Great Divides

I can’t help thinking that you can tell a lot about how people lived by what they left behind. I bring this up because I was recently reading through the inventory of my great-great-great grandfather’s estate, Peter Gullatt. He was a farmer in Lincoln County, Georgia and died in 1848.

As I look over the first page of the estate inventory; two jars - $1.25, one candlestick - 20 cents, one yellow mare - $25, it quickly becomes apparent how great the divide is between 1848 and 2005. I doubt anyone’s estate these day includes two plastic bins and one light bulb. It's obvious they had so little that even a single candle meant something. Today, we all have so much that itemizing every detail would seem ridiculous. However, I’m not sure who is better off – those who have so much that almost nothing has value, or those who have so little that everything has value.

The second page of his estate is much more troubling – Negro Woman Easter - $00 … Negro Woman Sealy - $150… Negro Man Jim - $300… Negro Girl Aura - $400… Negro Boy Marshall - $200. The list goes on totaling fifteen. These individuals were itemized like chattel and then divvied up among the relatives in drawing process that reads like a raffle. It’s really appalling. But for a moment, looking beyond the bigger issue of one man owning another, I’m struck by the values assigned to each person. Why did Easter have no value? Was she old and feeble? And why did one girl Aura have a value of $400 and another, Maryann, only rate $200? Was Aura older and a better worker? Was she prettier? Was she of childbearing age and therefore able to produce more slaves? I'm sure I'll never know the answer to these questions and might not like it if I did.

Of course, the much bigger issue here is not the value of the slaves, but the fact that someone, specifically my relatives, did put value on another human being. It’s not like watching “Roots” on television and being somewhat detached from it. These are my blood relatives and they owned other people. I can't justify their actions, but I do try to look at it in the greater context of the time. Right or wrong, it was common for farmers, especially cotton farmers like Peter, to own slaves. It was just a fact of life. As a very young blacksmith in Virginia, Peter had indentured two slaves for George Washington (yes, that George Washington) to teach them “the art and trade of Blacksmith” (Peter even named one of his children George Washington Gullatt after our first president). Today, we all know it is wrong to trade in human flesh, but at least Peter had the company of men like George Washington and Thomas Jefferson. It doesn’t make it right, but when great men like our country's forefathers make mistakes like this, it makes it easier for me to understand the errors of the family that preceded me.

Story ID:	32
Written by:	Scott R. Lupo (bio, contact, other stories)
Organization:	OurEcho
Story type:	Story
Location:	Lincoln County Georgia USA
Year:	1848
Person:	Peter Gullatt