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William Ellison
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For the English rower, royal apothecary and surgeon, see William Augustine
Ellison.

William Ellison Jr. (c. April 1790 – December 5, 1861), born April Ellison, was a
USA cotton gin maker and blacksmith in South Carolina, and former African-
American slave who achieved considerable success as a slaveowner before the
American Civil War. He eventually became a major planter and one of the
wealthiest property owners in the state. According to the 1860 census (in which
his surname was listed as "Ellerson"), he owned up to 68 black slaves, making
him the largest of the 171 black slaveholders in South Carolina. He held 63 slaves

at his death and more than 900 acres (360 ha) of land. [1] From 1830 to 1865 he and
his sons were the only free blacks in Sumter County, South Carolina to own
slaves. The county was largely devoted to cotton plantations, and the majority
population were slaves.

Ellison and his sons were among a number of successful free people of color in
the antebellum years, but Ellison's master had passed on social capital by
apprenticing him to learn a valuable artisan trade as a cotton-gin maker, at which
Ellison made a success. He took a wife at the age of 21. After buying his own
freedom when he was 26, a few years later Ellison purchased his wife and their
children, to protect them from sales as slaves. The Act of 1820 made it more
difficult for slaveholders to make personal manumissions, but Ellison gained
freedom for his sons and a quasi-freedom for his surviving daughter. During the
American Civil War, Ellison and his sons supported the Confederate States of
America and gave the government substantial donations and aid. A grandson
fought informally with the regular Confederate Army and survived the war.

Early life and education[edit]

William Ellison Jr. was named "April" by his master when born into slavery about
1790 on a plantation near Winnsboro, South Carolina. The name indicated the
month he was born, which was a common slave-naming practice at the time. In
1800-1802 the man April was documented as owned by William Ellison of Fairfield
County, the son of Robert Ellison, a planter.

William Ellison apprenticed young April at age 10 to a cotton gin maker, William
McCreight of Winnsboro. This would provide him with a valuable, highly skilled
trade to make a living as an adult. Cotton gins were in demand, integral to the
profitable processing of short-staple cotton. The invention of the cotton gin at the
end of the 18th century led to the widespread cultivation of short-staple cotton
across the upland areas of the Deep South, establishing the Black Belt and
stimulating widespread changes in land use. Hundreds of thousands of new
settlers were attracted to the region, and they created pressure for the federal
government to conduct Indian removal throughout the Southeast and what
became known as the Deep South. This also resulted in the forced migration of
more than one thousand slaves from the Upper South to the Deep South through
the domestic slave market, as slaves were sold to develop and labor on the new
plantations.

April Ellison completed his apprenticeship after six years and continued to work
at the shop as a hired hand. Most of his earnings went to his master, as April was
a slave who was "hired out." But, it appears April was allowed to keep a portion
of his fees, as he later purchased his freedom from Ellison. It was common
practice, according to Black Codes of South Carolina and Louisiana, to pay

slaves for any labor performed on Sunday. [2][3] April continued to learn the variety
of complex skills related to cotton-gin making and repair. He also learned
blacksmithing.

Marriage and family[edit]

At age 21, April took Matilda, a 16-year-old slave woman (1795- ), as his consort
(slaves did not have legally recognized marriages). They had a daughter

Aliza/Eliza Ann together, born in 1811.[4] Eliza Ann later married James M.

Johnson.[5]
April and Matilda had several more children: three sons, Henry (b. c.1816-August

20, 1883), Reuben (b. c.1818-d. May 1864), [6] and William Jr. (July 19, 1819 – July

24, 1904);[5] and daughters Maria[7] and Mary Elizabeth (June 11, 1824 –

September 15, 1852).[5] Note: These are documented as two different women, as
Ellison bequeathed Maria money in his will of 1861 (see below), but Mary had
already died by then.) Both names were popular for girls in those years.

Manumissions[edit]

On June 8, 1816, at the age of 26, April was freed by his master William Ellison
(likely his father, as April took his name as a free man). April appeared to have
purchased his freedom by money saved from a portion of his earnings.
According to the 1800 law, five freemen had to appear with his master in court to

attest to April's ability to support himself in freedom. [8] At that time, he took the
name "William Ellison, Jr." as aligning himself with the planter family.

