Fragments of a Family: The Story of Rose and her Children

The lives of enslaved people rarely appear in the historical record in full. Instead, we find them in scattered entries — names in deeds, ages in inventories, brief descriptions in court cases — pieces that hint at fuller stories we can no longer fully recover. The voices and experiences of the enslaved themselves appear only in glimpses, if at all. What remains of the enslaved are fragments—moments of presence, traces of family, hints of struggle - from which we attempt to reconstruct their lives, piecing together what the archive preserved and acknowledging what it erased.

An enslaved person’s life was always vulnerable to sudden, uncontrollable change. Because the law treated them as property, their location, labor, family connections, and daily conditions could shift at any moment—through sale, inheritance, debt settlement, relocation of an owner, or the owner’s death. These transitions often meant being uprooted from loved ones, sent to unfamiliar places, or forced into harsher work environments, uprooting families, severing communities, and reshaping their daily existence without warning or consent.

This ever-present threat of instability and uncertainty formed the backdrop for Rose’s life and the lives of her children Jim, Henry, Perry and Milton, whose experiences reveal how quickly a family’s circumstances could change.

Rose was born ca. 1796. Her original enslaver was William Shelton who lived in Albemarle County, Virginia where he was enumerated with 12 slaves in 1810. He appeared in Mason County, Kentucky court records on February 8, 1813, when he recorded three deeds of gift, distributing four of his enslaved people to his children. Each of these deeds had been preceded by a bill of sale executed in January 1813.

• To daughter Sally Gillum, negro woman slave Pol
• To daughter Frances Shelton and son Henry Shelton, negro man slave Sherod
• To daughter Mildred Finch, girl slave Matilda
• To daughter Elizabeth, negro woman Rose.

William Shelton Deed of Gift of four slaves, February 8, 1813
Mason County, Kentucky

When a person issued both a bill of sale and a deed of gift for the same enslaved individual, they were not transferring the person twice—they were strengthening the legal transfer. The bill of sale created the appearance of a standard commercial transaction, establishing clear title and shielding the property from future disputes, creditors, or inheritance claims. The deed of gift, filed afterward, revealed the true intent: the enslaved person was being given, not sold, often within a family. Together, the documents protected the recipient’s ownership by pairing the legal security of a sale with the donor’s stated wish to make a gift.

At the time of transfer, Rose was about 17 years old. In 1816, she gave birth to her first child named James (Jim). When William Shelton's daughter Elizabeth married Thomas Gaither in 1817, Rose and her infant son moved with the couple to a farm on Mill Creek, near Helena, about eight miles south of Maysville in Mason County, Kentucky.

Elizabeth Gaither gave birth to two daughters—Mahala Ellen in 1818 and Francis Mary in 1822—before her death later that same year. Rose and her son Jim remained on the Gaither farm and during the following eight years gave birth to three more sons: Henry (1822), Perry (1826), and Milton (1828).  

On December 15, 1830, Rose escaped from the Gaither farm, leaving her sons, 14, 8, 4 and 2 years old, respectively, behind. Witnesses later testified that Thomas Gaither pursued her and conducted a search as far as “General Lee’s” which was undoubtedly the house of General Henry Lee, roughly 3 to 4 miles southwest of the Ohio River. Gaither was unsuccessful in his search and subsequently advertised her as a runaway, providing a description of her – “five feet high, very heavy built, about 35 years of age and light complexion.” 

"A Negro Woman Named Rose" - Reward of $50 Offered

In a chancery suit that was filed in 1838, Gaither’s daughter Mahala and her husband James M. Walker claimed that Rose ran away because “Thomas Gaither treated the said Slave Rose very cruelly and inhumanly.” Gaither was characterized by witnesses as a “man of violent passions” who would “whip to excess when his passions are up.”  Gaither’s neighbor Thomas Worthington reported that he “had whip the girl the day before she ran away but I do not know how much as I left soon after she was tied up.”  When asked “do you not recollect that at the time Rose was whipt that Mr. Gaither Whipt her because she had stolen from you, that you had told her master & that she was about to whip you for telling him,” Worthington noted that he did not, but that “she was whipt for something about her cooking.”  Gaither found Rose to be “very rebellious & threatening & was in the habit of leaving your respondent for a week or ten days at a time and then return to her duty.” He considered her “a very ill tempered and bad servant” and that it was “necessary to correct her at times.” Worthington agreed and noted that Rose was “right smartly so, and I would say that she required whipping some times.”

In 1832, the year of the great Ohio freshet, Gaither made one more attempt to locate Rose and “went to Ohio & searched diligently for said slave but she could no where (sic) be found.” Most likely Rose found assistance at the house of Rev. John Rankin, his wife Jean, and their 13 children who were living on a hill above Ripley. Built in 1828, the Rankin House became one of the most active Underground Railroad stations in the country. The Rankins collaborated with other local communities, especially Red Oak, conducting many freedom seekers to the home Rev. James Gilliland, the long serving minister of Red Oak Presbyterian Church. Red Oak served as a critical waypoint, where conductors guided freedom seekers north through Brown County or east into Adams County.

John Rankin
"The Soldier, the Battle, and the Victory: Being a Brief Account of the Work of Rev. John Rankin in the Anti-slavery Cause." Andrew Ritchie, 1870. 

