Had to jump down to comment after reading the section on the Wilson family and some of Professor O'Neill's pamphlet. (I'm familiar with his work & a big fan, but did not know of that publication.) Robert Neilson, Thomas's brother, who also received significant reparations and is my 3xgreat grandfather, had a partner named John Wilson. Both appear in the LOBS database. I did not find any John among the Wilsons there, but I did discover the Wilsons' connection to Henry Daniel Brooke, who was a junior partner in the family firm and was also Robert Neilson's contemporary. Robert Neilson's last of many children, the only one born in the US, was a son named Henry Brooke Neilson. This Henry Brooke (and he appears to have been called by the double-barreled moniker) enlisted as a cavalry officer in the Union Army during the American Civil War. He died fighting in Virginia just months before the end of the war, a source of immense grief to his father and mother Emma. The implicit homage in the namesake--rendered intact, despite its clumsiness--for a beloved child adds to the irony that Robert Neilson, who benefited so ruthlessly from the misery and blood of those whom he enslaved, lost his youngest son and only child born in the US in the war to end slavery on our soil.
This was one of the best walking tours I've ever been on. Thank you Maeve. I learned so much. 💕
Had to jump down to comment after reading the section on the Wilson family and some of Professor O'Neill's pamphlet. (I'm familiar with his work & a big fan, but did not know of that publication.) Robert Neilson, Thomas's brother, who also received significant reparations and is my 3xgreat grandfather, had a partner named John Wilson. Both appear in the LOBS database. I did not find any John among the Wilsons there, but I did discover the Wilsons' connection to Henry Daniel Brooke, who was a junior partner in the family firm and was also Robert Neilson's contemporary. Robert Neilson's last of many children, the only one born in the US, was a son named Henry Brooke Neilson. This Henry Brooke (and he appears to have been called by the double-barreled moniker) enlisted as a cavalry officer in the Union Army during the American Civil War. He died fighting in Virginia just months before the end of the war, a source of immense grief to his father and mother Emma. The implicit homage in the namesake--rendered intact, despite its clumsiness--for a beloved child adds to the irony that Robert Neilson, who benefited so ruthlessly from the misery and blood of those whom he enslaved, lost his youngest son and only child born in the US in the war to end slavery on our soil.