Truckin' on the Western Branch

The Galberry continued along what is now Deep Creek Boulevard following “Washington’s Ditch,” the canal surveyed by a young George Washington. The canal is an inland waterway connecting the Albemarle Sound of North Carolina’s eastern shore to the Chesapeake Bay via the Southern Branch of the Elizabeth River. While hunting and fishing, the Nansemonds used the canal along the very eastern edge of the swamp and other smaller canals that still run through the swamp. Researchers from the College of William and Mary did some digs in the 1980s and found Indian and African American artifacts located on some of the islands of the swamp. Around 1720–1750, the Basses and other Christian Nansemond families migrated down from Nansemond County and settled around the Great Dismal Swamp. Many of the Bass families live there today. The most thorough description of the history of the current Nansemonds is found in the original court documents that were stored at the courthouse in Portsmouth, the county seat of Norfolk County, until the mid-1900s annexation split the county and the records were moved to Chesapeake. In 1638 John Bass married Elizabeth, a daughter of the Nansemond Chief, and the current tribe descends from that line. The first Nansemonds to appear in records of Norfolk County show a William Bass and Catherine Lanier married in Norfolk County in 1671. By about 1720 the records were full of births, deaths, and marriages between the Bass families and others. Life was complicated for the Nansemonds. Indians had to disassociate themselves from Negroes, not through any racial prejudice, but because attending Negro schools endangered their Indian racial status. In 1831, after the Nat Turner rebellion, laws passed to restrict the rights of people of Negro ancestry. As a result, a law passed in 1833 allowing local county courts to offer affidavits to Indian people verifying their racial status, returning rights that had been restricted and allowing them to own firearms. Fortunately for the local natives, they had befriended county clerks who were well regarded in local county politics, Arthur Emerson and William Portlock. William Portlock’s name appears on many of the affidavits and the Portlock borough of Chesapeake was named for him. Many of the current tribal members still possess the affidavits given by the court stating that they were Indians.

Indiana United Methodist Church. Image by Sheally

The majority of current Nansemonds come through the line of William Bass and Elizabeth “Betty” Perkins. William and Betty had four children that we know of: Annis (could be Annie), Bethsada, James Michael, and Elizabeth. William and Betty moved to North Carolina later on, and his death is recorded there in 1847, the year Joseph Bright married William and Betty’s daughter, Elizabeth Bass. The current Bass families emanate from the lines of James Michael Bass, including the late chiefs, Jessie Lindsay Bass and Earl L. “Running Deer” Bass, as well as the current Chief Barry Bass and Assistant Chief Earl L. Bass. Another line comes through the Bright family from that 1847 marriage of Joseph Bright (Brite in the early records) to Elizabeth Bass, the Chief’s daughter, and their twelve children. After Chief William left Virginia, his land passed to James Michael Bass and Elizabeth Bass Bright. His last will and testament was slim on information about his other two children—Annis and Bethsada. Bethsada married Albert Sawyer and is said to have moved to North Carolina. There are large families of Sawyers in the Camden County, North Carolina, area today, though whether they are relatives, the records do not show.

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