by AUDREY CREEL / December 26, 2020
©Audrey Creel, 2020 (All rights reserved.)

Laima Maney was born in approximately 1854 in Tennessee.[i] It is unknown where Laima was enslaved prior to emancipation. The only member of the Maney family who did not enslave a young girl approximately Laima’s age in 1860 was David D. Maney.[ii] Therefore, it is most likely that Laima was enslaved on the Maney plantation (present day Oaklands Mansion) during the Civil War, as both Lewis Maney and Dr. James Maney enslaved a six-year-old girl in 1860.[iii] There is no known information about Laima’s family, so it is unknown if Laima was enslaved with her family or if she had been separated from her parents by the slave trade.

Following the Civil War, Laima moved into a home in Murfreesboro, Tennessee.[iv] Laima lived in the same household with a younger African American man, Jim Terry.[v] It is unknown how Laima knew Jim Terry or if they were related. Laima found employment in Murfreesboro as a farm laborer, though it is unknown by whom she was employed.[vi] There are no further known records for Laima Maney. It is unknown what happened to Laima after 1870.

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References

[i] United States Census, “Maney, Laima,” 1870 United States Census, 1870, accessed December 26, 2020 from ancestry.com database, https://www.ancestry.com/imageviewer/collections/7163/images/4275523_00190?treeid=&personid=&hintid=&usePUB=true&usePUBJs=true&pId=10564786.

[ii] United States Census, “D.D. Many,” 1860 United States Census – Slave Schedule, 1860, accessed December 26, 2020 from familysearch.org database, https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:33S7-9BSD-FR2?cc=3161105&personaUrl=%2Fark%3A%2F61903%2F1%3A1%3AWKT5-VW6Z.

[iii] United States Census, “L.M. Manney,” 1860 United States Census – Slave Schedule, 1860, accessed December 26, 2020 from ancestry.com database, https://www.ancestry.com/imageviewer/collections/7668/images/tnm653_1285-0120?treeid=&personid=&rc=&usePUB=true&_phsrc=iaY858&_phstart=successSource&pId=92225235. See also: United States Census, “James Manney,” 1860 United States Census – Slave Schedule, 1860, accessed December 26, 2020 from ancestry.com database, https://www.ancestry.com/imageviewer/collections/7668/images/tnm653_1285-0152?treeid=&personid=&rc=&usePUB=true&_phsrc=iaY855&_phstart=successSource&pId=92227684.

[iv] United States Census, “Maney, Laima,” 1870 United States Census.

[v] United States Census, “Maney, Laima,” 1870 United States Census.

[vi] United States Census, “Maney, Laima,” 1870 United States Census.