Teenage Mom and Plantation Mistress
Forty years ago I found this picture in a trunk full of estate detritus: clothing, photos, travel souvenirs, things that someone couldn’t quite bring themselves to put in the trash. This year, finally, I have gathered enough threads from the thin paper trail of a 19th century wife and mother to weave together the themes of her story.
Written in pencil on the back of the photo is her name, Sarah Elizabeth Wilson Huff. From the last name I knew she was on my paternal grandmother’s side. I thought perhaps she was my great-grandmother; in fact she’s my 2nd great-grandmother, my grandmother’s grandmother. The photo is from the last five or six years of her life. I don’t know what to make of her expression. It’s not quite a smile; To me it says “I am still here.”
There are many missing pieces and mysteries still, which you expect from a life that began nearly 200 years ago and played out in obscure places. I have tried to keep the narrative within the bounds of facts, and I wish there were a lot more facts to draw from.
Early Years and an Early Marriage
The best evidence (1830 census) says Sarah was born (1822) in Shelby County, Kentucky, in the area “North of The Road From Louisville To Frankfort”. The household consisted of her parents, three younger brothers, and a younger sister, along with eight enslaved…
