Say Their Name

Recently it was leaked that Ben Affleck asked Henry Louis Gates to conceal the fact on "Finding Your Roots" that Afflect had slave holding ancestors in his family tree. Affleck said he was "embarrassed" by this. Some people have criticized him for this. Others have commiserated with him. The thing is, if your American fore-bearers go back to the 18th and even 19th century, chances are some of them were slave holders.

I understand that this may be embarrassing for some. In the course of researching my ancestors, I have run across many embarrassing skeletons in my own  genealogical closet. Life is messy. It is impossible for anyone to have a squeaky clean legacy no matter how much we wish.

My main issue with Affleck's concealment is that by keeping that ancestor's name hidden, he is also keeping the names of the slaves held by his ancestors hidden. Their history is being kept from descendants who may be looking for them.

When "Who Do You Think You Are" aired that Reba McIntire had slave holders in her ancestry, it gave me clues to one of my illusive ancestors. I would never had known this if McIntire had got the producers to keep this embarrassing fact hidden. I haven't had a chance to follow through on that clue yet but because of that broadcast, I now know where to look.

During my years in researching my family, I have been helped personally by descendants of relatives of people who held my ancestors in slavery. I have also been helped by pertinent information posted online by people I will never meet. I wish more people would disclose details about their ancestors, shameful or not.The sins of the father is just that, the sins of the father. That is, unless the son and/or daughter chooses to commit the same sin.

My great grandparents were slaves. I am also the descendant of slave holders. That is my history and I can live with that.

How Far Back Can I Go?

(Prologue -Tapestry of Tangled Ties)

That is the question everyone interested in genealogy ask. It is my desire to go back as far as Africa. I probably need a genie in a bottle to complete that quest. As a Black American, my ancestry is hidden from me in a way that is not hidden from other Americans. Since my ancestors were slaves, their names were not on the census before 1870. It is not impossible to go back farther if I can identify the slave owners but that is difficult too. Many slaves wanted to distance themselves from their lives as property. They changed their names. They didn’t talk much about that time with their innocent descendants. White descendants of slave owners are also unwilling to share that part of their family history.

However, once the slave owners are identified, it is possible to find records on file because slaves were part of a financial transaction, as heinous as that is. I have the receipt of the purchase of my great-great-great grandfather Solomon Koonce who was sold to Isaac Koonce of Haywood County, Tennessee in January 1840..  I have also deducted that Solomon was owned for a period of time by Francis Nunn who died intestate in Lauderdale County, Tennessee around 1837.

I may be in the minority but I am also interested in my White ancestors. I am the sum of all of my parts. In looking for those ancestors I am learning more about my country’s history and psyche. That is also part of my history—slavery, the Civil War, the American Revolutionary War, the making of a nation. I plan on studying that too, to put my history into the larger context.

I can go back much farther on some of my white ancestors. So far I am able to go back at least 12 generations. I have found the link between me and one of my favorite writers, Jane Austen and even closer, the link between my family and Reba McEntire. This is exciting to me. I am not ashamed at embracing all my of heritage because I do not deny my ancestry regardless of color or nationality.

This is what I attempt to do in updating my family history. The surnames that I will be following are Koonce, Warren, Featherston, Cotten, Alexander, Brassfield,  Tarpley, Elmore, Alexander, Saunders, and Wright. There may be more as I learn more. I will also research the locations where they lived--Virginia, Tennessee, Mississippi and maybe others as I learn of them. Hopefully, one of those locations will be somewhere specific on the continent of Africa.

Chasing Ancestors

I read some advice just in the past week that when researching Black ancestors, one should concentrate on one line. This advice was given because of the unique circumstances we face in trying to figure out who our ancestors are. I fundamentally disagree.

I've been researching now for 15 years. Sometimes I get so frustrated with the lack of results that I take a break. I take a break but I never quit and one of the things that keeps me going is that when I end up on a dead-end street for one line, another line still has many avenues I can explore. Finding even the most minute detail that had been hitherto hidden is enough to keep my genealogy juices pumping.

This is what has got me going right now. I always knew that I descended from Brassfields but very little else. My grandmother's mother, whose portrait hangs in my mother's home, is Lizzie Brassfield. Her father was D. Brassfield. Whenever I would try to find more about him I would get stymied by bad transcription. He had an unusual name. Now you would think that would make it easier to find him. Unfortunately not. When  20th century transcribers look at his name written in that archaic handwriting, they come up with modern names and that makes him hard to find in a search. I have looked at the original documents and see Domic or Danic. The transcribers on ancestry.com see David. This is the name picked up by familysearch.com. But I digress.

