One of the things that made my ears prick up about the horrific murders in Charleston was when I heard the name of one of the victims, the man whom President Obama eulogized yesterday: Pinckney. I wonder how many people are aware that Pinckney is an old South Carolinian name? Charles Cotesworth Pinckney fought in the Revolutionary War, ultimately rising to the rank of general, was a strong supporter of Washington, and was one of South Carolina’s delegates to the Constitutional Convention.
And he owned slaves. Pinckney Island Plantation was one of his holdings and I have little doubt that the ancestors of the black South Carolina Pinckneys were owned by Gen. Pinckney.
I also wonder if President Obama knows that the song that he intoned as he finished his eulogy, Amazing Grace, was written by a reformed slave trader?
As William Faulkner said, the past is never dead. It’s not even past.
Agree that it’s hard not to imagine he’s descended from the Pinckney clan, a major political family of low country planters, but not all were descended from Charles Cotesworth though.
For instance there was another Charles Pinckney at the Constitutional convention, who was his second cousin. This Charles became affiliated with the Jeffersonian party and had several descendents that would become Governors.
I don’t know that every black with the surname Pinckney is descended from or the other of “the Pinckney clan” that included Charles Cotesworth. I think it’s likely that lots of the slaves owned by members of the clan took the surname Pinckney.