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Enrolling as Cherokee Freedmen: Social Networks of Rejected Applicants

Migrations of Blacks Among the Cherokees

The Africans and their descendants enslaved by Cherokees not only shared the sorrow of constant migration and the struggle to survive in new lands as they were moved to reservations by the US government, but also bore the burden of supporting their enslavers on their journey and in settling down. In their forced removal from the Cherokee homelands in the Southeast to the Indian Territory between the Appalachian Mountains and the Mississippi River, and to adjacent states during the Civil War, the Black enslaved people were moved with the Cherokees. As outlined in their interviews, many Cherokee Freedmen applicants moved between towns and states across the US South, both on and off of Indigenous lands. This frequent movement made it challenging for some Cherokee Freedmen applicants to return to the Cherokee Nation within the designated time, which was among the qualifications for seeking citizenship.

In the winter of 1838–39, enslaved Africans traveled with the Cherokees on the Trail of Tears. The long journey that stretched around 5,045 miles (about 8,120 km) included overland routes and one main water route across nine states.¹ Among the 15,000 Cherokees to set out for the west, enslaved people cleared the trails for easier travel, cared for the slaveholding families, hunted, cooked, prepared for camping and packing, and also kept night watch with arms.² Once in the Indian Territory, the enslaved Africans became valued laborers for rebuilding the lives of Cherokees and the Cherokee Nation. However, this economic advantage of the slaveholders enlarged the slave market in the Cherokee Nation, creating more economic and political division in the Nation.
Before the Civil War, the division between Union-supporting and Confederate-supporting Cherokees prompted many Cherokee enslavers to move from the Cherokee Nation to nearby states such as Kansas, Arkansas, and Texas, or the Choctaw and Chickasaw nations. You can find more information by hovering over the locations on the map. Many of them moved to Texas, which was the last state to abolish slavery.³

During the Civil War, sixteen battles occurred in Indian Territory, out of which seven were in the Cherokee Nation, severely disrupting the everyday lives of the Cherokees and the individuals they enslaved.⁴ In the midst of the frenzy of the war and relocations, family members of the enslaved were also separated, lost, or sold. As the number of Cherokees moving away from the war-trodden Cherokee land increased, enslaved people found more opportunities to seek freedom on their own as well. When they arrived at a new place, some enslaved people were hired out to residents in their new settlements, since the Cherokee enslavers had no land to crop.⁵ These changes meant that those enslaved by the Cherokees had to readjust to new land and people outside of their familiar setting back in the Cherokee Nation.

The relocation of Cherokee families and enslaved Blacks outside the Cherokee Nation jeopardized the Freedmen applicants’ later claims to Cherokee citizenship. According to the Treaty of 1866, the applicants had to have returned to the Cherokee Nation legal territories within six months after the treaty was proclaimed. Meeting this deadline required the now freed Blacks hearing the news about the treaty to have enough time to prepare for their return and gather resources for the trip back. This meant that some of the Cherokee Freedmen had to leave behind the lives they cultivated when they followed the Cherokee slaveholders outside of the Nation. Despite these difficulties, the desire of many Cherokee Freedmen to return to the Cherokee Nation shows that many formerly enslaved people recognized the Cherokee Nation as their home and as a place of belonging.

Following their return, the freed people would search for their lost family members, build houses, cultivate crops, and try to make a living with their newly gained liberty in lands they identified as home. The continuing history of the freed people’s relocation and adjustment is a testimony to the vibrant reorganizing of their social networks.

Many locations mentioned in the Cherokee Freedmen applicants' interviews can be found on the map below. Find more information by hovering over the locations on the map.

