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A page from the 1780 Cumberland County register of enslaved persons.

A series of pages exploring
various aspects of enslavement in Pennsylvania

Fayette County, Pennsylvania Slaveholders, N - Z

Slaveholders Listed on this Page

  1. Phillips, Ann (Enslaved persons listed: Sue or Susannah)
  2. Phillips, Theophilus (Enslaved persons listed: Sue or Susannah, Hana)
  3. Rabb, Andrew (Enslaved persons listed: Sam, Harry)
  4. Reed, Thomas (Enslaved persons listed: Unnamed female)
  5. Stephens, Elizabeth (Enslaved persons listed: Bess)
  6. Stephens, Levi (Enslaved persons listed: Bess)
  7. Stouffer, John (Enslaved persons listed: Ned)
  8. Tiernan, Patrick (Enslaved persons listed: Dan)

Enslavement Data

  • Slaveholder Name: Phillips, Ann
    City or Township: Springhill Township
    County: Fayette County
    Occupation: Widow
    Notes: Wife of Theophilus Phillips.

    1. Enslaved Person's Name: Sue or Susannah
      Sex: Female
      Age: About 25 years old at time of bequest
      Date of Birth: circa 1764 (based upon reported age at Registration)
      Status: Slave for life
      Description: "negro woman"
      Notes: One of several slaves owned in Springhill Township by Phillips. Willed to his wife Ann in 1789. Susannah was registered by Philips in Westmoreland County as a 17-year-old slave for life on December 19, 1781.
      Date of Record: 19 December 1781 (Registration); Will of Theophilus Phillips, 1789.
      Source: History of Fayette County, by Franklin Ellis, Philadelphia, L H Everts and Company, 1882; Wills:Theophilus Philips, 1789: Fayette County, PA; George D. Albert, editor, History of the County of Westmoreland, Pennsylvania (Philadelphia, 1882), 447.

  • Slaveholder Name: Phillips, Theophilus
    City or Township: Springhill Township
    County: Fayette County
    Occupation: Farmer
    Notes: Husband of Ann. Elected to the state legislature in 1789. Died while en route to Philadelphia.The History of Fayette County, by Franklin Ellis (1882) notes on page 763:
    Mr. Phillips enjoyed the respect and confidence of all who knew him and was often called to fill public positions. It was near his residence that the courts of Monongalia County, Virginia, were held in the last half of the eighteenth century. The buildings have long been demolished and nothing but the foundations of them remain to mark the site. To the left of the New Geneva and Springhill furnace roads, via Morris Cross Roads and about two hundred yards from the same, on a long knoll with direction northeast, stood the Phillips residence with many outbuildings, including shop, negro quarters, still house and stables.
    Theophilus Phillips is cross-listed on the Westmoreland County pages.

    1. Enslaved Person's Name: Sue or Susannah
      Sex: Female
      Age: About 25 years old at time of bequest
      Date of Birth: circa 1764 (based upon reported age at Registration)
      Status: Slave for life
      Description: "negro woman"
      Notes: One of several slaves owned in Springhill Township by Phillips. Willed to his wife Ann in 1789. Susannah was registered by Philips in Westmoreland County as a 17-year-old slave for life on December 19, 1781.
      Date of Record: 19 December 1781 (Registration); Will of Theophilus Phillips, 1789.
      Source: History of Fayette County, by Franklin Ellis, Philadelphia, L H Everts and Company, 1882; Wills:Theophilus Philips, 1789: Fayette County, PA; George D. Albert, editor, History of the County of Westmoreland, Pennsylvania (Philadelphia, 1882), 447.

    2. Enslaved Person's Name: Hana
      Sex: Male
      Age: Not determined, but described as a "negro boy."
      Date of Birth: Not known, but prior to 1789. (see notes)
      Status: Not determined
      Description: "negro boy"
      Notes: One of several slaves owned in Springhill Township by Phillips. Named as property in his will in 1789. This may be the boy Harry, born in 1779 and registered by Phillips in Westmoreland County on December 19, 1781. (See Theophilus Phillips in Westmoreland County)
      Date of Record: Township history written in 1882. Will of Theophilus Phillips, 1789.
      Source: History of Fayette County, by Franklin Ellis, Philadelphia, L H Everts and Company, 1882. | Wills: Theophilus Philips, 1789: Fayette County, PA.

  • Slaveholder Name: Rabb, Andrew
    City or Township: German Township
    County: Fayette County
    Occupation: Distiller, miller, associate justice of the Fayette County court
    Notes: Lived circa 1740-1804. During the Revolution served with the Westmoreland County Rangers. In the Whiskey Rebellion, Rabb took the side of the local farmers against the federal tax on whiskey and served on the Committee of Correspondence. He died in 1804 after being poisoned, supposedly by a slave.

    1. Enslaved Person's Name: Sam
      Sex: Male
      Age: "about 27 years of age"
      Date of Birth: circa 1765
      Status: Slave for life; self-emancipated August 1792
      Description: "Negro Slave"
      Notes: Sam escaped from Rabb along with another man, Harry, on the night of August 11, 1792:
      Twenty Dollars Reward.
      RANAWAY in the night of the 11th instant from the plantation of the subscriber, in Fayette county, one Negro Slave named SAM, about 27 years of age, 5 feet 7 or 8 inches high, very black, short frizled hair, very talkative and impertinent, had on and took with him one check shirt and a country linen one, coarse blue cloth coat, olive velvet vest, and olive fustian overalls, a grey sailor's jacket, and a felt hat very little worn.
      Also, a Mulatto slave named HARRY, formerly the property of Mr. James Blaine of Carlisle, about 23 years of age, 5 feet 7 or 8 inches high, well made, of a fair complexion, long frizled hair, is very fond of liquor, had on and took with him one pair of lead coloured thickset breeches, a pair of country linen black coloured trowsers, two country linen shirts, a striped toilenet vest, and a high crowned hat. The above reward will be paid for apprehending the above described slaves, and securing them in any jail so that their Master may get them again, or Ten Dollars for either, and if brought home reasonable charges, paid by
      ANDREW RABB.
      August 13, 1792.
      Date of Record: 13 August 1792
      Source: The Carlisle Gazette and Western Repository of Knowledge, 22 August 1792.

