Obadiah W. Knight Elementary School and the sale of John Wesley

DEED OF SALE OF EIGHT-YEAR-OLD “NEGRO BOY” JOHN WESLEY A SLAVE BY OBADIAH W. KNIGHT TO PERRY DAKEN(SP?) DEC. 23, 1848.

Dallas County Deed Records, Book B, page 100.

THE SALE OF EIGHT-YEAR-OLD JOHN WESLEY ON DEC. 23, 1848 On Dec. 23, 1848, an eight-year-old frighten African American boy John Wesley was sold by Obadiah W. Knight to Perry Darken (SP?). When slaves were sold, they usually were stripped and closely inspected for possible medical problems. Whether this happened on this day or earlier it isn’t known.

Obadiah W. Knight was known to be the biggest slave owner in Dallas County at the time. In the 1860 Dallas Census shows that he owned twenty-one slaves.1 The genealogical work, “The Knight Family in Dallas,” states that, “who had at the time of the Civil War, forty-two slaves.”2 However, an interview with Obadiah’s wife, Serena C. Knight in the Dallas Morning News, Nov. 19, 1911 has her recounting that they, “had twenty-eight negroes,” but a year isn’t given.3 Several of his sons fought for the Confederate Army: William Knight, b. 1835, died of pneumonia in 1862 at a Confederate military camp; John W. Knight, b. 1836 in 1863 enrolled as a Private in Co. K., 19th Texas Cavalry, Nat Burford’s Regiment; Gabriel Andrew Knight, b. 1842, joined the Confederate Army in Capt. J.J. Good’s Company.4 Knight Street in Dallas is named for the Knight family or specifically Obadiah W. Knight.5 Some might point out that Obadiah Knight helped state the Dallas school system with the building of the first school.6 However, it needs to be understood that John Wesley or any other African American child, slave or not, would be permitted to attend the school.

This school needs to renamed and we suggest that it be named after John Wesley. It would be good also if Knight Street be renamed also.

For additional information on Dallas Streets please visit online. http://templeofdemocracy.com/dallas-streets.html and, http://templeofdemocracy.com/landscape-reparations.html

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1860 Census, Sched. 2, Precinct No. 1, Dallas County, Page 10, Sept. 13, 1860.

Comstock, E.B., & Albertson, V.S., “The Knight Family in Dallas: With the Descendants of Obediah W. Knight,” 1932, from the Reynolds Historical Genealogy Collection, Sec. 2, “The Knight Family in Dallas,” starting on page 1.

3 No author, “Mrs. Serena C. Knight Nearly Nonagenarian,” DMN, Nov. 19, 1911, page 11.

4 Comstock, E.B., & Albertson, V.S., “The Knight Family in Dallas: With the Descendants of Obediah W. Knight,” 1932, from the Reynolds Historical Genealogy Collection, Sec. 3, “Descendants of Obediah W. Knight,” starting on page 8. See also, No author, “Mrs. Serena C. Knight Nearly Nonagenarian,” DMN, Nov. 19, 1911, page 11.

5 Acheson, Sam, “Names Recall Oak Lawn Lore,” DMN, 10/8/1963, page 4, states it is named after the family, but an April 23, 1966 article, three years later in the DMN, page 2, he states it is named after the “pioneer patriarch of the Knight clan,” which would be Obadiah W. Knight.

6 Trott, Audrey Joyce, “Broken Cable That Made History,” DMN, Feb. 8, 1931, page 2.

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