King Henry: Born into slavery. Died with 76 children, 9 wives, and 600 acres of land
I figured I'd flip the black history threads with one from my own family.
I figured I'd flip the black history threads with one from my own family.
My great, great, grandfather is named Puff Norwood owned his own land, store & cotton gin. He had a brother named Henry Norwood who came to live with him after their parents died. Henry was born into slavery in June 9th 1859 living between the late 1800’s early 1900’s and only has one living child remaining. Henry is the one who married the 9 women and fathered 76 children in Marengo county Alabama.
My daddy said there are two issues that currently aren’t clear…
My daddy said there are two issues that currently aren’t clear…
- How did the bothers acquire their property/wealth so soon after slavery?
- Who were the women’s siblings, parents, and extended family?
Below is a news story about the life of Henry Norwood.
With that said I assume the question to be… “what has your family done to help themselves solve this”?
- We have a basic family tree that was made of the Norwood family(brothers) and their children
- We have asked people currently living who knew him while alive. Both my grandmother and my father(small child) knew him while alive
- Collected info such as the article above
- Searched on ancestry websites questioning people from the area or who maybe searching for similar types of topics.
Message Boards
Norwoods and Bookers in Alaba - Genealogy.com
Search U.S. Census (Index & Images)
I’m personally working outside of whatever others in my family are doing. My formal training is software engineering but main focus in terms of personal studies would be general Africology. In studying Continental & diasporian African history I came across the work of Patricia Dixon on polygynous families in the African American community. Given her study of that particular topic I actually sent her an email figuring I’d request her expertise in the topic to maybe suggest an angle no one else in the family has thought of to solve this little “mystery”.
We Want for Our Sisters What We Want for Ourselves: African American Women Who Practice Polygyny by Consent
We Want for Our Sisters What We Want for Ourselves
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