Since watching Who Do You Think You Are and its episode about Reba McEntire, I have been more curious about Grandpa D. Using information from tngenweb.org I think George Simpson Brassfield of Gibson County, Tennessee was his last slave owner.  Looking at the slave census for 1860, there is a male slave who is the right age for D living on George's farm. I have also found out that George's step-father had a larger farm with three times more slaves during 1850 and 1860 than George.  And the trail doesn't end there. I'm finding a trove of information about George that may eventually lead me to Grandpa D's origin.

So now I am energized once more. I feel like I'm one of those celebrities on WDYTYA except I am the one doing all the hard work and making the wonderful discoveries. And that feels good.

Things I learned on my road trip

I'm home. My trip was relaxing, fruitful, hot. I'm glad I went but I didn't accomplish as much as I hoped.

We stayed in a very nice hotel in the Brentwood neighborhood of Nashville. We got a very good deal. Tip #1- The research is the priority, even over good hotel deals. Everything else is secondary. Tip #2 - if you can, stay closer to the libraries even if it may cost more. Traffic takes away time you can use in the library. Also, if you're with someone, you don't have to depend on them for transportation. They can leave or you can leave on your own time schedule.

From Nashville we went to Jackson, TN. My ancestors come from this area. At the Crockett County library I found a will for Joshua Nunn for 1831. This Joshua was Francis' brother and David's father. David Nunn was the administrator of Francis estate and the executor of Joshua's. He was also the brother-in-law of Isaac Koonce, the last slave owner of Solomon.

On this will is listed many of the same names of slaves found on the inventory of Francis' estates. Joshua died in North Carolina. In 1830, Francis bought land (over 1000 acres) in a part of Dyer County that became Lauderdale County. I think Francis may have acquired some of Joshua's slaves from his nieces and nephews for his land. One of the slaves name was unique-Britton. That's what made me think this. One of the other slave is named Sall. I think this may be Solomon. It's a leap, I know, but it makes sense to me.

Tip #3 - It sucks when the persons you're looking at have no heirs. Heirs want to know their heritage. Without them the trail goes cold. Isaac Koonce had no heirs. This Francis Nunn had no heirs. It is more difficult to find background information concerning their lives but I trudge on. It also makes me work harder to leave information for future generations.

A Little Detective Work

I didn't make any real resolutions for this year but in my mind I vowed to figure out more of my ancestry. The year is nearly half over and I'm still chipping away at that brick wall.

I'm so glad I have this blog to remind me--to remind me of those silent vows, of promises to keep, of avenues to follow. I was rereading some of my entries and found this from a couple of years back.

"Negro boy, Ben, age 14, sold to John Koonce by Abner Green - Jones Co, North Carolina , January 1814

Negro woman, Betty age 20 from George Mitchell to John Koonce - March 1808, North Carolina

Gorge and Hanah from John Koonce to son Isaac Koonce, Jones Co, NC December 1822

Elijah, age 20, sold to Isaac Koonce in Haywood Co TN (not Transcribed) 1829

Mariah, age 12 – to Isaac Koonce from Alfred Kennedy, Haywood Co, TN - August 1832."

I don't even remember receiving this information let alone writing about it. This was given to me by a relative of Isaac Koonce along with the receipt of the sale of Solomon. It is possible that this holds important clues to Amy, my great-great-great grandmother. Here is how I break it down.

Isaac Koonce came to Haywood County, Tennessee in 1828 with brother-in-law David Augustus Nunn. Along with David's brother John (Jack) Nunn and uncle Francis (Frank) Nunn, they settled into western Tennessee. All of the North Carolina natives came with slaves. Isaac only had a few. Two of them, George and Hannah, were gifts from his father John Koonce.

On the 1830 Haywood census, Isaac claimed six slaves--three males and three females. The three males were between the ages 10 to 23. Two of the females were of those ages with one being younger than 10. Looking at the information given me, I deduce that the two adult slaves were George and Hannah and that the child was probably their daughter. Also, Elijah was one of the male slaves.

