Oaklands

Containers:

Box 3, Folder 3

Scope and content:

There are newspaper clippings about the Watts family. Included is a newspaper article, "Number of Colored Residents Have Been Here for 50 Years," 28 January, 1934 about families in Roanoke that were enslaved 50 years earlier. Nettie Simms Calloway claims that her father, L. M. Simm, was owned by Colonel William Watts and that her great-grandmother was enslaved by General Edward Watts at Oaklands. Other family names of enslaved persons are named in the article.

An obituary for Colonel William Watts mentions that a large group enslaved people were around him at his death including Henry Langhorne who had attended him during the war and throughout his life. Colonel Watts left him $1,000 in his will and a permanent home.

Language:

English

Access and use