African American Surnames?

Question

I heared that most African American Surnames are of Welsh origin like Williams, Evans, Jones and Thomas. Does anyone know why this is? I don't think more welsh people owned slaves because Wales isn't a very big country and alot of immigrants from Wales were quakers, so wouldn't want to take part in slavery. If you are African American, what is your surname?

I still don't get why most were Welsh though, there weren't that many immigrants from Wales, we only have a population of 3 million now. Sure there must of been some Welsh slave owners but they weren't the predominant owners purely because of the number of immigrants at that time. Alot of welsh immigrants went to America because they were skilled miners not because they were land owners or whatever. I heared someone say that some slaves took the names of people who helped them to freedom, but I don't know if that's true.

True Rage, I never think of their being alot of immigrants from Wales because I always hear of people being Irish, Italina etc. Wales never really gets mentioned. If that is true I'm ashamed! dammit!

*there, my spelling is shocking today x

lol, I'm keeping this uestion going all by myself! but I found this:
Afro-American population have Welsh names due to the creation of surnames from father's forenames (e.g. John ==> Jones) in a similar style to the Welsh, and some use of former slave owner's last names following emancipation.

Am I bored or what!

Answer 1

I know my surname is english but I don't know about welsh.

But the names come both from the former owners, the abolitionist who helped them to freedom, and from new freedmen just chosen names for themselves. All are true at some point.

What is really a shame is that the darn slave owners couldn't even let the slaves keep their freakin names, that goes go to show how comprehensive the attempt to complete dehumanize the slave was.

Answer 2

All European surnames can be African American surnames. Slaves didn't have surnames. If there were two slaves named Michael in the same area, one owned by Mr. Smith, one by Mr. Jones, people would sometimes call them "Michael Smith" and "Michael Jones" to distinguish between them. Many, not all, slave owners were English. The Germans tended to go through Pennsylvania and west, the Scotch and Irish were too poor to own slaves. Those are generalities and there are lots of exceptions, but an awful lot of black people have English surnames. When the slaves were freed in 1865 a goodly number took their former owners' surnames, because they were already known by it, and settled down to be share croppers. Others spit in their owners' eye and headed west to be cowboys. (About 1/3 of the cowboys, 1865 - 1900, were African Americans; Hollywood didn't show that until the 1990's.) The ones who didn't take their former owners' names sometimes took the name of a person they admired, except Lincoln. That would not have been a wise move in a county where half the barns were still smoldering from the Yankee cavalry. Others took a generic "Black" or "Brown" (in English, again), or the name of their trade (Carpenter, Cook, Baker - more English surnames) and some undoubtedly took the name of their father; Johnson, Moses, Paulson.

Answer 3

Wales, despite being small compared to other European countries, actually punched about its weight in emigration before the US Civil War. Many of the signatures on the US Declaration of Independence were from Welshmen or partly Welsh men. Something like 4,000 Welshmen died in the Civil War!

Later immigrants, from countries like Italy, came in such huge numbers, that Wales' role has been largely forgotten. However, the fact that Welshmen emigrated EARLY and were there during Emancipation, can help you understand why such a high % of US surnames, including those used by slaves, were Welsh.

Answer 4

A lot of them took on the surnames of their owners when they were slaves and passed that down. Also many Lincolns and Washingtons because once the slaves were freed they needed to come up with a surname and those where the two that were admired.

Answer 5

you mean black. and back in the day a lot of africa was colonized by european settlers. and during the slavery times of the us, they were given the last names of their owners. its why malcom little changed his last name to x, it was a slave owners last name, not his "true" last name.