Susan Ivey
b. unknown - d. unknown
Susan Ivey, a free woman of color who was expecting a baby, came to Oxford in 1863. Pursuant to Georgia state law, although Susan was not a slave, she had no rights to her baby. Once the baby was born, it could be taken from her and sold into slavery, although she herself would remain free as long as she paid an annual tax of $5.00. Mrs. Carolyn Harris, a resident of Oxford, offered to help Susan keep her baby.
Records from the Inferior Court of Newton County dated December 1863 reflect that Susan Ivey petitioned the court to be sold into slavery to Mrs. Harris, who would allow Susan to keep her child. The following is an excerpt from the court records:
Records from the Inferior Court of Newton County dated December 1863 reflect that Susan Ivey petitioned the court to be sold into slavery to Mrs. Harris, who would allow Susan to keep her child. The following is an excerpt from the court records:
The petition of Susan Ivey, a Free woman of color over twenty years of age showeth that she is desirous of becoming a slave in accordance to the Laws of said State, and that she makes choice of Mrs. Caroline G. Harris, a feme covert of said county, as her mistress and begans the Honorable Court to pass such an order as may make her a slave in accordance to the Statute in such case made and provided and as this duly bound.
Susan Ivey her mark: X
Withness her mark: H. D. Capers
The court granted Susan Ivey’s petition with the following court order:
… It is therefore ordered by the Court that the said Mrs. Caroline G. Harris be, and is hereby made, in accordance to the Statute, the Mistress of the said Susan Ivey. And it is further ordered that the said Susan Ivey is hereby sold into perpetual slavery in accordance to her own selection until the said Caroline G. Harris, for the sole and separate use of the said Caroline G. Harris, during her natural life and at her death, to her children for, and subject to, the present or future rights of her present or her future husband …
Slavery was abolished by the Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution; it became the law of the land after the legislation passed with the approval of Congress on January 31, 1865 and was ratified by three-quarters of the states nearly a year later, on December 18, 1865 – nearly three years after President Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation, presented on January 1, 1863.