Footnotes

Elizabeth Prine Pauls, “Trail of Tears,” Encyclopedia Britannica, September 24, 2024, https://www.britannica.com/event/Trail-of-Tears.↵
Theda Perdue, Slavery and the Evolution of Cherokee Society, 1540-1866 (The University of Tennessee Press, 1987), 71.↵
Kansas was admitted to the Union as a free state in early 1861, and Arkansas came under Union control by 1864 and adopted an anti-slavery constitution on March 16, 1864.↵
Celia E. Naylor, African Cherokees in Indian Territory: From Chattel to Citizens (University of North Carolina Press, 2008), 134–35.↵
Naylor, African Cherokees in Indian Territory, 145.↵

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George Starr George Starr (Cherokee) enslaved around fifty to sixty people. Among them his son, Zeke Starr, knew Jesse Rowe and Phillis Rowe. In 1847, George, his sister Sallie Mayfield (Cherokee), young Jess Mayfield, and Tom Mayfield moved to Texas together. He also brought George W. Vann’s two sisters on the move. George seems to have left Texas to return to the Cherokee Nation during the war. His son, Zeke, a Cherokee citizen by blood despite being born in Texas, believed George had been a citizen of Texas, and was later readmitted to Cherokee citizenship after his return.
Henry West (Mayfield) 16 Cherokee Freedman plain 2025-01-02T00:15:06+00:00
Henry West (Mayfield), Cherokee Freedman, was enslaved to Walk (Walker) Mayfield (Cherokee). Walker took Henry and his family to Russell County, Texas, during the war and returned to the Cherokee Nation on April 1, 1871. He resided on Camp Creek, near Fort Smith, Arkansas. He was told that his improvements there were safe, until they were sold in July 1875 against his knowledge. Walker witnessed for him that Henry had the right to citizenship, since he was not aware of the Treaty of 1866, and that he was advised to work on his improvements.¹ Henry raised Sallie Mayfield (Freedmen applicant) when she was young, allowing her to live at his place when she returned to the Cherokee Nation.
Footnotes
1. Daniel F. Littlefield, The Cherokee Freedmen: From Emancipation to American Citizenship (Greenwood, 1978), 84–85. ↵
George Amos Mayfield George Amos Mayfield (Cherokee Freedman) lived in Texas for around four years. He first went to the Creek Nation with George Adair and Dick Fields at the end of March 1865. There, he cropped with “Judge Adair” (which may be a misspelling of George Adair) and Fields, returning to the Cherokee Nation later in the year. George testified for Sallie Mayfield, his aunt, whom he had known since before the war. He was also a cousin to Emberry and Thomas Mayfield.
Sarah ("Sallie") Mayfield 5 Cherokee enslaver plain 2025-03-04T22:08:54+00:00
Sarah (“Sallie”) Walker Starr-Mayfield (Cherokee) was a cotton planter and owned seventy-five to one hundred enslaved people. Those enslaved by her included Parmelia Rowe, Sallie Mayfield, Thomas Mayfield, Hannah West, and George Amos Mayfield. . Sallie was the daughter of Caleb Starr (white) and Nancy Harlan (a half-blood Cherokee); thus, Sallie was one-fourth Cherokee Indian by blood.¹ She married Jesse Mayfield (Cherokee) and lived in the Flint District. Mark Bean and L. B. Bell testified that the couple moved to Texas in about 1847, with George Starr, young Jess Mayfield, and Tom Mayfield. Sallie took those she enslaved, including Parmelia Rowe and Sallie Mayfield, with her to Texas.There is general testimony that Sallie returned to the Cherokee Nation in 1868 or 1869, or 1870 at the latest. She and her husband were readmitted to Cherokee citizenship after 1880.

