Biography 

In 1899, the notable Black journalist Julius F. Taylor interviewed an elderly Black couple in the small Utah County community of Spanish Fork for his newspaper, the Broad Ax. Alexander Bankhead and his wife, Marinda Redd Bankhead, were well-liked in the small town and devout members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Even still, Alexander offered a frank recollection of his life as an enslaved man in Utah. In fact, he gave one of the only firsthand accounts of the bleak conditions that enslaved people endured in the territory and of their reaction to emancipation in the Mountain West. Though Alexander left few traces behind to document his life aside from census and other vital records, his interview with Taylor offers invaluable insight into the history of slavery in Utah.[1]

Alexander (commonly known as Alex) Bankhead was born into slavery possibly as early as 1827, although a majority of sources suggest 1836. His birthplace is also unclear, with different sources suggesting South Carolina, Virginia, and Alabama as possibilities. Wherever he was born, evidence suggests that the Bankhead family, a notable kinship group of enslavers living in Alabama, enslaved Alex from his earliest years. What is certain is that Alex lived in Montgomery County, Alabama, for some time before emigrating to Utah in his youth or early adulthood.[2]

In 1842, after the death of John Black Bankhead, the patriarch of the Bankhead family, his sons John Henderson and George Washington Bankhead presumably inherited their father’s enslaved people. Surviving sources suggest that George Bankhead received Alexander along with an enslaved woman named Nancy Bankhead Wales Valentine and her children.[3]

Sometime in the mid-1840s when Latter-day Saint missionaries preached in the area, members of the white Bankhead family joined the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Missionary Benjamin L. Clapp baptized John Henderson Bankhead in February 1845 but record keeping at the time was spotty at best.[4] As a result, John was the only member of the Bankhead family with a recorded baptism, and it was not written down until nearly thirty years later, in Utah Territory. Baptismal records for enslaved people outside of Utah are even more rare. Alex likely accepted baptism around the same time, although no contemporaneous record survives. He was nonetheless identified as a Latter-day Saint in various sources after arriving in Utah Territory.[5]

The George W. Bankhead family and the people who they enslaved, including Alex, emigrated to the Salt Lake Valley in 1848 with the Heber C. Kimball company.[6] After that, George Bankhead moved to Draper, at the south end of the valley and took his enslaved people with him, including Alex and Nancy and her children. Alex is listed on the 1850 Utah census as a 23-year-old Black man.[7]

At some point after 1860, Alex was either sold or contracted his labor to notable Latter-day Saint pioneer Abraham O. Smoot, the mayor of Salt Lake City and then Provo. Smoot moved to Provo in 1868, meaning Alex likely moved from Draper to Utah County around the same time. Whatever the labor arrangement was with Smoot, Alex would have been free by at least 1865, following the Civil War, and so the move to Utah County would have been for his continued employment with Smoot, rather than as an enslaved man.[8] While living in Utah County, Alex worked as a blacksmith assistant and at Jex and Son’s Broom Factory.[9]

It is unknown when or how Alex learned that he was emancipated. Even though the United States Congress outlawed slavery in 1862, in all U.S. territories, including in Utah, the announcement received little press coverage in local newspapers.[10] Further complicating Alex’s status at the time was Utah’s unique and ambiguous laws on slavery, servitude, and unfree labor.[11] As a result, it is not clear if he gained his freedom in 1862, or if he had to wait until passage of the 13th Amendment to the Constitution in 1865.