On the 1840 census,Isaac Koonce still has 6 slaves, but only two males. One male is under 24 to 10. I thinks this is Solomon who he just bought in 1839. The other male is between 24 and 35. This is either Elijah or George. I speculate that it is George because he was a gift but I know this is just speculation. Something may have happened to one of the men and that is why he bought Solomon. Of the four female slaves, two are under 10, one is between 10 and 24, and one is between 24 and 35. Isaac bought 12-year old Mariah in 1832. Is she the one between 10 and 24? I deduce that the one between 24 and 35 is Hannah. The two under 10 are possibly her daughters.

Jumping to the 1850 census slave schedule, Isaac now owns eight slaves. One was a male, 23 years old. That would be the right age for Solomon. There was also a 38 year old male (George?), a 40 year old female(Hannah?), a 28 year old female(Mariah?), and an 18 year old female. I think that the 18-year old may be the elusive Amy, mother to Solomon’s first set of children. There were also a twelve, a nine and a two year old female slave. If the 18 year old female is Amy, then she could have been one of the slaves under 10 on the 1840 census. I don't think she is the 28 year old female because Amy's oldest daughter was born around 1849. Twenty-eight is kind of old during this time to bear your first child. The 2 year old female is probably Mosella.

On the 1860 slave schedule, Isaac now has twelve slaves. There is now only one male who has to be Solomon at 35 years old. The 48 year old woman is probably Hannah. Here comes the tricky part. There is a 32 yr. old female and a 22 yr. old female who is designated a mulatto, the only one of the slaves that is so. I know that the ages are usually inaccurate and change from census to census. Amy is definitely there. She has born at least two more children--James, my great great grandfather that correlates with one of the nine year old males on the census, and Solomon Jr. who correlates with the 6 year old male. The 12 year old female has to be Mosella. So which one is Amy? Is Mariah still there? Is she the 32 year old? Is Amy the 22 year old? One oral legend says she is part Cherokee. Could she be called mulatto because of this?

I do plan on going to Tennessee this summer. Haywood County is a must see stop now to see if there are any records that corroborate any of my conclusions.

Slavery - Can We Talk?

I just read a blog by Luckie Daniels, Our Georgia Roots that got me to writing. It is a subject that I have thought a lot of about as I research. Luckie asks the question Could we be desensitized to slavery?

My maiden name is Cotten. When I was younger, some would call me "cotton picker." I hated it. Other than that, the subject of slavery didn't bother me. It was a fact of life, my ancestry. Besides, it was very far away. It didn't touch me.

Now, though, I am fascinated by the subject and the history of the Civil War. I know it is because of my addiction to genealogy. I now know that some of my great grandparents were slaves. My grandparents who I knew very well were just one generation away from slavery. I want to know all I can about them and my ancestors. It is frustrating that I can't find more out because of the institution. Slavery is a taboo subject for many slave and slave owner descendants. It prevents the sharing of information because of some subliminal guilt and resentment held on both sides.

So my answer to Luckie's question is no, most people aren't desensitized to slavery. I wish they were. Yes, slavery was evil but it is on a long list of the inhumane, evil things people have done and still do throughout history. If we could become desensitized to the subject of slavery, there would be no old wounds that need healing. If we could respect each other as part of the one family of man, then we could have objective discussions on so many levels. But I'm not holding my breath for that to happen soon.

I am desensitized. Just give me the information I am searching for. I don't hold you accountable for what your great-great-great-granddaddy did to my great-great-great grandma. I don't blame you. I want just the facts, thank you very much.

Genealogy Rule Number One - Never Assume

I keep getting reminded of this rule all the time in one way or another. I assumed that my g-g-g-grandfather couldn't be a slave captured from Liberia. While I haven't corroborated this--it is stated on the census that his birthplace is Virginia--I did find out that there were native Africans on the land before it was usurped for the imported freed slaves. There was naturally a lot of tension between the natives and the "Americo-Liberians." The Americo-Liberians were always considered foreigners not citizens by the natives. Liberia was even used as a temporary shelter by Americans for re-captured slaves for a while. So it is possible that maybe John's father did come from the land renamed Liberia. I know that his son, my great grandfather was very dark.

Then about Catherine being an east Indian--it is possible. I followed the lead of fellow blogger Miriam and googled east Indians as slaves. To my surprise, I found that east Indians were part of that melting pot that made up Jamestown in the 1600's. According to Francis C. Assisi (I don't know if that's his real name or his pen name) in an article for the India Currents, east Indians were brought to US shores as indentured servants and slaves first by the Dutch and then the French, the English and lastly the American captains. So it is possible that Catherine was part east Indian.

