An updated family tree has been posted and includes the descendants of Mary Baker, and more about her can be found in the Stories section. The Bakers were enslaved families owned by President James Monroe and his son-in-law George Hay. Family members included Mary Baker’s mother Sally and Mary’s brothers Jeffrey and Nicholas. Sally Baker and her two sons were given by George Hay to his daughter (from his first marriage) Maria Antoinetta Ringgold, while Mary was sold along with Monroe’s other enslaved families to Joseph M. White in 1828.
Emily Stanfill, a fellow independent researcher, has uncovered that after President Monroe’s death in 1831, his son-in-law Samuel Gouverneur sold the enslaved people from the Oak Hill plantation in Loudoun County, Va., to George Kephart, an Alexandria, Va.-based slave trader. Kephart shipped the families from Baltimore to New Orleans in September 1838. Lewis Baker, John Baker and his wife Mimy along with their children John, Sally, and Nicholas, and Rachel Baker and her children Moses, Thomas, and Claibourne made the voyage to New Orleans and ended up in Iberville Parish, Louisiana. Their descendants are still in Iberville Parish. Though it is unknown how Lewis, John, and Rachel are related to Sally and Mary Baker, it is hoped that connections can be made between the Iberville Parish and Jefferson County, Florida branches of the Baker family.
