Mary Autry
 Somehow
Mary's father, Henry Johnson was owned by the slavemaster Daniel
Johnson who lived in the Turnbull township of Bladen County NC and her mother
was owned by some of the Carlton
slave owners of Duplin County. I don't really know how Henry met and married
Mary's mother Nancy Carlton but I know that slavery ended in 1865. Information
from 1870 Duplin County shows that by then Henry and Nancy were married and had
two children, Donnie being born sometime around 1858 and Toney Troy being born
sometime around 1864. I have never heard any of Henry's Johnson or Autry descendants
say, admit or agree that Henry lived in Duplin County for such a long period of
time, that his wife's name was Nancy Carlton or that there was a son named Donnie.
Click here to view that information in
some records of 1870 Warsaw NC.
I found Mary Carlton Johnson living with
her parent's Henry and Nancy Carlton-Johnson in the Township of Warsaw NC in 1870.
Her brother's Donnie, Toney Troy and George W Johnson's were also living in the
same household at the time. This same information from Duplin County shows that
the family was still living in the same place in 1880 with an exception of Nancy
Carlton-Johnson and Donnie Johnson. They must have died. By simply doing the math,
Mary had to move to Bladen County and get married to Ned shortly after 1880 because
their oldest son, William was born sometime around 1882.
The Story
has been told many times by Leroy Autry (one of Mary's elder grandchildren) of
how Mary and some of her younger children would sometimes walk from Bladen County
to Duplin County to visit her relatives. Leroy said that she would stop and spend
the night in the Delway area with the Murphy's, Daniel, Dora and sons Daniel,
Jacob and Willie. The Murphy's were a white family that had moved from the Colly
township earlier. The next morning Mary would continue her journey on to Duplin
County.
Mary's Carlton relatives were found in the Warsaw, Magnolia and
the Keanansville areas of Duplin County. I assume after such a journey Mary's
trip would more than likely end close to or in Magnolia. I have heard from my
uncle Leroy Autry who is Mary's grandson, that most of her immediate relatives
(uncles, aunts and cousins) once lived somewhere on or about the present day Carlton
Chapel road which runs from almost Magnolia to Warsaw.
I also found
Amos Johnson living in the Warsaw township in 1870 a few houses from where Henry
and the Carltons were living. I don't know if Amos was Henry's brother or not
but he was also one of The slaves owned by Daniel Johnson here in the Turnbull
township of Bladen County. Amos like Henry returned to Bladen County sometime
around 1880.
I have heard some of the family elders speak of Amos down through
the years. It has been said that he was a firm believer in the mother
religion and could do many strange and mysterious things. I heard the story
of how they put his home up for auction at the courthouse in Elizabethtown. They
say Amos got up many hours before the sun came up that day and walked to Fayetteville
on one side of the Cape Fear then back to Elizabethtown on the other side. When
he arrived in Elizabethtown just before the auctioning of his home he told everyone
to go home that his place would never be auctioned off. Later on that day news
came that the judge who was to preside over the auction had somehow accidentally
met his death enroute to Elizabethtown. Just like Amos said his home was never
auctioned off. I also heard that he met his death when he cursed God Almighty
in a lightning storm one day while working.
Note:The mother religion
Vodoun ("Voodoo") was an African religion and is one of the oldest on
earth. Please do not confuse it with what the Euro-Anglo slave establishment forced
parts of it to turn into (American
Hoodoo) and then label it as black magic (witch craft). Know this! because
the Euro-Anglo slave establishment feared it, could not understand and control
it, they campaigned against, condemned and literally eliminated the religion and
anyone that practiced or believed in it. Read
here for more on what happened to slaves that believed in and/or sought inner
peace by relying on their native and/or ancestral religion |
