Friday at Auction Finds is readers’ questions day. I try to guide readers to resources for them to determine the value of their items. I’m not able to appraise their treasures, but I can do some preliminary research to get them started. So, these are market values based on prices I find on the web, not appraisal for insurance purposes that I suggest for items that have been determined to be of great value.
Today’s question is about a genealogical search of an African American family in Georgia with the surname Jarrell.
Question:
I decided to Google my surname and came across your online article about the Jarrell plantation in Jones County, GA. From the research that I’ve been able to do, I have learned that my paternal great-grandparents were born in an area of Georgia known as White Plains, which is in Greene County. Also, from what I’ve been able to gather, those two counties aren’t very far from one another. Thus, I found your article about the Jarrell Plantation (with the focus on the slaves) quite interesting.
I don’t really have a lot to say other than I feel that my ancestors probably came from the Jarrell Plantation in Jones County, but I currently have no way of proving that. I noticed that you mentioned a black slave named Reason Jarrell, and maybe I should try to find him on the Census for 1870, and look into descendants.
I’m not sure what to do. Any additional information, and suggestions that you are able to provide will be extremely helpful and appreciated.
Answer:
The reader came across a blog post I wrote more than a year ago after learning about a plantation not far from Macon, GA, while I was visiting my family at Christmas. It had been a modest plantation owned by the Jarrell family and worked by a small number of enslaved Africans.
The land had originally been owned by Creek Indians until the state opened it up to homesteaders like Blake and Zilpha Jarrell, who settled there in the 1820s.
I was happy to hear that the reader was interested in his family’s history. It can be an exciting experience, and it has become a little easier for African Americans to find their ancestors. The research can still be difficult and tedious, especially in the search for family members as slaves.
I’ve only done preliminary work on my family, so I’m not a good resource on how to do it. But I know someone who is. Last year, I wrote a blog post with questions posed to a woman who teaches a class on genealogy. She has spent the last 25 years combing documents and other sources relating to her own family.
I went to her after finding loads of documents, photos, Bibles and diaries of one family’s history at auction. It was so sad to see so much work and so much history just tossed, as if the past didn’t matter and no one cared.
I asked the genealogy researcher to offer suggestions for those who do care enough to want to save their family history. Her response was chock full of resources and guidelines on how to find and chronicle one’s ancestry. The researcher noted that it was difficult to trace family members who were slaves.
As for the reader, I’d recommend that he find a chapter of the Association for the Study of African American Life and History in his city and ask for help. Also, look for sessions or classes on genealogy at the local library or offered by other groups, and locate genealogy organizations in your city and join one of them.
Ancestry.com is a good resource. Sometimes this site – which normally charges a fee – offers free access for a limited period of time.
I would also suggest that the reader check for an historical society in Greene County, Jones County and White Plains that can help or direct him to other resources. Also just spend some time Googling Greene County, Jones County and White Plains along with the search term “Jarrell.”
With that in mind, I decided to Google White Plains and Jarrell, and found mention of a white family with that surname in a short history of the town. Around 1889, when a railroad line was opened, the Jarrell family was so powerful that it persuaded the Georgia Railroad to make a detour to its house. “They needed a stop for their house guests,” according to the town’s history.
Maybe your family was associated with this group of Jarrells, who may or may not be related to the Jarrells of Jones County (that plantation was about 46 miles from White Plains).
Still Googling, I found on ancestry.com a reference to slaves owned by the Jarrells as well as a black Jarrell cemetery in the White Plains area. Cemeteries and headstones are a good place to find people, as long as the headstones are still accessible. Black churches are another resource.
I also came across photos of African Americans in other towns in Greene County, all shot in 1941 by photographer Jack Delano for the Farm Security Administration and are now housed in the Library of Congress. Delano spent some time in Greene County chronicling the lives of African Americans, along with several who had been born in slavery.
None of the few people identified in the photos on the web were named Jarrell, but some of the readers’ family members may have settled in one of those towns. It may be a good idea to go through all of Delano’s photos of Greene County at the Library of Congress.
At some point, you may have to take a trip to White Plains and Greene County.
