The Stewart Family

American history is unfortunately filtered , slanted, and full of omissions, in an attempt to cover-up the many atrocities and injustices in our history, with slavery being one of the biggest injustices of all. The genocide of the Native American people being the biggest atrocity of all.

One of the biggest cover-ups has to do with Scottish slaves. There were hundreds of thousands of Scots sold into slavery during the Colonial America period. White slavery in the American Colonies occurred as early as 1630.

The Jacobite rising of 1715, was the attempt by James Francis Edward Stuart to regain the thrones of England, Ireland and Scotland for the exiled House of Stuart. The 5,000 man, Jacobite army marched into England as far as Preston, where the Government forces caught up with them. This led to the Battle of Preston, on 12–14 November. The Jacobites actually won the first day of the battle, killing large numbers of Government forces. However, Government reinforcements arrived the next day and the Jacobites eventually surrendered.

Many of the captured Jacobites were tried for treason, and executed, but in 1716, the decision was made to ship 1,301 of the rebels to the American Colonies, as slaves. The wives and children of the Jacobites were not shipped with them, as they were spoils of war for the British Army.

Two of the ships used to transport the Scottish prisoners to the colonies, were the Scipio and the “Elizabeth & Ann”. The Scipio departed Liverpool, England on 30 Mar 1716, carrying 95 prisoners, 10 of whom were named Stewart. The Scipio landed first in Antigua, and then sailed to Virginia. The ship “Elizabeth and Ann” departed Liverpool, England on 29 Jun 1716, en route to Yorktown, Virginia, carrying 127 rebels, 14 of whom were named Stewart.

After arrival in the colonies, the Scottish rebels were sold to slavers, who treated them no differently, or even worse, than their African slave counterparts. The white slaves and the black slaves worked together and were housed together, as they were considered as cattle, property, and were not segregated by color. It is fair to say that they had children together.

It is impossible to say, with any certainty, who the offspring of the white Stewart slaves were, as most of the records for this period of time, were burnt. The dates associated with the arrival of the Scots in Virginia, and the origin of the mixed-race Stewarts in Virginia, has to be more than a coincidence.

The mixed-race Stewart family probably originated near present-day Dinwiddie County since there were at least a dozen members of the family in that general area by 1730. No evidence has yet been located to indicate whether or not they were all related.

Dinwiddie was formed in 1752 from Prince George County which was formed in 1702 from Charles City County. All three are burned-record counties. However, the register of Bristol Parish from 1720-1789 contains records for Dinwiddie and Prince George counties, and the Prince George County court order books for the years 1710-1714 and 1737-1740 as well as wills and inventories for the years 1713-1728 have survived. These contain a number of references to mixed-race members of the Stewart family, but they also contain over thirty references to free, mixed-race people whose full names are not provided. One mixed-race child was called "a Moll Boy named Wm" in 1725 when William Eaton petitioned the churchwardens of Bristol Parish to bind the child to him. He may have been identical to the "Mulatto Boy" William Stewart who was bound to Eaton by the churchwardens of Bristol Parish in 1739.

Ancestry of the Otter Creek Stewart Families.

Ancestry of the Lost Creek Stewart Families.

Ancestry of Armstead Stewart, a free person of color who was kidnapped, enslaved, and released in Vigo County.

The Mathew Stuart/Stewart Family. Matthew was head of a household of 7 free people of color in Vigo County, in 1830.

    SOURCE: Paul Heinegg @ http://freeafricanamericans.com