About Harris, Priscilla 'Nancy' [Cherokee] * [slave]
Wilmore and Nancy lived as man and wife. In 1826, in Hampshire Co, Va, Wilmore filed Nancy’s freedom papers. At some point, Wilmore had purchased Nancy. It is not clear when, from whom, or under what circumstances the purchase was made. If oral tradition, which has been fairly accurate up to this point, is to be believed, Wilmore purchased Nancy from Marquis himself with the stated intention of marrying her. Family genealogies often state that Wilmore and Nancy were “married” in 1784, which would have been legally impossible, given the laws against interracial marriage. If Nancy had a light complexion, it may have been possible for the couple to marry in another county where their identities were unknown, but it is more likely that they simply began living together in the manner of husband and wife around 1784. Wilmore and Nancy’s relationship, as well as the circumstances of their meeting, are impossible to discern. Wilmore could have encountered Nancy, among other places, in town, on the road, at his father’s home, or at the Calmes’ plantation. He could have been drawn to her immediately in a romantic or sexual way, or he could have purchased her with the intention of keeping Nancy as a slave and seen their relationship develop. The possibilities for Nancy’s emotions are equally numerous. Nancy may have loved Wilmore, she may have hated him and had no choice in the matter, or she may have endeavored to use the situation to her advantage. The fact remains that “in the early national and antebellum South, many if not most incidents of interracial sexual intercourse can only be described as rapes.” The language of Nancy’s emancipation provides few clues for determining the nature of her relationship with Wilmore. The document reads, “Be it known to all to whom it may concern that I Wilmore Mail of the county of Hampshire and Commonwealth of Virginia do by those present liberate emancipate and forever set free from and after the day of my death my negroe woman Nancy on condition that she remain with me during my (illegible) life in the quality of my wife. (Illegible) I have hereunto set my hand and affixed my seal this 6th day of May in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and twenty six.” Several contradictions stand out in the emancipation paper. First, the date the emancipation was made seems indicative of the couple’s relationship. By 1826, Wilmore was in his seventies and, for the time period, of a considerable age. The two would have lived together for at most forty-two years and had at least six children together. Why had Wilmore not freed Nancy before? Nancy may have received, for a slave, special treatment while she was with Wilmore but once she received her freedom neither she nor her children had any incentive to remain beyond love for Wilmore and the care he provided for them. If the love and care in the relationship were lacking, Wilmore may have felt that Nancy would leave him the first opportunity that arose once she had been freed. If she left as his slave, he still had legal sway over her and could make efforts to locate and reclaim her. In 1826, Nancy would have been almost as old as Wilmore (pension records put her at about four years his junior), and Wilmore could have considered her less likely to leave her longtime home. Wilmore’s attempt to control Nancy is also apparent in the phrase “on condition that she remain with me during my…life in the quality of my wife.” If not at the time of his purchase, Wilmore did eventually render Nancy’s freedom conditional. Even though Nancy was over sixty in 1826, Wilmore still seems to have feared being abandoned after she became free. Speculation hints at the relationship not being either harmonious or entirely consensual if Wilmore waited until he thought he might die and even then stipulated that Nancy was free only if she continued to live with him as his wife. On the other hand, Wilmore did not have to free Nancy at all. Thomas Jefferson freed his children by Sally Hemmings individually but never freed Hemmings. Nancy might have insisted upon her eventual freedom over the course of the years and, anticipating his own death, Wilmore finally acted. The two might have entered into some sort of verbal agreement stipulating the terms of her emancipation. Or, Nancy may never have insisted upon her freedom and Wilmore emancipated her out of concern for her safety after he could no longer protect her. Wilmore might have feared that, upon his death, his estate would be sold to settle his debts and, as his slave, Nancy would be sold as well. Wilmore most likely acted primarily with concern for his children. Children took the status of their mother in Virginia. Had Wilmore never freed Nancy, their offspring would have been considered slaves. Their ownership could have transferred to Wilmore’s kin after his death, and his family may have freed Nancy and her children, as Jefferson’s daughter freed Hemmings, but Wilmore apparently