My husband is a direct descendant of Reason Jarrell who was not a slave but rather the mulatto son of John Fitzgerald Jarrell and a slave named Polly. We just spent the day at the plantation and he was able to connect with the white Jarrell’s it was a really awesome reunion. I hope your reader sees this and can email us.
Hi Kendalyn. I found it interesting that you said Reason was not an enslaved African but the mulatto son of John Fitzgerald Jarrell and a slave woman named Polly. Were Polly and John married and their children considered free? Most of the children “fathered” by white slaveowners were still considered slaves because these men did not see the children as their own. I use the word “fathered” pejoratively. Was Reason somehow treated differently and was listed in the historical records as a family member and not a slave?
I had the opportunity to attend the 2018 Jarrell Family Reunion held at the Jarrell Plantation on Sunday, 14 October 2018. I am not a direct Jarrell descendant but my mother-in-law, Beatrice Jarrell Bittaker, was and was born on the plantation in 1912. She is now deceased along with all her siblings born and raised on the plantation.
My reply is inspired by a presentation given after a wonderful lunch with numerous Jarrell descendants. The presentation was given by Matt Harper, Ph. D., Assistant Professor of History and Africana Studies at Mercer University. The topic was “Uncovering the lives of African-Americans who worked at the Jarrell Plantation” with Reason Jarrell being the primary individual being discussed. I would recommend that you contact Matt Harper at harper_mjz@mercer.edu for a copy of the presentation. The work of he and of his students is very enlightening and paints a very different story of how many others view the days of slavery with respect the treatment of what we refer to today as slaves. I’m not disputing the term, as ugly as it is, but not all slave owners behaved identically.
Reason Jarrell was definitely treated differently by his father and family. John and Polly were never married. Reason was educated at the expense of John Jarrell, supported by his family, and deeded land from the family estate. Rather than detail all the events, I would recommend that you research the family genealogy and substantiate the the findings others have previously discovered. Ancestry.com would be considered an excellent starting point.
Thank you for the opportunity to view your blog post and to comment on the behalf of other Jarrell descendants. As always, there are two sides to every story. I believe that Reason is just beginning to share his.
Darlene Bittaker
Thanks, Darlene. I don’t doubt that there were slaveowners who were not as cruel to their enslaved African as some were. But we can’t use those few to paint slavery as less than it was – a horrid institution that brutalized human beings. We have to be very careful that we don’t rewrite history so those few “generous” slaveowners become the norm. To be honest, anyone who owned another person – whether they treated them well or not – isn’t free from the taint of slavery.
I apologize I just saw this but to answer your question yes Reason was free and he was educated along with John Jarrell other children. I realize that isn’t the normal story however if you visit like we did you will see the records that he ha reason keep after he returned from being educated. I am sure you are well aware that they were not married. Polly from our understanding died free and it was not known if she had other children. He also left his son Reason 80 acres which today has all been taken by the state. This was in the White Plains area.
I am a direct descendant of a RAPE on the Jarrell Plantation. I think it is important to NOT tip-toe around that all too common occurrence just because it’s uncomfortable and unpleasant. Imagine how uncomfortable and unpleasant the rapes were…
“WHAT WE REFER TO TODAY AS SLAVES”.
WHAT?
NO.
There is no such thing as a “good” slaveholder. Period. It is disrespectful, offensive and ignorant to say, “…and paints a very different story of how many others view the days of slavery with respect the treatment of what we refer to today as slaves. I’m not disputing the term, as ugly as it is, but not all slave owners behaved identically.”
Just stop.
NOTE: As a mixed (my father was white), I take offense at the term “mulatto”. I know some still use it, I used it up until 20 years ago when history proved it to be a racial slur in the same vein as the N-word.
I agree slavery was horrible I don’t think that is ever going to be challenged. I was surprised to learn if Reason’s upbringing yet I was also relieved just because you feel a sense of Thank God for one person doesn’t t mean you negate or aren’t angry about the treatment of others. I am also the direct descendant of a rape on a plantation , yet I was still glad to hear that this man took care of his son.
My grandmother is one of the original Jarrell’s that lived on the plantation. Have you been to one of the Jarrell Family reunions that are held every October? Fingers crossed there will be one again this year as the last 2 previous years were cancelled due to Covid.