Henry and Molly Peterson on the 1900 US Federal Census -Calhoun County, Georgia

According to the 1900 US Federal Census ("the Census"), in June of that year, Henry and Molly Peterson were 33 and 32 years old, respectively. They had been married 13 years. They had seven children: Ellie (13), Tempy (11), Mattie (8), Clarey (6), George (5), Henry (3), and Allison (1). Henry was a farmer and Molly, Ellie, and Tempy were farm laborers. The family lived on a farm as renters. None of them could read nor write. All of them were born in Georgia. Molly's parents were also born in Georgia but Henry's parents were born in South Carolina.

The fact that Henry's occupation is listed as farmer is no surprise. However, it is a bit unsettling that Molly, a wife and mother of seven, is listed as a farm laborer when many other mothers are listed as being housekeepers. It's obviously that Molly had to work to help support the family. Equally unsettling is that Ellie and Tempy, ages 13 and 11, respectively, worked instead of going to school. The fact that the family lived on a farm as renters suggests that they were probably sharecroppers. Life for sharecroppers throughout history has never been prosperous.

As the family struggled to make ends meet in a world that offered them little opportunity for success, their greatest struggle would have been against the overt racism of the times. Blacks were freed in September of 1863 via the Emancipation Proclamation. We can deduce from the Census that Henry and Molly were born around 1867 or 1868. This means that they were born only a few short years after slavery and the Civil War had ended. It also means that Henry and Molly's parents were probably born slaves and that Henry and Mollie were members of the first generation of Southern blacks to be born free.

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