Page 134
“…accepted a fifty-dollar fee…”
In 2019, I visited Montgomery again to continue research. During this trip—one of five total—I stayed with a man named Len Daley, who graciously offered me the upstairs apartment of his home. Len took an interest in my work, and after I left Montgomery, he agreed to drive to Tuscaloosa to visit the archive that holds the Belser and Harris records, from which this comes.
A couple months after Len did this gracious favor for me, he was killed in a car accident. I’m grateful to Len for his enthusiasm and hard work. Thank you, Len.
This particular event, from the records, comes from a short time later, 1849—but I trust that it is in keeping with the kind of work Nathan Harris took on.
“Belser and Harris Legal Firm Financial Records,” original manuscript held by the W.S. Hoole Special Collections & A.S. Williams III Americana Collection at the University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa, Alabama.
“…wills and trusts…”
“Belser and Harris Legal Firm Financial Records,” original manuscript held by the W.S. Hoole Special Collections & A.S. Williams III Americana Collection at the University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa, Alabama.
“…Theodric Beck…Joseph Chitty…”
The contents of Harris’s library are included in his estate materials, held at the Montgomery County Archives in Montgomery, Alabama.
“Sims had once retained him…”
See “…attended the Autauga County wedding…,” above.
“…Harris had represented…”
“Belser and Harris Legal Firm Financial Records,” original manuscript held by the W.S. Hoole Special Collections & A.S. Williams III Americana Collection at the University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa, Alabama.
“…as his father once had…”
See “…a dry goods business…,” above.
“…supplied Harris’s plantations…”
The estate materials of Nathan Harris are held at the Montgomery County Archives in Montgomery, Alabama.
“…signed as an official witness…”
See “…attended the Autauga County wedding…,” above.
“…Alabama’s grandest estates…”
“Early Homes Near Robinson Springs Neighborhood,” Janice T. Wood, publication unknown. The credit indicates that the information was drawn from a newspaper article in the Wetumpka Herald, December 8, 1955.
“Nathan Harris now owned…”
As described above (“…William Westcott was not her master anymore,” above), the curious disappearance of Anarcha, Lucy, and Betsey from Montgomery after the fistula experiments, combined with documents from the Harris estate that reveal that Betsey’s original owner eventually came to own other enslaved women upon whom Sims had experimented, suggests that Harris, sometime after the experiments began but before his wedding in June 1847, acquired most or all of the women. This would be in keeping with Harris’s medical training and his reputation as a “kindly” master (this term is fraught with a kind of rancid paternalism, and as will be seen later Harris will show a different side as his family contemplates what they should do with Anarcha and her daughter, Delia).
There is no record that indicates that Anarcha and the others were called to Autauga County to help with his wedding, but it is highly likely that he would have brought all his resources to bear to put on an event as lavish as possible, and this would include bringing extra enslaved persons to the plantation to free others for table service, etc.