One of the most atrocious practices in the general history of slavery has been the fragmentation it has inflicted upon the family unit. One notable exception to this rule found play just south of the old town of Montgomery, Texas, on the plantation of Raleigh and Polly Rogers.
Robin Montgomery
Our story is drawn from the exhaustive research of a descendent of slaves of that plantation, Patricia Easley. Patricia is a member of the Montgomery County Historical Commission whose chairman, Larry Foerster, has played an active role in encouraging and promoting her research.
Patricia’s remarkable work begins with the entrance of Raleigh and Polly Rogers into what would become Montgomery County in 1830, from Alabama. Soon thereafter, May 6, 1831, the couple received a land grant.
By 1835, sensing the growing bellicosity of Mexican occupiers of Texas, Raleigh joined Texans such as Stephen F. Austin and Jim Bowie in the Battle of San Antonio. For that, Raleigh Rogers’ combined land total became enhanced.
Raleigh met death in 1850, preceding his wife Polly by seven years. It was upon the demise of the latter that the promotion of family unity in the Rogers’ slave circles became manifest.
For perspective, this should be seen within the context of the multiple dimensions of the Rogers Estate: Over 5,000 acres of land, 2,000 to 3,500 head of stock horse and cattle and 25 slaves. Patricia Easley adds that each of the eight Rogers children inherited between 400 and 500 hundred acres of land, 475 head of cattle and stock and $10,582.08.
At the tender age of 15, William S. Rogers inherited the ancestors of Patricia Easley. Those ancestors were Sam and Rachel, along with their offspring at the time, Tinte and Anderson. Patricia credits the late Bessie Owens, former Historical Commission member, Karen Lucas, and the records transcription team of the Montgomery County Genealogical and Historical Society for confirmation of her genealogical line from Anderson and his wife Winnie. Their union gave rise to a boy named Judge who later with his wife Ellen begat Robert, who with his wife Cherry gave life to Patricia Easley.
All this, Patricia notes, is definitive data. She is intrigued, however, by an as yet unauthenticated legend that her great-great grandmother, the slave Rachel, was a wedding gift to Raleigh and Polly’s daughter Mary, upon her marriage to Pleasant Yell. Whatever the truth of the story, Rachel’s son Anderson, his wife Winnie and most of their offspring are buried in the Yell Pine Grove Cemetery two miles south of Montgomery.
What an amazing story is this, five authentically documented generations of the Easleys, starting with a slave family in Montgomery County.
Robin Montgomery can be reached at
Zippoboo@aol.com.