| Personal | Pedigree | |
|
Mandi Williams was born 1805 in West Africa. She died 1899 in Haywood County TN.
Mandi Williams's husband is not known. They had two known children named Harriet Elizabeth Rayner (1827-1918) and Ellen Williams (1856-?).
Our knowlegde of Mandi Williams is sketchy at best. Much of what we know has been passed to us
via our family's oral history and traditions.
We know that she was born free in Africa some time around 1805. We know that she was the product
of a large African family of 13 brothers and sisters, but we do not know where she fell in this family, the
exact composition of the family, the surname of this family or in what exact area of Africa they lived. We
do, however, know that they (and she) were of the Mende Tribe, and that her tribe's name was the
source of her own first name. The year of her abduction, transport and sale into slavery was 1821. She
was 16 years old.
Because she lived much of her life in slavery, we know that her living situation was probably harsh to
some degree. We have been able to locate her name in the slave records of the Rayners, of
Charleston, South Carolina as well as those of the Williams and Thum families in Tennessee. She told
her daughter, Harriet Rayner, and grandson, Dennis Williams, that upon her arrival in America, she was
sold in the slave markets of Charleston, South Carolina for $250.00-- to a man named Rayner. She
was tall, dark, and of stocky build, with strong arms and legs--and probably because of her physical
characteristics, her new master put her to work in the fields. As a field slave, she experienced back-
breaking work..hard stuff for a 16-year-old girl.
Later, in 1827, at 22 years of age, she gave birth to a half-white baby. We do not know who the father
was, but it is safe to say that it was probably one of the men from the Rayner Plantation. It was from
this baby, named Harriet Elizabeth Rayner, that Mandi's lineage has expanded. It is very likely that
Mandi was mother to more than one child, but due to the cruelty of the institution of slavery, which
routinely broke families apart, we believe that Harriet was the only child that she was allowed to keep
and raise.
In the mid-1850's, when Mandi was in her early forties, a slave holder by the name of Williams, from
Henning, Tennessee (Lauderdale County) came to South Carolina and purchased Mandi, her daughter
Harriet (now in her 20's), Harriet's husband, Harmon [with their 2 small boys, Jerry and Wash(ington)]
from Rayner. They were taken by wagon-train caravan to Henning, Tennessee. The Williams' owned a
plantation and general store in Henning. There, at the Plantation house, Harriet was the cook. Harmon
and Mandi worked in the fields.
At the time of the Emancipation, in 1863, Mandi was 58 years old. After emancipation, having been
sold subsequently to the Thum Plantation in Henning Tennessee, Mandi decided to adopt her former
name, Williams, as her name in freedom. Most of her family followed suit. We have found her listed as
such in the 1870 census. The family moved to Haywood County, Tenessee, to a section called the
"Watkins Quarter." Her family put down roots there, eventually becoming successful farmers and
landowners. She would live there for the next 36 years.
The 1870 census also shows Mandi living as head of household with another possible child named
Ellen Williams. But because Ellen is listed as being 15 years old and Mandi is 65 years old, it seems
unlikely that this is a natural child--it is possibly someone that Mandi has adopted and raised as a
daughter--maybe another former "resident" of the Rayner, Williams or Thum plantations.
Mandi Williams died in 1899, in Haywood County near Brownsville Tennessee. She was 94 years
old. No known pictures of her survive.