did not want to take that chance. Perhaps the most stunning part of Nancy’s emancipation is Wilmore’s willingness to profess to the court, at a time when interracial marriage was illegal, his desire to live with Nancy as husband and wife. Interracial sexual relationships were not uncommon in early national Virginia, but were “open secrets … only dangerously scandalous if widely publicized.” Wilmore and Nancy’s relationship was probably common knowledge among their neighbors as a topic of gossip, but a public declaration by the subject of scandal was something different. By living openly with Nancy as his wife, without the pretense of a white family, and by openly affirming the sexual nature of their relationship, Wilmore opened himself to public criticism and ostracism from the community. Wilmore, as far as can be determined, was not that wealthy. In 1784, he possessed one barn and
zero dwellings. Tax rolls for the same year attribute one cow and one horse to Wilmore. In 1787, the only Wilmore Male listed on the tax list had 1 horse and one cattle, as well. Some of his neighbors in the same year, to put Wilmore’s status in perspective, had up to 70 cattle and 40 horses, a four-wheeled chariot, or a four-wheeled post chaise. One advantage Wilmore did have was that he owned his own land.62 His finances had worsened by 1798, when he and four others were summoned by the county court “to show cause if any they can why the overseers of the poor shall not bind out their children according to law.” There is no further mention of Wilmore’s children, so he must have been able to persuade the court to let them remain with him. Yet, the court’s warning makes it evident that Wilmore’s family, like many “free colored” families, was “economically marginal, due in part to the sheer difficulty of functioning in a heavily prejudiced white system.” Another indicator of his social position is his family’s lack of slaves. According to the 1782 census, Wilmore’s father was not a slaveholder. This is particularly interesting in light of Wilmore’s future relationship with an enslaved woman. While holding no slaves does not make the Male family fundamentally opposed to slavery, it does mean that Wilmore did not grow up in a home where he viewed African Americans as his or his father’s property. It also makes Wilmore’s purchase of Nancy more peculiar. Having left his father’s home between 1782 and 1784, Wilmore was just starting out on his own. He almost certainly possessed less money than his father. If his father had never felt he was in the position to buy slaves, even if only one, why did Wilmore? Why spend the money on a slave to work a small farm with only one horse and one cattle? In 1784, Wilmore lived on a farm adjoining his father’s. If he needed help with cooking and mending his clothes, his mother and sisters lived right next door. Did Wilmore indeed purchase Nancy out of affection for her? Wilmore’s actions could not have been without repercussions. His neighbors must have treated him somewhat differently after he began residing with a former slave. Male may have had to sacrifice friends, social position, and potentially even family connections. One friend, at least, seems to have remained constant. Robert White, the lieutenant with whom Wilmore had enlisted in the Revolutionary War, resided in the same county as Wilmore at the time of his pension application. White continued to support Male in his claim and, after White’s death, his son John (who was also the clerk of court and witnessed Nancy’s emancipation papers) followed his father’s wishes in assisting Wilmore. When Wilmore’s pension certificate was destroyed in a fire in 1838, John White wrote to Washington on his behalf, revealing that he felt “much interested for him, as he is one of my father’s recruits who was with him when he was wounded.” After Wilmore’s death sometime in 1841, the younger White wrote again to Washington to be sure that officials knew that Wilmore left behind a widow and children. He made no mention of their race. On 1797 tax rolls, Wilmore was added to the list of people designated as free blacks, but returned to having no race indicated for the years 1798, 1799, and 1800. What happened in 1797 to change Wilmore’s status? The answer may have something to do with the identity of the man making the list. Until 1797, all the tax lists that Wilmore appeared on were taken by George Beall. A new individual, Arjalon Price, recorded the information for 1797. In 1798, Wilmore returned to George Beall’s list, and then to the list of G.W. Price for the next two years. The abrupt and short-lived change in Wilmore’s racial classification can testify to the fact that race was “determined mostly by [an individual’s] neighbors.” When skin color, family history, or living situations seemed unusual or indeterminate, a person’s community associations, character, and economic status could be deciding factors in racial designation. Being white did not merely have to do with a light complexion, it