Historic Canton

Historic Canton. Enslavement in Canton. , An 1806 Probate inventory, Captain John O'Donnell, who founded Canton as a plantation in 1785, showed at the time of his death O'Donnell enslaved 48 people of African descent, mostly children who worked the land that is now the neighborhood of Canton. Many names have been lost, but the persons enslaved on the Canton plantation at the time were recorded as: Abraham, 47 Abraham. unkn Ann Budd, 40 Beck, 11 Ben,21 Betty Green, 45 Betty Reed, 53 Bill, 16 Bob, 20 Darle, 21 an unknown 4 year old child Desdemona, 18 an unknown infant child Dick, 15 Elijah, 60 Ephraim, 14 George, 15 Georgia Ann, 2 Hamilton, 11 Harry Johnson, 60 Henry, 11 Isia, 12 Jack, 50 James Addam, 30 Jane, 14 Jim, 17 Jim, unkn John, 6 Josiah, 14 Joy, 7 Mark, 27 Mary Anne, 20 Milly, unkn Minty, 35 an unknown infant child, Molly, 30 Nes, 5 Nelson Johnson, 19 Othello, unkn Phillis, 45 Prue, 9 Rachel, 13 Rachel Johnson, 5 Sam, 28 Sam, 32 Shadrach, 13 Sophy, 10 and Tom, 15. , They were a community of mothers, fathers and children who persevered through unimaginable adversity and oppression to build this place. This marker challenges the property records that reduced these individuals to mere assets, and instead honored their personhood and the foundational contribution of enslaved people and their descendants to Canton.