Jacob Hite’s Fateful Move

This exhibit is supposed to share Abba’s story, so why dedicate an entire page to Jacob Hite?

Because he is Abba’s first documented enslaver, and his decisions directly affected her and her family.

After his first wife, Catherine (O’Bannon) Hite, died, Jacob married Frances Madison Beale Hite on November 10, 1772 when Abba was around age 3.

Jacob was an ill-tempered man who feuded with his neighbors, his friends, and local authorities. In the early 1770s, he got into financial and legal trouble and was at increasing risk of losing his property, both land and enslaved people, so he started to transition his personal and professional dealings south. 

By 1775, Jacob had moved to present-day Greenville, South Carolina with his wife, Frances; two of their youngest daughters, Eleanor (Nelly) and Susan (Suckey); as well as the people he enslaved, including Abba and her parents.

He was not just cantankerous in nature, but Jacob was a notoriously untrustworthy businessman. When he moved to South Carolina, he built his new homestead – complete with barns, a mill, stables, and fields – on illegally obtained land on the boundary line created in the 1770 Treaty of Lochaber that divided the Cherokee nation from the British colonies. Cherokee land could not leave the Cherokee nation, so when Jacob bought land from a friend’s half-Cherokee son, it was an illegal sale. The Cherokee tribe sued Jacob for the return of the land and won, but he refused to leave, which would prove a fatal mistake.

Think like a historian

Since both Jacob and Frances owned enslaved people, historians are unsure if Jacob was Abba’s first enslaver or if she came from the Madison enslaved community via Frances. Regardless, both enslaved groups formed one community after the 1772 marriage, and Abba, her parents, and perhaps her siblings, were in that community.

Historians know that Nelly Madison Hite, Isaac Hite Jr.’s first wife, brought enslaved people from her family home at Montpelier to Belle Grove after her marriage as part of her dowry. If Abba came to be enslaved by Jacob Hite through his marriage to Frances Madison, it is entirely possible that Abba’s parents were formerly enslaved by the Madisons, which would mean that Abba had living kin at Montpelier when she came to Belle Grove in 1790. 

The names of Abba’s parents are unknown, but there is a possibility that she may have named her children for them or that their names were used in naming her grandchildren. Historians have observed that individuals enslaved by the Madisons were allowed to name their children after relatives. For example, the name Frank is well used at Montpelier, so Frank could have been enslaved there, too. Like Abba, we have no other information on Frank’s ancestors. 

Did you know?

Frances was aunt to President James Madison and his sister, Eleanor (Nelly) Conway Madison Hite of Belle Grove (Major Isaac Hite Jr’s first wife). This means Nelly Hite’s aunt married Isaac Hite Jr.’s uncle.