William Ellison Jr,born April Ellison (April 5,1790-December 51861)

Was a free negro and former slave in South Carolina who achieved success in business as cotton gin maker and black before the American Civil War.He eventually became a major planter and one of the largest property owners,and certainly the wealthiest black property owners in the state.He held 60 slaves at his death and more than 1,000 acres of land.He and his sons were among a number of successful free people of color in the Annabelle years,William was particularly outstanding.His master (and likely father) has passed on social capital by apprenticing him to learn a valuable artisan trade,at which he made a success.After gaining his freedom when he was 26,a few years later he purchased his wife and the children born until then,to try to protect them from further sales.The Act of 1820 made it more difficult for slaveholders to make personal manumissions.William gained his freedom for his sons,quasi-freedom for surviving daughter.During the American Civil War,he and his sons supported the Confederate State of America and gave the government substantial donations and aid.A grandson fought informally with the regular Confederate Army and survived the war.He was named April when born into slavery on a plantation near Winnsboro,South Carolina;the name indicating the month he was born,a common slave-naming practice at the time.In 1800-1802 he was documented as owned by William Ellison of Fairfield County,the son of Robert Ellison,a planter man could have fathered William.William Ellison apprenticed William at age 10 to  cotton gin maker,William McCreight of Winnsboro.This would provide him with a valuable trade to make a living as an adult.Completing his apprenticeship after six years he continued to work at the shop.His earnings went to his master,as he was considered to "be hired out."He continued to learn the variety of complex skills related to cotton gin making and repair.At age 21 he took Matilda,a 16-year old slave woman (1795-),as his consort (slaves did not have legally recognized marriages) and had a daughter Aliza/Eliza Ann with her born in 1811.She married Willis Buckner.The Ellisons had three sons:Henry (1816-August 20,1883),and William Jr.(July 19,1819-July 24,1904),and daughter Maria and Mary Elizabeth (June 11,1824-September 15,1852).It took William time to buy his family out of slavery and try to secure their freedom,not only to earn the money but to work his ways around laws designed to prevent such manumissions.He likely would have first tried to purchase and free his wife,to prevent more of their children from being born into slavery.The manumissions laws in South Carolina made it difficult for him and others to free their relatives,especially children.Purchasing them from slaveholders was one step under the 1800 law,other free men had to certify that the slave could support himself in freedom.This could not be the case for children.the Act of 1820 increased the difficulty as it prohibited slaveholders from making personal manumissions;they had to seek permissions of both houses of the legislature,and the number of manumissions dropped as a result.For many African-Americans,being forced to hold their relatives as property put them at risk.In hard times,property,including slaves,could be confiscated or put up for forced sale to settle debts of an individual.After purchasing his daughter Maria from her owner (as she had been born while her mother was still enslaved)William set up a trust with a friend n 1830 to have legal title transferred to him for one dollar.Col.William McCreighton "owned"Maria,the trust provided for her to live with her father,who could free her if the laws changed.Col.William kept his part of the trust;and Maria lived as if she were free.As a young woman,she married Henry Jacobs,a free man of  color in another county.In the 1850 cenus,she was listed as a free woman of color,no legal document supported that,and William (her daddy),provided for her to received $500 in his will.