Barfields Mills, South Carolina
Barfiels Mills was one of a few communities that thrived during the decade of the Revolution, but to the angst of researchers, quickly collapsed. It was a landscape left behind as the cotton boom sent populations centers away from the Pee Dee river. Change overtook South Carolina, and Barfield's Mills faded away. The last reference made to the community was 1831 in the Charleston Mercury. By the end of the century, the forest had reclaimed it.
Meanwhile, turmoil was brewing on the beautiful French Carribbean island, and Huldah was caught in a trap. She had lost two husbands and two of her six children; perhaps to yellow fever, perhaps worse. Because she and her children were white, she couldn’t remain in Guadeloupe. Yet because her children were foreign born, she couldn’t go home to Barfield's Mills, South Carolina.
President John Adams had signed the Alien and Sedition Acts - passed by the Federalist-controlled Congress as America was embroiled in the Quasi-war with France. Residency requirements for American citizenship spiked, and aliens considered "dangerous to the peace and safety of the United States" were deported.
The backlash to the Alien and Sedition Acts contributed to Thomas Jefferson's Democratic-Republican victory in 1800. On April 14, 1802, Congress repealed Adams’ Naturalization Act, thereby reducing the required eligibility to be naturalized citizens of the United States. Huldah had her chance. Within three months, she, her children, and her friends were on a ship from Guadeloupe to Boston.
Why should she have even been concerned? Weren't children born abroad of American citizens considered citizens themselves?
Yes they were. Unfortunately, Huldah was entangled in the territorial supremacy of three nations. Her first child was born in Guadeloupe nearly two months before the American colonies declared themselves independent from England. She and her children were citizens of a French dominion that had been repeatedly taken over by England. If there was any chance her son Anthony had served as a French or British soldier, he would be barred from entry.
Anthony, my 3rd-great grandfather, wrote this letter 220 years ago, to his mother Huldah in South Carolina. No one knows why she first sailed off to the French Caribbean, and history barely tells us why she returned. Guadeloupe was a smuggling island, and few records were kept, let alone survived.
When she did return home, she faced further agony. The state legislature could make an exception for her son, but she would have to leave him behind with other refugees while she and her daughter travelled to South Carolina to seek sponsorship from her father, whom she had not seen for a quarter century.
Had Huldah's father offered her as a bride to seal a barter between two families to establish an international trade association? Was she married off to a French stranger? Or was her short, 10-year marriage a tragic love story?
Anthony settled into life on his grandfather John Russ' plantation, near the South Carolina county named for Revolutionary War hero Francis Marion (the Swamp Fox). Fortunately, John was a local surveyor, and guided him to the choicest properties to buy. Special thanks to Marion County archivist R. Maxcy Foxworth Jr. at Marion County, South Carolina Genealogy and History, who provided copies of the early Marion County deed abstracts below. Click on each thumbnail for an enlarged image.
Anthony witnessed this deed on 21 January 1803, four months after sending his letter to Huldah in Barfield's Mills.
Here he subscribes as a concerning witness. One of only two documents that show Anthony's middle initial "D." The other is the Bible record of one of his children later on.
Anthony bought his first property on 25 February 1805 from Thomas Godbold, one of the icons of Marion County. It was Lot #24 in the public square of Gilesborough. He paid $16.
The property in Gilesborough, now downtown Marion, was 150 square feet. It remains to this day on Bond Street.
On 24 February 1806, Anthony purchased 500 acres on Gum Swamp, on the Catfish Creek branch of the Great Pee Dee River. He paid $100.
Witnesses to the Bryan property were Anthony's grandfather John Russ, Alexander Campbell, and Bryan's wife Sarah.
On 8 March 1806, Anthony sold lot #24 on Marion's public square to Andrew Johnson for 5 times what he paid for it.
Anthony is described in the deed of sale as a yeoman, indicating his climb on the social rung. He sold the property to attorney Andrew F. Johnson.
Placeholder for the 7 January 1806 Thomas and Elizabeth Cannon deed, signed by Anthony Brisson. Image forthcoming.
The John Russ listed here is likely her father, since he is over 45 years old.
The female of the same age range is likely her mother Mary Brown.
In August of 1802, Huldah returned to the US at about the age of 45, bringing her 19-year-old son Anthony D. Brisson
and one of his older sisters. Who was she?
Her Russ family was living in Barfields Mills, SC,
a settlement near present-day Marion.
Nathan Barfield is listed on this census.
Richard Brown's age is given here as under 44.
Might he be Huldah's younger cousin?
Robert Dunnam's grandfather John Dunnam married Hannah Singletary about 1713, when they lived in St. Thomas / St. Dennis Parish. Robert is listed as owning 30 slaves. From her land deeds, we know that Huldah bought property from him in September 1806, around the time he was selling off his vast property to move to Alabama.
Huldah's neighbor was Elijah Owens, also listed on this census.
She and her son Anthony D. Brisson moved to Bladen County a couple of years later.