In one of the few recorded firsthand accounts of emancipation in Utah, Alex and his wife Marinda maintained a “very distinct recollection of the joyful expressions which were upon the faces of all the slaves, when they ascertained that they had acquired their freedom through the fortune of war.”[12] Despite the lack of dates and details, the Bankheads’ recollections imply that enslaved people in Utah learned about their freedom “through the fortune of war,” a phrase that suggests the news might have been tied to the passage of the 13th Amendment at the end of the Civil War rather than the 1862 act of Congress which freed enslaved people in U.S. territories. Despite the lack of a definitive timeframe for when Alex was emancipated, we do know that by 1870 he had married and lived as a free man in Spanish Fork.[13]

Alex married Marinda Redd, a formerly enslaved woman, sometime before 1870, according to that year’s census. He informally adopted her child, David William Pace, in the process.[14] Marinda owned farmland in an area of Spanish Fork known as the “River Bottoms.” The land was an inheritance from Marinda’s former enslaver and possible father, John Hardison Redd. After Redd died, his son Lemuel H. Redd and his widow, Mary Lewis Redd, distributed his property to members of his household, which included Marinda. [15]

Marinda Redd Bankhead had a similar background to Alex. She emigrated to Utah as an enslaved woman and then remained in her community after emancipation. Even still, she had a fraught experience in Spanish Fork in the 1860s. She had two sons out of wedlock, fathered by white Latter-day Saints in 1862 and again in 1867. Though one of these relationships was almost certainly coercive and details of the other are absent, the birth of her sons outside of marriage pointed to promiscuity and drew the ire of her Latter-day Saint bishop. Bishop Albert King Thurber preached against the congregation’s “whoredoms” twice in 1867.[16] She and Alex raised her first son, David “Billy” William Pace, while Edward T. Dennis, her other son, died in infancy.[17]

The controversy surrounding Marinda’s sexual relations as well as the miscegenation that it represented has led some scholars to believe that her marriage to Alex could have been arranged by Church leaders as a way to prevent additional white men from taking advantage of her as a single Black woman. Alex was one of only two single Black men in the county and as such he made a natural choice to marry Marinda.[18] There were also rumors among the local population that Alex may have been castrated – a possible explanation for the couple's lack of children.[19] Even if such rumors and speculation were true, the couple remained married for more than thirty years, with no evidence pointing to an unhappy marriage.

Alex does not appear in Latter-day Saint membership records during his lifetime, though he was publicly identified as a member of the Church.[20] Additionally, for the 1880 US Census, Utah census takers informally tracked the religious affiliation of Utah residents in the margins of the census. The letter “M,” or leaving the space blank, indicated Mormon, and neither Alex nor Marinda’s entry featured a letter.[21] Julius Taylor’s interview with the couple relayed that he and Marinda were “devout and strict Mormons,” and that she was a member of the ward’s Relief Society and attended Pioneer Day celebrations.[22] In fact, Abraham O. Smoot II, the son of Mayor Smoot, Alex’s former employer, attested to Alex’s pioneer and spiritual credibility in a letter to the organizers of the 1897 Pioneer Jubilee. Smoot wrote that Alex should attend the celebration because he was “one of the ‘whitest Negroes’ living.”[23] Despite Smoot’s letter of support, Taylor’s Broad Ax article implies that only Marinda attended the 1897 Jubilee.[24]

Evidence does survive that hints at the level of acceptance the Bankheads experienced in the small Spanish Fork community. They lived near the center of town and were friendly with people in the neighborhood. Marinda brought freshly-baked bread to her neighbors.[25] Yet, there were barriers too. Alex was apparently the object of a practical joke on one occassion, with the story appearing in The Negro Pioneer, a belated remembrance compiled by the Daughters of the Utah Pioneers. It tells of local youth dying Alex’s horse blue and Alex then turning it loose out of its stable. The boys were apparently reprimanded, as Alex did not understand why someone would play a joke on him.[26] It depicts Alex as simple-minded and easily fooled. This likely embellished story plays on racial stereotypes of the era, but nonetheless reflected the local community’s memory of Alex. His obituary also points to his place in the community as one of acceptance but always marked by the color of his skin. The unknown author of the obituary wrote it this way: “though his skin was not as fair as ours, he was a good old citizen.” The obituary writer further describes Alex as "an inoffensive creature, minding his own business and interfering with the rights of no one," a reassurance to readers that Alex was a peaceable Black man.[27] Finally, Alex and Marinda were frequently called “Uncle Alex” and “Aunt Rindy.” As observed by other scholars, this type of familial language shows that although they were a part of the community, they were a layer removed from others who might be called Mr. and Mrs. or Brother and Sister.[28] 

