Talk:Silas Chandler

Was Silas free in 1860?
The 1860 Census indicates that the statement in the article- "Mississippi law forbade the manumission of slaves" -is not true.

“Manumission of Slaves.

With regard to manumission, it appears from the returns that during the census year, they numbered a little more than 3,000, being more than double the number who were liberated in 1850….Great irregularity, as might naturally be expected, appears to exist for the two periods whereof we have returns on this subject. By the Eighth Census [1860], it appears that manumissions have greatly increased in number in Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, Maryland, Mississippi, North Carolina, and Tennessee…”

-Introduction to 1860 Census Report, page xv.

Table 4 shows 182 manumissions for Mississippi during the year 1860- http://www.archive.org/stream/preliminaryrepor00inunit#page/137/mode/1up — Preceding unsigned comment added by BorderRuffian (talk • contribs) 13:38, 19 April 2016 (UTC)


 * There were various laws restricting the manumission of slaves. In 1857, there was a "blanket ban" and after 1805, manumission required an act of the state legislature (Klebaner, Benjamin Joseph. "American Manumission Laws and the Responsibility for Supporting Slaves." The Virginia Magazine of History and Biography 63.4 (1955): 443-453.). The 1842 law discussed in the paper the article references may refer to a law from that year outlawing manumission in wills (Mills, Michael P. "Slave Law in Mississippi from 1817-1861: Constitutions, Codes and Cases." Miss. LJ 71 (2001): 153.). Ross v Vertner (1840) accepted manumission by last will and testimate but required the person to emigrate. Mitchell v. Wells (1859) notes the 1842 law and denies the right of manumission. Thus, manumission was illegal in most or all cases and there is no reason to assume that Silas Chandler's manumission, if it happened, was legal. Further, the sources cited state that manumission was not legal and that Silas was not freed while serving Andrew and Benjamin during the war. I've added a magazine based citation (Sampson, Myra Chandler; Levin, Kevin M. The Loyalty of Silas Chandler, Civil War Times; Feb2012, Vol. 51 Issue 1, p30) of that sentence written by an academic and popular historian to improve the quality of the citation - Serwer's article was largely based on Levin's research after all. Let me know what you think.Smmurphy(Talk) 15:32, 19 April 2016 (UTC)
 * I've updated the page to include this explanation.Smmurphy(Talk) 12:38, 20 April 2016 (UTC)

Date of placement of cross on Silas's grave
In this article it states the year was 1994 but in the podcast Uncivil, Myra Chandler Sampson, Silas's great-granddaughter, says it happened in 2003. There is no source for that sentence in this article.