Archive for April 2011

One can say that the reason that the 22 slave dwellings at Evergreen are still with us is because they were built of cypress wood. I attribute their existence to the fact that someone in their past made the conscience decision to preserve the dwellings so that the stories of their inhabitants will not be forgotten. --- Joseph McGill, Slave Dwelling Project

Slave Cabins at Evergreen Plantation, LA

Fans of the Slave Dwelling Project are beginning to take advantage of its benefits.  Such was the case when I stayed at Evergreen Plantation in Edgard, Louisiana.  My purpose for travelling to Louisiana was to participate in the Louisiana Statewide Preservation Conference held by the Louisiana Trust for Historic Preservation in Leesville April 6-8, 2011. I arrived at the New Orleans airport and was picked up by Jane Boddie the Director of Evergreen.  My first night stay at Evergreen would be in one of the houses with modern conveniences.  The avenue of oaks was the most impressive that I had ever seen.  I was even more impressed by the 22 slave dwellings still at the site.  Unfortunately an oak tree had fallen on one of the dwellings but my mind was put at ease when Jane told me that the dwelling will be restored.

While I was anxious to spend the night in one of the dwellings, I could not neglect the purpose for which I came to Louisiana, to participle in the Louisiana Statewide Preservation Conference.  The next day Jane and I traversed the state to get to Leesville.  We would return on Friday, April 8, I would stay in the slave dwelling that night.

Before my stay at Evergreen, the most people to share the experience with me in a slave dwelling was five the week before in Texas. Jane did a spectacular job in ensuring that we would surpass that.  Twenty people were scheduled to spend the night in the dwellings. They came from New Orleans, Baton Rouge and all points in between.

Overnight Stay at Evergreen Plantation

The Night at Evergreen Began with a Bonfire

The night started with a bonfire in the front yard of the big house, a spectacular site, and my first time to participate in such an event.  The gathering continued with storytelling and ended with drumming.  We all proceeded to the two dwellings as a group.  A libation ceremony was conducted in front of one of the dwellings followed by listening to recorded excerpts from the Slave Narratives.  On my way back to the cabin where I was going to sleep, I and two other guests encountered a member of the local law enforcement agency.  He was unaware of the activities that were happening that night.  Fortunately, he accepted our explanation.  I made it to my assigned spot and slept through the night with only a few interruptions by mosquitoes.

I requested that two members give an account of their sleepover experience at Evergreen Plantation.  The following is what they wrote:

"On April 11, 2011, I stood with Joe McGill and 20 other people preparing to walk down a white shell road through 100 very old Live Oak trees.  We were walking into an empty village, a village that was home to people for 200 years, ten generations. It was dark, the wind had blown out our candles.  It was silent, so were we.   Later, I sat on the steps of one of the slave cabins, listening to the Litany of the Libation to the Ancestors.  I sat a little apart from the rest, wondering where I fit in all this.  I am white.  Then I began to hear the words of the Libation, over and over again; the Ancestors of all the people of Evergreen Plantation; the Ancestors of ALL the people of Evergreen Plantation, past and present.   In the night, lying on that hard floor, listening to the night sounds, looking up at the ceiling, I was aware of a profound sense of community.  What had happened to the other people who had lain here, looking at this ceiling, are a part of me.  Without that ceiling, without these buildings, if they had all been destroyed, it would be hard to know where any of us fit, to remember who we are.  We are a community of people.  Past.  Present.  Future." --- Jane Boddie, Director. Evergreen Plantation

“I fear cycles of the night and things I don’t understand. Like the snake I startled hunting at dusk, blood-sucking mosquitoes satiated by mid-evening and then returning at first light, and the sounds chirping, howling and rustling through the woods, all here before us. Kathe brought recordings of haunting slave narratives from another century. We brought our voices, but our words were inadequate. We agreed to be quiet. A cacophony of waiflike female voices cackled from the big house.  Breathlessly still, I strained to discover if they were ghosts.  Sweating through one hot night, I was not free until dawn." --- Jonn E. Hankins, Executive Director, New Orleans African American Museum

"Never Forget 

Evergreen Plantation, Edgard, Louisiana

Reflections

Louisiana was the fourth state to which the Slave Dwelling Project has been expanded. This stay afforded me the opportunity to explore how the Spanish, French and English influenced slavery in Louisiana. It was also a lesson in how the Mighty Mississippi River factored into the institution of slavery. In the case of Louisiana, sugar cane was a very labor intensive crop. The slaves that contributed to that industry have a story that should be told. One can say that the reason that the 22 slave dwellings at Evergreen are still with us is because they were built of cypress wood. I attribute their existence to the fact that someone in their past made the conscience decision to preserve the dwellings so that the stories of their inhabitants will not be forgotten. I can recall having the privilege to cruise the Mississippi River on the steamboat Delta Queen before it was decommissioned.  We docked at one of the plantations on the famous River Road, unfortunately that presentation lacked any interpretation of the people who labored to make that plantation prosper.  I strongly encourage a visit to Evergreen Plantation if you are interested in hearing the whole story.  Jane Boddie and her staff will be happy to accommodate you.  They may even throw in a bonus and tell you about the night they spent in one of the slave dwellings.

