Talk:John Johns

Johns family religion, class and slavery?

I'm writing because I don't have time to clear up a mess, and maybe someone who has time can improve this massively flawed article. The biography of Johns written during Virginia's Massive Resistance era (cited in the text) has major issues, not the least caused by its non-chronological order.

Its appendix(p. 161) discusses a "serious embarrassment" concerning John Johns' sister Henrietta, who was apparently disowned by her father Kensey Johns because of her marriage to a Virginian. It says that Kensey Johns (who was born at West River, Maryland would become Chief Justice of Delaware in 1798 and later Chancellor of Delaware circa 1830, retiring in favor of his namesake and dying in 1848) owned two slaves in 1800 and none by 1810. Also, the main text at p. 4 says that the Quaker Johns family in Maryland freed their slaves in 1807. Emancipation was a major issue among Virginia Quakers, and some left their church because of it, as well as persecution of those with abolitionist views. Of course, the Delaware Johns could very well have disagreed with the Maryland Johns.

Another problem is that Henrietta actually married twice in Virginia. Her first husband, Thomas South, she married in Alexandria, Virginia (which I know was a major slave trading center), yet it also states he owned no slaves in 1819. His name's difficult to google, but since it wasn't a census year, it might be the year of his death. On November 13, 1823, in Upperville, Virginia (in what later became known as Mosby country), Henrietta married Irishman James Byrne, and she died in the same area in 1837. According to the appendix, her father's name was never mentioned in the Byrne family. Did Kensey disown her for marrying beneath her class or because Byrne may have believed in slavery? Furthermore, I don't have time to read the book closely, but was disturbed that neither the initial text nor appendix about Henrietta mentioned the Johns sibling who became a lawyer in 1810 and actually succeeded his father as Chancellor of Delaware, as well as also served as U.S. Representative from Delaware, Kensey Johns, Jr.. That article is also skeletal, not mentioning either the slavery issue so important in that era, nor does it mention Henrietta -- and also gives his religion as Presbyterian (a denomination that split over slavery--I'm not sure how close to his 1857 death). BTW, the appendix p. 163 does discuss how Kensey Johns Sr. served at least one year (and maybe the entire 1786-1842 period) on the vestry of Immanuel Church in New Castle, Delaware.Jweaver28 (talk) 00:43, 14 April 2016 (UTC)