It took years for Ellison to buy his wife and children out of slavery. He had to earn
the money and also work within state laws that restricted such manumissions.
His priority was to free his wife so that their future children were born free. In this
slave society, children of slave mothers were considered slaves, regardless of
the status of their fathers, according to the principle of partus sequitur ventrem,
which had been incorporated into state law since the 17th century, following the
model of Virginia.

The manumission laws in South Carolina made it difficult for Ellison and others to
free their relatives, especially children. Purchasing them from slaveholders was
one step, but under the 1800 law, other free men had to certify that the slave
could support himself in freedom. This obviously could not be the case for
children. The Act of 1820 prohibited slaveholders from making personal
manumissions by deed or court filings; they had to seek permission for each
manumission by both houses of the legislature, and the number of manumissions
dropped sharply as a result. For many free black people, being forced to hold
their relatives as property put them at risk. In hard times, property, including
slaves, could be confiscated or put up for forced sale to settle debts of an

individual.[9]

After purchasing his daughter Maria from her owner (as she had been born while
her mother was still enslaved), Ellison set up a trust with a friend in 1830 to have
legal title transferred to him for one dollar. Col. William McCreighton nominally
"owned" Maria, but the trust provided for her to live with her father, who could
free her if the laws changed to make it easier to achieve. McCreighton kept his
part of the trust, and Maria lived as if she were free. As a young woman, she
married Henry Jacobs, a free man of color in another county. In the 1850 census,
Maria Ellison Jacobs was listed as a free woman of color, although no legal
document supported that. In 1861, her father Ellison provided for her to receive

$500 in his will.[10]

Businesses and plantation[edit]

After gaining his freedom in 1817, Ellison moved to Sumter County, South
Carolina, in the High Hills of Santee, where he established himself as a cotton gin
maker. This area was rapidly being developed for cotton plantations of short-
staple cotton. At first, he paid for the labor of slave artisans who had been "hired
out" by their masters. Within two years he purchased two artisan slaves to work

in his shop. By 1830 he held four artisan slaves.[7]

By 1840 he held a total of eight slaves who worked in his cotton gin business.
They were both skilled and unskilled, as the latter cut wood from his land for the
gins. By the 1850s, he also operated a blacksmith shop with artisan slaves. [7] He
advertised his business in the Black River Watchman, the Sumter Southern Whig,

and the Camden Gazette.[5]

As cotton prices were high, there was demand for Ellison's services. Planters
needed cotton gins to process their cotton profitably, as the machinery was much
more efficient than manual labor. Eventually Ellison earned enough to buy land:
starting with more than 50 acres (20 ha), by 1850 he had increased his holdings to
386 acres (156 ha), and established his own cotton plantation. By that time, he

owned 32 slaves.[11][12]

The Ellison family joined the Episcopal Church of the Holy Cross in Stateburg. As
a mark of his status, on August 6, 1824, William Ellison was the first free person
of color to install a family bench on the first floor of the church, which was
usually reserved for wealthy white families who could afford to pay for a bench

(and donate to the church).[13]

Ellison and his family established a family cemetery on their plantation. [5] Based
on transcriptions of the gravestones, his wife and three generations of
descendants, including his sons and their wives, were buried on this property.

Family burials took place in the early decades of the twentieth century. [5]

In 1852, Ellison bought Keith Hill and Hickory Hill plantations, bringing his total of
land holdings to more than 1,000 acres (400 ha). He gave each of his sons part of

the properties, as they were all working with him in his business. [5] In 1850 the
sons each held slave women who worked as domestic servants for their families.
[7]
After the outbreak of the American Civil War, in 1861 Ellison offered labor from
his 53 slaves to the Confederate Army. He converted his cotton plantation to
mixed crops to supply food to the cause. His sons also supported the

Confederacy and tried to enlist, but were refused because of their race. [14][15] They
donated money, and bought Confederate bonds; with defeat, these bonds
became worthless and they lost their investments, becoming destitute by the end
of the war like many formerly successful whites.

