Within this Literature Review, three sources stood out that I find fits the criteria of the naming process in slavery and why slaves ended up changing their name from the name their former slave master gave them.
On the website, facinghistory.org, three interviews took place with former slaves, where they focused on how and why these former slaves changed their names from their slave masters surname which took place after the Emancipation Proclamation was passed in 1865. One of the former slaves explained that after the emancipation was passed, most of the slaves kept the last name of their slave master. Not because they “valued” them so much but they figured it would be easier to be recognized and become citizens of the United States. But him on the other hand felt that keeping the same last name as he former slave master, only held him back in that state of mind as a slave and he wanted to be free from his past. So he decided to change his name through the inspiration of his grandfather to something that had no ties to his former slave master. The next interviewee explained that he changed his name because after the war and the Emancipation was passed, he saw that all former slaves was changing their name so he felt it was only right to do the same because he was known for one name and wanted to change it like everyone else. He then asked his mother what was the last name of his father, who was the brother of his former slave master, and she told him Barnett and that’s what he changed his last name to. The last person that was interviewed ended up changing her name three times. She was born with the same first and last name as her mother, Octavia Smith, under her first slave master and then when she got sold to another slave master, they changed her name to the former housekeeper that lived with them Lottie Smith. She kept that name for a long time until her sister started calling her a different name, Mollie and that name stuck with her for the rest of her life.
The next source is from PBS.org on the research of genealogy specifically slave ancestral research. Kenyatta Berry discussed how if someone wants to look up their ancestral background, it is always hard to start because most slaves did not keep the same last name as their former slave master and the name could have been changed many times for different reasons. So she explains that it is best to start from the 1870 U.S Federal Census and there people can see if their ancestors were free at that time or not. Berry then goes on to explain that when the 1860’s Census came out, most slaves were of course not free then because the Emancipation was not passed until 1865 and if people look that far ahead, they more than likely will not see family members listed. Through the Freedman’s Bureau, which was an agency where free slaves can go and change their names, a lot of former slaves decided to buy land either by their former slave masters or someone else, to start developing a new lifestyle in sharecropping to house and feed their families. First looking up the surname of their ancestors former slave master, they will more than likely find the names of their ancestors that did not completely change their name to something else.
Lastly in a journal article American Speech a section of the article was written by Howard Barker that was called The Family Names of American Negroes, and Barker explains how many common last names such as Washington, Jackson, Johnson could have all some from the highly known presidents and generals from that time of before and after slavery could be some of the names former slaves changed their last name to due to the high status of the name. Most slaves ended up keeping their former master’s last names and the name just continued on through generations. He also explained how many names that most African Americans have today are not as popular as they were over one hundred years ago and says that most names that come from different countries in Europe and migrated over to the states, hold more weight in the United States than it does in the country it came from. He even noted how a lot of very common last names in the United States have no records as to where the name came from, origin, and why it became so popular.
Beloved and the Naming Process 