Thursday, April 14, 2011

BUTLER FAMILY & THE INWARD SLAVE MANIFESTS

My search for the name of the ship that transported my ancestors from Maryland to Louisiana who were enslaved by the Jesuits came to an end after four years of research.  Three ships were involved in transporting 272 slaves from plantations in Maryland and all were identified by numbers. Ship # 1, Ship # 2 and Ship #3. The Butlers were transported on Ship # 2. I kept searching for the name of Ship #2 because I thought that ships also had names.

On July 4, 2008, I visited USGENWEB, clicked on Louisiana and found the Inward Slave Manifests for the Port of New Orleans. There were several rolls of transcriptions and I searched Roll 12, 1837-1839; the Butlers were sold in 1838 so I figured they would be on Roll 12. I went to Edit, clicked on Find in Top Window and typed in the name Jesse Batey, the plantation owner who purchased the Butlers, but he was not found. Then I typed in my great-great-great grandfather's name, Nace, and the entire family appeared.  The details are as follows:

Entry # 304
Port : Alexandria
Ship: KATHARINE JACKSON OF GEORGETOWN
Master: John G. Doany
0/S Robert N. Windson
Date: 13 Nov 1838

Nace and Bibey(sic) Butler and their children were listed. The sex, age, height and color of their skin were also noted. The transcriber was Alma McClendon. Other manifests had been transcribed by Dee Parmer Woodtor, PhD, author of the book, Finding A Place Called Home.

The Butlers as listed:

Nace Butler, m, 50, 5'9" Black
Bibey Butler, f, 45, 5'3" Brown
Caroline Butler, f, 17, 5'7" Brown
Bazel Butler, m, 16, 6' Brown
Martha Ann, f, 15, 5'5" Brown
Ann Butler, f, 11, 4'6" Brown
Gaib, m, 10, 5'5" Brown
Bibey Ann, f, 9, 4'2" Brown
Henry, m, 7, 4'1" Brown
Tom, m, 5, 3'8" Brown
Mary, f, 11, 3'4" Brown
John, m, 2, 2'3" Brown
Loan, f, 3 months, Brown; found on this record and the manifest. No other records exist for Loan.

Note: Nace, Jr., 20, did not board the ship. He ran away.

5 comments:

  1. Thank you for sharing such a wealth of information. Nace and Bibby Butler were also my great-great-great-grandparents. I've been searching for my fathers side of the family tree roots for several years at least five or six. This is truely a blessing.

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    1. Hello Cousin,

      I am happy that you found my site.There are other articles posted about the Butlers. in the search box, type Butler and/or the Jesuit Plantation Project. I would like to talk to you to swap information and if you don't have information than I am happy to share what I know.Please email at Pbj524@aol.com and or send me your telephone number. So happy to meet you.

      Pat

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  2. You might find this interesting and/or you might find me just wrong, but as far as I can tell this same ship was used in later years to transport European immigrants to the U.S. My great, great grandfather Harm Wiersema arrived in NYC in 1846 aboard this ship. Which was the second ship of Dutch immigrant coming to settle Holland Michigan. A normal ship would take 30 days to cross, but the Katherine Jackson was so old it took 41 days. 10% of the immigrants died during the passage. On the next trip the vessel was in such bad shape it sank off the New Jersey coast where it is now listed as a dive site.

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  3. I am a butler from the bahamas ...I am wondering if somehow some of us butlers were dropped off in the bahamian archipelago

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  4. U can send a message via 2424436002 with any answers

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