This may be a long shot but I'm looking for any trace of my gggg grandfather, Tom Durant. He had three daughters while living in S.C. His youngest daughter was Maranda AKA Rannie. He left there and went to MS around 1862 or 1863. I found that strange because he was a slave. I was wondering if there would have been any newspapers about a slave runaway with 3 daughters. Or did something happen in South Carolina during that time that would have allowed to just leave of his own free will?

The only dilemma I truly have is that Tom wasn't always a Durant. He changed his last name to that when he went to MS so I don't have a clue on how to trace anything related to South Carolina.