Our history did not begin with American slavery. Our family roots began in the beautiful continent of Africa many decades ago.  DNA tests conducted by African Ancestry, Inc. revealed that some of our ancestors hailed from Angola (the Mbundu people), Ghana (the Akan people), and Nigeria (the Yoruba & Fulani peoples).  Our ancestors were taken against their will from their homelands in West and West-Central Africa. After being forcibly transported to America, our ancestors first lived in slavery in North and South Carolina and Virginia before they were taken to Mississippi. 

     Although our family lived near Senatobia in Tate County, Mississippi, the roots of the Reed Family have been successfully traced back to Abbeville County, South Carolina. There in 1846, the first ancestor to eventually carry the Reed name was born into slavery on the late Rev. William H. Barr’s plantation.  Our ancestor was given the name William, but he was mostly known as "Bill".  His father, who was also enslaved on the Barr farm, was named Pleasant (Pleas) Barr.  Through genealogical research, there is evidence that his mother was named Isabella. 

      According to oral history, the Barr Family of South Carolina 'sold' Grandpa Bill to the Reids.  Research has confirmed that when he was just a teenage boy, he was 'sold' to Lemuel Reid of Abbeville County shortly before 1860. William Barr, Jr. 'sold' his father, Pleasant, to a man named James Giles.  Giles took Pleas away to Ripley, Mississippi in 1859. That was the last time Grandpa Bill Reed ever saw his father again, as he never knew where his father was taken, according to oral history.

      Genealogy research has found that Pleasant Barr lived the remainder of his life in Ripley, Mississippi until his demise in 1889 at the age of about 75.  Research has also confirmed that William Barr, Jr. took Isabella and the remaining enslaved people on the Barr farm to Pontotoc County, Mississippi in 1859, leaving Grandpa Bill and his younger sister, Mary, to be cared for in South Carolina by an older sister.  According to Cousin Isaac Deberry, Grandpa Bill never mentioned his mother, but he often talked about an older sister who took care of him.  There is evidence that this sister was named Mariah.  Per the 1880 Pontotoc County census, Isabella Barr was living with Henry Clay Beckley and was reported as being his aunt.  Clay Beckley was the son of Pleasant Barr's sister, Sue Barr Beckley.

     Shortly after the Civil War, Grandpa Bill Reed joined a wagon train pulled by mules that took recently-emancipated African-Americans to Mississippi. According to his grandson, Isaac Deberry Sr., Grandpa Bill passed on to him that someone who had been to Mississippi came on the "Reid Place" and told them that Mississippi was the "Land of Milk and Honey" where they could have a much better life.  They soon packed up their few belongings and followed this person to Panola County, Mississippi (Como).  On this wagon train were his sister, Mrs. Mary Pratt, their niece, Fannie McKee, a cousin, Glasgow Wilson, and other African-American families from Abbeville, South Carolina.  Unknown to Grandpa Bill, his father was living just 60 miles away in Ripley.  Isabella and his paternal grandmother, Fanny Barr, and other family members were less than 100 miles away in Pontotoc County, Mississippi. Sadly, Grandpa Bill never knew it and often wondered what became of them.

     Shortly after his arrival in Mississippi, Grandpa Bill Reed married a young, part-Cherokee Indian girl named Sarah Partee in 1871.  Grandma Sarah, who was born around 1852 in Panola County, was the daughter of a black enslaved cook named Polly Partee.  Family lore claims that Sarah's father was a Cherokee Indian.  Sarah and her family had been enslaved on Squire Boone Partee's plantation in Panola County, and they continued to work for the Partee Family after slavery.

     Bill & Sarah Reed had eleven children.  One child, a daughter, died at a very young age.  The Reed Family settled in the nearby Looxahoma community of Tate County, Mississippi sometime before 1880. Grandpa Bill Reed was a farmer and landowner.  The earliest land deed that was found at the Tate County courthouse showed him purchasing 150 acres of land in 1899.  Over time he accumulated several hundred acres of land.  Although he couldn't read or write due to the inhumane laws of slavery, Grandpa Bill Reed was considered a very smart man.  He was also a hardworking, loving family man who was able to provide a nice living for his family during that time.  

     Grandpa Bill Reed died in 1937 at the old age of 91.  He lived to see 53 of his 57 grandchildren.  During the week of his death, he had been out chopping wood.  Throughout his life, he shared many stories about his life as a slave in South Carolina with his children and grandchildren. 

     Grandma Sarah Reed died unexpectedly in 1923 in Memphis, Tennessee.  According to Isaac Deberry, she had caught the train to see her daughter, John Ella Reed Bobo, who was married to Eli Bobo.  Shortly after her arrival in Memphis, she had a massive stroke.  Before Grandpa Bill and his sons got to Memphis to see about Sarah, she had passed away.  While they were on their way to John Ella's house, Grandpa Bill's great-niece, Lucille Hunter, met them on the street and told them the bad news.  Grandpa Bill Reed was heart-broken.  Grandma Sarah died at the age of 71.  He later married Dora Webber in 1928.

       The eleven children of Bill & Sarah Reed were:

Researched and compiled by Melvin J. Collier
Great-grandson of Bill & Sarah Reed

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