Matilda Hawkins Tyler: Mapping One Woman’s Geography of Kinship and Perseverance

Abstract

This essay journeys through the life of Matilda Hawkins Tyler, a woman once enslaved to the Jesuit order of Catholic priests and to St. Louis University in the nineteenth century. It examines how diasporic violence ruptured and scattered the archival records about her life, obscuring how, over the course of the antebellum period, she strategized, negotiated, and labored to purchase her own freedom and that of her five sons. The essay further explores how digital methodologies can be employed to reconstruct elements of Matilda’s life, her social world, and her values, as well as of other Black women of her era. Using a digital network analysis of Matilda’s kin relationships and spatial analysis of the places where Matilda and her kin lived, the essay demonstrates how Matilda Hawkins Tyler cultivated a strong community, both in slavery and in freedom, who supported one another in surmounting their bondage and seeking stability and equality after they became free.

Keywords:

• digital humanities
• slavery
• African American history
• religion

Disclosure Statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1 I use middle passage in reference to Berlin’s concept of the Second Middle Passage. See Berlin, Generations of Captivity and Many Thousands Gone.

2 United States Federal Census, 1850, 1870, 1880, 1900; “Death Record for Matilda Tyler”; “Charles H. Tyler”; “Matilda Tyler Death Notice”; Garraghan, The Jesuits, 610–620; “Missouri Mission Varia”; Trouillot, Silencing the Past; Camp, Closer to Freedom; Fuentes, Dispossessed Lives.

3 Havermans, Letter to Jan Roothaan; Verreydt, “Memoirs”; Hill, “Autobiography in Three Parts”; “Register of Baptisms”; Van de Velde, Letter to Thomas Mulledy; “Missouri Mission Varia.”

4 Thomas et al., O Say; Kennington, In the Shadow.

5 Verreydt, “Memoirs.”

6 “Tertius Liber”; Verreydt, “Memoirs”; Verhaegen, Letter to Jan Roothaan.

7 “St. Louis Circuit Court Record Book Vol. 17,” 583; “Board of Trustees Minutes”; United States Federal Census, 1850; Financial Records, 1858–1861, 1859–1870, 1862–1865, 1869–1873; “Old St. Ferdinand Records.”

8 Moreover, I chose Kumu for this networking because it enables users to interact with the network, clicking on a person’s node for their biography or an edge for an explanation of their relationship. See https://kumu.io/KLS/jesuits-enslaved-communities. When available, an image of the person can replace the node. For more on how enslaved kinships are manifested in mapping sacramental relationships, and my methodology, see Schmidt, “Enslaved Faith Communities.”

9 Hill, “Autobiography in Three Parts.”

10 “St. Louis Circuit Court Record Book Vol. 18,” 416, 447; “Ledger”; “Consultors and Trustees Minutes.”

11 “Confirmations.”

12 Oliver and Faherty, Religious Roots.

13 United States Federal Census, 1850; White, “Survey”; “Consultors and Trustees Minutes”; “Board of Trustees Minutes”; Financial Records, 1858–1861, 1859–1870, 1862–1865, 1869–1873.

14 St. Louis City Directory, 1860; Consolidated Lists, 1863; “Freedom License for Edmond Tyler”; “Freedom License for George Tyler”; “Freedom License for Thomas Tyler”; “Freedom License for Matilda Hawkins.”

15 “Freedom License for Edmond Tyler”; “Freedom License for George Tyler”; “Freedom License for Thomas Tyler”; “Freedom License for Matilda Hawkins”; Romeo, Gender and the Jubilee, 16; Fuentes, Dispossessed Lives, 14–19.

16 “Freedom License for Edmond Tyler”; “Freedom License for George Tyler”; “Freedom License for Thomas Tyler”; “Freedom License for Matilda Hawkins.”

17 “Colored Colonists.”

18 “The City’s Tribute.”

19 “Baptismal Record”; United States Federal Census, 1850; Collet’s Book; St. Louis City Directory, 1854; “Colored Colonists”; “‘Craps’”; “Said on the Street”; “Regular Republican Ratification Meeting!”; “The City’s Tribute”; Brunson, The Early Image; Brunson, Black Baseball, 135, 324.

20 St. Louis City Directories, 1872–1885; “Deeds.”

21 Dorr, “Race,” 44–47. See also Litwack, Been in the Storm; Wright, African Americans; Wright, Kinloch; Wright, St. Louis; Wright, The Ville, St. Louis.

22 To view these geographical trends, visit https://klschmidt.carto.com

23 “Baptisms, Volume 1”; “Baptisms, Volume 2”; “Marriages, Volume 1”; “Marriages, Volume 2.”

24 Ibid.; United States Federal Census, 1880; “Baptismal Record”; “Henrietta Chauvin Pension Claim”; “Henrietta Chauvin Burial Record”; Financial Records, 1859–1870.

25 Fuentes, Dispossessed Lives, 6.

26 “Confirmations”; “Marriages, Volume 1.”

27 United States Federal Census, 1860–1880; St. Louis City Directories, 1865–1884.

28 “Henrietta Chauvin Pension Claim.”

29 Ibid.

30 United States Federal Census, 1900; St. Louis City Directories, 1883–1916; Patterson, Interview; “The Rose Bud Ball”; “Diamond Dust”; “The Colored Champions Win”; Brunson, The Early Image, 135, 324.

31 Primm, Lion of the Valley, 412–414. See also Gordon, Mapping Decline; Wright, Kinloch; Wright, The Ville, St. Louis; Wright, African Americans; Wright, St. Louis.

32 “Charles H. Tyler Death Notice”; “Adjudged Insane–Matilda Tyler.”

33 “Adjudged Insane—Matilda Tyler.”

34 “Matilda Tyler Death Notice.”

35 “Charles H. Tyler”; “Matilda Tyler Death Notice.”

36 United States Federal Census, 1850, 1870, 1880, 1900; “Board of Trustees Minutes”; Financial Records, 1858–1861, 1859–1870, 1862–1865, 1869–1873.

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Kelly L. Schmidt

Kelly L. Schmidt, PhD, is a public historian and digital humanist who specializes in the history and legacies of enslavement in the context of US Catholicism, as well as in addressing institutional entanglements with slavery, particularly among higher education and religious institutions. She is currently a Postdoctoral Research Fellow for the WashU & Slavery Project at Washington University in St. Louis and formerly served as a Research Coordinator for the Slavery, History, Memory, and Reconciliation Project, an initiative of the Jesuit Conference of Canada and the United States.