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Somerset reunion joins descendants of slave, master

Deborah Gates
dgates@dmg.gannett.com
  • Fontaine family members whose ancestor was a Somerset County slave plan a reunion that invites descendants of the slave's former owner.
  • The Aug. 15-17 reunion includes trip to farm in Westover where a researcher says Benjamin Fontaine was owned by farmer Henry Fontaine.
  • Descendants of Henry Fontaine, whose roots are in Normandy, France, plan to attend the family reunion hosted by descendants of former slave Benjamin Fontaine.

Ben Fontaine died a free man near the same Westover plantation where he lived as a slave.

His name showed up on 1823 tax records at age 9, a property of Henry Fontaine valued at $40 at the farm still known today as Normandy, and still owned by descendants of Nicholas de la Fontaine of 1600s Normandy, France.

Ben married a woman named Cresana and they had five children before his death by 1870. He would have been about 56.

Children of his children's children —four generations later — will celebrate the bicentennial of Ben's birth at a Fontaine Family Reunion at Lower Shore venues, including Normandy.

The gathering formally unites descendants of both Ben and de la Fontaine, representing nine generations of Fontaines in Somerset County.

Way of life

"Last year, I went to the Fontaine Family Reunion in California and realized it was not inclusive of all Fontaines," said Joseph Fontaine, a great-grandson of Ben. "When you have a family reunion, you go back to where your roots are."

Both Fontaine families are rooted on the farm that spreads hundreds of acres west of Route 13 toward the village of Manokin. Normandy was founded in 1671, and remains among the oldest active farms in the United States in continuous family ownership.

A descendant of de la Fontaine, retired educator Ann Fontaine Lewis, lives there with her family. She is a special guest at the reunion, and like Ben's descendants, wishes she knew more of the history about the life and times of generations past on either side.

"It is so interesting to be able to think about the origins of our country and how we were connected, and how the country developed," Lewis said.

Last week, she walked the grounds with Anna Fontaine, one of Ben's great-granddaughters on the reunion committee. "There are not many of our family around still," Fontaine said. "There were so many things I wished I had asked."

Slavery and the plantation system were a way of life when de la Fontaine arrived in Somerset County in 1658. He left France for London, and in 1658, immigrated to Somerset County, according to Inez R. Hoffman, an archaeological researcher in New York.

French connection

"There was a whole generation of enslaved Africans by the time Nicholas arrived on the Shore," Hoffman said of the Frenchman.

He was born into a Huguenot family in 1640. In America at the end of the 17th century, he acquired hundreds of acres of land that includes today's Normandy farm.

De la Fontaine died in 1708, passing Normandy on to other family members. In 1792, farmer William Fontaine passed his possessions to son, Henry, according to Hoffman research. Inventory included a "negro fellow called Levin," and Hoffman said it is conceivable that the "fellow" was Ben's father.

Normandy is the closest the family has come to tracing the family tree, said Joseph Fontaine, who commissioned Hoffman to research the family heritage.

Research into the family's African heritage is a next frontier, said Fontaine, a Princess Anne native living in Florida. The French connection is a highlight of the Aug. 15-17 reunion that includes trips to the Edward H. Nabb Research Center, a genealogy division of Salisbury University, and to Normandy farm.

"We will be hosting a private tour on Saturday," said S. Pilar Burton, a Nabb Center research aide.

At a reunion dinner, the Nabb Center also will do a presentation on the family's genealogy search, Burton said.

"We are very happy that we were asked to participate in this event and have worked with both Joe Fontaine and Ms. Ann Fontaine Lewis regarding their family's documents," Burton said.

Lewis said her father did extensive research on her family before his death.

Much of the material is at the Nabb Center.

The de la Fontaines came to America for religious freedom, she said. "Lord Calvert was giving out land grants and Nicholas got some," Lewis said. "Then they had the French name, de la Fontaine."

While the institution of slavery has been a scar in the history of America, the classification of slaves as property, admits Joseph Fontaine, has provided the documentation that has helped trace families of Africans enslaved here.

"Ben was freed between 1850 and 1860," he said. "He was described in a will. That was documented."

Tracing roots

It may be politically incorrect to consider, but Hoffman acknowledges that Normandy as an agribusiness could not have survived and thrived without the manpower as provided by slaves.

"Slaves were invaluable to running these plantations," she said. "It's cold-blooded to say, but they had value to the economy and it wouldn't have been as it was if not for people like Ben Fontaine."

The mid-1800s Normandy Plantation is described as "a cradle of generations of both white and African American Fontaines."

Research suggests a relationship of humanitarianism and friendship between the two Fontaine families, Hoffman said.

Ann Lewis' great-great-grandfather, Charles G. Fontaine, for instance, gave a freed Ben a lifelong home at Normandy.

"In 1857, Charles G. Fontaine prepared a will instructing that 'negro Ben' be granted the use of a house and its lot rent for his natural life,' " reads a document Hoffman prepared.

Another document shows that one of Ben's five children, a son, "living and working" in the household belonging to John H. Fontaine.

Oral history

"Ben Fontaine was the first person mentioned in the will, before his brother and his wife," Hoffman said, referring to the wishes of Charles G. Fontaine. "He wanted to make sure Ben had a house and land to support him throughout his natural life.

"I find that very interesting," Hoffman said.

The project credits oral history as an invaluable research, Hoffman said.

Joseph Fontaine's 93-year-old sister, Audrey Rebekah Fontaine, and his 91-year-old mother, Florence, died within the last few years, "and at least part of the spoken history that was known was lost," he said.

It was Joseph's first cousin, Evelyn, who filled in many blanks not included in census or tax records.

"I don't think we would have found Joseph's grandmother's real name, Cornelia Wilson, if not for oral tradition," Hoffman said.

"We thought she was a Ballard or a Smith. Oral tradition is that she was freed at 6 or 7 years old."

dgates@dmg.gannett.com

On Twitter @DTDeborahGates