Harvey, Rebecca Brooks

Rebecca Brooks Harvey – Midwife, Ex-Slave, Landowner (c. 1828 – 1918); Blue Mound

Rebecca Brooks Harvey escaped slavery while pregnant,[1] owned 153 acres of farmland at Blue Mound (north of Baldwin), served as a midwife and was an important member of the Vinland community.[2]

Rebecca Brooks was born a slave in North Carolina about 1828.[3]   Her owner separated her from her mother by selling Rebecca to pay off a debt when she was a baby. A female slave named Brooks took care of her. Rebecca and her foster mother moved with their owner through South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Louisiana, and Arkansas. While enslaved as a young woman on the Foster’s plantation near Van Buren, Arkansas, she started a family with David Johnson Harvey, but they were not allowed to legally marry.[4]

When General James G. Blunt’s Union Army troops left Arkansas, Rebecca, David, their children, and 100 other slaves left with them, headed for freedom.[5]  On January 26, 1863, Rebecca and her children, Anna (born about 1850)[6] and William W. (born October 12, 1853),[7] arrived in Lawrence.[8] The family had become separated and David traveled with a different army division that went through St. Louis to Leavenworth.[9]  He arrived in Lawrence sometime later. Their son James Blunt Harvey was born March 17, 1863, so Rebecca was quite pregnant during her escape.[10] It is possible that this son was given the middle name “Blunt” in honor of General Blunt, the family’s rescuer from slavery. Rebecca and David Harvey were legally married on October 26, 1863.[11] 

The Harvey family settled in the Blue Mound area, 8-9 miles north of Baldwin. David and his brother sharecropped land[12] owned by local Sheriff Stephen Ogden.[13]   After 5 years they purchased this land from him.[14]  In 1917 they purchased Ogden’s farmland too and then owned 153 acres.[15] Rebecca was well-known and loved by the community. She served as a midwife. She was very active in the integrated Fairview Methodist Church women’s auxiliary although she had been raised as a Baptist.[16] 

Before 1865, the rural community of Blue Mound educated black and white children in separate homes. After a new school building was completed in 1865, all of the 100 local children attended school together. The Harveys valued education and three of their sons went on to attend KU. [17]   Sherman became a clerk of Douglas County District Court. Frederick became a doctor after completing medical school in Nashville, Tennessee since KU Medical School did not admit black students at that time. He practiced in Tennessee until he and Sherman left to serve with the 23rd Kansas Volunteers in 1898-99 in Cuba during the Spanish-American War.[18] 

 After leaving the Army, Lieutenant Frederick Harvey, assistant surgeon, went to Kansas City, Kansas and then to Lawrence to practice medicine.  Captain Sherman Harvey became a lawyer, then went to the Philippines in 1902, returning in 1941.[19]   Edward graduated from KU in 1894. He served as secretary to Lawrence Congressman Justin D. Bowersock in Washington D.C.  Edward later returned to the family farm and was a leader in the community.[20] 

Rebecca’s daughter Anna Brooks experienced a different life than her brothers. Anna had been born into slavery in Arkansas. She was probably the result of a white owner taking advantage of Rebecca. She worked as a domestic or maid and as a waitress in Lawrence. She lived with her half-brothers later in her life.[21]  She passed away on June 21, 1934, and rests at Oak Hill Cemetery in Lawrence with her brother Frederick.[22]

Rebecca’s health began to fail during the last few years of her life.[23]  She passed away at her home on August 6, 1918.[24] Her funeral was conducted by Baptist Rev. G.N Jackson and Rev. J.N. Gordon of Fairview Methodist Church.[25] She rests at Vinland Cemetery with her husband and three of her sons. 

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• [1] Katie Armitage, “Seeking A Home Where He Himself Is Free,” Kansas History: A Journal of the Central Plains 31, Autumn 2008, 172.
• [2] Vinland Cemetery Brochure.
• [3] The Jeffersonian Gazette, Lawrence, Kansas, Wednesday, August 7, 1918.
• [4] Armitage, “Seeking A Home,” 155; findagrave.com/memorial/250927500/david-johnson-harvey
• [5] Armitage, “Seeking A Home,” 155.
• [6] Armitage, “Seeking A Home,” 172.
• [7] findagrave.com/memorial/33920682/william-w-harvey
• [8] “Her Life Was Epic: Eventful Career of Mrs. Rebecca Harvey Who Died Yesterday,” undated newspaper obituary.
• [9] Armitage, “Seeking A Home,” 155.
• [10] findagrave.com/memorial/61574690/james-blunt-harvey
• [11] Lawrence Daily journal, Lawrence, Kansas, Tuesday, June 13, 1893.
• [12] Armitage, “Seeking A Home,” 155. Sharecropping is a type of farming in which families rent small plots of land from a landowner in return for a portion of their crop, to be given to the landowner at the end of each year.
• [13] “Her Life Was Epic”
• [14] Armitage, “Seeking A Home,” 155.
• [15] The Jeffersonian Gazette, Lawrence, Kansas, Wednesday, August 7, 1918.
• [16] Ibid.
• [17] Armitage, “Seeking A Home,” 164.
• [18] Armitage, “Seeking A Home,” 171.
• [19] Ibid.
• [20] Armitage, “Seeking A Home,” 172.
• [21] Ibid.
• [22] findagrave.com/memorial/223086359/anna-brooks
• [23] The Jeffersonian Gazette, Lawrence, Kansas, Wednesday, August 7, 1918.
• [24] findagrave.com/memorial/250927533/rebecca-harvey
• [25] “Her Life Was Epic”

By M. Jardon, May 2026