So I am reminded once again, don't jump to conclusions or make general assumptions. Research, corroborate, and verify.

Back to the Beginning

When I first started my research, I built it on oral legends and previous research. My aunt was told that Solomon was sold to Isaac Koonce when he was 19 years old. Some places say he was born in 1822 and others say he was born in 1826. According to the 1870 census, his birth year was around 1828. The following census, however, claim 1826. This is important because I'm trying to find him and Amy on the slave census.

I know that he was sold to Isaac Koonce in 1839. On the 1840 slave census for Haywood County, Tennessee, Isaac owns 6 slaves - one male between 10 and 24, one male between 25 and 35, two females under 10, one female between 10 and 25 and one between 25 and 35.

On the 1850 census slave schedule for Haywood County, Isaac Koonce owned eight slaves. One was a male, 23 years old. Is that Solomon? There was also a 38 year old male, a 40 year old female, a 28 year old female, and an 18 year old female. I'm not sure if Amy is the older or younger of the females. There were also a twelve, a nine and two year old female slaves.

On the 1860 slave schedule Isaac owned 12 slaves. There were five adults and seven children. One was designated as a mulatto while the others were listed as black. The ages don’t match the 1850 schedule. There is now a 48 year old female, a 35 year old male, who I believe is Solomon, a 32 year old female who I believe is Amy, a 22 year old female mulatto, and an 18 year old female. The children range in age from one to 12. Three of the children correspond with the ages of Solomon’s oldest children.

I have to remind myself that back in those days, people weren't so concerned with accuracy. It's just another hindrance in finding ancestors.

Back to Work

It's been a while. My computer crashed making it difficult for me to write and research at home. So I took one of those breaks that I need from time to time. But I'm ready to get back to work now.
This has been the perfect week. School has been out for a week due to flooding. No, I don't live in Texas. Northwest Indiana and the Chicago area got more rain than Texas from Hurricane Ike.
So I finally sat down and started searching. Maybe it's because I'm coming back to the research cold but some data popped out at me that hadn't before. I'm still on this search for my great-great-great-great grandmother. We were told her name was Amy and that she was Cherokee. We were also told she birthed Solomon Kooonce's first children.

I have already written about an Amy Nunn living on one side of Mosella Koonce Dodson while Solomon lived on the other side. This is on the 1870 census. Amy is married to Mose Nunn who is 61 on that census. She is 47 making her birth year around 1823.

On the 1880 census, she and her husband have only aged five years making the true birth year questionable. Now it would put her birth year around 1828.

There is an "Ammie" Nunn living with Mosella's family in 1900. Mosella has now passed away. Ammie's status is that of grandmother not mother to Joe Dodson, Mosella's widower. Her birth year is 1819. However, it is stated that Ammie was born in North Carolina just like Amy Nunn of 1823, 1828.

So is this a stretch? What keeps popping out at me is that Amy's first child with Solomon is named Mosella and her last is named Mose. Amy is married to Mose Nunn. It was not uncommon for slaves to be forced to reproduce for the slaveowners regardless of their affections or the lack of them. Could this be the case with Amy and Solomon and why she disappears after emancipation? That she went back to her first love-Mose Nunn?

I wanted so bad to travel this summer to find out more about these theories but lack of money and time hindered me. It's times like these that I miss talking to Adrene about the "what if's" and wish that I had some relative who was just as interested as me in these dusty trails.

Conversations I wish I could have with dead people

This is not an original thought. I saw this on a blog some weeks ago. And I'm sure every one into genealogy wishes they could sit down with a few dead people and ask some questions.

I wish I could ask my great grandmother Katie Featherston why she named my uncle "Ester." I met my uncle Ester. I remember him as a round, pleasant man with a bright complexion. I was just a child and I never thought anything about him having a girl's name. But I do now. What was Katie thinking? All her other children had nice common names like my grandfather Freddie so I'm thinking there was a purpose to it. Did she want a girl and got my uncle instead?

I wish I could talk to Charles Featherston and find out if he loved Matilda and her children. Did the rest of the family know about them? Was he ostracized because of he was white and she was a former slave or was it accepted?

And of course great-great-great-Amy and Solomon Koonce would be special guests of my interrogation. I would finally find out who she was and what happened to her. And while I had them, I would ask about their parents too and if they were born in America or Africa.