Various surviving sources thus suggest that race played an important role in how Alex and Marinda were remembered. As the Jubilee letter conveyed, Alex was measured against a standard of whiteness and that seemed to be the key to acceptance. Despite the color of his skin, he was a part of the community because he adhered to white norms. He appears in folk stories like the horse prank, which exaggerate his confusion and emphasize racial stereotypes. In sum, Alex and Marinda were accepted members of the community but that acceptance also had its limits.[29]

Moreover, the Alex remembered by white community members compared to the Alex who Black newspaper editor Julius F. Taylor interviewed are quite different. In Taylor’s article, Alex recounts the conditions of slavery in Utah. In doing so he remembered enslaved people congregating in meeting halls to discuss their situation. Alex “assured” Taylor that “their lives in the then new wilderness, was far from being happy, and many of them were subjected to the same treatment that was accorded the plantation negroes of the South.”[30] This Alex is observant, practical, and counters common white enslaver narratives of a more humane treatment of their slaves.[31]

Alex died of a stroke on 10 January 1902.[32] He was in his 60s or 70s, depending on the many different recorded birthdates. According to his obituary, “a large number turned out to show their last respects” at his funeral.[33] Marinda, his wife of three decades, joined him in death five years later, in 1907.[34] His stepson, David William Pace, eventually moved to Salt Lake and died in 1951, leaving no children.

Alexander and Marinda’s Latter-day Saint temple rituals were completed by proxy in 1984 at the Jordan River Temple, though his gravestone indicates that they were sealed together as a couple again in the Provo Temple in 1991.[35] Alex left behind a complicated record. According to his white neighbors, he was a soft-spoken, hard-working, simple man. In Taylor’s article, he recounted the thoughts and feelings of enslaved individuals in Utah Territory, an indication that he led much more than a simple life.

By Austen Bergstrom

[1] “Slavery in Utah,” Broad Ax, 25 March 1899, 1.

[2] Alexander’s birth place and birthdate vary from census to census. As Amy Tanner Thiriot points out in Slavery in Zion: A Documentary and Genealogical History of Black Lives and Black Servitude in Utah Territory, 1847-1862 (University of Utah Press, 2022), 174, Alex was on a short list of eligible single African American men in the 1850’s, suggesting an earlier birthdate than 1836. The earliest census to offer an age is the 1850 census in Utah. It lists his age as 23, which would mean a birth year of 1827.

[3] George W. Bankhead, Church History Biographical Database, Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints; Nauvoo City Court Docket book, 1844 February – 1845 May, Pioneer Emigration List, 1847-1848, MS 3441, item 65, Church History Library, Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Salt Lake City, Utah. Though they do not appear by name, the gender and approximate ages of George Bankhead’s enslaved people in this migration report matches other records that describe the people Bankhead enslaved. The property and records of the Bankhead family did not survive a fire in 1887. See Thiriot, Slavery in Zion, 58.

[4] The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Missionary Registers (Worldwide), 1860-1937, John H Bankhead and B L Clapp, 1871, FamilySearch.org.

[5] “Slavery in Utah,” Broad Ax, 25 March 1899, 1; United States, 1880 Census, Utah Territory, Utah County, Spanish Fork; Kate B. Carter, The Negro Pioneer (Daughters of Utah Pioneers, 1965), 521.

[6] Nauvoo City Court Docket book, 1844 February – 1845 May, Pioneer Emigration List, 1847-1848, MS 3441, item 65, Church History Library, Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Salt Lake City, Utah.

[7] United States, 1850 Census, Utah Territory, Salt Lake County, Salt Lake City.

