This post began as a thought to recognize Black History Month, and to share with you that our family, as did many others, owned slaves. In the archives I sorted through in 2013, there is a handwritten Bill of Sale from 1852. Sold by Robert Blair Campbell to John S. Sheahan for the sum of one thousand dollars, Austin is described as "a certain negro boy named Austin age about thirty years. Black color a slave for life of good habits and sound health."
As I researched, I found that Robert Blair Campbell should be presented to you as much more than just a slave owner. He served in the South Carolina Senate from 1821-1823, and again from 1830-1833. Moving to Lowndes County, Alabama, he served in the State House of Representatives in 1840. From 1842-1850 he served as U.S. Consul to Havana, and in 1850 moved to Texas where he helped settle a border dispute between Texas and Mexico. In 1854 he was appointed U.S. Consul to London, where he served until 1861. He died in 1862 in England.
His obituary reads, in part . . . "we may safely say he has not left an enemy behind him. Firm, resolute, and unyielding in the cause of right, truth, and justice, he has departed in peace and honour."
If you are a Watters grandchild, Robert Blair Campbell is your fifth great grandfather. (Robert Blair Campbell's daughter Maria Frances Campbell; her daughter Maria Francita Sloo; her daughter Ellen Lee Sloo Johnson; her daughter Ellen Lee Sloo Kearny; her sons Warren Kearny Watters and Alfred Adair Watters, Jr.)
I read that Robert Blair's father, Robert Henry Campbell arrived in the Pee Dee region of SC shortly after the American Revolution. When the War of 1812 broke out, he tried to secure a commission in the British army for Robert Blair. Robert Blair Campbell refused as he thought it was "traitorious"
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