Tags
Davidson County Tennessee, genealogy, Henry Nance, Nashville, Nashville Tennessee, slavery, Tennessee, W.H. Crutcher, William L. Nance
While researching my great-great grandfather Henry Nance, I had a feeling he had been sold multiple times and enslaved by multiple people. I’m still trying to confirm just how many times and by how many people. I’ve recently learned that Henry Nance was sold at least four times– and that number is likely to climb as I continue my research.
The earliest record I’ve been able to find was an 1838 court order detailing the sale of the estate of William Howe Nance. Henry, then a child, was sold to Samuel Kimbro, one of Nance’s sons-in-law. But by 1850, Henry is no longer enslaved by Kimbro. However, by 1855, Henry Nance was enslaved by William L. Nance, according to an 1855 Tennessee Supreme Court case. William L. Nance, a son of William Howe Nance, was at least one of three people who had enslaved Henry Nance by the time he had reached young adulthood. William L. Nance had been ordered to sell Henry as part of a court-ordered execution– however, the case file did not specifiy to whom Henry was sold.
I contacted the Tennessee State Library and Archives to find a record of the sale, and their staff directed me to the Nashville Archives. An archivist found an 1857 bill of sale between W.L. Nance and a man named W.H. Crutcher for a 30-year-old man named Henry. I strongly believe this Henry is my great-great grandfather and the bill of sale documented his transfer to yet another enslaver.
Unlike his previous enslavers, Crutcher had no familial link to the Nance family. From what I’ve gathered, Crutcher was a merchant*– he had placed several ads in Nashville newspapers in the late 1850s. In the 1860-1861 Tennessee State Gazetteer and business directory, his business is listed specifically among auctioneers. In 1860, Crutcher was enslaving two people– an eight-year-old boy and a 33-year-old woman. That means by 1860 Henry Nance had either been sold again– or run away.
*I’d really like to know if merchant is another word for slave trader in this context