Contact Joseph McGill Jr. 

Slave Cabin, Egypt Plantation. Artist: Ted Ellis

March 29th through April 2nd found me in the State of Texas to spend nights in former slave dwellings at Egypt Plantation, Egypt, TX and Seward Plantation, Independence, TX and be the keynote speaker at the Texas Historical Commission’s Annual Preservation Meeting.  Texas would be the farthest west I had travelled to sleep in former slave dwellings.  Here the Slave Dwelling Project experienced several firsts; the first time I slept in a former slave dwelling with a female other than my wife or daughter; the first time I slept in a dwelling with a Caucasian; the first time I slept in a dwelling with more than four people. I asked those folks to share their experiences in one hundred words or less. The following is what they submitted:

Bryan McAuley:  Texas Historical Commission

Approaching the sleepover I carried a mix of thoughts and emotions: excited, nervous, intrigued and, ultimately – inspired. The preservation community shares the responsibility of always expanding our collective dialogue about the past. Joe brings a spark to the communities he visits. Inevitably the staging and the response are unique to each site, but the end result must be the same – deeper appreciation for the depth of our past. Too often we allow issues of race and culture to divide us. Events like this, filled with celebration and reflection, move us closer to being the society we strive to be. Staying at the cabin with Joe served to remind me that preservation is only partly about buildings – it’s mostly about people. Some of them lived long ago and some of them share these stories today.

Geneva Richardson Flora (“Candi”): Videographer / Performer

As I lay curled up in front of the fireplace,

the wind was whistling and carrying the sounds of a pack of howling wild dogs in the distance.

Wondering of the days that so many slaves were met with resistance

and seeing that freedom lay way off in the distance reminds me of a poem,

When Will My Freedom Come?

From slave ship to being ripped

From your mother’s hip;

Sold to the man with the big whip.

Horses are fed and laying on hay beds,

Yet here I lie chained, cold,

And half starved dead,

Praying and looking for the day to come;

Wondering when will my freedom come?

Naomi Mitchell Carrier:  Texas Center for African American Living History

(Naomi had the added responsibility of accompanying me throughout the trip, picking me up at the airport in Houston and delivering me to the hotel in Austin)

Historical Reenactor Naomi Mitchell Carrier    at Seward Plantation, Independence, Texas.

Egypt Plantation Slave Cabin Memoir

I lay awake drinking in the sound of the wind

Howling yesterday’s mysteries;

It was a night of a blue norther.

Inside the tiny cabin was a warm intimate destiny with yesterday;

A journey come full circle with our enslaved ancestors;

A link in the chain of memories’ connecting us to both the past and to the future.

How be it that history has so twisted the truth

That we have forgotten ourselves?

But we shall know when the appointed time has come

When we are one with the spirit of yesterday and tomorrow.

Joe McGill

Historical Reenactor Naomi Mitchell Carrier on  Auction Block, Idependence, Texas

The Texas stays certainly did not disappoint. It is always extra special when I find that private owners have spent the time and resources to restore the outbuildings on their properties especially the former slave dwellings. Thank you Bud Northington of Egypt Plantation for letting me stay and inviting the local community and one local school to interact with me. Thank you Hank and Peggy Ward of Seward Plantation for giving me the opportunity to have dinner with a descendant of the owner and a descendant of the enslaved. 

For those of you who have been following these blog posts, you know that there is often something that moves even me, as in the time my colleague Terry James decided to sleep in shackles.  Knowing its emotional impact, Hank Ward of Seward Plantation decided to show us a slave auction block just as we were about to leave the plantation sending Naomi and me into another emotional outburst.  That was a profound reminder of why this project must continue.    

In the early 1900s, the Seashore Farmers' Lodge No. 767 was a center of African American cultural life in the Sol Legare community on James Island in Charleston County, South Carolina. One of many mutual benefit societies in the Lowcountry, the Seashore Farmers' Lodge provided a safety net of support to community members - help with home and family during illness, help with seed when crops failed, help with burial expenses when a member died.

Now, some 25 years after it fell into disrepair, the James Island community has come to the aid of the lodge, preserving it and restoring it to its original condition. After its grand re-opening April 16, 2011, the lodge will serve as a museum and cultural center, telling stories of African American life on James Island in the early 1900s.

Fraternal Orders: Mutual Benefit Societies

Fraternal orders, or mutual benefit societies, were an important part of African American culture in the rural Lowcountry in the early 1900s. Along with the church, fraternal lodges were focal points of African American community life, places where members could celebrate holidays and happy times, or find community support when hard times or tragedy appeared.

