The Gist Settlements: Relocation of Freed Slaves To the Ohio Valley

 Home of James Hannibal Turner, one of the first residents of the Gist Settlement (c. 1920s).

“June of 1818 witnessed an unprecedented scene along the Ohio River. The sight of a large group of immigrants making its way toward the young state of Ohio, with its cheap and abundant land, was not usual, but these newcomers were different. They had endured cruel usage during a lifetime of enslavement. They had known the sting of the lash, the pain of being separated from loved ones sold at auction in the Upper South's thriving traffic in human beings . For wanting to do nothing more than exercise their legal right to personal liberty, they had been 'hunted down and shot like wild beasts.'

“Having traveled some three hundred miles under military escort, the more than two hundred persons manumitted from the condition of legal enslavement by a recently deceased Virginia planter, Englishman Samuel Gist, finally came within sight of the river known to African Americans as the River Jordan. Freed from Virginia slavery , they were forced by that state's laws to relocate. Now, just across the river lay the free state to which they were bound.”

(Keith P. Griffler. Front Line of Freedom: African Americans and the Forging of the Underground Railroad in the Ohio Valley. August 20, 2010.)

In honor of Black History Month, I want to share the story of the Ohio Gist Settlements with you. Like the others who made it across the Ohio River, the Gist settlers came to Ohio – the first state admitted to the Union without the stain of ever having permitted slavery in its territory (1803) – to build a new life.

Keith Griffler, Associate Professor of African American History in the Department of Africana and American Studies at SUNY Buffalo and author of Front Line of Freedom: African Americans and the Forging of the Underground Railroad in the Ohio Valley, writes:

“If there was a Promised Land within the borders of the United States, this should have been it. Ohio gained a reputation as a refuge for enslaved African Americans freed by their repentant legal owners, often only after their death, and not infrequently involving at least some of their own children.

“The Gist settlers might have been forgiven for believing that the ordeal that came with being of African descent in America was formally at an end. In truth, it had just begun. Although lying across the river that divided freedom from enslavement in America, this was no promised land to the African Americans who settled there.”

(Keith P. Griffler. Front Line of Freedom: African Americans and the Forging of the Underground Railroad in the Ohio Valley. August 20, 2010.)

Indeed, Ohio was no “Promised Land” for Blacks in the 19th century. Farther north, Canada was a country free of racist restrictions like the infamous Ohio Black Codes. However, the Gist Settlement was a thriving African-American community of former slaves – free Blacks who found and struggled with new independence and the promise of greater security.

Ohio history – we who live here must understand our past in order to navigate the murky waters of our times. The Gist Settlements provide not only chronicles of “the way it was,” but also a better understanding of mapping new, more promising directions. Struggles still exist, and we remain a part of the solution as we continue to strive toward freedom and justice for all.

Who Was Samuel Gist?

Samuel Gist was a resident of Great Britain and Virginia. He was born in England in 1717 (sometimes reported as 1723). At a young age, he was orphaned. He spent most of his youth at the Bristol Hospital in Bristol, England.

In 1739, Gist sought to improve his financial status by becoming an indentured servant in America. He traveled to Virginia, where he was indentured to John Smith, a tobacco farmer in Hanover County.

Upon John Smith's death in 1747, Gist married Smith's widow, Mary Massey. This marriage resulted in Gist immediately acquiring immense wealth, including hundreds of slaves and large landholdings. Gist also engaged in real estate speculation, becoming a member of the Dismal Swamp Company.

Samuel Gist opposed the American Revolution and fled to Great Britain in 1776. Before leaving for Great Britain, Gist transferred his property in Virginia to his stepdaughter. It appears that Gist never returned to America, but in the early nineteenth century, he did successfully engage in legal action against his stepdaughter to reclaim his property in Virginia.

The Gist Will

In 1808, Gist drafted his final will. He was apparently an indecisive man, as he eventually added four codicils (additions or supplements) to this document.