Wouldn't it be great if the television execs could produce "Ghost Whisperers--the Genealogy Edition." It would be a hit. People would be clamoring to be on the show to solve all their genealogy mysteries.

Dead Ends

I checked the slave census for Mississippi. According to the censuses, my Cotten family can't have been slaves on any Cain family farm in Amite or Franklin county. So I'm back to square one.

It may be as simple as was the case for many emancipated slaves--Winnie first took the name of her last slave owner, Anderson. The Andersons had very large plantations in Amite and numerous slaves. I will check the Amite records when I visit Mississippi. At least the Amite County court records weren't burned like Pike County's.

The other dead end is the trail of my great-great-great grandmother Amy. After a quick look at the Cherokee history, I found out there is practically no way Amy could have been a full-blooded Cherokee. It is true that there was a large presence of Cherokees in North Carolina and Tennessee where my Koonce relatives lived, so it is possible she could have been part Cherokee. However, enslaving tribal natives proved to be so dangerous that America stopped doing it by the 1820's. There is only a slight chance that Amy was full-blooded Cherokee since she was probably born in the 1820's.

I was wondering if her heritage had anything to do with the absence of her stories in our family's oral legend. This tangent deserves more research. I am finding out that there is a strange relationship between Cherokees and slavery. I wasn't aware of how many slaves were owned by native Americans until I watched the African American Lives 2. The documentary traced actor Don Cheadle's ancestors back to slaves owned by native Americans. It also stated that many black Americans claim to be "part Indian" but actually aren't.

At an early age I was told that I was part Indian and part Irish. Being young, I just accepted it as a fact. Now, as I research my history more, I question the possibilities. It could be true but I need proof.

Mysteries to Solve

I haven't been able to make much headway into finding my great-great-great-grandma Amy. I've been rereading a lot of material that I inherited from my aunt. I found something I missed from my first perusal. According to the oral legend, she was supposed to be a full-blooded Cherokee.

I don't know why I feel she abandoned her family. She could have died right after the Civil War. It's the absence of stories about her that makes me think she decided not to stay with Solomon.

I am also trying to find out more about my Cotten line. I want to know why they changed their name from Anderson to Cotten. Knowing why will make it easier to trace the family. I now have a new theory to disprove.

My great-grandfather Napoleon Cotten had a brother who chose the surname Cain. After googling the name Cain in the Mississippi archive, I came up with several families in Amite County, the same county where my family lived in 1870. Here's an excerpt from Cain, a book by Mildred and Margaret Ezell which I found interesting.

"Descendants of Isaiah and Polly (Butler) Cain: 1) Mary B. Cain, b 21 Nov. 1822 Amit. Co., d 8 Sep 1843, bur Zion Hill Cem., Amite Co.; m 5 Mar 1840 (Amite 3-81 by T W Pound J.P., George W. Carmack bondsman) Joseph Robertson Cotten, b 7 July 1818, d 17 Mch 1885, bur Cotten Cem., Fr. Co. MS (S32 T5 R5)."

Joseph and Mary had one daughter. Mary died young and Joseph remarried. Isaiah and Polly (sometimes called Mary too) raised Mary's daughter Mary Cotten, not Joseph. Joseph is also the father of Thomas Cotten by his second wife. This is the very same Thomas that lived next door to Ammon Cotten, Napoleon's son, on the 1900 Pike County census. Both Thomas and Ammon listed their profession as merchants. I found that too much of a coincidence. That was why I first thought Joseph was the slave owner of Winnie and her children. There had to be contact between the two families because of Mary Cotten.

In addition, I found a white Hiram Cain and a white Elizabeth Cain and a white Napoleon Whittington, a Cain cousin all in that family group in Amite County. These were my family's names too. I know that doesn't mean much by itself. These names could have been very popular during this time. But it has made me think about checking in a whole new direction.

What if my gr-gr-gr-grandmother Winnie and her children were originally on the Cain plantation? What if Winnie married someone named Anderson and he was not the father of her children? What if they were befriended by the Cottens after the Civil War? I know these are a lot of "what ifs." Hopefully, by following these "ifs" I will run across more family members and the answers to some of the mysteries.

Mutts and Cousins

My local genealogy club met Saturday. It was exciting to see all those people interested in tracing their roots. I don't know what is more intriguing--the people who have been researching for over 20 years or the ones just beginning.

