You Run Me Ragged: Part II

An Exploration of History, both Oral and Recorded, Pertaining to the Story of        Harriet Carter, African-American Weaver of Mason County, Kentucky

By Gary Dean Gardner, Independent Scholar of Southern History & Material Culture

30^th August 2016

Harriet Carter survived the decades as a memory, and as a story.  Like so much of oral history, one finds a kernel of truth, but facts become eroded and obscured by time.  The verbal legacy of Harriet, and the physical one in the form of her weavings, was clearly cherished by many generations of her descendants.  They perpetuated her memory, both young and old, as their bare feet caressed the worn vestiges of their matriarchal ancestor’s tangible presence in their lives, up until a time the youngest failed to listen to the stories, and stopped bothering with musty outdated old recollections of an era in time that folks were finding troublesome to deal with anyway.  Yet Harriet was never entirely forgotten, for her story, and her precious rugs, survived long enough to be resurrected from the past and preserved to allow her memory to live for many generations to come.  Each ragged weft, and every resilient warp thread, accounts for a day of honest labor long gone, yet surviving in a visual, tactile way that reminds us today of the life, death, loves and sorrows of a simple, very forgettable black woman whose textile legacy just won’t let us forget her contribution to our unique society in Kentucky.

There is, at this time, no evidence to show that Harriet Carter (aka Harriet Blades) ever resided anywhere other than Mason County, Kentucky.  Though a complete record of her birth is absent, as it is with most slaves of this Commonwealth even by the middle 1800s, there remains at least supportive evidence to conclude Harriet was born enslaved in Mason County about 1845, and forensic data enough in surviving records to allude to her potential ancestry.

Surprisingly, the small surviving cache of rugs hand-loomed by Harriet survived in her family with an uninterrupted chain of ownership by her direct descendants until they were gifted to R E-C of Chardon, Ohio.  The last heir and keeper of Harriet Carter’s textile legacy was Ruth (Mrs. James) Hunter of Cleveland, Ohio who, late in life and with no interest shown by her collateral family, offered the lot of remaining rag rugs made by her great grandmother to Ms. C to protect and preserve as a physical link to Harriet Carter and the memory of slavery as woven by Harriet near to or shortly after Emancipation.  Fraying but intact, the cast-off garments of white neighbors as repurposed by Harriet Carter became a symbol of the material culture of Kentucky’s African-American women of the 19^th century.

The provenance or lineage of ownership of the rugs is as follows:

1)      Susan Carter:   born perhaps in Virginia, but likely this was a reference to her own mother’s or grandmother’s birthplace.  Since we lack birth/death documentation for Susan, we cannot make a definitive statement.  Regardless, a confirmed place of birth is inconsequential to the greater story of the family, as many slave holders moved and migrated between locations.  There is no proven record of who Susan’s master was, so travel to & from Virginia causes no hindrance to any theories of association between Susan and other individuals and families potentially connected to her.  Susan’s possible birth in Virginia  fails to negate a multi-generational association with Mason County in northern Kentucky. 

2)      Harriet Carter (February 1846-1^st September 1928):  per the 1910 Mason County, Magisterial District 3, Household 71, Kentucky Federal Census, her occupation is listed as “Weaver of Rugs at Home.”  

3)      Stella Thornton Carter, Harriet’s Daughter (25^th March 1866-14^th July 1946):  Confirmation of Harriet’s offspring is found in the Magisterial District 3, Plugtown Precinct 8, Town of Dover, Mason County, Kentucky, 1900 United States Census.  Harriet had married “Head of Household” Mortimer Blades originally of Mason or Bracken County somewhat late in life in Maysville on the 2^nd March 1887.  By the time of this her first legally documented marriage she had born four children, two of which lived to adulthood.  Those living children in 1900 were Stella Carter (born March 1866) who married Robert Stroud, and Pickett Carter (born January 1875) who by the time of this Census had adopted the new surname of Blair.  (This is interesting, possibly inferring the parentage of Harriet’s children.  One likely candidate is Humphrey Blair of Bracken County, born ca. 1849 the son of Jessie & Nannie Blair.  This warrants additional research.)  Pickett (Carter) Blair was married 5 June 1907 to Jennie Moore.  Per Maysville’s “The Public Ledger” of that date, “Pickett Blair, a highly respected colored man of Dover, and Miss Jennie M. Moore, formerly of the same place, who taught at Dover 4 years in the Colored School and last year taught the Colored School at Bernard, will be married this evening at 8 o’clock at the home of Amanda Dickerson at Dover, the Reverend Evans of Aberdeen officiating.  On Thursday Pickett and his bride will leave for Dayton, Ohio where he has a good position in the National Sash Register Factory, and where they will reside.” Also residing in the Blades household was the mysterious Mariah Savage, whose possible identity will be discussed later.

