In Search of Nat, enslaved by James Addison Green and Josiah Woodliff of Forsyth County, Georgia
Post by Mark Auslander and Rev. Avis Williams
We continue to be fascinated by the stories of African Americans victimized by the violent racial cleansing of Forsyth County, Georgia, in 1912. In 1870, Buck Daniel (William B.F. Daniel), the future father of Oscar Daniel, who was unjustly executed for murder in September 1912, resided adjacent to the former enslaver Josiah Woodliff (Woodlief), 1823-1877. We’re hoping to trace the enslaved people owned by Josiah Woodliff and develop an understanding of what befell them and their descendants in 1912 and beyond.
The Deed records of Forsyth County, Georgia record that on 31 December 1649, James Addison Green, 1816-1896, sold to his brother-in-law Josiah Woodliff the enslaved man “Nat,: 18 years old, a “slave for life” for $750. Nat, the deed states, is “of dark complexion [and] five feet six Inches high.” (Deed of sale between James A. Green and Josiah H Woodliff for the sale of Nat, a slave for life, recorded in Forsyth County, 1849. File II Counties and Subjects, RG 4-2-46.)
Slave sale for Nat, 31 December 1849, Forsyth County, Georgia
Where did Nat come from and what subsequently became of him?
We do not currently see any reference to Nat prior to this sale record. The enslaver James Addison Green, who sold Nat in 1849, had married Nancy Jane Woodliff, the daughter of George Franklin Woodliff, on 13 October 1840 in Forsyth County. (The 1840 census does not list James; that year he may have been residing in the household of his father Curtis Green, who owned one slave, in “Allen” in Forsyth County.) James was appointed Postmaster of Hartford in Forsyth County on 5 June 1846, so it is possible that Nat was held in bondage there.
The year after Nat was purchased from James Addison Green, the 1850 Slave Schedule records the buyer Josiah Woodliff as owning three slaves, among them a 19 year old male, who must be Nat. (Slave schedules do not list the names of enslaved persons, so we must infer their identities from other sources). A decade later, the 1860 slave schedule for Josiah Woodliff lists a 25 year old male, who may be Nat or perhaps someone else.
George Franklin Woodliff and his wives Isabella and Sarah Elizabeth, and George’s son Josiah Woodliff and his wife Mary J, are all buried in Mount Zion Cemetery (Oscarville) along Hwy 369 (Brown’s Bridge Road )in northeastern Forsyth County. It may be that some of the enslaved people owned by the Woodliffs are interred in this cemetery as well.
Nat or Nathaniel post-Emancipation
Two years after Emancipation, the 4 July 1867 Return of Qualified Voters for Precinct 885 in Forsyth County records Nathaniel Woodliff, age 37, that is to say born around 1830, which is consistent with the age of the enslaved man Nat mentioned in the 1849 slave sale. It is possible that Nathaniel took on the surname Woodliff at the time of Emancipation, or it is possible that he had a longer standing connection with the Woodliff surname, prior to being purchased by Josiah Woodliff. It is possible, for example, that he had been owned by George Franklin Woodliff, 1787-1849, the father of Josiah and his sister Nancy Jane Woodliff. As noted, Nancy Jane Woodliff married James Addison Green on 15 October 1840. Perhaps Nat was a wedding gift to the newly married couple from Nancy Jane’s father. (Alternately, James Green may have acquired Nat in a different manner).
In any event, three years later, the 1870 census records Nathaniel Woodliff working as a farm laborer, residing in Gainesville, the county seat of adjacent Hall County, due east of Forsyth County, immediately across the Chatahoochee River. He is married to Milly Woodliff, with sons John O. (13 years old), Tichnor H, 10, Burgess, 9, Hosea, 3, and daughters Nancy E, 6, and Sarah V, 4. Of these all but Hosea and Sarah must have been born in slavery. Also living in the household is 19 year old Amanda Cowan, who might be a kinswoman of Nathaniel and Milly, and Amanda’s two year old daughter Adaline
The family appears to have moved back and forth between Hall and Forsyth counties during the post Civil War era, as Nathaniel evidently labored for different white farmers. The 1873-1877 tax records list Nat in Hall County, worth $45. The 1879-1883 Freedman’s tax rolls records Nat in Browns Bridge hamlet in Chatahoochee District, Forsyth County, with total property of five dollars. The 1884-87 Freedmen’s tax rolls show him in Chestatee District, Forsyth County, with a total property of $15. The 1880 census shows Nat and Milly once again in Gainesville, Hall County, with several new children: Lewis, age 3 and Mary 11 months, as well as their nieces Adeline, age 12 and Julia age 9, which would suggest that these are the daughters of Amanda Cowan, perhaps the sister of either Nathaniel or Milly.
