Milwaukee Public Museum

Thirty Dollars Down and a Lifetime to Buy
by Albert A. Muchka

EDITOR'S NOTE: This article is reprinted from LORE magazine, vol. 43, no. 4 (December, 1993), p. 5-9, an MPM publication that is a benefit of museum membership. ©1996 Milwaukee Public Museum, Inc.

Imagine that cold clear February morning when Sully Watson, a fifty-five year old Virginia slave, breathlessly approached his master's son, Henry Wood Moncure, in his Richmond mercantile and set the wheels of freedom in motion. What intentions permeated Sully's thoughts as Moncure signed the receipt? Safety for his family and himself? Prospects of a better life? The freedom to shape one's own destiny? Only Sully could tell us of his intentions and those ideas and ideals lie quietly with Sully in Milwaukee's Forest Home Cemetery. However, we have been able to reconstruct the life, tribulations and exaltations of Sully and his family based upon a series of documents and photographs obtained by the History Section for the Museum's permanent collections.

Introduced in the exhibit "Building a Name in Milwaukee" (Feb. - April 1993), the Watson family spoke to us of a quiet pride and perseverance cultivated by years of hard work and self education. The documents upon which the exhibit was based fall into three categories arranged by time and geography.

The Virginia period (1817-1834 plus oral traditions dated previous to 1770) documents are characterized by a series of slave passes, permission letters, receipts and manumission papers written by Sully's master, his master's agents or government officials. These papers underscore the rigid controls and the snippets of freedom granted to slaves by the Virginia establishment. Additional papers of this period address the situation of free blacks in the ante-bellum South.

The papers regarding Elizabeth Custelo and her daughter Susanna, Sully's wife, exemplify the status of the free black in Richmond. Through receipts for the purchase of cloth, rents, payment requests for sewing services, and free black registration certificates we are made keenly aware that Virginia's free black community serviced the needs and lived by the graces of the white community.

Achieving freedom by manumission in 1834 Sully faced his first decision as a freed man. Virginia law required that a freed black must leave the state within one year of manumission. Sully had to decide whether to plead a case before the local courts to stay in Stafford County (his official place of residence and the location of his master's farm) or gather his family and strike out for a new life in the free North. The Watsons chose to move north.

The documents represented in the Ohio period (1835-1849) of the collection are few but telling. Consisting of receipts and three letters we gain insight into a family between families. Working as a mason, harness-maker and painter Sully supported his family on a small plot of land near Columbus. Contact with family in Virginia was maintained through a small tavern in Powhatan County. A single letter, dated 1848, expresses love and wishes for good health and goes on to tell of the rise and fall of religion and the purchase of a friend out of slavery. Transcripts of two letters, from Susanna Watson to her daughter Ann in the Wisconsin Territory express feelings of longing to reunite the family and the ever present news from family and friends. Within these letters we find the cooperation, continuity and strength of family that brings people together over the miles.

By the spring of 1850 the Watson family had arrived in Wisconsin. After an arduous wagon trip the Watsons quickly established themselves in Milwaukee. Documents of the Wisconsin period (1850-1898 plus interviews and corroborating evidence to 1993) paint the image of an industrious family enjoying the fruits of their labors. Contracts to purchase land, build a house, Sully's will, receipts for the purchase of house insurance, a school merit certificate, an application to a fraternal order and nineteen photographs point to the financial and personal growth of the Watson family.

As the new City of Milwaukee grew between 1850 and 1880, so grew the Watson presence. William Thomas Watson, Sully's eldest son, worked as a mason and helped to erect Milwaukee landmarks such as the Iron Block Building, portions of the structures at Soldier's Home and the second Milwaukee County Courthouse. William Thomas was also politically active. An October 1850 account in the Milwaukee Sentinel notes the first political meeting of Milwaukee's black community. In protest of the recently passed Fugitive Slave Act, which allowed the masters of runaway slaves to come north and reclaim their property, William Thomas spoke before the assembled crowd of "slavish commissioners or judges whose fiat would be omnipotent in deciding us to be chattel property".

Sully's death in 1862 at the age of 90 and William Thomas' illness and premature death in 1871 left the Watson women to see the family through. By 1880 corroborative census information and City directories note that the Watson women were able to maintain their homes by working as laundresses, and seamstresses. Economic depressions coupled with the influx of European immigrants reduced the ability of the Watson grandchildren to make a living. Regardless of finances, the Watsons believed in education and the women made certain that the children could read and write. A certificate of academic merit testifies to the participation of the Watson children in the public school system. From the late 1880s onward the sons of William Thomas worked as porters and cooks and were never able to regain their progenitors financial stability. Eventually the family home was sold to make way for the electric car barns.

The remnant of the family moved to a boarding house in the early 1890s. There William Thomas' daughter Nellie met the handsome Anthony Raimey. Married in early 1895 they had their only child, Mabel, in December of the year. Mabel received as many benefits of education as her parents could afford. In 1914 she had entered the University of Wisconsin and earned a baccalaureate degree in English. While working as a secretary for the Milwaukee Urban League Mabel attended Marquette University Law School. She passed the Wisconsin State Bar in 1927 to become Wisconsin's first black female attorney. An interview with a close friend of Mabel Raimey confirms that throughout this period she cared for her aged mother and an infirmed aunt while serving her clients with enthusiasm. Mabel practiced family and business law until she suffered a disabling stroke in 1972. She died 14 years later at the age of 90.

A story of courage? A story of opportunities won, lost and won again? A story of self-help and family values? Yes, the Watson story is all of these things. The core collection of documents and photographs coupled with research in local and governmental sources paints a portrait of everyday people building a family and a better life in extra-ordinary times. We are indeed fortunate to be the caretakers of this fascinating American saga. The documents of the Watson/Raimey Collection exemplify the beginnings and struggle of Milwaukee's African-American heritage. As for Sully, whatever his reasons, we can be glad for his decision to buy his freedom on that cold February day. Without it, Milwaukee would have been something less.

Special note: Since this article was published, further research has contributed to a permanent exhibit in the " Streets of Old Milwaukee" that depicts the Watson home and provides a short history of African American life in Milwaukee before the Civil War.