Fanny Morris (1788)

Born 1788 in Virginia, United States

Descendants

Died [date unknown] in Kentucky, United States

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Biography

Fanny Morris is a part of US Black heritage.

Fanny was an enslaved mulatto woman on the Louisa County, Virginia, plantation (presumably the Green Springs Plantation) of Colonel Richard Morris who became Col. Morris's mistress after the death of his wife^[1] and was in many respects treated as his wife, although marriage was impossible. The will of Colonel Richard Morris, created on 2 April 1820, directed that "my mulatto woman Fanny and her six children," listed as Shelton, Richard, Hannah, Elizabeth, John, and Alexander, should be freed at his death. He further directed that they should be maintained and the children should be educated at the expense of the estate, that his son James Maury Morris should use estate funds to buy 600 acres of land "in the Western Country" to be divided between them, that houses should be built for them, and that each child should be given one slave approximately the same age as the child. ^[1][2]

Her date and place of birth are not known, but are estimated from the births of her children.

Sources

1. ↑ ^{1.0 1.1} Kleber, John E. The Encyclopedia of Louisville, University Press of Kentucky, 2001. Pages 627-628.
2. ↑ Morris, Colonel Richard. "1820 Will of Col. Richard Morris," Piedmont Virginia Digital History: The Land Between the Rivers, accessed May 10, 2020, http://piedmontvahistory.org/archives14/items/show/1699.