depended on if “marriage partners were all from white families,” if one “performed specific acts showing they bore no allegiance to the slave community,’ and “evidence of reputation.” Community opinion about interracial families was crucial to their status, but “those understandings were not always commonly shared.” George Beall may have classified Wilmore as white because he had known Wilmore’s father or was on friendly terms with Wilmore himself. For whatever reason, as long as Beall was in control, Wilmore was counted as white. Arjalon Price did not share Beall’s understanding of Wilmore’s situation. To him, it seems, if Wilmore was married to a black woman, he would be listed as black, as well. A man who shared Price’s understanding recorded the next tax record for Wilmore in 1805. Wilmore continued to be listed as other than white through 1815. In 1805, Wilmore was listed as a free mulatto for the first time. The term mulatto was “an entirely descriptive category legally indistinct from black,” and could encompass a large range of skin tones and heritage. Legally, a mulatto was the “child of an Indian, and the child, grandchild, or great grandchild of a negro,” according to a 1705 Va act. This definition remained in use until 1785.. === Nancy Male’s 1826 emancipation papers clearly illustrate, however, that Wilmore “acquired” Nancy by purchasing her as his slave === 'Guineas of WV' The father of the Male line in West Virginia (Wilmore) came to America in 1765 from England with his wife and several children. We first find him signing a petition to remove the county seat from Joppa to Baltimore Town, Maryland in 1768. Next he is found on the census in 1784 and 1790 living in Hampshire County, Virginia. He and his family were listed on the census as 10 white souls. In the same county, in 1810 he and his family were listed on the census as eight free persons of color. The whole family had changed color. A free person of color at that time meant any person that was not white no matter what nationality they were. Why did the Males' racial classification suddenly change? Oral tradition tells us that Wilmore II married a woman named Priscilla Harris. Her father was supposed to have been Cherokee, and her mother was a servant on the Calm's plantation in Maryland. The mother's nationality was not known. This oral tradition is supported by its publication in the April 16, 1936 edition of the Mountain Democrat. The article was entitled Garrett County History of Pioneer Families by Charles Hoye. Wilmore's other son James was supposed to have married the daughter of an Indian scout of Cherokee descent. This is written in the Males of Barbour County, West Virginia by Bernard Victor Mayhle. === Mountain Democrat Newspaper: "According to family tradition, Marquis Calmes, a Frenchman, residing in Haiti, had a servant girl (whether she was from France or from the French Colony is not known). A Cherokee Indian came from the south to the Calmes plantation. The French girl and the Cherokee fell in love and had a daughter named, Priscilla. "Priscilla grew up on the Calmes plantation, a beautiful girl, olive complexioned, black eyes, and long black hair -- 'so long that she could sit on it;' her descendents kept some of Priscilla's wonderful hair for many years." === Bernard Mayle. Wilmer Male, Jr b abt 1755 England, married Priscilla Harris, also known as Nancy, abt 1784 Hampshire Co. It has been told that Nancy was the pretty, little daughter of a slave girl mother and Cherokee Indian father. Nancy's mother was supposed to have been a slave girl brought to this country in the middle 1700s by a Frenchman from the Bahamas or Haiti by the name of Marquis Calmes. It is not known whether she was of native Bahamian Indian ancestry or not. She eloped with a Cherokee Indian by the name of Harris and to these two, Priscilla was born. Wilmer Jr enlisted in the army at Berkeley Co, Va, at Paris' Marsh in late 1776 or early 1777. He served as a private under Lt. Robert White in company of the 12th regiment, Continental Establishment commanded by Capt Joseph Mitchell, Colonel James Wood and Generals Scott and Wolford. Wilmer, Jr fought at Monmouth and Stony Point. He was discharged at the close of the War after Oct 1781. He returned to his father's family and migrated to Hampshire Co, Va where, in 1784, he married Priscilla. === Steve Riggan. As you may recall from the "Finding Your Roots" show about the Mayle family, there was the segment about Wilmore Mayle's emancipation of Nancy, his slave woman, in 1826. It is said that his public announcement of his intention to live with her as his wife was spared public castigation by Wilmore's friendship with Robert White, who fought with Wilmore in the Revolutionary War, a Superior Court judge for Hampshire Co., VA (now West Virginia) and, after White's death, his son Judge John B. White, continued in his support for Wilmore Mayle and Nancy's decision to live as a family.
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