Sallie was a sister to Walk Mayfield.
Footnotes
1. Phil Norfleet, “Jesse Mayfield (1793-1857) of McMinn County TN and Rusk County TX,” Mayfield Family Genealogy, https://mayfield02.tripod.com/jesse_mayfield_1793-1857.htm.↵
Parmelia Rowe
Parmelia Rowe (Freedmen applicant) was the daughter of Colis Jones and Philis Mayfield. She was enslaved to Mrs. Sallie Mayfield (Cherokee), who took Parmelia to Texas during the Civil War when she was small. Parmelia married Jesse Rowe in 1862 and gave birth to all of their children in Texas. In Texas, Parmelia and Jesse rented white people’s land, while Jesse sometimes came to Cherokee Nation to preach. In 1866, Parmelia came to Sequoyah to locate her father after learning that he was still living. Because her husband Jesse was preaching in Texas, she went with another man. She was unable to find her father there, but stayed two to three weeks because “there was such a trouble, killing, and me being in a growing condition.” After returning to Texas and her husband, she remained there until the year 1890, when she returned to the Cherokee Nation.

There is some contention regarding Parmelia’s date of return to the Cherokee Nation. Peter Williams, who knew her in Fort Gibson while working as a blacksmith in 1866, claimed to have seen both Parmelia and Jesse at that time, since they frequently visited Williams’s shop with his wagon. Charles Mayfield, formerly enslaved to Walker Mayfield, also recalled seeing Parmelia at Fort Gibson in 1866 when she returned to find her father. Another witness was Jack Jones, born to Colis Jones and Eliza Jones, making him Parmelia’s half brother and a Cherokee citizen. He first met Parmelia in 1892 upon her return from Texas.

Parmelia contended that her name should appear on both the Wallace and Kern-Clifton Rolls. Despite three appearances in court, her name was not registered on either roll. The decision given outlined that her testimony “fails to show that the said return was in accordance with the spirit or either letter of the provisions of the treaty of 1866 permitting Cherokee Freedmen who returned within the time specified to become citizens of the Cherokee Nation.” She was subsequently placed on the doubtful list due to the attorneys’ assertion that three witnesses were absent.
Sallie Mayfield
Sallie Mayfield (Freedmen applicant) was enslaved by “Miss Sallie Mayfield" and moved with her to Texas around 1847, when she was six years old. George Starr, young Jess Mayfield, and Tom Mayfield also moved to Texas together. Sallie married Miles Mayfield, and they had a son named Thomas Mayfield. Miles died at the start of the war, and their second son, Emberry Mayfield, was born after the war had already begun. Sallie attested that she returned to the Cherokee Nation in June or July of 1866 with her son, Emberry. She recalled, “Just as soon as they told me peace [sic] was made I run away from there [Texas] by night and come back here.” On her way back, she stopped in the Choctaw Nation before staying with Henry West(Mayfield), a Cherokee Freedman who had raised her and was still living in the Cherokee Nation.

The timeline of Sallie’s move to Texas and return is not very clear. According to George.W.Vann, who first knew Sallie in Fort Gibson, he remembered taking two of his sisters to Texas with Miss Mayfield a little after the war started. He also corrected his previous testimony to say that he saw Sallie in August 1870 and not in 1866, as he had first mentioned. However, George Amos Mayfield (Cherokee Freedman) testified that Sallie did come back in 1866. He was certain of this timeline because he confirmed it with George Adair and Dick Fields. He also remembered seeing her at Walk Mayfield’s place with Henry West at this time.

Sallie stated that after her husband died, she knew nothing about the roll. Consequently, she found out later that her name was not on the 1880 roll.
Joseph Rowe Joseph Rowe (Freedmen applicant) was the son of Jesse and Parmelia Rowe. He was born in Texas and lived there until around 1886, when he returned to the Cherokee Nation.In 1894, he married a Cherokee citizen, but claimed citizenship through both parents. His wife drew payment from the Cherokee Nation through her recognized citizenship; however, Joseph was unable to do the same. He subsequently applied for enrollment for his children Clarinda, Osa, and Loma, all born in the Cherokee Nation.

