The Real William Veal

William Veal was born in 1802 in Tennessee, and died 15 January 1891, in Centreville, Mississippi, a small town near Woodville, the town center of Wilkinson County. He was married to Mary Brent, who was born around 1819 in Louisiana and died 15 January 1898 in Centreville. Together they had eight children: Kitty (b. 1840), Calvin, Duncan (b. 1841), Madison (b. 1842), Nolan (b. 1847), Charlotte (b. 1851), Preston (b. August 12, 1852), and Florence (b. 1854). 

William was the son of Peter Veal, a free man of color, who was born about 1775 in North Carolina, and died around 1845 in Centreville. Peter’s father was of African descent, which has been verified by Y-DNA testing of one of his male descendants. His mother was of European ancestry, which meant Peter was free due to the legal status of his mother, in conformance to North Carolina laws at that time. Peter’s wife, Sylvia, was an enslaved woman of African descent, and though William’s father was a free man of color, William and his thirteen siblings were enslaved due to the legal status of their enslaved mother. 

The earliest record of Peter Veal’s family is in the list of enslaved people on the 1820 will of their slaveowner Duncan Stewart, who was born 1760 in North Carolina, fought in the Revolutionary War, and received land grants and moved to Clarksville, Tennessee. In 1809 Duncan Stewart moved his family, along with the people he enslaved to Centreville, Mississippi, and eventually to Holly Grove Plantation. Peter Veal was not in the inventory of Duncan Stewart because he was a free man of color, but his wife Sylvia (Silvy) and the children were listed. William (Bill), who would have been around 21 years old, is listed with a value of $575. My great-great-great grandfather Robert, younger brother of William, is listed with a value of $525. After the death of Duncan Stewart, his wife Penelope Stewart and her children inherited the Peter Veal family. In 1834, his son James Alexander Stewart, in a family estate arrangement of some type, sold Bill (William), age 28, to his mother Penelope Stewart for $1000.

William Veal was enslaved by Duncan Stewart and later by his son James Alexander Stewart for 63 years of his life. After the Civil War, the Wilkinson County census and deed records show that William stayed in Centreville with his wife and family until his death in 1891.

In the 1870 Wilkinson County Federal Census William Veal, then 68 years old, was listed in District 1 as a mulatto, a farmer with $400 personal property and no real estate. On April 23, 1875, William, his son Preston Veal, and Elvira Veal enter a deed of trust for use of supplies, land, and mules, in an agreement for a share of the corn, cotton, peas, and potatoes, that his family produced. In the 1876 Wilkinson County tax records, William owned one horse, no cattle, and land valued at $95 dollars. On February 15, 1879, William was one of the trustees who acquired land to build Chapel Baptist Church in Woodville, Mississippi. In 1880, William, then 76 years old, lived with his wife Mary, 68 years old, and  was a house servant working on the Stewart Place in Centreville. 

William Veal was a member of one of the earliest Black families of Wilkinson County. He and his family were enslaved on James Alexander Stewart’s Holly Grove Plantation when the Civil War started. After the advance of the Union forces into the Mississippi River Valley in 1863, several of his children and others on the plantation who were old enough, ran away from the Holly Grove Plantation and joined in the fight for their freedom.

Next: The Fighting Veals