Drayton Hall

Continuing our tribute to enslaved mothers and grandmothers, we recognize Judy and Siss.

Because enslavers typically didn’t record last names, it can be impossible to fully reconstruct families from the written record alone. There appear to have been multiple women named Judy living at Drayton Hall around the same time. One of them had a daughter named Siss who gave birth to a girl on July 31, 1792. Siss had a son born a few years later.

Infectious diseases were a constant danger for everyone on the plantation, but children and their mothers were particularly affected. Vaccinations, called inoculations at the time, played a large role in preventive healthcare. Charles Drayton, a physician, recorded inoculating three of Judy’s children one summer, probably for smallpox.

Like many women, Judy and her daughter Siss were mentioned in the Drayton diaries when they gave birth, but are otherwise absent from detailed records. This practice, unfortunately common at the time, is a reminder that the humanity of these women and children and their families was not acknowledged.

You may view digitized archives from Drayton Hall at the Lowcountry Digital Library any time: https://lcdl.library.cofc.edu/content/drayton-papers-1701-2004/