What’s in a name?
Rodney Sam. That’s not a typo. I have two first names and my surname of Sam is so uncommon within the United States;the odds are pretty good if you encounter someone carrying my surname, they may be my cousin someway or another. Surnames form parts of our identity in this world. They are the umbilical cords attaching us to a particular family, clan and culture. Histories, known and unknown, are passed from generation to generation in our names.
I have no biological connection to the originator of the name Sam. It is a name resulting from the collision of slavery and the colonial history of the Americas through the lens of the forgotten world of French and Spanish Louisiana.
The story of my direct line begins with Jean-Louis, a 30-yr-old Creole slave who was emancipated and given his freedom on July 12, 1812 by Madeleine Masse, a free woman of color and the widow of Etienne Sam Fuselier(also known as Etienne Sam or simply Sem in the historical records) in St. Martinville, Louisiana one year before officially becoming a U.S. state.
The first act of freedom exercised by the newly-freed slave Louis was to get his cattle branded at the same courthouse. It was on this brand,we see one of the earliest renderings of my family surname. After spending the first 30 years of his life as a slave, Jean-Louis is transformed into Louis SEMME, negre libre.
Over time, SEMME morphed into SEM until it became the present-day anglicized version of my family name. For 216 years, Sam has been the surname carried through generations of men within my family adopted from the name of the man who once owned them.