When the Wallace Roll was taken, he was living with maternal grandfather, Colis/Callus Jones.
Betsy Reed Elizabeth or Betsy Reed/McPherson (Freedmen applicant) was around seventy years old in 1901. She was enslaved to Aleck McPherson (Cherokee), who took Betsy to Dog Creek, Cherokee Nation, at the start of the Civil War. Betsy married her husband, Joseph (Joe) Reed, during the war. Unsure how to count the days, she believed she returned to the Cherokee Nation two years after the war; Sam Webber (Cherokee) stated that this was in the fall of 1866. In Betsy’s statement, she shared that she returned with Anderson Turk, her sister’s husband, and Spencer Harris, also bringing her children Agnes (Aggie) Harris, Sarah Hines, Senie (Sena) Forester, and Rachel Reed with her at that time. Her son, John, and George Tucker were not with her, but rather with Betsy’s brother, Jess Brown. On her return, she first stopped near Coody’s Bluff. The family stayed with a colored man, Tobe Schrimsher, and his wife, Edy, camping in the woods in Chetopa, near Nowata, Cooweescoowee District. Betsy and the grandchildren rented a home in the area for about a month without Joe Reed, who said he was “afraid of the Indians.” After a few months, they moved to Mound City, Kansas, to work as washers.

According to A. R. Wayne, who lived in Mound City as Betsy’s neighbor, Betsy moved to town around 1867 and remained there until 1890. At this time, Betsy was living with her brother, George Brown, and not her husband, Joe. Betsy and Joe were eventually divorced.

In 1868, Betsy returned to the Cherokee Nation when her son, John Tucker, who was still living with his uncle, shot himself. Betsy stayed in the Cherokee Nation for an undetermined period before returning again to Kansas.

Betsy came back to the Cherokee Nation after that as well. John H. Coody (Cherokee) recalled seeing Betsy around 1885 near Coody’s Bluff and hearing from George Brown that she came from Kansas. Betsy also came back during the payment resulting from the Wallace Roll but was not approved for the roll, due to being a little late. Betsy was not sure of the exact years, but stated that she had been in the Cherokee Nation for around the past twenty years at that point. It is not exactly clear at what point Betsy continued to live in the Cherokee Nation. John Coody believed that both Sarah and Betsy were living there until 1893; Nev Campbell, living in Mound City, testified to knowing Betsy from Mound City since 1889. Nev asserted that Betsy permanently left Kansas for the Cherokee Nation around 1893 to draw her money. He remembered Betsy and Sallie having collected money from their friends to come to the Nation.

Betsy tried to enroll herself in the Dawes Roll along with five grandchildren: Hannah Brown (age seventeen), Myrtle Brown (fourteen), Silas Harris (eighteen), Mamie Harris (sixteen), and Minnie Harris (thirteen). Hannah Brown was Rachel’s child, while Silas, Mamie, and Minnie were Aggie’s children. They were all born in Mound City, and had never been to the Cherokee Nation before their enrollment on the Wallace Roll. These names are not found on the tribal rolls, but do appear on the Kern-Clifton Roll. Betsy's name is listed as Betsy McPherson on the Kern-Clifton Roll.
Charles Bolden Charles Bolden (Charley Bowen/Charles Boland; Free Black) was the father of Martha Albert and Jenny Albert. J. W. Alberty (Cherokee by blood) recalled that he was biracial and free, and followed his wife Nancy Whitmire (Black) and their whole family when they were sold to Dillingham (American) as George and Johnson Whitmire were dividing up their property in 1847 or 1848. Alberty attested that when Dillingham moved to Texas with Nancy and the family in 1850 or 1851, Charles followed them despite being free himself. According to Martha, Charles Bolden had been working on a plantation in the South and digging wells for people as a free man at that time.

Martha attested that the family returned to the Cherokee Nation in August 1866, settling on Ellis Harlin’s place. In 1870, J. W. Hughes had hired Charles Bolden and his family to chop and pick cotton for him, make rails, and fix fences for two to three years. Hughes claimed that Bolden said that he was a part of the Cherokee and not enslaved. He also remembered Bolden claiming to have been in Texas, where his wife and children were sold, and remaining there until the end of the war.
Katie Thornton Katie (Freedmen applicant) testified that she was enslaved by John Thornton and Frankie Thornton. Before the war, she married Henry Thornton, a Cherokee Freedman also formerly enslaved by John and Frankie Thornton.