Genealogy can easily become an obsession. All it took for me was finding my grandmother as a little child on a soundex card. I didn't know what I was doing. I had no one guiding me. It was serendipity that I even found her name. But when I saw her name, her age, her grandparents name (she was an orphan), it gave me such a rush. The thrill that I felt when I saw the document where my grandmother Posie's great-grandfather Solomon was sold to the slave owner was no more nor less than that first rush.

Back to the club meeting. I was struck by the various degrees of hostility toward ancestors that are white. My club is all Black and as far as we know, all descendants of slaves. One woman was very proud that she could not trace her line back to whites--so far. Another woman cried at the injustice of bigotry and cruelty that happened to her ancestors centuries ago.

It makes me wonder why I am so far removed emotionally. Could it be because I was told all my life about my mixed heritage? I am not ashamed that my ancestors were slaves. It was not their fault. I am proud that they were able to survive. I don't give a thought to the fact that my great-grandfather was a corporal in the Confederate army. I am guilty, however, of romanticizing his relationship with my great-grandmother even though I know it could not have been easy nor pretty. Mostly I just think that the whole world is full of mutts.

The Holy Grail

I am so excited! I received an email from someone who had the actual receipt naming my great-great-great grandfather.

Now that may sound strange to someone who is mired in guilt or shame or anger. Slavery is a fact of my history just like the fact that some of my ancestors were slave owners. It happened. I am here. Now I just want to learn as much as I can about all of my ancestors.

I was thrilled to see the actual document. It states:

"Received of Isaac Koonce five hundred and thirty one dollars for boy Solomon purchased from Nunn’s estate & I am to give a bill of sale for ____ boy.

January 6, 18?? Sheppard M. Ashe "

The date is marked over. It looks like it was first written 1839 and then changed to 40. After looking at abstracts from the 1840's, I determined the date to be 1840. This is mostly due to finding Sheppard M. Ashe on these other abstracts and that it fits Solomon's oral history.

I've been pouring over other data online and off. Years ago, a fellow genealogy hobbyist and distant relative of Isaac Koonce gifted me with a family history book named "Nunns of the South." It was written decades ago and is very hard to follow but it does mention Isaac Koonce and David Nunn several times. I was hoping to find the Nunn whose estate Solomon came from. No luck so far.

And in addition to this bill of sale, the wonderful lady also has bills of receipt for other slaves of Isaac. They are:

"Negro boy, Ben, age 14, sold to John Koonce by Abner Green - Jones Co, North Carolina , January 1814

Negro woman, Betty age 20 from George Mitchell to John Koonce - March 1808, North Carolina

Gorge and Hanah from John Koonce to son Isaac Koonce, Jones Co, NC December 1822

Elijah, age 20, sold to Isaac Koonce in Haywood Co TN (not Transcribed) 1829

Mariah, age 12 – to Isaac Koonce from Alfred Kennedy, Haywood Co, TN - August 1832."

I tried very hard to save the document as a gif or jpg so I could upload it but my computer wouldn't let me. As soon as I can (printer issues), I am going to scan the documents and put it on my blog as well as on my family history page, Say My Name.

I received all of this late Friday. Some of my giddiness has died down, but not much. It has inspired me to keep on searching.

Looking for the Paper Trails of Slavery

I went through the material my aunt had gathered during her research. She shared much of the information verbally with me but not the documents. Unfortunately, she passed away four years ago due to complications from diabetes. I claimed her documents since she always promised them to me.

One thing that she never found during all her hard work was a paper trail about Solomon Koonce while he was a slave. There is a lot of oral history. He was supposedly sold at 19 to Isaac Koonce, a farmer in Haywood County, Tennessee. We do have anecdote about Isaac's brother-in-law David Nunn buying or receiving slaves for unpaid debts in North Carolina and transporting them to Tennessee. My aunt Adrene believed that Solomon was one of those slaves.

I am more of the mind that Solomon was inherited or sold after being inherited. Of course, I have no proof. It's just a hunch. We're not sure when he was born. The sources purport his birth to be anywhere from 1822 to 1828. The year 1828 is when Nunn and Isaac came to Tennessee from North Carolina so they probably didn't bring him during the move. If he was born in 1822, he would have been 19 around 1841. Between 1841 and 1842, an aunt of Nunn died. She didn't have any children so her property went to her nieces and nephew. Some of her property were human and she was from North Carolina. I'm going to follow this trail and see if I can find documents with names or at least ages that coincide with Solomon.