4)      William Forman Stroude, Harriet’s Grandson (5^th November 1889 - ):  William Forman and his sister, Della P. Stroude, were the only children of Stella Carter.  He married Mabel Johnson.  They and their children are shown as family #45 on the 1930 US Census for Dayton, Montgomery County, Ohio.  There we first find record of Ruth, then age 8.  W. F. Stroude proudly served his country in two major conflicts, being a veteran of both the First & Second World Wars. 

5)      Ruth Stroud(e) Hunter, Harriet’s Great Granddaughter (ca.1922-20^th December 2013)

6)      R E-C:  Gifted the collection of rugs from Ruth Stroud Hunter, divorced spouse of James “Jim” Hunter of Cleveland, Ohio.  Mrs. Hunter had only recently removed the rugs from her home where they were in regular use to be placed into storage.  About to be disposed of and thrown away, Ms. C expressed interest and was given the remaining handiwork of Harriet Carter, Mrs. Hunter’s great grandmother, a former slave from Dover in Mason County, Kentucky.

Much remains a mystery about the Carter-Blades combined household already outlined above.  One primary question pertains to just who Mariah Savage was?  Age 87 in the 1900 Census, she was born ca. 1813 (apparently in Kentucky) and was, without doubt, the slave of James Savage of Germantown in Mason County.  She is found listed in the 1850 Mason County Slave Schedule as the property of Mr. Savage on line #10, a black female aged 37 years.  A member of the Mortimer Blades household by 1900, Mariah Savage is denoted as being a “grandmother.”  Whose?  Is this Susan Carter’s mother?  We can only conjecture, but that is a distinct possibility.  The age is correct for her to be the grandmother of Harriet.  That said, we as well have to ponder upon the identity of Susan’s and Harriet’s unnamed fathers.  Harriet Carter’s father was most likely a white man, for nearly all records denote Harriet as being Mulatto.  Now, was her father a Carter, despite the fact that the only white families in 1840 with that name were the George Carter family of Mayslick and that of James Carter, both of whom owned no slaves or, might he instead have been an Anderson, with Carter having been an older surname going back to a more distant maternal relative in Harriet’s past?

I offer that possibility because of the strong and lasting connection between the black Carters and the white Andersons of Mason County.  In fact, there is a distinct tie between the white branches of these families.  21^st December 1795 Larkin Anderson weds Mary Carter, both of Virginia, the supposed birthplace of slave Susan Carter.  He died in neighboring Bracken County November 1841.  Was Susan Carter, enslaved mother of Harriet, a descendant of Carter slaves that came into possession of the Anderson family?  It was a theory I had to reason out the best I could in analyzing records pertinent to Harriet’s past.  This thought of a Carter dowry required me to examine the other contemporary Carters with ties to Mason County.  In this process, I surprisingly found by accident some free blacks named Carter, the oldest of which was Rebecca Carter, born as well in Virginia about 1785.  In 1850 she was residing with Harvey Carter, also a free black, born in Kentucky ca. 1818, the same generation as Mariah Savage.  Harvey, one must assume a son of Rebecca, is shown as a tenant farmer for Hezekiah Jenkins (family #427).  Is there a legitimate connection to the Carter family of Virginia, a free woman and a free man of color, and two succeeding generations of slave women, all bearing the same surname in a rather small county where coincidence is somewhat unlikely?  This scholar doesn’t know, but finds the possibilities compelling.  A thorough examination of estate records from within Mason County will be required to piece this portion of the puzzle together.  There simply is no evidence, however, of slave ownership by any family of white Carters at the middle point of the 19^th century in Mason County to otherwise explain the surname.  Neither Harriet nor her mother are to be found by name in antebellum county Census listings, underscoring the safe assumption of their status as having been enslaved.  If Rebecca Carter is the true matriarch, with Mariah being a daughter, Susan a granddaughter and Harriet great granddaughter, then surely freedom was not a legacy passed down to these final generations of women before the Civil War, inferring the emancipation of Rebecca but not her children.  And, while playing games of conjecture, might Rebecca’s daughter have been sold to James Savage?  Or did Harvey Carter, a free black, ultimately father Mariah or Susan? Neither argument is out of the question.  No record of Rebecca is found after 1850, and none has been located for Susan at all but for the death certificate of her daughter Harriet.  It must be safely assumed that Susan died prior to Emancipation.

