Is it possible that aunt Harriet secretly married one of her slaves?

Question

At least, she could have had a relationship with her slave,who they named Paul. She was born in 1817 and Paul was born in 1824. Therefore,she could not have been his mother. They were only seven years apart in age. There is a 1870 census for Paul McClendon.

Comments

Was looking at your harriet Jordan.  Are you sure she wasn't married to a Jordan, rather than being a Jordan?  Reason asked, is she married Needham in 1848 and 1850 census has her age 35.  Not many women waited to marry until their 30's back then.  some yes, but not usual.  Also you have needham marrying a Margaet Dill, and I found a marriage for him in 1835 to to a Isabel Barfield, so he may have been married 3 times, or there were more than one Needham McLendon.

Georgia, County Marriages, 1785-1950," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:KXJ8-Q6F : 17 October 2017), Needham Mc Lendon and Isabel Barfield, 08 Mar 1835; citing Marriage, Early, Georgia, United States, Georgia Department of Archives and History, Morrow, FHL microfilm 164,093.

Answer 1

Howard, have you seen this 1870 US Census where her husband is living past 1861, and she is in the household as well?

https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:MCSP-ND2

Comments

Details, details. 

---

Cousin, If there are any details to be found, I will find the details.

Answer 2

Don’t know the answer to that, but you have a lot of duplicates associated with her.

Comments

Show me the duplicates. When I looked for duplicates, all that I saw were people that were absolutely not her.

---

Associated duplicates, Howard. Several of her siblings are duplicates.

Answer 3

Did she have a mixed race child? Is there some written history somewhere that mentions this? I'm a bit confused as to the source of the question.

There is zero possibility that she married one of her slaves secretly or otherwise in Georgia. It was illegal. Is it possible that a white woman had an affair with a slave or former slave? Certainly, but possible doesn't mean probable and without any clue as to why this question occurred to you, I'd have to say you haven't presented any evidence to come to that conclusion.

Comments

If the evidence is out there, I will find it. Also cousin Deb, Don't forget about President Thomas Jefferson and Sally Hemmings.

---

Given the fact that they were living next door to each other in 1870, there is plenty of evidence that it was possible.

---

Well, if proximity is the only proof needed to accuse someone of an extramarital affair we're all in big trouble. And believe me, what was good for the gander back in those days was definitely not good for the goose. So Jefferson and Hemmings are pretty much irrelevant to this question. I still don't know what leap of logic led you to this conclusion.

What you see in the census record are many former slaves who are now farm laborers living in close proximity to their former owners who still own and operate plantations that need laborers. Paul is listed as a mulatto. A far more likely scenario is that Needham McClendon is his father and once owned both him and his mother.

---

It is definitely possible that Needham McClendon was the father of Paul McClendon. Who was his mother? It definitely wasn't Harriet Jordan. Harriet and Paul were seven years apart.

---

Well, since, Paul is a mulatto and Needham is white, I have no idea who his mother was and it may be very difficult to determine as she was no doubt a slave.

---

I asked that question in order to find someone that maybe knew who the parents were.

---

In reference to the earlier statement, people commit crimes all of the time. If she did marry a slave secretly, who is going to tell on them?

---

Who's going to marry them? And since she was obviously married to someone else that is hardly likely is it?

---

I don't know who would preform the ceremony. Multiple marriages was not unheard of at that time. People had multiple spouses at the same time in those days. My Creek Indian ancestor had three wives and at least one dozen children born almost back to back between the three wives.