Harriet Weeks

Also known as “Allie.” See Weeks Family for more information.

Harriet Weeks married Thomas Henry Weightman (a member of the Louisiana Legislature) eventually, but she was first married to David Meade, who died in 1854, and was sometimes addressed as H. C. Meade.¹ Her only son by this first union, Everard Meade, died circa August 1863 in Texas.

Allie began her journey to Texas in early 1863, writing to her step-father John C. Moore near Kechi on May 13 that she was “with my negroes on my way to Texas, [and] will go into the wheat portion of the state, somewhere near Dallas or in that neighborhood,” via Marshall. She was concerned about the plans of Mr. Lourd (the overseer) with regard to “David’s negroes,” presumably those of David Weeks Magill. Maggie was afraid Lourd was going to return home and “leave the negroes in strange hands. If the enemy come, there will be no one to move them,” she noted, “and David runs the risk of losing them all.” She added that the slaves were generally “discontented” with “being hired out in different places” and “are anxious to go on to Texas.” Allie herself would have preferred to remain near Mansfield, she continued, but “could find no occupation for my negroes,” and predicted that Willis Prescott would also soon take “his mother’s negroes on to Texas.”²

By June, Allie had arrived in Texas and settled in Starville, Smith County, but had apparently become “quite sick” in the interim. She also expressed sadness that “my excellent servant Henry,” apparently her driver, had “died of typhoid pneumonia.” The majority of her other enslaved people had been sent “to the wheat field” with a “Mr. Rawlins,” and she hoped they would “find employment there for some time.”³

In September 1863, after the death of her son Everard, Allie began to look into moving to Freestone County, where Mr. Rawlins had found a good place with “land enough … for Mr. Brashear’s and my forces to cultivate it.”⁴ The slaves were moved shortly thereafter, according to a subsequent letter.⁵ At any event, by 1864, the county tax assessor found 50 slaves belonging to “Mrs. H. C. Meade,” worth $40,000, and 68 slaves belonging to “Mrs. M. P. Brashear,” worth $47,600, living in Freestone.⁶

<img src=“./img/meade-freestone.jpg” title=“Freestone County Tax Rolls snippet from 1864” width=“100%”>

Line from the Freestone County Tax Rolls for 1864 showing 50 “Negroes” belonging to Mrs. H. C. Meade.

Allie herself did not follow them immediately, however, and remained in Starrville until near the end of November, arriving in early December at the new place near the Cotton Gin post office, though unaccompanied by Weightman.⁷ There she secured arrangements for hiring out that were “more liberal,” in her view, than those offered by other Texas employers.⁸

Somewhere around this time, she appears to have married Thomas Weightman, and was also increasingly pleased with Freestone County, writing in June 1864 about the beautiful scenery, good corn crops, and abundant cattle for milking, which was producing “any quantity of nice milk and butter, more than whites and blacks can consume.”⁹ Weightman apparently did some work hauling salt from Jordan’s Saline.¹⁰

Later in 1864, however, Harriet expressed concerns to her step-father about her situation, complaining that it was difficult to find land to purchase or enough food to feed “the negroes.” Taxes were taking a toll, and she and her husband were contemplating moving to a “very good and much improved place” in Walker County that William F. Weeks had recommended. Harriet herself was interested in the move because “it will be nearer the boys,” though she regretted the prospect of leaving Mrs. Brashear.¹¹ A later letter from William F. Weeks to Moore confirmed that Thomas Weightman had rented a place in the county adjoining Walker with “a good dwelling house, cotton gin, & ten cabins, containing 475 acres, at $3 per acre in specie.” Although Weeks considered the rent high, it would be “easily paid if he succeeds in making cotton.”¹²