During the war, John Thornton took Katie and Henry out to Fort Scott, Kansas. Henry Thornton was in the army until he sustained a knee injury that prevented him from walking, after which he was sent home before the army left Fort Scott. The family, including Katie’s mother, Lydia Ross (who had been enslaved to Lewis Ross), then departed for Garnett, Kansas.

Katie and Henry’s oldest child, Maggie Curls, was born in Kansas. The couple returned to Lightning Creek in the Cherokee Nation in September 1866 with the families of Peter Meigs, Caesar Smith, and David Mayes. The family first visited Mose Whitmire’s house for a few days. Then, with the help of Lewis Right, Nels Wrought, Aaron and Mose Whitmire, and Ransom Woodall, they built their house on the spot where Bill Madden later lived, directly in front of Mose’s house. Katie lived at the home for four to five years, and later they sold it to Harry Still, who subsequently sold it to Bill Madden.

Harry Still recalled seeing Katie in the Cherokee Nation in the fall of 1866. He remembered Katie and Henry living with their children Maggie and Joe and a stepson, Billy. Henry passed away in 1895. Katie’s eldest child, William, died in Tahlequah, and she faced the death of another son, Billy, shortly thereafter.

Katie applied for enrollment on the Dawes Roll for herself and for two minor children, Millie and Emma, and testified that they were born in the Cherokee Nation. Katie is not on the 1880 or 1896 census, but can be identified on the Kern-Clifton and Wallace Rolls. All of their names appear in the Kern-Clifton Roll.
Colly Albert Colly Albert was born and raised in the Cherokee Nation. Although Colly’s name is written in multiple ways in the collection, he testified that “Colly Albert is the way I always sign my name.” He had been enslaved to Nancy Bushyhead (Cherokee), sister of Chief Dennis Wolf Bushyhead Sr.

Colly and Martha Albert had two children born before their official marriage. They married about three years after their return to the Cherokee Nation. Colly later joined the church, which had not given him permission to live there until he was married.
During the war, Colly worked on a farm and drove a team to make corn crop in the Choctaw Nation, down on Red River. When they returned, they first relocated to Caleb Starr’s place, then occupied by Ellis Harlin. Colly was hired by Ellis in 1867. J. W. Hughes became acquainted with Colly Albert and his family in the fall of 1869 in Sequoyah, and hired them in 1870 for two to three years to chop and pick cotton for him, make rails, and fix fences.

Colly did not apply for himself, but testified for Robert Barnes, his nephew-in-law.
Emberry Mayfield Emberry Mayfield (Freedmen applicant) was the son of Sallie Mayfield and Miles Mayfield. Emberry previously lived in Texas, “just rambling around.” In her testimony, Sallie agreed that Emberry was known to wander and “had no particular place to live.” Emberry had been back and forth to Fort Smith with his mother Sallie, working at times in cotton fields. However, after he provided answers that were deemed unsatisfactory, commissioner C. F. Breckinridge questioned whether he had been in a “Lunatic Asylum.”

Emberry married Josephine, a “colored woman,” who was born and lived in Denison, Texas, with her family. They had a daughter, Sallie, also born there in 1881. Emberry tried to enroll this daughter as a Cherokee Freedman as well; however, Josephine was dead at the time of their application.

Emberry had lived in the Cherokee Nation ever since his mother, Sallie Mayfield, brought him there in 1866 after the war. He remarried to a woman named Joanna. When Emberry’s mother Sallie testified for Emberry, she knew little about his wife except her name, and she was unaware how long Josephine had been dead.