Members paid dues and could purchase crop insurance, health insurance and life insurance. When a member fell ill, other members helped with home and family responsibilities until they were back on their feet. If a member's crop failed, the lodge would help purchase seed for the coming year. If a lodge member died, other members provided community support for grieving family members, and the lodge paid a death benefit if the deceased kept life insurance. Lodges maintained ties with other area lodges, further strengthening bonds among neighboring communities.

The Seashore Farmers' Lodge No. 767 served the community of Sol Legare, an 860-acre settlement on James Island, so named because planter Solomon Legare maintained a plantation there before the Civil War. After the war, the Sol Legare community was settled by primarily African American homesteaders who purchased land and planted truck farms, growing vegetables for sale in Charleston and other area markets. Many of today's residents of Sol Legare are descendants of the pioneer farmers who settled the community.

In 1915, the community came together to build the two-story lodge building on land owned by member Henry Wallace. For many decades, the Seashore Farmers' Lodge served the community of Sol Legare. But over the years, the lodge fell into disrepair. Hurricane Hugo further damaged the building and destroyed many of the Lodge's early records.

Now, history has come full circle as members of the local community, many of them descendants of community pioneers, have come together to restore and preserve the Seashore Farmers' Lodge.

The Restoration

After an extensive two-year restoration project, the Seashore Farmers' Lodge No. 767 will once again open its doors to the public, as a museum and cultural center. The lodge's grand reopening will take place on Saturday, April 16, 2011, from 1:00 - 4:00 p.m. As part of the Grand Opening, the Palmetto Trust for Historic Preservation will present a preservation honor award to the members of the Sol Legare community who worked diligently to restore this treasure of history. To learn more about the grand Opening, please visit the Seashore Farmers' Lodge website, where you will also find hundreds of photos that document the restoration of the lodge. The Seashore Farmers' Lodge is also on Facebook.

Learn More on Blog Talk Radio This Sunday at 8:00 p.m.

This Sunday, April 10, 2001 at 8:00 p.m. the Blog Talk Radio program Nurturing Our Roots will host three community members who were instrumental in restoring and preserving the Seashore Farmers' Lodge, Ernest L. Parks, Bill "Cubby" Wilder and Corie Hipp. Be sure to tune in to the episode, "Descendants of Community Preserve Seashore Farmers' Lodge." You can also call in to the live broadcast to speak with Ernest, Bill and Corie.

Below is a video created by the Seashore Farmers' Lodge restoration committee, which tells the story of the restoration from start to finish. We think you will enjoy it very much!

The South Carolina Institute of Archaeology and Anthropology (SCIAA) has been awarded a "Save America's Treasures" grant from the National Park Service. The grant will fund a re-analysis of a collection of artifacts excavated at Yaughan and Curriboo plantations in Berkeley County, SC in 1979. The Yaughan and Curriboo collections were the basis for some of the earliest studies of the lifeways of enslaved communities in the Southeast. This new study will employ methods developed since the artifacts were excavated in 1979, and ask new research questions about life in South Carolina slave quarters. Results will be made available to the public at The Digital Archive of Comparative Slavery (DAACS).

The article below is reprinted from the March 2011 issue of Legacy, the newsletter of SCIAA, with kind permission of Dr. Charles Cobb.

SCIAA Awarded Collections Grant

By Charles Cobb, Director of SCIAA

SCIAA has just received a major collection award in the amount of $192,000 from a National Park Service program known as "Save America's Treasures." Sharon Pekrul, Jonathan Leader, and myself are the Princial Investigators on the grant, which will go toward rehabilitating and stabilizing archaeological collections from slave cabin contexts at the Yaughan and Curriboo plantations in the Lowcountry.  

These collections, dating from fieldwork in 1979, encompass a large sample of enslaved African and African American households encompassing a period from about 1740 to 1826. They are nationally recognized as containing some of the earliest dated excavated slave house contexts in the Carolinas, and for spanning a critical period of transformation in the Southern economy from colonial to antebellum times. Studies based on these materials were pivotal in historical archaeology for shifting emphasis away from the "Big House" and toward the everyday lives of slaves.

Importantly, these collections hold considerable promise of addressing new research questions concerning slavery that have emerged over the 30 years since the archaeological work was originally conducted. Thus, our collaborative partner in the project, The Digital Archaeological Archive of Comparative Slavery (DAACS; www.daacs.org), will re-analyze the data and make it freely available to the public. DAACS currently provides highly standardized artifact, contextual, and spatial data from over 40 excavated slave quarter sites throughout the Chesapeake, South Carolina and the Caribbean.

In our partnership with DAACS to curate and analyze the collection to modern standards, a new generation of Americans will be able to significantly advance our historical understanding of slavery in South Carolina and its relationship to slave societies throughout the world.