This web site was put up on the unlikely chance that someone reading it might know something about Priscilla Silkwood, who was freed from slavery at Jonesboro, Illinois, on the Trail of Tears.  Can you tell me anything about Priscilla? 

 

Who originally enslaved her? Where was the plantation in the South where Brazilla Silkwood from Mulkeytown, IL, orginally met her? (Some accounts say the plantation was in Georgia, some say in North Carolina.  One story says South Carolina.)  I have been convinced that researcher John Whitfield is likely correct that she came from the Borders plantation in northeast Georgia.

 

Who was  the "Cherokee chief" that the legend says owned her?  Could he have been one of the two men who with their pregnant wives were reported to have stayed at the home of Winstead Davie?  One of those "chiefs" was the Rev. Jesse Bushyhead, who led one of the detachments.  He was not a chief, but was very prominent and highly respected for his intelligence and oratorical skill.   He was frequently called  "Chief"  and many years later, his son Dennis was voted into the position of Principal Chief of the Cherokee Nation.  The other chief  at the Davie home was reported to have been "Chief Nowata," and the late Geneva Wiggs pronounced it "Nowattee."  That is confusing because "Nowata" is a Delaware word, and I have been unable to find any Cherokee by that name. I am convinced that "Chief Nowattee" was really the Rev. Stephen Foreman, whose wife had a baby on December 3, 1838, the very day that Winstead Davie applied for a licence to keep Cherokee in his home.  This fits with the Davie oral tradition that these two Cherokee "chiefs" and wives and one baby stayed in the Davie home. I think it is possible that the Foreman baby was actually born that day in the Davie home because the birthplace as Dutch Creek was simply what Southern Illinois University history professor George Washington Smith believed and passed on to the Foreman descendant who asked.

 

I once thought one of these two detachment leaders, both ministers and ethical men, might have taken on Priscilla as a slave simply to save her from being sold down to New Orleans.  However, I can find nothing to support this view.  I think another "chief" or leader must have "owned" her as the Cherokee  made the forced migration through Illinois.

 

Someone said there was a photo of Priscilla, but early researchers never found one.  Do you have one in your attic? We did find in 2009 a family photo of the Harrison family with whom Priscilla lived after the death of Brazilla Silkwood, and family oral tradition said that one in the photo was Priscilla.  However, the family did not want the photo to be published. We are still hoping to find a clear photo of Priscilla by herself.

 

I have been unable to find Priscilla's freedom papers.  John Allen thought they were at the Franklin County court house, and they may have been when he wrote that.  The papers would have only been there if they survived the 1843 courthouse fire.  When I went there, they told me no such papers are there now.  I wrote the state address the courthouse employee gave me in case the papers had been transferred to Springfield, but I did not even receive the courtesy of a reply.  If you have any information, please email me at sueglasco@hotmail.com!