From: Bob Ferguson <rwferguson@ualr.edu>
Here is some informatuion about  slaves held by my great-great-great
grandfather and his wife, with some background information that may provide
some clues for researchers,

Daniel Ferguson and his wife Esther Peake were married in Chester County
South Carolina about 1790-91. By 1810 they were living in Bayou Chicot,
Louisiana, where Daniel had a sizable farm. Bayou Chicot was at that time
part of St. Landry Parish. It is now in Evangeline Parish. Esther died in
1824, and on July 19, 1827, after a family committee met (as customary
under Louisiana law back then) and made recommendations, there were legal
documents drawn up by St. Landry Parish Probate Judge George King in
Opelousas, Louisiana. The documents included an inventory of the estate of
Daniel (who was still living) and Esther, his late wife.

Among the inventory were the following named slaves held by Daniel in 1827
in Bayou Chicot and their approximate ages:

Joe - about 35
Isham - about 40
Godfrey - about 22
Jef - about 19 (The handwriting is so curlicued that this name could
conceivably be Zep of Zef, but comparing it to the writing of other words,
Jef seemed most likely)
Francis (male) - about 16
Isaac - about 12
Winny (female) - about 50
Dicy (female) about 25
Flora - about 20
Elisa - about 8
Rose - about 12
"little Winny" - about 9
Lewis - about 12

Comments and Notes:

I do not know for sure if any of the slaves - older than 17 in 1827 - were
brought to Louisiana from South Carolina, but it seems possible. Daniel
Ferguson would have been 36 in 1810 when he and his already-sizable family
moved to Louisiana.

Daniel left Bayou Chicot in 1830, lived for a short time in Arkansas, then
moved to Monroe, Louisiana and eventually died there in 1840. I do not know
if he took any of the slaves with him when he left Bayou Chicot, or if any
of them remained with other members of his family, such as - his sons
Austin, Turner or Ransom, Turner and Austin later moved to near Monroe and
operated large farms and owned slaves and Ransom remained in Bayou Chicot.
The slaves owned by Turner and Austin were moved to Texas - probably
somewhere near San Antonio or Seguin - in 1853 with the family of Adeline
Lemarcus Fenner Ferguson, who was widowed by both Turner and Austin.

The only slave who went to Texas whose name I know is Wash Lee, who
according to family legend grew up with the older Ferguson boys, taught the
younger ones to hunt and fish and went off to war with four of the
Fergusons in the 4th Texas Cavalry (also called 4th Texas Mounted
Volunteers)to cook for them and help them set up camp. After the war and
Emancipation, Wash Lee stayed with the family for the rest of his life. I
do not know his birth or death dates.