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200th anniversary of an African-American journey

June of this year marked the 200th anniversary of the first purchase of land on Chincoteague Island by an African-American resident.

One June 11, 1811, Aucraw (Ochrau) Brinney, a former slave freed in 1787 by Charles Stockly of Parksley, paid $212.50 for 75 acres of land from the estate of Bowdoin and Thomas Robins, part of a much larger tract (825 acres) of land sold that year in six separate parcels that encompassed the entire island from Mumford Street on the north to Fisher Drive on the south.

Brinney's parcel stretched from Chincoteague Channel on the west to the Glade on the east, and north-south from Booth Street to Silver Sales Landing, roughly bisected by Willow Street. Thirty years later, Ochrau Brinney Jr., who gained his freedom in 1812 through the 1805 will of Charles Stockly, purchased an additional tract of land that brought the total to 97 acres, extending his father's land southward to Bunting Road. The Brinney homestead itself was located on the northwest section of what is today the Chincoteague Carnival Grounds.

The history of the black presence on the island actually dates to the 1690s with the family of George and Hannah Blake, slaves who managed the stock of John Robins (and perhaps William Kendall) on the Island. Thus it appears there were always a few slaves, less than a dozen at any one time, on the Island from initial colonization through the end of the Civil War.

Records of the 1700s are scarce, but by 1800 there were five free black families totaling 26 individuals on Chincoteague, among them the eight-member household of Ochrau Brinney. Brinney may originally have been a slave on the island; Stockly acquired land on the northern part of Chincoteague through his 1784 marriage to Margaret Allen. By 1799, Brinney Sr. owned three horses, was farming land (likely rented) on the island, and was working his way toward financial independence.

Brinney's purchase of land in 1811 served as the impetus for free black migration to the Island by providing plots of land that other free Negro immigrants could either rent or purchase. He also sold off parcels to whites, and thus generating an integrated community on the southern part of the Island.

In 1835, Ocrau Brinney Jr. and another former slave, Branson Crippen, purchased separate, adjacent tracts of land totaling 125 acres on the northern part of the island just above the high school on Main Street.

This land was adjacent to the property then owned by William Whealton, but appears formerly to have been part of Stockly's holdings, and hence may have been the very land on which Brinney (and possibly Crippen) toiled as slaves. One can only imagine the great satisfaction this must have given former slaves who longed to work their own land for the benefit of their own families. In 1841, however, Brinney and Crippen sold these tracts to Ebea and William Whealton; the southern part of the island seems to have been more hospitable to a black presence.

Genealogy Insider - Free Ancestry.com Civil War Records

To mark the 150th anniversary of the start of the Civil War, Ancestry.com is opening up millions of Civil War records, including the 1860 and 1870 US censuses, for free searches April 7 – 14.

The American Civil War Research Database is Ancestry's effort to compile and link all available records of soldiers who fought in the Civil War. The collection contains state rosters, pension records, regimental histories, photos and journals.

The database is divided into soldier records, regiment records, battle histories, and officer records. By searching soldier records, you can discover the soldier's name, residence, date of entry, regiments, companies, rank, promotions, transfers, events (such as POW, wounded, etc.) and how and where the soldier exited the military (discharge, desertion, muster out, or death). Some states also include in their official records a soldier's birthplace, age at enlistment, occupation, and physical description.

Click here to search Ancestry's American Civil War Research Database.

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