Iowa state bystander. [volume] (Des Moines, Iowa) 1894-1916, 1913-12-05
AFRO-AMER|CAN CULL|NCS

What's In . name? One answer
Shakespeare himself gives:
But he who filches from me my
good name
Robs me OF that which not enriches
him.
And makes me poor. indeed"
Not altogether in the sense indicat.
ed by this reply will my story deal.
Surnames Of negroes who were slaves
were usually Of their own selection, as
they. like all mankind originally, we're
known by one appellation. a given
name.
When 1t became necessary our Jew
ish people selected surnames that
meant something and are generally
euphonious, as Rosenbaum, Silverstein.
Loeb, Rothschild, and so on. When
Anglo-Saxon surnames were added or
adopted In the eleventh and twelfth
centuries some seem to have been
taken haphazard, and are of no signiti-
canoe. Our colored people retained.
in the main, after freedom, the sur
name Of "Old Mastah." Most of them
felt proud Of the family whom they
served and spoke of them as my
white folks" mo GROCER blood in our
family, and US cullored ones amt got
no use for po' white trash, neither"
Perhaps it is not generally known that
the term ""po' white folks" so often
used by the negro servant, had no spe-
cial reference to financial conditions,
meaning, rather, social status-"Man-
nahs and customs" as they sometimes
expressed it.
One example of family fealty is the
case of Nelson Crews. This really re-
markable negro was born on the plan
tation Of DR.. Samuel Crews of How.
ard county, Missouri, who at that time
owned over 500 negro servants. His
parents were far above the average in
intelligence and integrity. Joanna,
the fine old mother of Nelson Crews.
lives now in Kansas City. She was
the weaver at the Crews home, and l
yet in the possession of the family
that bear evidence OF her skill.
With US yet IL stanch, dependable
negro woman. Industrious and self
supporting, though long past three
score years and ten, who, though
she has led to the altar-yes, led Is the
word-three husbands, has never
changed her surname; she either made
pre-nuptial arrangements with her va
rious suitors or brought them to taw
afterward. for Susan Clark she was, is
and ever will be. Il was bon and
bred on the plantation of Beverly R.
Clark, the finest white folks in Kahn
lucky or any whah upon the yearth,
and twel I meets up with bettah
name l don't see no ''casion to change
mine," insists Aunt Susan.
The numerous Collinses, Bradleys.
Simpsons, Stones, Smarts heareabouts
bear out my assertion that negroes att
er freedom selected for their own the
surname of former owners.
Howard Scott and Wallace Smith.
negroes, good and creditable citizens
of the vicinity of Kansas City, Mo-,
were slaves in the family of sister
Of Cassius Clay. Though they are
proud of the fact that they are Of the
Clay clan of colored folks, they prefer
Smith, the name of the member OF the
family to whom they were assigned.
Among their proudest possessions Is
a portrait of handsome, distinguish
edlooking what man, inscribed on the
margin this testimony:
For my dear old Nanny
From Green Clay Smith"
The donor was, you remember. nom
mated presidential candidate by the
Liberal Republican party.
When Marguerite Williams, two