Article submitted by Nicholle Young; Summary written by Cheri Todd Molter
According to John Guimarin of Augusta Georgia, Jemima Armwood, a free, mixed-race woman, bound three of her daughters to him as indentured servants for the sum of $200. Jemima’s daughters were named Becky (17 years old), Teena (14), and Darcas (12), and they were tasked with taking care of Guimarin’s seven children. Jemima used that $200 to buy her husband’s freedom. Richard “Dick” Youngblood, Jemima’s husband, was described as middle-aged, “short…illiterate but keen, artful, and well acquainted with the world—most any subject [could] furnish him with grounds on which to build plausible stories to secure in his favor the sympathy of others.”
On February 8, 1827, Jemima, Dick, and all of their children, including their bound daughters and five or six others, left Georgia with a cart and headed north. Guimarin stated that the family had been traced to Fayetteville, North Carolina, arriving there between the 18th and 26th of February. As of May, Guimarin was still running an ad for their return to him: He wrote: “A reward of $200 dollars will be paid for apprehending the said Jemima, her husband Dick, Becky, Teena, and Darcas, and deliver them to me or the Augusta Jail.”
Source: Fayetteville Weekly Observer, Fayetteville, N.C., 03 May 3, 1827 • Page 4