Family history project leads siblings to New Albany

Oct. 4—As a family searches for its roots, the journey led them to a fascinating story of Black history in New Albany.

Historian Kelly Navies, and her brother, Richard D. Navies II, are visiting New Albany this week from the Washington, D.C. area as they explore their family's historical connection to the city.

They are the direct descendants of George Washington Carter, a free Black man and abolitionist who settled in New Albany in the 1820s. Their third great-grandfather was a prominent business owner and landowner, and he is believed to have been an active participant in the Underground Railroad.

But until a few years ago, they didn't know about this connection. A deep dive into their family history uncovered a story about their family's involvement with the Underground Railroad, the Civil War and Reconstruction-era politics.

Kelly is an oral historian who works with the Smithsonian at the National Museum of African American History and Culture in Washington. But her journey to New Albany is for a personal project as she researches her own family's history.

The two siblings arrived in New Albany Saturday, and they will leave Tuesday. During their stay, they have visited the Carnegie Center for Art & History and various sites connected to their ancestral history.

Kelly said she wanted to put her "feet on the ground" in New Albany as she learns about the lives of her ancestors.

"I've been dreaming about this place ever since I've started learning this story," she said. "I had New Albany in my dreams. I was like, something's compelling us to continue the story."

PIECING IT TOGETHER

Three years ago, a family member left Richard with a box, which they later realized was full of historic family photos. In December 2019, Kelly was celebrating Kwanzaa at his home when Richard brought her in to see what he had found.

The box contained antique tintypes from the Civil War period. One was a photo of their great-great-grandfather, Edward, with his wife and child, and another photo was of Edward wearing a Civil War military uniform.

Until then, Kelly had only heard "little bits of a story" about Edward fighting for the Union in the Civil War, but this photo was confirmation, and it led to initial research that ultimately became a much bigger project.

She showed the photo to her colleague, Krewasky Salter, who is a curator of military history. She learned that Edward was wearing stripes indicating his rank as captain. Salter found the name Edward Carter listed in his book about Black officers in the Civil War, but they didn't only find Edward's name listed — they also found the name Hannibal C. Carter.

The family has a tradition of passing down names from generation to generation. The younger brother of Kelly and Richard is named Hannibal, and he was named after Edward's son, or their great-grandfather. However, the Hannibal who served in the Civil War was a mystery, and they were intrigued to see whether the two soldiers were related.

The question of the soldier's identity eventually led Kelly and Richard to the National Archives to look at pension records. As they looked through records, they learned that Hannibal C. Carter was Edward's brother — a sibling that they did not know existed.

But that was only the start. They learned that Hannibal C. Carter was a Black politician in the South during the Reconstruction era, and a simple Google search brought up plenty of information about the historical figure.

Hannibal served two terms with the Mississippi House of Representatives and served as the Mississippi Secretary of State in 1873.

"I was just like, this has been here all this time?" Kelly said. "How did we not know this. That's the thing we kept asking ourselves, because our father was an African American studies teacher, and we're just like, how did we not know this."

Hannibal was the missing piece that allowed them to dig even deeper into their family's history. They eventually came across the 2001 book "The Underground Railroad in Floyd County, Indiana" by New Albany historian Pam Peters, which includes a section about George Washington Carter, the father of Edward and Hannibal.

Kelly contacted the Carnegie Center for Art and History, and they connected her with Peters. The museum's permanent Underground Railroad exhibit also includes information about George Washington Carter.

THE HISTORY

George Washington Carter bought his first property in New Albany in 1829, and he worked as a barber and tobacco shop owner. He owned the livery stable run by John Shrader, a building that is now home to the Exchange restaurant in downtown New Albany.

He owned many properties in the city, including a vineyard, and his estate was once valued at $50,000, according to Peters. He was a "man to be reckoned with," she said.

Although George lived in New Albany, he traveled widely. In 1850, he went to Sacramento, California to mine gold before returning to Indiana.

Both of his sons, Edward and Hannibal, were actually educated in Ontario, and he often traveled from Floyd County to Canada.

George is strongly believed to have been providing assistance to escaped slaves, according to Peters.

"There's a lot we don't know about what George Washington Carter's family was doing," Peters said.

Shortly before the Civil War broke out, Hannibal and Edward traveled down the Mississippi River with their father, and they were in Vicksburg, Mississippi when the Civil War began in 1861.

Both brothers were in the Louisiana Native Guard before fighting for the Union with the United States Colored Troops.

After the war, Hannibal began his political career during Reconstruction, a period when many Black men held elected office at the local, state and federal levels.

Through historic newspaper articles, Kelly and Richard learned that Edward was involved on the local level with Reconstruction efforts as a school superintendent in Mississippi, and he faced issues with white teachers who refused to report to him, she said.

She also learned that Hannibal shot back at Ku Klux Klan members after they began shooting at a political rally in Memphis, Tennessee. As the violence and disenfranchisement of Black citizens worsened in the South, he moved to Chicago in 1886.

"A lot of this is documented, which is really exciting, because you're always hearing that you can't find Black history... but just the stuff that we find in the newspapers and continue to find in the newspapers is amazing," she said. "But first, you have to know what you're looking for."

The siblings visited Fairview Cemetery, where George is buried. In 1878, George was found dead in the Silver Creek at age 77.

According to Peters, a newspaper account speculated that he died of suicide "as for years he had occasional spells of insanity."

However, his mysterious death leaves Kelly and Richard wondering what actually happened. Silver Creek was among the stops on their visit.

Peters said it is essential to highlight these stories of the community.

"For a community, I think this kind of history of a minority in the community is so important, because people have always just ignored Black history," she said. "That is one of the things that drove me to do the research, because I thought, there is a story to be told here about the African American community before the Civil War, because African Americans were here already when the Scribners came."

Laura Wilkins, museum operations leader at the Carnegie, was thrilled to learn about the family's research.

"The Underground Railroad exhibition has been here for 15 years, and of course, we have been working with members of the community to find ways we could find an even more enhanced exhibit going forward," she said. "We hope that Kelly Navies' research on George Washington Carter can be incorporated."

Richard said their family's history is a story that needs to be told, and it has "so many lessons about America in general."

"A lot of it's been submerged, hidden, forgotten," he said. "Especially now, when everyone's so ahistorical these days. People want to shape history to make it fit certain political ends, and really, history shouldn't be shaped totally by opinion."

"We're following it to see wherever it goes, and whatever it reveals, that's what it reveals — the good and the bad, the ugly and the bright side of history," he said. "I think it's a lot of lessons for us today."

Kelly and Richard hope to eventually put their research into a book and documentary, and they want to continue traveling to places like Mississippi to further connect with their family's story.

Richard said a historical line can easily be broken "if we don't do things to keep it alive."

"There's a lot of history that families keep and keep, like the tintypes that actually kicked off the whole thing," he said.