Commissioner Breckinridge summarized his decision concerning Emberry’s enrollment as follows: “He is either utterly unable or unwilling to give any connected account of himself, but his mother states that he has lived in a settled way in the Cherokee Nation since his second marriage, some six years ago. If it be assumed that he came to the Cherokee Nation with his mother in 1866, it still appears extremely probable that he has abjured his citizenship by his continued absence, and as far as the evidence shows, protracted absence down to six years ago [sic] at which time he was 30 years of age, but giving him the benefit of all existing doubts in the case, he will be listed for enrollment as a Cherokee Freedmen on a doubtful card.”
Jenny (Jennie) Barnes Jenny Barnes, the youngest of the Albert family, was born in the Goingsnake district of the Cherokee Nation. She was enslaved to Johnson Whitmire, along with her mother, Nancy, and sister, Martha Albert (Freedmen applicant). According to Martha, she moved south with the whole family and later returned to the Cherokee Nation in fall 1866. However, this return was contested in Robert Barnes’s application.

Jenny lived with her family at the Starr home and then married Jerry Whitmire about six months after returning under the Cherokee law, visiting Caleb Starr’s place about two to three months after marriage. She gave birth to her daughter, Lula, in the Cherokee Nation. For four to five years after marriage, she worked in the field with the Albert family while her husband was hired out to the other side of Fort Smith, near Huntington, in a coal bank called Jenny Lynn, for about a year. Like her husband, Jenny was also hired out in Fort Smith. Afterwards, they both moved to Lee’s Creek, where they began farming.

Jenny married Sam B. Barnes after Jerry Whitmire died. With Sam, she had a son named Robert Barnes, and later, another daughter named Maggie.

Commissioner Breckinridge noted that Jenny Barnes was not identified on the roll of 1880 as a Cherokee Freedman.
Jesse Rowe
Jesse Rowe (Freedmen applicant) was born enslaved to Dick/Dave Rowe (Cherokee), and later enslaved to George Starr (Cherokee).

Jesse recalled that "my master Dave Rowe was a very wild and reckless man and owed a great deal of money. We got sold off, and George Starr acquired us, taking us to Texas" when the war started. He married Parmelia Rowe in 1862, recollecting, "that is how I remember my age; my master made fun of me and told me I wasn’t but 14 years old and too young to marry."

Jesse first visited the Cherokee Nation in winter 1867, before Christmas, staying approximately two months. It was during this time that he began his preaching endeavors, at around twenty years of age. He had previously served as a missionary in Texas, and later became a minister for thirty-two years. Belonging to the Missionary Baptist church, he held the position of a moderator of the churches in the district of Delaware at the time of his application to the Dawes Roll. His position as moderator was elected by the members of the churches.

Jesse brought his children to the Cherokee Nation in 1879 or 1880, and the children resided there continuously after this time. His daughter, Lizzie, married Joshua Seals. Together they had four children: Ademiah, Alverta, Pearle, and Clifford Seals, all born in Texas. Following Lizzie’s passing, and unaware of Joshua’s whereabouts, Jesse brought Parmelia and their four grandchildren to the Cherokee Nation in 1890.

Jesse Rowe applied unsuccessfully for enrollment on the Dawes Roll for himself and his grandchildren; the decision following the interview stated, “At the present time the Commission cannot see any ground for placing the applicant and his four grandchildren on a doubtful card even, but it will be done at the request of the attorney for the applicants.”
Martha Albert
Rose Rogers attested that Martha Albert (Freedmen applicant) was born to Nancy Whitmire and Charles Boland (Charley Bowen/Bolden), and raised on Barron Fork. Nancy was enslaved to Johnson Whitmire (Cherokee), and Martha’s status was the same as her mother’s. Martha testified that at the beginning of the Civil War, she was in the Goingsnake district, and then later taken out as far as the Red River in the Choctaw Nation with Cornelius Wright’s daughters. She reflected that she had never crossed the river into Texas before returning to the Cherokee Nation; however, there are contradictory testimonies that put this in doubt.

