Their Reward: Freedom
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Their Reward: Freedom
Can any one tell me which Jacob Mooney this was. I have numerious Mooney ties in Tennessee and Arkansas but need to place this one.
1989 FALL
BLACK ARKANSANS
PAGE 6
Jacob Mooney’s Slaves Carry on Without Him for Years
Their Reward: Freedom
WILD CAT SHOALS— Around 1811 Jacob Mooney came to Arkansas by flatboat from McMinnville, Tennessee. With him were a man named McDonald, four black slaves, and four mysterious individuals said by old timers to have been “Melungeons” — supposedly descendants of a lost tribe of Israel that had settled in America before Columbus.
Be that as it may, Mooney’s boat must have been quite large, because according to an inventory in the hand of his descendants, he brought with him: “a large brindle cow, two black and white spotted pigs, six red hens and a speckled rooster, two guineas, one runty but friendly bull, one bushel dried yeast foam, twenty kinds of seed, one hogshead black powder, ten pounds of flint, an anvil, forge, one liquor still, one hundred bolts of cloth, one gross of needles and sewing thread and one demijohn of hops.”
Mooney and company poled up the White River to Wild Cat Shoals and conducted a lively trade from their boat while they built a store and two cabins. Constructing a bellows of tanned deer hides, the slaves managed to improvise a crude smelter where they fashioned bars of lead and occasionally of silver. Ned, Mooney’s black overseer, brewed a paw-paw brandy that proved a particularly popular trade item.
By fall, McDonald and Mooney were anxious to return to Tennessee. McDonald yearned to see his wife and Mooney was eager to acquire one. They loaded up their boat with lead, silver, furs, wild honey, and paw-paw brandy. Accompanied by the Melungeons, they set off down river as the first snow began to fall, leaving the trading post in the keeping of Ned and the other slaves.
When they returned to civilization, they discovered that the country was in the midst of the War of 1812. Both McDonald and Mooney joined up with Andrew Jackson, but McDonald died a few days before the Battle of New Orleans. Mooney married shortly after his return from the fighting.
Nine years passed before he returned to Arkansas. Mooney feared the worst, but at his first stop at an inn near the mouth of the White River, he was served what was reported to be the finest French brandy. He recognized it as once as none other than Ned’s paw-paw liquor.
Later he stopped in Liberty at the home of Major Wolf, a famous trader and Indian agent, who assured him that Mooney’s slaves had all taken wives among the local Indians and had hired a man named Hightower to pretend to be their owner.
Mooney would write in his journal: “Late yesterday I came in sight of home. I could hardly believe my eyes. The store was much larger, besides I counted ten new buildings, good sized fields full of growing crops and little (black children) swarming everywhere. I landed the boat and went ashore, leaving my hands to secure it. Everything is as beautiful as we hope heaven is going to be. A comely Indian lass was tending the store. When I asked about lodging for the night, Ned’s voice called from the back room, “Is that you, Master Jake?” We fell into each other’s arms and shouted, like we had just professed religion.”
Jacob Mooney was so moved by the loyalty of his slaves he had Major Wolf draw up papers granting them their freedom. Mooney continued to commute between Arkansas and Tennessee and did not settle in Arkansas permanently until the death of his wife in 1832. By then his former slaves, now free men, had either died or migrated westward with their Indian families.
Any help would be appreciated.
Thank you,
Hazel
1989 FALL
BLACK ARKANSANS
PAGE 6
Jacob Mooney’s Slaves Carry on Without Him for Years
Their Reward: Freedom
WILD CAT SHOALS— Around 1811 Jacob Mooney came to Arkansas by flatboat from McMinnville, Tennessee. With him were a man named McDonald, four black slaves, and four mysterious individuals said by old timers to have been “Melungeons” — supposedly descendants of a lost tribe of Israel that had settled in America before Columbus.
Be that as it may, Mooney’s boat must have been quite large, because according to an inventory in the hand of his descendants, he brought with him: “a large brindle cow, two black and white spotted pigs, six red hens and a speckled rooster, two guineas, one runty but friendly bull, one bushel dried yeast foam, twenty kinds of seed, one hogshead black powder, ten pounds of flint, an anvil, forge, one liquor still, one hundred bolts of cloth, one gross of needles and sewing thread and one demijohn of hops.”
Mooney and company poled up the White River to Wild Cat Shoals and conducted a lively trade from their boat while they built a store and two cabins. Constructing a bellows of tanned deer hides, the slaves managed to improvise a crude smelter where they fashioned bars of lead and occasionally of silver. Ned, Mooney’s black overseer, brewed a paw-paw brandy that proved a particularly popular trade item.
By fall, McDonald and Mooney were anxious to return to Tennessee. McDonald yearned to see his wife and Mooney was eager to acquire one. They loaded up their boat with lead, silver, furs, wild honey, and paw-paw brandy. Accompanied by the Melungeons, they set off down river as the first snow began to fall, leaving the trading post in the keeping of Ned and the other slaves.
When they returned to civilization, they discovered that the country was in the midst of the War of 1812. Both McDonald and Mooney joined up with Andrew Jackson, but McDonald died a few days before the Battle of New Orleans. Mooney married shortly after his return from the fighting.
Nine years passed before he returned to Arkansas. Mooney feared the worst, but at his first stop at an inn near the mouth of the White River, he was served what was reported to be the finest French brandy. He recognized it as once as none other than Ned’s paw-paw liquor.
Later he stopped in Liberty at the home of Major Wolf, a famous trader and Indian agent, who assured him that Mooney’s slaves had all taken wives among the local Indians and had hired a man named Hightower to pretend to be their owner.
Mooney would write in his journal: “Late yesterday I came in sight of home. I could hardly believe my eyes. The store was much larger, besides I counted ten new buildings, good sized fields full of growing crops and little (black children) swarming everywhere. I landed the boat and went ashore, leaving my hands to secure it. Everything is as beautiful as we hope heaven is going to be. A comely Indian lass was tending the store. When I asked about lodging for the night, Ned’s voice called from the back room, “Is that you, Master Jake?” We fell into each other’s arms and shouted, like we had just professed religion.”
Jacob Mooney was so moved by the loyalty of his slaves he had Major Wolf draw up papers granting them their freedom. Mooney continued to commute between Arkansas and Tennessee and did not settle in Arkansas permanently until the death of his wife in 1832. By then his former slaves, now free men, had either died or migrated westward with their Indian families.
Any help would be appreciated.
Thank you,
Hazel