Life on Thomas Gaither’s farm continued - he owned milch cows and sheep, and raised corn, wheat, hemp and pumpkins. By the time Rose’s sons were 8 or 9 years of age, they were old enough to be hired out or to work in the fields. 

In regard to the value of Jim & Henry's services, Thomas R. Larue spoke in 1838, “both of their general reputation as good hands and of his own personal knowledge as he has laboured with them -- at times and had the opportunity of trying them and has frequently seen them at Labour, Living so near.”  Larue noted, “Jim was "a sprightly active boy, of yellow complexion and weighed 150 to 160 pounds." Would hire for $100 for the last three years and before that from $50 to $75.  

Henry was a stout built boy, of yellow complexion and rather low of stature. Seen such boys hired at public auction for $130 to $140, and at private contract would hire for $100 to $120 per year. For the three years before that from $50 to $75.”

Perry is a boy of yellow complexion but darker than the others. He would have hired for about $25 for the last year. For the year preceding he would have hired for $15 to $20 and before that he was too young to hire for wages.

Younger children were generally considered too young to be hired out, unless for nursing perhaps, but were “worth nothing to a farmer.”  John Pepper, father of Gaither’s third wife, described Milton as “not to be very built when he was 2 or 3 or years old. He is the youngest, and his mother ran off & left him when he was an infant.”  Before he was old enough to work in the fields, young Milton was hired by Michael T. Burgess as a play mate for his own young child. Larue noted that, “Milton is smaller than Perry, would have hired for $15-20 per year. The year preceding would have hired for $10 to $12 and before that time was too young to hire for wages.

In 1838, Rose’s oldest son James, commonly called Jim, also made his escape.  Charles T. Marshall noted, “Jim is the oldest I suppose about 21 or 22 years old tolerably likely and intelligent, worth if here I should say about $ 700 -- he was a good hand , and well behaved. He ran away from Mr. Gaither some time in the month of September 1838 and has not been recaptured, although Mr. Gaither has taken much trouble to get him. Jim for the last year or two has not been very stout, was sick part of that time.” 

Gaither went in pursuit of Jim three times. Michael D. Burgess stated that “I went with him the second trip with him we travelled day and night, Mr. Gaither was very anxious to catch Jim, and did endeavor to catch him. I have understood that he, Mr. Gaither, went three times in search of them. I know that he was gone from the neighborhood three times and it was understood in the neighborhood that he had gone with him after Jim. The third time he caught a negro girl of Phillips that had ran away with Jim and he sent for me to come to his house and get her. I went there and found the girl there, and then I went to inform Mr. Phillips who is my brother in law that Gaither had caught his girl and Phillips came and got her. There were 3 grown negroes & 2 children that ran off together. A reward was offered by Mr. Gaither & the other owners, but whether it was $ 200 or $ 300 I can not State."

Left behind were Jim’s brothers Henry, Perry and Milton. John T. Marshall described them as follows. “Henry aged about 16 or 17 - stout and hearty but of low stature -- He is not good a boy as Jim. He requires watching and attention to make him work I have seen many boys of the same age that was more valuable by $ 100 than Henry and that I would rather have by that sum. He is worth I suppose $ 600 …  Perry about 12 years of age and such as is common neither very good or very bad. I cannot tell how much he is worth. -- …  Milton is about 10 or 11 years of age, either Milton or Perry, do not remember strictly, judging from his appearance I should say was not very stout and active. He seems to be narrow shouldered and delicate of frame.”

On April 21, 1840, James M. Walker’s chancery suit against Thomas Gaither on behalf of his now deceased wife Mahala was finally settled. Walker sold, “all my right title and interest (as a legal heir) to the undivided half of the following slaves – Jim aged about twenty four years,  Rose aged about thirty five years, Perry aged about fourteen years, Henry aged about eighteen years, Milton aged about twelve years, to have and to hold forever” to Thomas Gaither for $960. The bill of sale was produced, certified and recorded on April 29, 1841, in Mason County, Kentucky.

Rose and Jim disappear from the record after their escapes, but the persistence of their enslaver’s searches—and the silence that follows—suggests they succeeded in carving out new lives beyond his reach. Henry, Perry, and Milton remained enslaved in Kentucky, their lives shaped by the loss of their mother and brother and by the tragic nature of a system that held them. Their ultimate fate is unknown. By 1850, the slave schedule enumerated eleven enslaved persons under Thomas Gaither, but no entries match the known ages of Henry, Perry, or Milton.

In the end, the story of Rose and her children reveals the profound costs of enslavement—families divided, futures reshaped—and the extraordinary resolve of those who sought freedom despite the risks. It is just one of many stories that shaped the history of the borderlands of Kentucky and Ohio.

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Links of Interest

Walker v. Gaither Mason County, Kentucky, Court Case No. 13078 (digitized at Family Search)

The Rankin House - Appalachian Freedom Heritage Tour

Red Oak Presbyterian Church - Reverend James Gilliland

General Henry Lee - Old Washington

Researched, transcribed and written by Marlitta H. Perkins, March 25, 2026. Copyright © 2026, All Rights Reserved.