In the initial will, Gist ordered that all of his slaves in Virginia were to gain their freedom upon his death. The executors of Gist's estate were to allow the former slaves to live on Gist's land in Virginia, and the executors were also to provide the free African Americans with schooling and Protestant religious instruction.

The four codicils to Gist's will also primarily dealt with Gist's slaves. These documents eventually gave authority to the executors to revoke Gist's original promise of freedom to his slaves. Despite this, upon Gist's death in 1815, it appears that the executors freed many, if not all, of Gist's slaves. The exact number of people that the executors freed remains unclear.

In 1808, Gist supposedly owned 274 slaves in Virginia. In one of the codicils to his will, Gist later stated that a sizable increase in the number of slaves had occurred. Some accounts claim that Gist may have owned as many as one thousand slaves, but a more reasonable estimate appears to be five hundred.

Gist also willed that all of his possessions in the United States be sold to form a large trust to care for these freed men and women.

Historical Note:

On Gist's death in 1815, the more than three hundred persons he held in the condition of enslavement were to receive not only their liberty but, according to the terms of his will, the greater part of his considerable wealth in the form of a trust fund to provide for their support.

That intention was thwarted by his white relations, who succeeded in defrauding the newly free persons of the greater part of Gist's wealth and very nearly of their freedom. The remainder of the estate was used to purchase tracts of land lying near Ripley, Ohio, which a longtime resident described as "so wet and swampy . . . that it would be impossible for the greatest industry and frugality to procure from it a good living."

(Keith P. Griffler. Front Line of Freedom: African Americans and the Forging of the Underground Railroad in the Ohio Valley. August 20, 2010.)

In the front of this image is the schoolhouse built by the settlement's trustees, behind it is the church built by early community members. 

Gist Settlements

Executors of Gist’s estate began to send letters north to find land on which these freed slaves could settle. Multiple plots of land were found in Ohio, and a portion of the newly freed slaves were sent to Highland County, to the future Gist Settlement.

Trustees were appointed in each new settlement to handle the funds allotted from Gist’s trust. In Highland County, local Quakers were appointed as trustees, due to their abolitionist beliefs. One of the trustees, Amos Lewis, lived next door to the new Gist Settlement.

The trustees set about building cabins, a school house, and a cemetery to get the new settlement started. Meanwhile, Gists’s freed slaves needed to get from the plantation near Richmond, Virginia, to Highland County, Ohio.

Much public opinion was set against them by a widely reprinted letter from a prominent Ohioan with Virginia connections warning that a "most ignorant, degraded and depraved set of slaves" was coming to settle in Brown County.”

Perhaps as many as 350 other former slaves made the long journey to Ohio. Despite their apparent kindness in finding a space for these newly free men and women to live, the executors of Gist's will did not arrange for comfortable transportation. The new settlers of the Gist Settlement traveled by foot from their former residence in Virginia to Highland County, Ohio.

Among the first families were those of James Gist, Jacob Cumberland, Samuel Hudson, Gabriel York, Gabriel Johnson, Joseph Locust, James Cluff, and Glascow Ellis.

Their communities became commonly known as Gist Settlements. Left to fend for themselves on uncleared land, with neither agricultural implements nor the resources to buy them, the new settlers came very close to starving to death during the first year. Having been robbed of a significant portion of their freedom dues in the slave commonwealth of Virginia, the group would find its liberty severely constrained in the free state of Ohio.

(Keith P. Griffler. Front Line of Freedom: African Americans and the Forging of the Underground Railroad in the Ohio Valley. August 20, 2010.)

Some left the settlements and eventually returned to Virginia. Scheming white men planned to get their personal property. They became involved in numerous law suits among themselves, and some lands were sold.

(C. A. Powell, B. T. Kavanaugh and David Christy. “Transplanting Free Negroes to Ohio from 1815 to 1858.” The Journal of Negro History. June 1916.)

Historical Note:

An elder in the Presbyterian church reported, ''The truth is, the blacks have been most monstrously imposed on, cheated and wronged in a multitude ofways." Given the impossibility of living off the land they occupied, they were forced to seek employment in the surrounding territory. When they did, they were rewarded with "offals hardly fit for dogs or pigs."

