"Too Poor to Have Slaves"

A Family Myth

My Family Enslaved a Black Woman

My name is Ashleigh Wellman (née Mullins) and I live in a holler in eastern Kentucky. My family has lived here for generations, on land that once served as the prized hunting ground of the Shawnee.

I was raised by my maternal grandmother who was born in 1942, and who had never moved outside of this county. When I learned about our family tree, this is what I was told:

•We came from Ireland

•Our ancestor was fleeing some sort of legal trouble

•We came to this place in eastern Kentucky, and we stayed

When I learned about slavery in school, I was reassured that no typical citizen in eastern Kentucky had ever enslaved anyone because we were all too poor. MAYBE the coal barrons did, but they were bad people, and our families were good people. Kentucky was neutral in the Civil War, after all.

I felt suspicious. This was a familiar feeling. Over and over again, throughout my schooling, teachers would tell me something about history or the way the world works and I would feel this nagging ringing in the back of my mind that it didn’t quite make sense. I would start asking questions and they would eventually get angry and order me to be quiet.

I returned home and asked my grandmother if our family had ever enslaved anyone. She laughed at the question and said that our family was always too poor to “have slaves.”

That answer was enough for little me. Once I started my deconstruction, I decided it was time to find out the truth.

Photo by Pixabay

I went through my deceased grandmother’s papers and found an extensive family tree that one of our distant cousins had created. It provided me with the name of our first ancestor to land on Turtle Island: John Nickell.

I then searched the internet and was able to find a history of John Nickell and his sons. This confirmed that we were from Ireland and that our path to eastern Kentucky was stained in blood. John arrived in Virginia in 1749. His son Joseph Nickell was born in 1750.

Joseph and his brothers were in the Battle of Point Pleasant in 1774. Here is an excerpt from the genealogy report:

“This battle was fought between the Colonial Militia and the Shawnee Indians under Cornstalk and was one of the opening engagements of the Revolution; a victory for the colonists resulted in the opening of the Ohio country for settlement.”

My heart froze reading the words. Not only had my family come to this place and taken land from the Shawnee, but they had actively murdered Shawnee (and probably others) to enable the colonization of Ohio. I soothed my nervous system for a moment, and then read the passage again. Anger filled me. Hot, bitter tears ran down my face. I soothed my nervous system. I continued to read, and learned that my family was in my current location by the early 1800s.

I returned to my search of the internet and found another document (via Wikitree and the Black Heritage Project) that again froze my heart. It was the transcribed Will of John Nickell. Listed there, among deer skins, bulls, and wooden platters, was an enslaved Black woman, with no name.

The fury, shame, and pain were overwhelming. Fury at my family for “forgetting,” shame that my bloodline was tainted by pure evil, pain and heartache for this woman who was not even named in the document, but listed as “one negro wench.” The inhumanity was overwhelming. I soothed my nervous system.

So, it was confirmed. Not only had my family murdered (and probably worse) the Shawnee and stolen their land, but they had enslaved a human being. The knowledge sat like a brick in my stomach, but I was glad to know.

Once I had self-regulated by talking to my husband, I journaled.

I wrote about my desire to know her name.

I wrote about the ways families “forget.”

I wrote about ways I could assuage the pit in my stomach: supporting the Shawnee, promoting the Black Heritage Project, learning more about the Shawnee and the land where I live, continuing my antiracism work.

And, I finally made contact with EAGER, so that I could share my experience and ask for support.

If you are on your healing journey and you haven’t delved into the darkest parts of your family history, please make an effort to do so. It is gut-wrenching and necessary.

If you encounter named victims, please share that information with the Black Heritage Project (Wikitree) and the Brister English Project.

If you are looking for pro-humanity classes, check out EAGER's Bulletin Board