The idea of probable ownership of some of the immediate black Carter family by the somewhat extensive collateral Anderson family is substantiated by post-War Census records.  Freedman’s Bureau records fail to specify any work contracts for Harriet, or for her sister, Mary F. Carter, but the frequency of freed slaves working for old masters must be acknowledged as being supportive to such a supposition regarding Harriet Carter.  In the first United States Census conducted after the War, that of 1870, we find Harriet listed as a domestic servant in the household of Elizabeth Anderson, born in Virginia around 1798 and then a resident of Dover in Mason County.  She had been Miss Elizabeth Jennings, then married Stokes Anderson who was deceased by the time of the 1870 Census.   Interestingly, in the 1850 Slave Schedules for the county, Stokes is shown as owning one black male, age 55, thus born ca. 1795.  Jumping ahead again to those immediate post-War years, we see a repeated alliance between the black Carters and the widow Anderson that may allude to the parentage of Harriet and a potential slave marriage to either Susan Carter or Mariah Savage.  Also in the 1850 Schedules we find Elizabeth Anderson as the owner of 3 female slaves, they being a 24 year old black woman (b. ca. 1826), and mulatto girls ages 10 and 5 (births ca. 1840 and 1845).  Assuming Census records can be skewed in the accurate reporting of ages, we must not rule out that this youngest child is Harriet, for this same referenced 1870 Census denotes Elizabeth Anderson as head of household along with Missoura Anderson age 39, Paskell Jennings Anderson age 44, William Jennings age 36, and the three mulattos Harriet A. Carter age 24 (denoting a birth as early as ca. 1845-46 rather than 1850 as is inferred by later records) and her children Stella T. age 4 and infant Meda S. age 1.  This youngest daughter apparently died shortly after the Census was taken.  Since the 1850 Schedule and the 1870 Census correlate ages & dates for a mulatto girl, it’s necessary that we now consider the probability of her identity as Harriet Carter.  In addition, Harriet’s death record in Mason County, dated 1^st September 1928, corroborates a birthdate of 1845-46 (Kentucky Vital Records Index) reflecting Harriet as being 82 years of age at the time of her death.

By the time of the 1880 Census, Harriet has left the employ of Elizabeth Anderson and moved in to work in the home of William E. Tabb, a well-known Mason County merchant.  Harriet’s sister, Mary F. Carter, however, seems to have taken Harriet’s place in the Anderson household.  We find Mary listed as born ca. 1850, a mulatto domestic servant in the Dover, Mason County home of 83 year old Elizabeth Anderson and her daughter Missouri (aka Missoura) Anderson.  Elizabeth Jennings Anderson dies shortly thereafter, but Mary Carter remains in service to the family, now headed by Missouri Anderson per the 1900 Census and the 1910 Census.  (Do note, these later Census entries for Mary F. Carter now indicate her birth between 1843 and 1844.) 

Without further records to clarify things, we will never know for sure the exact lineage of Harriet Carter.  The evidence gleaned thus far is purely circumstantial, but sufficient clues exist to create a hypothesis that Rebecca Carter, once enslaved but emancipated, had a son, Harvey born free.  Harvey Carter then has an enslaved child, Susan, with Mariah Savage, a slave belonging to James Savage.  Susan, adopting the name of her natural father, Carter, becomes the mother, likely by white slave holder Stokes Anderson, of Harriet, Mary, and perhaps Addison.  Finally, Harriet becomes the mother of 4 children beginning in 1866, the father very likely a white member of the Blair family.