The money due them was often reduced to a pittance , or not paid at all. Eking out a precarious, impoverished existence was not the worst. Female members of their community were subjected to rape at the hands of employers.

(Keith P. Griffler. Front Line of Freedom: African Americans and the Forging of the Underground Railroad in the Ohio Valley. August 20, 2010.)

Despite the unbearable hardships, the Gist Settlements flourished for a time, and at one point it was believed that there were 900 living descendants of Gist’s slaves.

Unfortunately, by 1850, it is likely that the trust funding the Gist Settlement was being mismanaged. White trustees were taking advantage of the very limited rights of free African Americans before Emancipation.

Thus in 1850, the Ohio General Assembly passed a law declaring that the Highland County Court of Common Pleas was to have jurisdiction over the trust fund.

Despite their unique living situation, residents of the Gist Settlement did have average experiences common to many Ohioans. For example, multiple men from the settlement served in the Union army during the Civil War. During the 1920s, the Gist Settlement's school shut down and the Gist Settlement children joined other nearby students in New Vienna for their lessons.

Gist illustrates the growing distaste of slavery among many whites, including some Southerners, in the late eighteenth and the early nineteenth centuries. Despite the growing opposition to slavery by some whites, the Gist Settlements illustrate the prejudice that existed in Ohio during the years before the American Civil War. Ohio was a state that did not allow slavery. Nevertheless, that did not mean that whites were open to granting African Americans equal rights. Free blacks found that it was difficult to get fair treatment, and they often formed their own communities away from whites for protection.

The Gist Settlements survived into the twentieth century. At the start of the twenty-first century, descendents of the former Gist slaves still occupied part of the land in Highland County. From the 1840s to the 1920s, an average of 150 people resided in each of these communities. Most residents were farmers. Many residents of these communities lived in log cabins without indoor plumbing or electricity into the mid twentieth century.

The Gist Settlement still exists today, however its population dwindled greatly during the mid to late 1900s. With over 100 years of history, the Gist Settlement continues to prompt many questions.

Victoria Chinn Robinson, near the age of 90.She became the oldest resident of the settlement after James Hannibal Turner passed away in 1928.

Historical Note:

Some free persons of color relocated from Virginia to at least these locations: Manchester, Adams, Ohio Eagle, Brown, Franklin, Georgetown, Ripley, Hillsboro, Highland, Ohio Darktown, Ohio Penn.

At this point most descendants have been integrated into American culture but a few descendants still remain on the land allotted to their ancestors. Most descendants had left the settlements by the time that World War II ended.

Surnames Include: Anderson, Baker. Buford, Carey, Clough, Cluff, Cumberland, Davis, Day, Ellis, Essex, Good, Gist, Gest, Giss, Guest, Guist, Hailstock, Hariss, Hudson, Hodsgon, Hutson, Johnson, Johnston, Lawson, Mitchell, Robinson, Rollins, Toller, Toler, & Turner.

Other Sources Used

“Gist Settlements.” https://ohiohistorycentral.org/w/Gist_Settlements

Samuel Gist.” https://ohiohistorycentral.org/w/Samuel_Gist.

Karen Robertson. “Gist Settlement was established by freed slaves in 1820s.” The Ohio History Connection. February 24, 2021.

 

List of slaves belonging to Samuel Gist on 12 November 1783 They were on several Plantations: three in Goochland County, two in Hanover County and one in Louisa County, Virginia. Note that genders are inferred from names and may be wrong.

