Moses Harshaw (1794-1858) moved to Habersham County from North Carolina in 1822. He moved to the Nacoochee Valley, which is near Helen, Georgia. His wife, Nancy, their seven children, and the people he enslaved settled in the area to farm the land and mine for gold.
By 1837, Harshaw added more land to his holdings and built a home that still stands today. Now known as the Stovall House, the home is now a bed and breakfast in the Sautee Nacoochee Valley.
In addition to being a farmer, Stovall was a lawyer in Clarkesville. He unsuccessfully defended himself six out of seven times when he was charged with assault. His seventh charge never made it to court. One has to wonder if he was a horrible lawyer or if his crimes were so heinous that even being a rich white man could not protect him from being found guilty. It’s probably both.
All enslavers participated in a level of brutality just by participating in the mere act of holding people in bondage. Harshaw was known to be especially brutal. Stories of his treatment were well known across the valley.
In 1850, Georgia made divorce legal. Nancy Harshaw filed for separation on October 7, 1850. The paperwork stated they could not live peacefully together. The divorce was never finalized, but Nancy Harshaw got the last laugh when she had a wooden marker placed on his grave in The Olde Clarkesville Cemetery with the epitaph of “Died and Gone to Hell.”
Information for this post was pulled from the Olde Clarkesville Cemetery website.
I recently came across a response to a post about Moses Harshaw on Facebook that I want to challenge.
The responder was trying to claim that there was no proof that Harshaw was cruel and that he paid the people he enslaved $10 a month. According to the 1850 Slave Census, there are 25 people he holds in bondage. This would mean he was paying $250 a month. That is an unheard-of amount.
Additionally, the poster claimed that Harshaw freed those he held in bondage upon his death. Manumission laws prevented this. The first law was passed in 1818, and variations of it were in place until the Emancipation Proclamation (Source: The Georgia Archives).
