B
Family
ENJAMIN
S
A
AMPSON
UGUSTINE
HISTORY
BSA
History of Benjamin Family
The Patriarch of the Benjamin Family was Elijah Benjamin who came from Virginia as a slave. Ellis Roy of Mansura, Louisiana, first owned him. He was later auctioned off to the Couvillion Family on Bayou des Glacises in Long Bridge, Louisiana.
Some how Elijah met and married Melinda who was from Missouri. To that union 21 children were born. Fourteen of the children preceded their parents in death. There were seven surviving sons. They were Ferdinand, Tescar, Albert, Estine, Frank, Maurice and Jules.
After Elijah’s freedom he became a sharecropper but the bonds of slavery were still strong. Melinda was an unusual lady. She was quite petite but she was known as a Doctor who knew what to do for any illness anyone had. Many people came from far and near to see her because of their illness, and of course she had the "cure all". They would pay her good money for their visits.
Elijah believed in owning land. Therefore he acquired a large track of land down the lane in Moreauville, Louisiana. He also instilled the idea of land ownership into his children. They all acquired land and were homeowners.
The Benjamin’s, Augustine’s, and Sampson’s were the most prominent black families in Moreauville at that time. Therefore the offspring began inter-marriage and as a result we all are related.
During slavery days Elijah was loyal to his master. Even after slavery he was still in bondage as a sharecropper, because he still remained loyal to his landlord. In spite of all he looked forward to a brighter day. He believed in and struggled to educate his children.
Ferdinand became a Baptist Minister, he was widely known as the Pastor of Mt. Pleasant Baptist Church. It was most unusual for Rev. F.D. Benjamin to have become a Baptist Minister because the Benjamin’s spoke Creole and most Creoles were Catholic. Catholicism was the established religion in Moreauville.
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63 YEARS AGO
From our July 30, 1932 edition:
The bonds of slavery were still strong for Elijah Benjamin until his death. Benjamin, a Negro from Moreauville, Louisiana died at the age of 103. He lived there for over half of the last century. Elijah and his wife, Melinda had 21 children. Benjamin was reared during slavery times and was first “owned” by Ellis Roy of Mansura but sold to the Couvillion on Bayou Des Glaises: When the Civil War broke out, he refused to enlist. At its conclusion, he gave his reason: “I may have appeared to be a slacker, but I refused to fight my masters.”
Eljah Benjamin & Melinda Benjamin
Tescar Benjamin
Maruis Benjamin
Ferdinand Benjamin
Jules Benjamin
Albert Benjamin
Estine Benjamin
Frank Benjamin
Frank Benjamin
History of Sampson Family
Sampson is a surname of Ancient Norman origin. It arrived in England with the Norman Conquest of 1066. It is a derivative of the biblical name “Samson” ascribed in (Judges 13-16). The name arrived at the time when medieval had no spelling rules. They spelled words according to sound. During the formative years of America, the use of the “p” was added through transliteration. Many slaves assumed the last name of their master (slave owners).
Slavery in the United States had its origins with the first English colonization of North America in Virginia in 1607 and lasted as an institution until the passage of the Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution in 1865.
During the British colonial period every colony had slavery. In fact, the Virginia slave codes of 1705 enslaved children of an enslaved mother even though she was married to a freeborn Englishman. Additionally, it enslaved those imported from Africa and other nations that were not Christians, as well as Indians who were sold to colonists by other American Indians.
There was an increasing demand on the plantations for slave labor. The masters (slave owners) needed workers to plant and harvest the golden products – tobacco, cotton, indigo, and rice. As a result, the British West Africa Squadron Ship madenumerous trips over the high seas to Africa in search of slave labor.Because of the tremendous need for slave labor, thousands migrated, aboard cramped disease-ridden ships. They arrived sick, poor, and hungry. Records reflect Ben Sampson, a slave made one of these journeys from Africa to North America.
Although complete statistics are lacking, Peter Kolohin, publisher of an article entitled, “American Historians and Antebellum Southern Slaves,” 1959-1984, records Ben Sampson arriving in Virginia in 1810. He was delivered to a tobacco plantation somewhere in Virginia where he worked as a slave. Soon thereafter, he met a slave girl whose name is unknown. They parented a child name Isaac who was born in 1816. After growing up, Isaac Sampson was later traded to a slave owner in Maryland where he met Marie who was born in 1822. From this union eight children were born. Namely, Pierre-1846; Zelia-1846; Elsia-1854; Nancy-1855; Henry-1858; Mary Louise-1867; Helen-1868; and Thomas-1870.
As the nation expanded west, so did the cultivation of cotton and the institution of slavery. This resulted in what was called the “Second Middle Passage.” This was the central event in the lives of slaves between the American Revolution and the Civil War. In the “Second Middle Passage,” families were involuntarily uprooted or forced to migrate southward or westward. It was a traumatizing event in that families were separated. Ben Sampson was traded and delivered to a plantation in Southern Louisiana.
After being delivered on this Southern Plantation, Ben Sampson met and married Rachel Molice of Illinois who was born in 1793. Ten children were born to this union.
History of Augustine Family
In the early 1700’s when the French War began in the midst of it all was a very rich family who control the most of Portau Prince at that time and also the Haitian army. The family’s last name was Augustine.
During the French War, there was a warning upon the city. The warning read, “As of night fall all of those people who were not slaves would be killed.” in Haiti a great massacre took place, but luckily for the Augustine family they owned a slave by the name of Cezar.
The “Sir’ went to Cezar and offered him freedom and money in return for the safety of his family’s escape the following morning. Cezar helped “SV Augustine and his own family escape to New Orleans. There the Augustine’s got into the political scene. As for Cezar he was given what he was promised and a new road to life. Cezar settled in New Orleans for a few years and married his wife. They then moved to Avoyelles Parish. I’m not sure of it being Moreauville or Mansura. Records show Mansura.
Once Cezar reached Avoyelles he and his wife bought a lot of land and later split the ‘and among his Sons and one daughter. Most males and even the females married in to the Benjamin family. History does not show how the Benjamin’s made it to Avoyelles, but it does show Elijah Benjamin as a slave. He sold himself into bondage to the Couvillion family of Moreauvelle. After several years as a slave he was granted freedom in the mid 1700’s.
The Benjamin and Augustine families were known then, as they are now, the stars of a beautiful family connection. Both families owned land and money, and for the most part the Benjamin and Augustine families could read and write back in the 1700’s. There are a lot of facts with the census about education, children and truth about family matters. There are also books, which show the Augustine’s held a very important position, and how the Benjamin family held the land together. Within this interlude there is the Sampson, McGlory and Caston family. Very little history has been found concerning these three families because it has not been permitted. As soon as I have the chance I will research it again. (Written and submitted by Jackie Barnes in 1996)