Martha asserted that she married Colly Albert on Red River around the last year of the war, when she was thirteen or fourteen years old. However, according to Colly Albert, they were officially married around three years after they returned to the Cherokee Nation. This seems to be the true account, since the oldest daughter they had before their marriage was born in Sequoyah, in January 1867. At the birth, Mandy Benton’s mother attended on Martha. The couple had six children in total, two of whom were born before their marriage.
There is some confusion regarding the time period of Martha’s move south. Some witnesses attested that she was sold to Dillingham with her mother, and others stated that she went to Texas with Cornelius Wright. The presence of two Marthas living at Johnson Whitmire’s place at the time seems to have created this confusion. A. J. Alberty (Cherokee by blood) was acquainted with Johnson Whitmire and his enslaved people, and remembered there being both a Big Martha and a Little Martha. He recalled Little Martha as the daughter of Nancy, and Big Martha (Martha Williams) as the daughter of Dicy Whitmire. He remembered that two to three years before the war, both Big Martha and Dicy were sold to Dillingham, a white US citizen living in Arkansas. This Martha was called to court, but was unable to travel due to sickness. While he was aware that the enslaved people were sold to Dillingham, he was unsure if Nancy was one of them, but remembered Martha Albert moving out of the Cherokee Nation with Cornelius Wright, who was in charge of taking out Whitmire’s enslaved Black people. He was certain that Nancy and Martha were living with Johnson Whitmire when the war began.

On the other hand, J. W. Alberty (Cherokee by blood) attested that George and Johnson Whitmire sold Nancy Whitmire and her whole family to Dillingham when they divided up the property in 1847 or 1848. He stated that Dillingham bought them and lived close by him for two to three years until they moved to Texas. He recalled Charles Boland, free Afro-Cherokee, following the family as a free man when Dillingham moved off to Texas with Nancy in 1850, and only remembered a boy named Ellis and not Martha. He testified that he knew more about Nancy after Dillingham bought her. Cornelius Wright’s son Cale Wright’s testimony seems to support this account. Cale stated that when he followed his father south, Nancy and Martha were not among them. He further claimed that none of the Whitmires’ enslaved people arrived with his father. Cale’s cousin, Charles Whitmire, son of George Whitmire, testified to the same. He went to school from Johnson Whitmire’s house and was familiar with Cornelius Wright, but testified that he was not acquainted with Nancy, Martha, or Charley, and denied that Wright took Johnson Whitmire’s enslaved people down south. However, Cale and Charles were rather young at this time, still attending school, and might have had limited memory.

There is additional misunderstanding about the number of Marthas at Johnson Whitmire’s place. Aaron Whitmire, a Cherokee Freedman formerly enslaved by George Whitmire, alleged that there was only one Martha. He remembered that this Martha was the daughter of Dicy, who had died before the war. He also recalled that Nancy was sold to Dillingham. From his memory, none of Johnson Whitmire’s slaves went to Texas; rather, all the women, except the older women, Amy and Myra, went north with the soldiers. Watt Whitmire, Johnson’s son, also remembered Nannie and another girl named Mary, but did not recollect the name of Nancy or Martha. Likewise, Jeff Catcher (Tik-nee-sky; Cherokee) attested to knowing all the older slaves, but not Martha or Nancy.

In her testimony, Martha Albert recounted that she returned to the Cherokee Nation with Ellis Harlin in the fall of 1866. Upon her return with her sister, Jenny/Jennie Barnes, and their father in August, they first relocated to Caleb Starr’s place near Cherokee Station in Sequoyah. They later rented the place and stayed there for two years while Martha worked on the farm. She testified that there were no people of color at the place besides her family, who included Colly Albert, Jennie and her husband Sam Barnes, and her father. Cale Starr was not living at the place, but “Old Man” Ellis Harlin, Emma, Ruth, and a boy named Oce were there. John Melton, a Cherokee Freedman, remembered how Colly Albert told him in 1866 that Martha was living at Harlin’s place. Henry Brown also attested to having seen Martha at the Old Jack Campbell’s Colored Church house in Jack Town, Sequoyah, which was located by the Cherokee Junction in August of 1866; he specifically remembered her being pointed out as one of “Whitmire’s darkies,” whom she was with at the time.

