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▼Facts and Events
▼References
- NOTES ON GIVEN NAME "FREEMAN"
There is one genealogy regarding Freeman Center/Senter that says that his father was a Revolutionary War soldier and when this son was born in 1776, his father, in a moment of patriotism, named him Freeman, being the first of his family born in a free county. - NOTES ON EMIGRATION - NC to TN
Freeman Senter, Sr., his brother Richard, their sister Anne and her husband John DURHAM came from Warren County, NC to Sumner County, TN prior to 1808. (Hill, Kathleen, University of Southern Florida Africana Heritage Project, "Document, Fred White of Sumner County, Tennessee: ...Obituary," University of South Florida, 2004) There is evidence that Freeman and family were still in Warren County, NC until about 1805. Freeman was party to several wills that were probated between 1800 and 1805, including that of his father-in-law, John COLCLOUGH. (Warren County NC Book of Wills, Numbers 10, 12 and 13.
- NOTES ON MINISTER OF THE GOSPEL
Freeman Senter Sr. and his son, Mark Senter, were both ministers in the Methodist Episcopal Church according to many documents to be found in Sumner County, Tennessee. No formal evidence can be found to indicate that they were ordained ministers - the custom of the time was that the majority were lay ministers of the denomination.
The Methodist Episcopal Church should not be confused with the African Methodist Episcopal Church. Renamed The Methodist Episcopal Church, South, at the time of the Civil War, both northern and southern branches eventually reconciled and by joining with other denominations became the United Methodist Church.
As evidence, there is the following family bible entry:
Bradley-Pearson Bible
Submitted by Walter Chisholm
The HIRAM MITCHELL BRADLEY and ELIZABETH JANE PEARSON bible In the possession of Rubie EDEN Oslin of Franklin KY
"This certifies that the bond of Holy Matrimony was celebrated between Hiram M. Bradley of Sumner Co Tenn And Elizabeth J Pearson of Sumner Co Tenn On Oct 1st 1848 at John M. Pearson's house By Freeman Senter, Minister of the Gospel
Witness: Elisha Barnard Witness: B. W. Bradley."
- NOTES ON SLAVERY
The following is from a document titled, "Fred White of Sumner County, Tennessee: What Can We Learn from His Obituary?" by Kathleen Hill, University of South Florida, 2004.
The US Census of 1820 for Sumner County, Tennessee, shows that Freeman Sr. is the owner of two slaves.
The 1835 will of Nancy HANNA Jones, wife of Allen JONES, filed in Sumner County, TN gives slaves Tabitha, and daughters Catherine and Almira J. to Nancy's daughter, Susannah JONES Senter, wife of Mark SENTER, son of Freeman SENTER, Sr.
The 1850 Tennessee Slave Schedule shows that Freeman, Sr. is the owner of one black male slave, age 12 and son John the owner of one black slave age 18. In the same schedule, Freeman's son Mark, living in Montgomery County, Tennessee, was the owner of three female black slaves, ages 20, 2 and 8 months.
Patsey and Nancy SENTER, spinster daughters of Freeman Sr., executed a joint will in November 1851 in which they refer to a "Negro boy, James", who had been given to them by their father. James was probably the 12-year old male owned by their father as shown in the 1850 Slave Schedule.
The 1860 Slave Schedule for Sumner County shows no Senter slave owners.
In the 1870 census, the first taken following the end of the Civil War, there were only three former slaves using the surname Center/Senter in Sumner County: Matilda, age 45 (birth year 1825), Anna, age 15 (birth year 1855, and Fanny, age 10 (birth year 1860). As there were a number of Center/Senter surnames in Tennessee and in Sumner County, it is possible that they belonged to one of those families. There is, however, a record of a former slave named Jane (or A.J.) Center/Senter. She was the wife of former slave Fred White. As slaves very often did not know when they were born, Jane's year of birth varied from census to census. In 1870 she was listed as Jane, age 40 (birth year 1830), 1880 she was listed as A.J., age 49 (birth year 1831) however she is listed in the 1900 census Jane and as having been born in July 1824. It is entirely possible that this is the Almira J. given to Susannah JONES Senter by her mother, Nancy HANNA Jones, in 1835. (Hill, Kathleen, University of Southern Florida Africana Heritage Project, "Document, Fred White of Sumner County, Tennessee: ...Obituary," University of South Florida, 2004)
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