PEYTON CARAWAY: A STORY OF A LEADER

PEYTON CARAWAY: A STORY OF A LEADER

By David Britton, Graduate student at Middle Tennessee State University and intern with History Before Us.

Like most histories of formerly enslaved people, Peyton Caraway’s early years are clouded by missing records and conflicting traditions. Put more simply — Black stories and genealogies are not usually found in a quick visit to the local archives. Such are the effects of chattel slavery and systemic racism in the U.S. However, the voice and legacy of Peyton Caraway persists. Let us hear what he has to say.

In one version of Peyton’s early years, he was given as a gift to a young girl named Doratha by her father at birth. Of course, such “gifts” are not unheard of or even rare. However, the record shows that the story is a bit more complicated. Sometime in the late 1820s, Doratha married Isaac Dennison and moved to Montgomery County, TN. The Dennison’s enslaved several men, women, and children over the course of their marriage. The 1830 Federal Census shows that five people were enslaved by the Dennisons. However, during the previous three years they had enslaved seven people: Solomon, Julia and her one-year old child, Louisa, and Dicy and her two children, Parthenia and Mary, who were six and ten years old when purchased. Peyton would have been around twenty years old…