In his article One more Piece of the Puzzle: Emily West written for the Compass Rose, the newsletter of the Special Collections Division, University of Texas at Arlington Libraries, Dallas attorney and Texas history activist Jeff Dunn describes the acquisition of the "Texiana" collection of William A. Philpott, Jr. (1885-1971).
The collection contains a number of employment contracts executed by early Texas business man James Morgan from New York for whom Morgans Point on upper Galveston Bay is named. The subject of the article was a contract with the only female employee in the papers, one Emily D. West of New Haven who was hired as a housekeeper. Dunn notes the contract was witnessed by Simeon Jocelyn, a prominent New Haven minister of an all-black congregation and outspoken opponent of slavery.
Based on census records for the Jocelyn household, historian James Crisp in an article on Alamo de Parras suggests that Emily D. West may have been living in the household of Simeon Jocelyn at the time.
A passport application for Emily West in the Texas State Archives was filed with the newly independent Texian government in 1837. The application stated that she was a free woman who immigrated with Morgan to Texas in 1835 from New York and that her papers were lost at San Jacinto in April 1836. Moreover, her one year employment contract was at an end and proper papers and support were essential for a free black in the period.
Dunn points out that Emily Wests association with Simeon Jocelyn indicates that she was probably an educated woman. Her neat signature on the contract is evidence of her literacy. Although the contract does not indicate race or social status, the involvement of Jocelyn is consistent with the idea that Emily D. West was a free black.
A recent book Making Myth of Emily: Emily West de Zavala and the Yellow Rose of Texas Legend contends that the Emily D. West on the Morgan contract and Emily West, the wife of first Vice-President of the Texas Republic, may be one and the same individual.
The author questions the provenance of the Morgan contract in the Philpott Collection and suggests that Emily West Zavala was split into two persons in 1837 for political purposes because of sensitivities of Texians to the fact that she was of African-American background.
Elsewhere on this board it has been proposed that modern rigorous genetic testing of descendants of Emily West de Zavala should be hard evidence to prove or disprove that she was of recent (18-19th century) African-American background.
If the "neat" handwriting of Emily West on the Morgan employment contract, other instances of Emily D. West's passport papers (if they could be found with handwriting) and instances of the handwriting of Emily West de Zavala that must surely exist somewhere in the archives matched it would strongly buttress arguments that they were the same individual.
The handwriting and signature in Isaac Millsaps letter from the Alamo was obviously different even to an amateur observer of available documents from that of his signature on other official documents from his home Lavaca precinct of the DeWitt Colony of Mexican Texas.
Texian Web Consortium links:
Alamo de Parras
Did the "Yellow Rose of Texas" really exist or is this just another story from Texas lore? by James Crisp
Texian Legacy Association
Emily Morgan, the Myth
Emily D. West, the Origin?
The collection contains a number of employment contracts executed by early Texas business man James Morgan from New York for whom Morgans Point on upper Galveston Bay is named. The subject of the article was a contract with the only female employee in the papers, one Emily D. West of New Haven who was hired as a housekeeper. Dunn notes the contract was witnessed by Simeon Jocelyn, a prominent New Haven minister of an all-black congregation and outspoken opponent of slavery.
Based on census records for the Jocelyn household, historian James Crisp in an article on Alamo de Parras suggests that Emily D. West may have been living in the household of Simeon Jocelyn at the time.
A passport application for Emily West in the Texas State Archives was filed with the newly independent Texian government in 1837. The application stated that she was a free woman who immigrated with Morgan to Texas in 1835 from New York and that her papers were lost at San Jacinto in April 1836. Moreover, her one year employment contract was at an end and proper papers and support were essential for a free black in the period.
Dunn points out that Emily Wests association with Simeon Jocelyn indicates that she was probably an educated woman. Her neat signature on the contract is evidence of her literacy. Although the contract does not indicate race or social status, the involvement of Jocelyn is consistent with the idea that Emily D. West was a free black.
A recent book Making Myth of Emily: Emily West de Zavala and the Yellow Rose of Texas Legend contends that the Emily D. West on the Morgan contract and Emily West, the wife of first Vice-President of the Texas Republic, may be one and the same individual.
The author questions the provenance of the Morgan contract in the Philpott Collection and suggests that Emily West Zavala was split into two persons in 1837 for political purposes because of sensitivities of Texians to the fact that she was of African-American background.
Elsewhere on this board it has been proposed that modern rigorous genetic testing of descendants of Emily West de Zavala should be hard evidence to prove or disprove that she was of recent (18-19th century) African-American background.
If the "neat" handwriting of Emily West on the Morgan employment contract, other instances of Emily D. West's passport papers (if they could be found with handwriting) and instances of the handwriting of Emily West de Zavala that must surely exist somewhere in the archives matched it would strongly buttress arguments that they were the same individual.
The handwriting and signature in Isaac Millsaps letter from the Alamo was obviously different even to an amateur observer of available documents from that of his signature on other official documents from his home Lavaca precinct of the DeWitt Colony of Mexican Texas.
Texian Web Consortium links:
Alamo de Parras
Did the "Yellow Rose of Texas" really exist or is this just another story from Texas lore? by James Crisp
Texian Legacy Association
Emily Morgan, the Myth
Emily D. West, the Origin?