    2. Enslaved Person's Name: Harry
      Sex: Male
      Age: "about 23 years of age"
      Date of Birth: circa 1769
      Status: Slave for life; self-emancipated August 1792
      Description: "Mulatto Slave"
      Notes: Harry was formerly enslaved by Col. Ephraim Blaine in Carlisle. Rabb acquired Harry at some point but the man escaped from Rabb along with another man, Sam, on the night of August 11, 1792. See the entry for Sam, above, for the full text of Rabb's escape notice. By the end of 1793, Harry was enslaved by William Amberson in Pittsburgh, from whom he again escaped, this time in late 1793.
      Date of Record: 13 August 1792
      Source: The Carlisle Gazette and Western Repository of Knowledge, 22 August 1792.

  • Slaveholder Name: Reed, Thomas
    City or Township: Georges Township
    County: Fayette County
    Occupation:
    Notes:

    1. Enslaved Person's Name: Not recorded
      Sex: Female
      Age: Not determined
      Date of Birth: Not known, but prior to 1791.
      Status: Slave for life
      Description: "Negro wench"
      Notes: Willed to his wife Elizabeth in 1791. Excerpt from will: "I give and bequeath in the following manner (vis) all my household furniture and negro wench and one mare and two cows give to my said wife Elizabeth her heirs and assignees while she remains a widow."
      Date of Record: Will of Thomas Reed, 10 May 1791. Will probated 18 April 1794.
      Source: Will of Thomas Reed, Fayette County, Georges Township, Will Book 1, page 26.

  • Slaveholder Name: Stephens, Elizabeth
    City or Township: Washington Township
    County: Fayette County
    Occupation: Widow
    Notes: Wife of Levi Stephens

    1. Enslaved Person's Name: Bess
      Sex: Female
      Age: Not determined
      Date of Birth: Not known, but prior to 1780.
      Status: Slave for life
      Description: "Negro woman"
      Notes: Willed to his wife Elizabeth in 1808. Excerpt from will: "Second I give and bequeath unto my beloved wife Elizabeth during her natural life the use, rents, profits, benefits and interest of the land, meadows orchards sugar camp and other premises which have of late been in my immediate occupancy, also a sufficiency of timber land for the plantation to keep the premises in complete repair also the Negro woman, named Bess, the eight day clock, all the grain gathered or growing."
      Date of Record: Will of Theophilus Phillips, 1808.
      Source: Will of Levi Stephens, 1808: Washington Township, Fayette Co.

  • Slaveholder Name: Stephens, Levi
    City or Township: Washington Township
    County: Fayette County
    Occupation: Farmer
    Notes: Born in 1744. Husband of Elizabeth.

    1. Enslaved Person's Name: Bess
      Sex: Female
      Age: Not determined
      Date of Birth: Not known, but prior to 1780.
      Status: Slave for life
      Description: "Negro woman"
      Notes: Willed to his wife Elizabeth in 1808.
      Date of Record: Will of Theophilus Phillips, 1808.
      Source: Will of Levi Stephens, 1808: Washington Township, Fayette Co.

  • Slaveholder Name: Stouffer, John
    City or Township: Bullskin Township
    County: Fayette County
    Occupation: Farmer
    Notes: Husband of Barbara.

    1. Enslaved Person's Name: Ned
      Sex: Male
      Age: Not determined, but described as "boy."
      Date of Birth: Not known, but after 1780.
      Status: "a 28 year servant"
      Description: "Negro Boy"
      Notes: Willed to his son John Stouffer in 1820, with the stipulation that Ned "wait upon his present Mistress my said wife Barbara as long as she shall remain a widow."
      Date of Record: 2 June 1820. Recorded 1822.
      Source: Will of John Stouffer (Sr), 2 June 1820. Book 1, p. 222. Recorded 1822.

  • Slaveholder Name: Tiernan, Patrick
    City or Township: Redstone Fort
    County: Fayette County
    Occupation:
    Notes:

    1. Enslaved Person's Name: Dan
      Sex: Male
      Age: "near 18 years of age"
      Date of Birth: circa 1776
      Status: "Indented"
      Description: "Indented negro man"
      Notes: Dan escaped from Tiernan on April 22, 1794:
      Four Dollars Reward.
      RAN away from the subscriber on the 22d inst. an indented negro man named DAN, about 5 feet 7 or 8 inches high, near 18 years of age, had on when he went away, a tow linen shirt and trowsers, a black silk handkerchief, a new felt hat with a small buckle and ribband to it, black buckskin mockasins, a striped cloth jacket, had a scar near the corner of his mouthk, and remarkable large feet, plays on the fiddle, its possible he may change his dress and pass for a freeman. The above reward will be given to any person that will bring him home or secure him in any jail, so as the subscriber will get him again.
      PAT. TIERNAN.
      Redstone Fort, April 24, 1794.
      Date of Record: 24 April 1794
      Source: Pittsburgh Weekly Gazette, 17 May 1794.

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