{"id":139,"date":"2018-03-11T03:30:51","date_gmt":"2018-03-11T03:30:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/fontainemaurysociety.com\/announcements\/?p=139"},"modified":"2018-03-11T03:32:18","modified_gmt":"2018-03-11T03:32:18","slug":"seeking-information-on-ruben-nelson-former-slave-of-james-fontaine-in-hanover-co-virginia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/fontainemaurysociety.com\/announcements\/announcements\/seeking-information-on-ruben-nelson-former-slave-of-james-fontaine-in-hanover-co-virginia\/","title":{"rendered":"Seeking Information on Ruben Nelson, Former Slave of James Fontaine in Hanover Co., Virginia"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The Society has received a query for any information on a former slave, Ruben Nelson, who, based on a 26 September 1867 application in the Freedman\u2019s Bank Records, was owned by James Fontaine (1799-1872) of Hanover County, Virginia. \u00a0Reuben was born around 1842 in Louisa County, as was his wife Mary Ann.\u00a0 After the Civil War they lived in Richmond where Ruben worked in a hotel.\u00a0 They had six known children:\u00a0 Robert; Louisa; Ruben W.; James E.; Bertina; and William J. Nelson.\u00a0 In the 1870 census Ruben is identified as mulatto.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/fontainemaurysociety.com\/announcements\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/1867-09-26-Reuben-Nelson-Freedman-Application.jpg\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-140\"><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignnone size-medium wp-image-140\" src=\"http:\/\/fontainemaurysociety.com\/announcements\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/1867-09-26-Reuben-Nelson-Freedman-Application-259x300.jpg\" alt=\"1867-09-26 Reuben Nelson Freedman Application\" width=\"259\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"http:\/\/fontainemaurysociety.com\/announcements\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/1867-09-26-Reuben-Nelson-Freedman-Application-259x300.jpg 259w, http:\/\/fontainemaurysociety.com\/announcements\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/1867-09-26-Reuben-Nelson-Freedman-Application.jpg 724w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 259px) 100vw, 259px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>James Fontaine had 38 slaves in 1850, one of whom was about the age of Ruben, and 51 slaves in 1860, with two about the age of Ruben, per the census slave schedules generated in those years.\u00a0 In 1860 eight of the 51 were house slaves.<\/p>\n<p>James\u2019 wife, Juliet Morris, daughter of Richard Morris, was from Louisa County, where Ruben and his wife Mary Ann were born.\u00a0 Could Reuben have been owned by the Morris family?\u00a0 Richard Morris \u00a0had 41 slaves in 1850 and 90 in 1860.<\/p>\n<p>If you have any information on Ruben or Mary Ann or their family, please contact the Society\u2019s librarian at <a href=\"mailto:BHNilsson@aol.com\">BHNilsson@aol.com<\/a>.\u00a0 We are also looking for any photographs of James Fontaine, if any exist.\u00a0 Thank you!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Society has received a query for any information on a former slave, Ruben Nelson, who, based on a 26 September 1867 application in the Freedman\u2019s Bank Records, was owned by James Fontaine (1799-1872) of Hanover County, Virginia. \u00a0Reuben was born around 1842 in Louisa County, as was his wife Mary Ann.\u00a0 After the Civil &hellip; <a href=\"http:\/\/fontainemaurysociety.com\/announcements\/announcements\/seeking-information-on-ruben-nelson-former-slave-of-james-fontaine-in-hanover-co-virginia\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Seeking Information on Ruben Nelson, Former Slave of James Fontaine in Hanover Co., Virginia<\/span> <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[4],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/fontainemaurysociety.com\/announcements\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/139"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/fontainemaurysociety.com\/announcements\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/fontainemaurysociety.com\/announcements\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/fontainemaurysociety.com\/announcements\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/fontainemaurysociety.com\/announcements\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=139"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/fontainemaurysociety.com\/announcements\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/139\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":142,"href":"http:\/\/fontainemaurysociety.com\/announcements\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/139\/revisions\/142"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/fontainemaurysociety.com\/announcements\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=139"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/fontainemaurysociety.com\/announcements\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=139"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/fontainemaurysociety.com\/announcements\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=139"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}