Colquitt County

Colquitt's Slaves in 1860

When the Federal census of 1860 was taken, the only provision made for counting slaves was a statement of their owner and their age and sex. The name of the slave was not given at all.

Under the laws of the State of Georgia, it was forbidden, at that time, to teach any member of the negro race to read or write. Penalty for infraction of this law was fine for white violators and whipping for negro violators. Possibly the only reason for counting the slaves at all was to meet the provision of the Constitution of the United States for additional Congressmen from slave States, based on the number of slaves in such States. For this purpose, a slave was equal to three-fifths of a white person.

The census of 1860 shows that at that time 27 slave owners owned 110 slaves in Colquitt County—52 males and 58 females. The largest number of slaves held by any single owner was held by Charles H. Johnson, who is shown by this census to have been the owner of 24 slaves, occupying three slave houses. Mr. Johnson was 70 years old in 1860, and he reported that he was born in England. His first years were spent "Before the Mast"; and, by the way, he was a contemporary of Author Richard H. Dana, the author of "Two Years Before the Mast"; and he must have been a very interesting character during the time in which he lived in Colquitt. He reported himself to Census Marshal Wing as being 70 years old in 1860. It is an established fact that after that date he lived 26 years.   Some of his grandchildren are still alive and they say that he died in 1886. We believe that he has the record for longevity among the males who have lived and died in Colquitt County. We have already noticed in connection with the census of 1860 that Marshal Wing found Sally Hawkins up in the Weeks settlement in Colquitt who confessed "up" to being 96 years old.

Pioneer Johnson is said to have had a flair for establishing clearings on the "bottom lands" of the Okapilco Creek which ran through his plantation down in the southeast corner of Colquitt. These clearings still exist—some of them, although they have not been farmed for more than a generation. Recently some of his grandsons ex-humed from one such field two plow-points which were in use during slavery. We append pictures of these plows—or "plow-points" as they would now be called. Fully one-half of the original metal content has rusted away. It is believed that these are the only existing farming implements ever in use in Georgia by slave labor. One of these plows was a "half-shovel," and the other was a "twister." (The twister is the one with the "whing," as we Crackers sometimes pro-nounce the word "wing.")

We also insert as part of this article a cut of the residence erected by Charles H. Johnson in the early 1840's, which is still standing. It was a double log-pen two-story building, and for fifty years after its erection was the most pretentious residence in the Colquitt County territory.

Finally, we are pleased to be able to submit to "all and singular," a cut made from a copy of a daguer-reotype of Pioneer Johnson himself. As will be seen, Patriarch Johnson was a handsome man in his time, reminding one of George Washington. We are very glad to have obtained this photograph which comes to us through the courtesy of Mrs. Enoch Vann, a granddaughter of Mr. Johnson.

Source: Covington, W. A.. History of Colquitt County. Atlanta, Ga.: Foote and Davies Co., 1937.

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