Twenty years later, the 1900 census (there is no surviving 1890 census) records Nathaniel and Milly Woodliff as living in Buford, Gwinnett County, south of Hall County. They are listed as having been married 40 years, that is to say married around 1860, during the slavery era. The 1860 slave schedule for Josiah Woodliff had indicated him owning two adult females, ages 21 and 22, so it is possible that Milly had been owned in that household, and that some or all of the five children owned by Josiah were her offspring.
The 1900 census also records living in the household of Nathaniel and Milly, their younger children, Gus born 1883 and Annie born 1885, as well as three grandchildren. George, Eddie and Babie.
Some members of the family seem to have maintained ties with the New Bridge District, Forsyth County, the area which would become infamous after the violent death of the young white woman Mae Crow in September 1912 helped spark the chain of events that led to terroristic expulsion of all 1,100 Black residents from Forsyth County. Nathaniel’s son Burgess Woodliff married Nettie Brown in Forsyth County on 3 March 1895, and in 1900 was living in the Chestastee District of Forsyth County, Georgia. By 1910, Burgess, Nettie, and their children were living in Oakwood in Hall County. They thus do not appear to have been part of the mass expulsion of African Americans from Forsyth County in 1912.
Possible Relatives of Nat: Ralph and Emily Woodliff?
We are not sure if Nathaniel was related to the family of Ralph “Rafe” and Emily (Emma or Emoline) McCrae Woodliff, who appear to have been part of the 1912 racial cleansing of Forsyth County. Like many Freedmen, this family appears to have moved around the region after Emancipation. In 1870, Ralph and Emily were in Lumpkin County, north of Forsyth. The 1879-1883 tax records for District 880 (Vickery Creek), south of Cumming, the county seat of Forsyth County, record Rafe as worth a total of $117. The 1884-1887 Freedmen’s tax record in District 879 in Cumming show Rafe worth $139. The 1890 tax list in Cumming shows him worth $116. The 1900 census records Ralph and Emily and their children Martha and Oscar in Cumming. In 1910 Ralph and Emily were still in Cumming.
In late 1912, Ralph and Emily appear to have fled from Cumming into Gwinnett County, Georgia, where many Forsyth African Americans sought refuge, and where Nathaniel himself had settled by 1900. I am not sure when and where Ralph died, but his wife, the widowed Emily Woodliff, died “of old age” according to her death certificated on 26 May 1923, in Norcross, Gwinnett County. Her estimated age at death on the certificate was “106,” although her actual age appears to be around 85.
Ralph and Emily’s son Oscar Steve Woodliff resided in Gwinnett County as early as 1907, marrying Georgia Combs. In 1930, Oscar Steve Woodliff was working, like many Black former residents of Forsyth County, in a tannery in Buford, Gwinnett County. He was assigned a social security number in 1937 in Buford. In 1950, Mary Lee Woodliff, the widow of Oscar Steve Woodliff, was working as a maid in the household of the white man Freeman Strickland in Buckhead, in Atlanta, Fulton County, Georgia. Mary appears to have died in Fulton County in July 1992, and was buried in Forest Lawn Cemetery.
Ralph and Emily’s daughter Roxie married Lewis Zachary, on 10 January 1892 in Forsyth County. By 1910 the Zachary’s were living in Shallowford, Dekalb County, so were evidently safely outside of Forsyth County by the time of the expulsion in 1912
Ralph and Emily’s daughter Martha married Edward J Gilliard in 1901 in Forsyth County. By 1920, the Gillard’s were living in Sugar Hill, Gwinnett County. Maria appears to have have lived until June 1963, under the married surname of White.
Incidentally, the 1874-78 Freedmen’s Tax list for Cumming does record a Sampson Woodliff,worth a total of $30. We do not see a subsequent record of him.
We hope subsequent research will cast more light on these Woodliff-descended lines, before and after the 1912 expulsions.