I'm researching my 3rd great grandfather, John P. "Peter" Faircloth. He was born in Petersburg, VA in about 1813. He was the son of a Negro slave woman named Mason and John Faircloth, a small plantation owner. John Faircloth emancipated young Peter when he was 5 years old in 1818. John Faircloth gave Peter $1000, land, and additional money to acquire for himself "an English education" in his will dated in 1819. Another part of John Faircloth's will gave Peter's mother Mason to his friend and attorney Collin W. Barnes until his death. Afterwards, Mason was to be given her freedom.

John Peter moved to Connecticut around 1840. It is my guess that he stayed in Virginia until after his mother had died. John Peter first went to Durham, CT where he married Olive Smith Murkett (or Mucket), and his occupation was as a shoemaker and farm laborer, later he lived in East Haddam, where he died in the late 1880's. Peter and Olive had several children who were born and died in the East Haddam, CT area.

I will add more details to this journal in the coming days.