“Young” Moro was born at Middleton Place around 1820. He began his enslavement with Governor Henry Middleton and continued with Henry’s son Williams. Around 1840 he married Rachel, a laundress, and together the couple was the parents of twelve children: Betsey, Ann, Jane, Rosa, Daniel, Castle, Moro, Celia, Parker, Moses, Rebecca, and Mary.
As is the case for most of the enslaved, any records or stories that have survived were written by their owners. Such is the case with Moro, a trusted butler. He demonstrated his regard for both Williams and Middleton Place many times. As rumors persisted that Union soldiers were preparing to burn the estate in 1865, Moro helped Williams hide and bury many family treasures, including the Benjamin West portrait of Arthur Middleton and his family, the portrait of Czar Nicholas, the Wood Nymph statue, and the Cerrachi bust of Washington. And, when Williams departed to the up country, Moro was left in charge of the property. According to multiple sources, Moro paid dearly for this responsibility. He was betrayed by other slaves and tortured by the invaders until he revealed where many of the valuable items were hidden. In June 1865, Williams wrote to his sister Eliza in Philadelphia, “I regret to say that Moro’s fidelity will avail me but little… all that he had saved for me at M. Place had been discovered & brought to Charleston & sold there.”
Moro continued to serve Williams and his family for some time following emancipation, both in town and at Middleton Place. Immediately after the war, Williams encouraged him to stay in Charleston and try to salvage what he could, rather than join the Middletons who had sought refuge in Darlington, South Carolina. By the time the family returned, Moro had saved enough furniture to help restore their lodgings a #1 Meeting Street.
Over the next two years, in addition to working in Charleston, Moro made several trips to Middleton Place to recover objects that they had hidden. In March 1867, Williams wrote to Eliza, “Moro has just returned from a fortnight’s visit to M. Place. To my great delight he has sorted out from concealed places some half dozen of my pictures.” His regard for the Middletons was again displayed when he referred to the art as “our pictures.”
In freedom, Moro took the surname Brewer. The family later came to live at 10 Limehouse Street in Charleston. He continued to work as a house servant and his wife Rachel as a laundress. Little is known of the children. In 1865, Union General Hatch sent one of the boys north when he withdrew from Charleston. In 1871, eleven year old Parker opened an account with the Freedman’s Bank, listing 1Meeting Street (the Middleton’s house) as his address. He also stated that Daniel was living in Aiken. In 1880, Rebecca became an apprentice to a dressmaker in Charleston. The most information available is for Castle, who became the pastor of a church in Sanford, Florida, and died there in 1935.
Rachel Brewer died in Charleston in 1887 and Moro in 1890.