This is a Message Board Post that is gatewayed to this mailing list. Surnames: CLAPP, DILLARD, PRINCE, SHEPHERD Classification: Query Message Board URL: http://boards.ancestry.com/mbexec/msg/rw/Xd.2ADE/1474.1 Message Board Post: <<Subject: RE: Slaves "owned" and employed at Clapp's Factory - 1848, 1862 Date: Sun, 18 Jul 2004 14:46:20 EDT From: Lucy <[email protected]> I am curious about the slave named Shepherd. I wonder if that's the given name or surname? My g-g-grandfather Prince (Shepherd) b. 1818, occupation is listed as Shoe-maker. I am now curious - could he have worked at the Shoe Factory (Clapps). - Lucy>> Lucy, Thanks for your reply. Since other slaves named in the deed are called by common given names (Jake, Dick), I would guess that Shepherd is what that man was called, although whether this was his given name or surname, I can't say. It's quite possible that this name indicates a connection with a SHEPHERD family. There is no White person I have found connected with Clapp's Factory who is named SHEPHERD - it's possible the company "bought" this slave from an individual whose last name was SHEPHERD and the slave retained that name. As far as I have been able to tell, there were very few deeds involving the transactions of slave "property" that were recorded with the superior court, so it's hard to determine how the company came to "own" these individuals. Also, it is my understanding that, at the time of emancipation, many (perhaps most?) of the freed slaves took the surname of their former owners. In the case of slaves owned by a business such as the Columbus Factory (the company that was operating Clapp's Factory at the close of the Civil War), I don't know how the slaves arrived at the surnames they adopted. At any rate, I am interested to know more about your Prince SHEPHERD, especially since he was a shoemaker. If he lived in Muscogee County, GA, there's a chance he was employed at Clapp's Factory - although I must point out that the Confederate Quartermaster's Depot at Columbus, under the direction of Major Francis W. "Frank" DILLARD, took over the production of shoes in the city. The workshop there employed a large crew of workmen, mostly black, and produced more than 300,000 pairs of shoes between October 1861 and June 1864. At full capacity in 1863, the shop employed more than 500 workers producing more than 5,000 pairs of shoes per week. I don't know if the Confederate States Army kept written records of who their Black workers were during this period, or if such records have survived, but if so, that would be worth investigating. Thanks for your message, and do please let me know more about your gg-grandfather. John in TX [email protected]