Frau Doktor Nancy Stafford of Georgia

notes

From
Frau Doktor Nancy Stafford of Georgia:From Slave to Physician By Mary R. Bullard and Tracy Moxhay Castle. The African Diaspora Archeology Network: March 2009 Newsletter.

In 1850 a cotton planter named Robert Stafford fathered a daughter (later named Cornelia) by a woman named “Juda.” Three years later Juda bore him a second daughter (later named Nancy). On an inventory made for Stafford’s tax records they were simply young females, listed only by age, not by name or family. One was six years old, the other was nine years old. They were the only female mulattos in their age group. All the others in their age group were black. “Mulatto” indicated to the county tax assessor that, in this case, their father was a white man.1

Their first appearance in the historical record was in an 1860 inventory in Camden County, Georgia. It was a slave inventory. They were slaves because Juda was a slave.

These events were not so unusual on the southern plantations of the United States, but ensuing developments were remarkable. This paper focuses upon Nancy’s life, for she grew up to follow a career. It was an unusual one for an African-American girl born before the Civil War. Considering that she was born of a slave mother, her choice of career was downright incredible. The child grew up to became a physician, to practice in Europe. She died in 1933. The location of her grave is unknown. Although her descendants told us she was buried in London, no confirming evidence has appeared.2

From Cumberland Island - Researcher's Aid retrieved 9 October 2016:

Robert Stafford (1790-1877) of Cumberland Island, Georgia, had two extralegal wives (slaves). The first liason began in about 1839 and was life-long. The slaves involved in this family, which we will call the Bernardy-Stafford family, were all white-skinned. Stafford shipped his family off to Groton, Conn, by 1850. He supported them by creating lifetime trusts that lasted long after his death in 1877.

The second liaison may have begun about 1850 or so. Apparently the slave was named Judy. Two daughters were born. The elder was named Cornelia. The younger, named Nanette or Nannie, was born on Cumberland Island, June 20, 1854. They were brought up in New Jersey by a white man named George E. Webb, his wife Eliza, and their daughter Sarah E. Webb. Sarah Webb was mentor and tutor to her charges; and she grew especially fond of the younger daughter, Nanette. Judging from Stafford’s funding of the first family, reason exists to suppose Stafford also financially aided his second family.

When Nanette was in her 20s, she was graduated from Howard University’s medical school (1878) with a medical degree and became a doctor. She went immediately to Zurich to study some more. She spent much of her life in Switzerland, where she practiced medicine, usually as an assistant to Swiss physicians.

Nanette married a Swiss. It was an unhappy marriage (he was often drunk, and he taunted her about her color), and they divorced in 1889. Nanette kept on working both in Switzerland and in Germany. When she was about 79 or so, she retired to England. She died in 1933 and is seemingly buried in London. We have assumed that she received a financial stipend or pension (an allowance of some sort) all her life from Robert Stafford, her father. The Swiss tribunal presiding over the divorce said they figured the Swiss man, named Gustav Gassman, had married Nanette for her money. The actual amount (an annual payment of 4,000 francs) was stated in the findings of the Swiss divorce tribunal. An annuity is the annual payment of an allowance or income, or the right to receive this payment or the obligation to make this payment. We presume both sisters received annuities.

Long before her death, Cornelia (and Nanette) sued (1907) Mrs. Lucy C. Carnegie of Pittsburgh and Camden County, Georgia, to get back her land on Cumberland. The case appears to be called Williams v Carnegie. That’s Cornelia again. She’d married a mulatto man named Philip Williams, and they lived and worked in New Jersey. Both sisters were U.S. citizens. The lawyers representing the plaintiffs were Crovatt & Whitfield, a Brunswick, Ga. firm. LCC was represented by Dunwody & Atkinson, also of Brunswick. The case was dismissed in 1908.

Nanette died in 1933. Cornelia died in 1917.

• page 317 of Robert Stafford of Cumberland Island: Growth of a Planter By Mary Ricketson Bullard* http://www.diaspora.illinois.edu/news0309/news0309-8.pdf Frau Doktor Nancy Stafford of Georgia: From Slave to Physician By Mary R. Bullard and Tracy Moxhay Castle. The African Diaspora Archeology Network: March 2009 Newsletter.
• http://www.kfkronenberg.com/cumberland_island_researchers_aid.doc
• Residence: 1870 USFC - Elizabeth Ward 6, Union, New Jersey
  • Reference: FamilySearch Family Tree - SmartCopy: Oct 9 2016, 20:24:56 UTC