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Mahala Childs
By Laken Smith, University Archivist
In 1858, Mahala Childs was brought to Athens Female Institute by Madame Jane Hamilton Childs. Mahala spent over 40 years as an enslaved individual traveling from Washington D.C., where she was born in 1820, to Athens, Alabama, where she was last documented to be. For 11 of years, she labored on campus, initially enslaved by Madame Childs and later as a free woman.
There is much that we do not know about Mahala and what little we do know comes from historical narratives such as Dr. Elva Bell McLin’s, “Madame Childs: The Lady and the Legend.” However, time and technology has given us the ability to learn a little more about who she was.
We first see Mahala in the 1850 Federal Census Slave Schedule. Her name is not given, however, there are four people listed under Jane Hamilton Child’s name. The only personal information provided for enslaved people was their age, their sex, their color, and conditions that the government considered disabilities.
Of the four individuals, three of them were female with their ages given as 30, 19, and 10, and one was a one-year old male. Based off of what we know about Mahala’s background, we can safely say that she is the 30-year-old female listed. This is further supported in census records that follow the emancipation.
It is tempting to deny the confirmation that the listed female is Mahala, however, much of Black genealogy and history comes down to deduction and even imagination. We learn in the 1900 census that Mahala is 80 years old and has two children, Ann and John. Ann is listed as 59 years old and John reports his age as 43. All of these ages correlate with Mahala and the children listed on the 1850 slave schedule.
It is not clear who the other female was or where she ended up. In our current narratives, there is only one other named person enslaved by Madame Childs–man named Raphe Childs. Raphe is enumerated on the 1866 state census and lists himself as being between 50 and 60 years old. There is also a female listed as being between 40 and 50 years old, however, the 1866 census only names the head of the household and did not report relationships. The presence of Mahala’s family, all born into chattel slavery, is never mentioned.
The 1900 census provides the most information about Mahala, as we learn that her parents were both born in Virginia and that, besides two children of her own, she also has a grandson named William; he is Ann’s child and reports his age as 36 years old.
Mahala does not appear in the 1910 Census and it is possible that she died in the years between the two enumerations. Nevertheless, Ann and John remained in Limestone County. In fact, Ann is listed as working at the college herself. While there were few job opportunities for Black women, the fact that Ann becomes a valuable contributor to the school cements the legacy of the Black Child’s family at Athens State.
There is more to Mahala and her family’s story, some of it recorded in census records, and some that must be filled in using our knowledge of the time. We know of the hardship and confusion posed in the decades following slavery, such as surname changes, the mad rush to find lost family members, and the problem of spouses who were split apart and left to disentangle the mess of multiple marriages and families.
These events had profound effects on Black families and causes issues of belonging and identity to this day. That is why it is so crucial to purposefully separate Mahala and other historically marginalized people from their enslavers and oppressors. To Madame Childs and many others, she was “Mammy”- a word that pushes Mahala into a racist stereotype. In order to truly see her as a human and an individual, we must repair these injustices whenever possible.