Title List, 1783, of African-American slaves, stock, &c., belonging to Samuel Gist in Goochland, Hanover, and Louisa counties, Va. Date Issued 1783-11-1

Goochland County	Hanover County	Louisa County
"Old Quarter":	"Woodbury "	"With M. Anderson"
Cato, Male, 40	Peter, Male 60	Hannabell, Female 28
Dick, Male, 30	Bristol, Female 60	Billy, Male 25
Ben, Male, 25	Cato, Male 20	Rose, Female 40
York, Male, 16	Harry, Male 18	James, Male 18
Pompey, Male, 14	Lime, Female, 22	Billy, Male 16
Moll, Female, 25	James, Male 18	Billy, Male 16(duplicate?)
Fann, ?,35	Ben, Male 15	Joe, Male 20
Sylvia, Female, 25	Stephen, Male 5	Betty, Female 12
Nann, Female, 16	Natt, Male 7	Hannah, Female 9
Dinah, Female, 35	Patt, 40	Ben, Male 6
Juda, Male, 40	Milly, Female 40	Polly, Female 4
Moll, Female, 30	Tamer, 35	Rosetta, Female 2
Molly, Female, 15	Nann, Female 30	Cato, Female 50
Rose, Female,18	Sall, Female 12	Judah, Male 50
Harry, Male, 10	Nann, Female 15	Cato, Female 3
James, Male, 9	Aggy, Female 4	Rose, Female 6
Cupitt, Male, 6	Patt, Female 2
Beck, Female, 8	Lucy, Female 3
Rachal(sic), Female, 6	Tuck, Male 6 months
Tuck, Male, 10	Jack, Male 6
Winney, Female, 12	Cane, Male 3
Nann, Female, 7	Cate, Female 1
Sam, Male, 4	Edmond, Male 5
Tilis, ? , 2	"Dundee"
Hannah, Female, 2	Bob, Male 55
Aggy, Female, 6 months	Carter, Male 25
Chloe, Female, 4	Will, Male 20
Judah, Male, 3	London, Male 30
Tom, Male, 6 months	James, Male 25
Nann, Female, 3	Isaac, Male 25
Charlotte, Female, 12	Joe, Male 17
"Middle Quarter"	Jary, Male 12
George, Male, 40	Grace, Female 50
Moses, Male, 16	Amey, Female 27
David, Male, 25	Beck, Male 20
Dingo, Male, 25	Jenny, Female 18
Bob, Male, 18	Bett, Female 30
Liddy, Female, 45	Lucy, Female 50
Easter, Female, 20	Ruth, Female 40
Tuck, Male, 20	Sarah, Female 23
Liddy, Female, 25	Tuck, Male 12
Pegg, Female, 25	Solomon, Male 13
Jacob, Male, 10	China, Female 12
George, Male, 6	Sam, Male 30
Jabb, Male?, 5	Sall, Female 40
Amy, Female, 6 months	Tuck, Male 40
Rose, Female, 4	Sylvia, Female 25
Rachel, Female, 6	Grace, Female 23
"Napier Plantation"	Nann, Female 23
James, Male, 25	Vinny, Female 15
Sye, Male?, 35	Strabry(sic), Female 15
Isaac, Male, 35	Milly, Female 15
Peter, Male, 60	Doll, Female 12
David, Male, 17	Juda, Male 8
Chloe, Female, 45	Peter, Male 6
Doll, Female, 23	Fanny, Female 5
Hannah, Female, 25	Abram, Male 1
Lucy, Female, 50	Polly, Female 6
Sarah, Female, 12	Myall 3
Jacob, Male, 4	Ned, Male 1
Jack, Male, 10	Punch, Male 3
Sylvia, Female, 2	Tom, Male 8
Dick, Male, 3	Julius, Male 2
Frank, Male, 4	Easter, Female 6 months
Milly, Female, 10	Harry, Male 8
	Minny, Female 4
	Rachel, Female 4
	Bob, Male 6
	London, Female 4
	Cisey, Female 2
	Hannabell, Female 2
	Pheby, Female 4

Sources

Record number 000786186 Title List, 1783, of African-American slaves, stock, &c., belonging to Samuel Gist in Goochland, Hanover, and Louisa counties, Va. Date Issued 1783-11-12 https://www.virginiamemory.com/collections/aan/search-the-narrative accessed 8/6/2021