[8] United States, 1860 Census, Utah Territory, Salt Lake County, Salt Lake City.

[9] Thiriot, Slavery in Zion, 174.

[10] W. Paul Reeve, Christopher B. Rich Jr., and LaJean Purcell Carruth, This Abominable Slavery: Race, Religion, and the Battle Over Human Bondage in Antebellum Utah (Oxford University Press, 2024), 224-225.

[11] See Reeve, Rich, and Carruth, This Abominable Slavery, 7-9.

[12] “Slavery in Utah,” Broad Ax, 25 March 1899, 1.

[13] United States, 1870 Census, Utah Territory, Utah County, Spanish Fork.

[14] United States, 1870 Census, Utah Territory, Utah County, Spanish Fork.

[15] Tonya S. Reiter, “Redd Slave Histories: Family, Race and Sex in Pioneer Utah,” Utah Historical Quarterly 85, no. 2 (2017): 115-119; Thiriot, Slavery in Zion, 135.

[16] Spanish Fork Ward general minutes, 1851-1883, Spanish Fork Ward, Utah Stake, LR 8611 11, Church History Library, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Salt Lake City, Utah; Reiter, “Redd Slave Histories,” 116-117.

[17] Spanish Fork, Cemetery Records, 1866-1898, Edward T. Dennis. Edward is entered into the record with his father’s name, though he is better known by his mother’s maiden name “Redd.” Reiter, “Redd Slave Histories,” 116-117.

[18] Reiter, “Redd Slave Histories,” 117.

[19] Ruth Brockbank, Spanish Fork, Utah, to Kate Cater, Salt Lake City, n.d. (ca. 1964), Daughters of the Utah Pioneers Files, Salt Lake City, Utah. This letter also speculated about the identity of the fathers of Marinda’s children. It is a reflection of the local community’s beliefs and rumors that passed down through succeeding generations.

[20] “Slavery in Utah,” The Broad Ax, 25 March 1899, 1.

[21] United States, 1880 Census, Utah Territory, Utah County, Spanish Fork; Benjamin Kiser and W. Paul Reeve, “Martha Ann Morris Flake,” Century of Black Mormons.

[22] “Slavery in Utah,” The Broad Ax, 25 March 1899, 1.

[23] Kate B. Carter, The Negro Pioneer (Daughters of Utah Pioneers, 1965), 521. This letter is transcribed in the book, though the Daughters of the Utah Pioneers museum is unable to find the letter on file.

[24] “Slavery in Utah,” The Broad Ax, 25 March 1899, 1.

[25] “Slavery in Utah,” The Broad Ax, 25 March 1899, 1.

[26] Carter, The Negro Pioneer, 521.

[27] “Local News,” Spanish Fork Press (Spanish Fork, Utah), 23 January 1902, 4.

[28] Reiter, “Redd Slave Histories,” 118; W. Paul Reeve, “‘I Dug the Graves’: Isaac Lewis Manning, Joseph Smith, and Racial Connections in Two Latter Day Saint Traditions,” Journal of Mormon History 47, no. 1 (2021): 29-67.

[29] Thiriot, Slavery in Zion, 43.

[30] Taylor, “Slavery in Utah.”

[31] Thiriot, Slavery in Zion, 1. This is in reference to the common practice in Latter-day Saint family histories to downplay the severity and dehumanizing nature of slavery in Utah.

[32] Utah, Utah County Records, Death Registers, 1898-1905, page 35, no. 68, Alex Bankhead, Utah Division of Archives and Records Services, Salt Lake City, Utah.

[33] “Local News,” Spanish Fork Press (Spanish Fork, Utah), 23 January 1902, 4.

[34] Marinda Redd Bankhead, Findagrave.com.

[35] Alexander Bankhead (KNV7-4ZB), Familysearch.org; Alexander Bankhead, Findagrave.com.

Docuemnts

Click the index tab in the viewer above to view all primary source documents available for this person.