William Ellison's daughter, Eliza Ann's, second marriage was to James M

Johnson. Her first marriage was to Willis Buckner, an African American man, and
produced one son, John Wilson Buckner (born 1831, the same year as the death
of his father). John W Buckner served in the Civil War, Confederate Army, 7th
Battalion Nelson's Enfield Rifles Company E South Carolina Infantry and, after the
conclusion of the War, was a long time employee of his uncle, Henry Ellison.
John W Buckner first married Jane "Jinsy" Pitts in 1856, but later married Sarah

Oxendine on June 10, 1861.[5][16]

At his death, Ellison provided for dividing his property, including over 60 slaves,
among his surviving daughter Maria and two surviving sons. He bequeathed $500

to a slave daughter he had sold.[5] There are differing views on who Willis and
John Wilson Buckner were married to and their relationship to Ellison. Ellison
family lore states that John Wilson Buckner was the grandson of Ellison. On
March 27, 1863, John Wilson Buckner, William Ellison's oldest grandson, enlisted

in the 1st South Carolina Artillery.[17]

See also[edit]

● List of slaves
● List of slave owners
 ● Black slave owners in the United States

References[edit]

● ^ EbonyRose. "Did Black People Own Slaves?". AfricanAmerica.org. Retrieved

September 6, 2022.
● ^ "The Black Code of Louisiana, 1806". August 25, 2011.
● ^ Twelve Years a Slave: Narrative of Solomon Northup p. 194
● ^ Michael P. Johnson and James L. Roark, Black Masters. A Free Family of Color in the
Old South, New York: Norton, 1984, p. 14, available online as Googlebook
● ^
● Jump up to:
abcdefghi
● Cynthia Ridgeway Parker, "Ellison Family Graveyard" and "William
Ellison", photos and transcriptions, bio of William Ellison, 2009, Rootsweb, accessed
January 14, 2012
● ^ Koger (1985), p. 145
● ^
● Jump up to:
abcd
● Larry Koger, Black Slaveowners: Free Black Slave Masters in South Carolina,
1790-1860, University of South Carolina Press, 1985 (paperback edition, 1995), pp. 144–
145
● ^ Johnson and Rock, Black Masters (1984), p. 15
● ^ Koger (1985), pp. 53-54
● ^ Koger (1985), Black Slaveowners, p. 62
● ^ US Census 1850, Sumter County, South Carolina: William Ellison
● ^ US Census Slave Schedules, 1850, Sumter County, SC: William Ellison
● ^ Johnson and Rock, Black Masters (1984), p. 26
● ^ Koger (1985), Black Slaveowners, p. 190
● ^ Thomas S. Sumter, Stateburg and Its People, Sumter: 1922, pp. 11–12
● ^ "1860 Census Sumter County, South Carolina". Retrieved December 20, 2022.
● ^ "Ellison Family Graveyard, Sumter County, S.C." Retrieved December 20, 2022.

Not Even Past: Social Vulnerability and the Legacy of Redlining

Further reading[edit]

● W. B. Gatewood, Aristocrats of Color: The Black Elite, 1880-1920,

Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1990
● Raymond Logan and Irving Cohen, The American Negro, New York:
Houghton and Mifflin, 1970
● Gary Mills, The Forgotten People, Baton Rouge: University of Louisiana,
1977
● J. Williamson, J. The Crucible of Race: Black-white Relations in the
American South Since Emancipation, New York: Oxford University
Press, 1984.
 ● No Chariot Let Down:"Charleston's Free People of Color on the Eve of
the Civil War" by Michael P.Johnson and James L Roark "New York:
Norton
● Black Masters: A Free Family of Color in the Old South. Michael P.
Johnson and James L Roark "Resources South Carolina Department of
Archives and History","South Carolina Historical Society", "Special
Collections", "College of Charleston", "Southern Historical Collection",
"University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, Charleston Lebary Society,
Baker Library, Harvard university, Yale University Library","Library of
Congress","The Friends Historical Library of Swartmore College","New
York Public Library","Historical Society","Public Archives of
Canada","Archives of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day
Saints","South Carliniana Library","University of South
Carolina","Columbia.And "Family Archives"." Not forgetting person
interview with family members".

External links[edit]

● Cynthia Ridgeway Parker, "Ellison Family Graveyard" and "William

Ellison", photos and transcriptions, bio of William Ellison, 2009,
Rootsweb
● "Plantation Names Near Stateburg", V. 17, in University of South
Carolina, p. 31
● His Find a Grave memorial

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Categories:

1790s births
1861 deaths
18th-century American slaves
 American slave owners
People from Winnsboro, South Carolina
American planters
Free Negroes
People from Stateburg, South Carolina
Black slave owners in the United States
19th-century American slaves
This page was last edited on 27 March 2023, at 12:57 (UTC).
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