha

Documented History

Martha is listed with three other enslaved individuals in an inventory of Samuel Brumback’s estate taken 19 February 1850 in Page County, Virginia. Brumback died intestate, leaving his widow Catherine and several children; most of his personal estate was sold in February 1850, but chancery court records reveal that an order of the Page County court in January term, 1851, instructed three commissioners to “divide the slaves belonging to the Estate of the said deceased.” As of 6 February 1851 these commissioners “allotted and assigned to Catharine Brumback the girl by the name of Martha.”

A woman of 18 years was enumerated along with two men in Catherine Brumback’s household in District 49 of Page County on the slave schedule of the 1850 U.S. Census. When the census was taken, Samuel Brumback’s estate had not yet been settled; the three individuals he enslaved likely remained in Catherine Brumback’s household at the time of the census. If so, Martha was 18 years old in 1850, and thus born in 1831 or 1832.

A woman of 27 years along with three boys under five are listed under Catharine Grove’s household in District 3 of Page County on the Slave Schedule of the 1860 federal census; this would be the same household Martha was associated with in 1850, as Catherine Brumback had remarried and once again been widowed between 1850 and 1860. The ages of the boys correspond to Martha’s known children who were living in 1860, Andrew J., Benjamin F., and Thomas W. Strother.

Speculations

Martha could potentially be an enslaved girl under 10 enumerated in Samuel Brumback’s household in 1840. If so, it is possible that an enslaved woman between 24 and 34 enumerated in the same household is her mother.