Betsy's family
Betsy was born into slavery on Anguilla, she was 42 years old at the time of the 1827 census and was tasked as the enslaved seamstress for the household of William Hughes.
Her son Hamilton was 12 years old in 1827 and was tasked as a plantation "stock minder" by William Hughes.
Betsy's daughter Ebby was 8 years in 1827 and her son James was four years old, both young children were already recorded as "intended domestic" laborers for the household of William Hughes.
Hamilton, Ebby and James were baptized on July 3, 1827 by Reverand GC Cummings at Anguilla's Anglican Church. 1827 is the first year any Baptisms were recorded at the church. The children were recorded by the church as "Slave of William Hughes." Betsy was recorded as their parent. The records did not record a father nor a lastname for the children. As children followed the status of their mother (children born to an enslaved woman were born with enslaved status) it was not important to the enslaver class to record fathers nor surnames. The children's father, a meaningful relationship, is a notable silence in the archives.
Betsy and her youngest children may have lived in the main Estate House while they toiled as domestic laborers, while Hamilton by age 12 toiled as a stock minder and may have been forced to lived separately from his mother and sisters in the Locus D household by the pens.