However, these testimonies to Martha’s return with Ellis Harlin in 1866 clash with those of others. While her presence at the Harlin place was confirmed by multiple people, the Harlins denied any memory of Martha and Colly returning to the Cherokee Nation with them. Nevertheless, Ellis and Nancy Harlin’s daughter Emma Finley remembered seeing Martha Albert at their place on the last of March or first of April in 1867. She testified that the Alberts had moved all their possessions, including one horse they had in Arkansas, to the Harlin place. Emma’s sister, Ruth, also attested that some formerly enslaved people returned to the Cherokee Nation with her father, but stated that Colly and Martha were not among them. Ruth also remembered Colly being hired by her father the summer they came back and attested to seeing his wife, Martha, at that time.

Despite the differing witness accounts concerning the whereabouts of Martha right after the war, Martha (Mattie), Elijah, and Ida are recognized in the Kern-Clifton Roll. They are missing from the rolls of 1880 and 1896. When she was asked by a commissioner, “What is the reason your name aint [sic] on the roll of 1880?,” Martha answered in a distressed tone, “I don’t know; you know how ignorant people was, didn’t know how to go at such business.” During her second appearance at court on April 27, 1905, when she was further asked when it was that Cornelius Wright’s wife Sarah died, Martha argued, “You must recollect that I was a child and don’t remember lots of things. You must give me a chance the same as anybody else. You folks didn’t give us n— no education so we could know and remember things like that.” When asked whether the name of Wright’s wife was Sarah, she responded, “I said I thought it was. What did us n— know about that. All we could call them was Mistress, and most always that was all we knowed about their names.” Her answer when asked about the number of children of Johnson Whitmire and his wife, Temple, reveals similar discomfort: “I will tell you the truth, and I wouldn’t swear a lit to get on this roll. I don’t know their names—none but one. I knowed Watt, and that is the only one.” She continued, “If you had been raised up a slave in the backwoods like us you would not know your playmates’ names.” Commissioner Hastings doubted the veracity of this, as he called Watt as a witness against Martha in the case.

The resentment detected in these answers reflects how the formerly enslaved people were victims of racial derogation that dispossessed them of education and a sense of personal and social knowledge. These scenes provide a more picturesque image of their enslaved lives that would not have been recorded in a tabulated census roll.

Martha applied for enrollment in the Dawes Roll for herself and her children; additionally, she testified for her niece, Lula Knalls, and nephew, Robert Barnes.
Rose Rogers (Rose McCrackin) Rose Rogers (Cherokee Freedman), formerly enslaved by Cornelius Wright, was fifty-six years old when she applied for the enrollment of her grandchildren and testified for her childhood friend, Martha Albert. Rose, or Rosa, is on the 1880 roll as Rose McCrackin.

Rose was born and lived in the Goingsnake District, Cherokee Nation. During the war, she went south to the Choctaw Nation with Cornelius Wright. She had a daughter named Emma Austin (Wright), who is listed in the 1880 roll as Emiline McCrackin. Between Stephen Austin (Choctaw) and Emma, Rose had five grandchildren for whose enrollment she applied: Robert Austin (age nineteen), Hannibal (eighteen), Lulu (Lula, fifteen), Frank (thirteen), and Elizabeth (twelve). Robert, Frank, and Lula were enrolled in the Kern-Clifton Roll, but Rose said that Hannibal and Eliza were “knocked off” the roll. The enrolled children also drew money. All these grandchildren were enrolled as Cherokee Freedmen.

According to Rose’s testimony for Martha Albert, Rose and Martha appear to have been close friends, given that they were children together, living only five miles apart. Rose later stated in her testimony that they were “raised together; gathered hazel nuts together.” However, they only reunited after the war, in 1900. At this time, Rose strongly asserted her right to testify for Martha, saying, “I am qualified; I want to state what I know.”

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