Marvin Humes Shocking Slave Owner History | Who Do You Think You Are

Marvin has agreed to meet again with Dockery, who used to work the land there, you're your man Jana to show me where it's comfortable, yeah, that one, yeah, a bumpy road, yeah, turn left left here, turn left left here, man, these are the doors. of Comfort Hall, yes, yes, this is it here Mr. Unka, you found out that my three times great grandfather, John B. Williams, owned this land in 1874, yes, and it was 20 acres, so how big is it? comfortable? Now the purchase was wrong Eureka 80 mmm oh Yes, four times the amount, it is still in the Williams family today.

Yes, it is all, yes, and it is still used for any agriculture or not. It's not good here, so it used to be in a long time ago. Yes, people just come with good food. Come on, hmmm, they treat me, I'll take care of it, so they're dead, oh yeah, it seems like a shame to have such amazing land and it's not being used to its full potential. It's a little bittersweet being here. Not yet I don't know how John came to acquire this place, who knows what he would have had to go through to own this and he just feels it's a waste.

It would be nice to know how John B Williams came to own Comfort Hall Marvin. he has arrived at st. John's Church, a couple of miles from Comfort Hall, to meet historian Suzanne Frances Brown Suzanne a certain Marvin - all is well - Suzanne my three times great grandfather john brown williams owned land not far from here in Comfort Hall I'm trying to find out as much as I can about him so we can get a baptism record which I

think

will help. Well, I can take a look at it. Oh yeah. John Brown was born on January 2, 1839.

His father was also John Williams. Yes, the same name and his mother. Emily Williams, they would have been my four great-grandparents, it's incredible that he was baptized by James Dawson James Dawson, who was rector of this church of st. John, no way, yes, so he was baptized in this church, he was baptized in this church really. Wow, so you can see at home how long this church has been here, how cool it is that a so-called man and feel comfortable and still feel comfortable in the family. since at least 1839, that's great, but 1839 would have been five years since the abolition of

slave

ry in 1834.

How common would it have been for a black man like John Williams to own land like Comfort Hall. At the end of

slave

ry, you do have property. they were divided into some areas and people who bought land, people made money during slavery and people had plots that they could work on and they could take excess food to the market, they could do craft work and they could sell it at the market, but one thing to also keep in mind is that not all black people were enslaved for over 150 years. The British transported African slaves to Jamaica.

More than 700,000 slaves were forced under threat of death to work on British plantations, but there were also free blacks in Jamaica. people who managed to escape slavery while they had been freed by their masters as a reward for service or in exchange for money After slavery was abolished in 1834, many of Jamaica's blacks purchased land, including Marvin's four great-grandfathers, John and Emily. Williams takes a look at this document recording sodomized marriages in the parish of st. John 1828 December 28 John Williams and Emily Brown were married by James Dawson rector in this church no way yes, so my four times great grandfather John Williams and his wife Emily Brown were married in this room of this church, it is very church , so they were reasonable men, they were parishioners of st.

John's Church, most likely not actually there in 1828, could be Free People even before abolition or emancipation. Amazing, you know, not my favorite person in Jamaica, that's amazing, okay, so we have a little bit more about Emily, really yeah, about your my. baptism record of four times great-grandmother Emily Brown, there you go, baptized on November 30, 1828 and color Samba, which seems like not a nice word to describe, yes, so there was a whole range of descriptions that were given to matters of color hmm, you had someone who was fainting someone who was white hmm if they had a child that child would be called mulatto I would have been half mulatto yes of course yes and mulatto is actually a word that comes from the Spanish word for mule right so a horse and a donkey you get a mule it's not nice that's basically what it comes from no Emily Perón is classified as a sample at that time basically what it meant was that she was the daughter of a mulatto and a black so she is one-fourth white, so I'm right to the To

think

that a relationship between a white man and a black woman in eighteen years would have been, you know, it's not normal, it's not the way you would have a relationship now with a woman in a less powerful position.

If you want, they took advantage of whether that was rape or not rape in this district by a white man. I have one more record for you, okay, John Williams,

owner

of Comfort Hall dated September 28, 1835, received £53 and three. shillings and three shillings for two people, so in the 1830s, after abolition, the British government gave people who owned slaves compensation of 20 million pounds. His four-times-great-grandfather receives compensation of £53 3s for two people who were enslaved. on his property comfortably, well, then you're saying that John Williams was a state master in a kind of white person in Jamaica and the big land

owner

s weren't the only people who owned slaves.

Well, then we know, of course, that John was a black man and now you are informing me that he had two slaves wow this has taken a turn it is not simple it is a very complicated life there is no doubt it never crossed my mind that my four Sometimes my great-grandfather would have been a slave owner. I didn't even know black people had slaves. I'd like to think that the fact that my four times great-grandfather was a black man who was a free man would have done that too. I would like to think that he would have treated them with respect and treated them like human beings and not animals.

It would be great to go back even further and find out if I can get some information on John Williams' parents and Emily Brown's parents.