I received an e-mail today that on Monday, February 6 at 10PM there will be a special on PBS titled “Underground Railroad: The William Still Story.”
So check your local stations and there is no doubt that the Underground Railroad continues to be difficult to interpret in many ways. Hopefully soon I’ll look at some sites that are successful in doing this.
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I find these forthcoming titles to be intriguing enough to inform y’all about.
First, Glenn Basher’s The Peninsula Campaign and the Necessity of Emancipation: African Americans and the Fight for Freedom has an April 2, 2012 release date from UNC Press. Basher pushes and argument that I hold as well: the escape of thousands of enslaved people in the spring and summer of 1862 during the Peninsula Campaign had a greater stake in pushing the Lincoln administration toward the Preliminary Emancipation Proclamation. After all, it was during the summer of 1862 that he wrote it.
Secondly, Jim Downs’ Sick from Freedom: African-American Illness and Suffering during the Civil War and Reconstruction sounds particularly fascinating. Downs uses the records of the Medical Division of the Freedmen’s Bureau to illustrate how thousands of recently emancipated people faced the trials of illnesses and the struggles of the Medical Division of the Freedmen’s Bureau in dealing with these ailing people. It will be released by Oxford University Press in April 2012.
I’d argue both of these books are particularly relevant to the spring of 2012 as we begin to think about emancipation and the liberation of enslaved people throughout the South in 1862 which occurred in greater numbers than ever before.
Next, my friend and fellow blogger, Kevin Levin of Civil War Memory will be smiling as his book Remembering the Battle of the Crater: War as Murder will be released in June 2012 by the University of Kentucky Press. Kevin has spent years researching the infamous July 30, 1864 Battle of the Crater, which took place outside of Petersburg, Virginia. His take on the battle however is less about what happened in the weeks leading to the battle and the tactics used on the battlefield and rather is a study in Civil War memory or how that battle was remembered from the afternoon of July 30, 1864 through the Civil Rights period. He includes a final chapter which will address the improvements in interpretation over the years in discussing the battle from the National Park Service which protects the battlefield.
I think these three works are worth investigating this year. Happy reading!
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Some readers may not be aware that a few weeks ago, a story came out about Elise Harding-Davis, who believes she is a descendant of a slave woman named Kizzy, who could possibly be the half-sister of Robert Edward Lee, the Confederate army commander. Kizzy would be the daughter of an enslaved woman and revered Revolutionary War commander (but poor businessman and debtor), “Light-Horse Harry” Lee. This oral tradition has come down through her family and more can be read about it HERE.
Stratford Hall’s Director of Research composed a blogpost sharing what she could find from documentary records about the possibility of a “Kizzy” (or similar/related spellings). You can find her post HERE.
So I’m curious what y’all think after reading that? To what level should we weigh oral history on subjects that were considered taboo or improper to write about or converse about in Euro-American communities? African and African-American and Native American/Indian people often have richer oral histories than are written.
What say YOU however?
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First, I am sorry that there has been so little activity here lately. I got pretty busy this fall and obviously dropped off. I will try to do better as I appreciate my readership.
I am pleased to see that numerous folks have shared and commented on Ta-Nehisi Coates’ article in The Atlantic. I believe that he knocked the nail on the head in recounting how the Lost Cause philosophy blurred and continue to blur many people’s understanding of the American Civil War. I also appreciate that Coates notes that for those carted to American from Africa or born in America and possessing African descent (though not considered citizens by white Americans before the Civil War) had a longer and more tortured war than just four years but rather one that began with the Middle Passage and continued forward through the Civil War (which isn’t even to get into those often disappointing years from 1865 to the present). However, Coates’ question is where are Black Americans in the study of Civil War history and participation in visiting that war’s historic sites.
For those of us, like myself, who practice public history, this is a question that often comes up. Being a Black American, I am often asked, why I participate so actively in going to the war’s historic sites and why others in my racial group do not. I appreciate that fellow friend and blogger, Kevin Levin posted on Civil War Memory, “Rather than frame the challenge of how to introduce African Americans to the Civil War within a broad narrative that ends in defeat at the turn of the twentieth century, it may be helpful to look more closely at what was clearly a sustained reawakening of interest within living memory [during the Civil Rights fights of the 1950s through 70s].”
A host of historians have looked at participation of Blacks in Emancipation Day celebrations, veteran reunions, and pension requests for veterans of United States Colored Troops regiments and the Federal navy, their widows and children in the late 1800s and early 1900s. I am not going to rehash the conversations about the failures of Reconstruction and the pathetic education system that sprung up throughout the South and urban North in the era of white supremacy. I will simply direct those of you who read here to check out works published by David Blight and Barbara Gannon among others.
Those of us who practice public history know that our museums, historic sites, local, state, and National Parks have a track record of failing to be inclusive in the past. The history they practiced echoed Lost Cause and Reconciliation themes that were popular with veterans, who often were instrumental in getting these places preserved. Therefore bravery, honor, and camaraderie were areas that the veterans could agree both sides possessed. White Southerners embraced that slavery was not a cause of the Civil War, but rather that a dominant Federal government suppressing individual rights forced secession. White Northerners embraced that they were fighting to defend a glorious republic. Both were often willing to weave these things together to create a palatable version of the Civil War.
Times however have changed and already the 150th anniversary of the Civil War is not like the 100th anniversary of the war.
Historic sites have changed in the last 15 or so years. The Museum of the Confederacy’s tours of the Confederate Executive Mansion have been more inclusive of the white and black, free and enslaved people who worked there and escaped from there. In 1896, it would have been impossible for Confederate veterans, their wives, and their children to imagine that now that museum employs Black people and has partnered with the historically black North Carolina Central University.
Fredericksburg and Spotsylvania National Military Park has been lucky in the last several years to see the memoir of John Washington published through the editorship of David Blight. Previously this memoir, an ex-slave’s memoir was squirreled away. Now the park’s interpretive staff has used the memoir heavily in interpreting the experience of slavery in the town of Fredericksburg versus rural life. The narrative is clever in Washington’s ingenuity in escaping in the spring of 1862 when Union troops were in Stafford County, just across from Fredericksburg.
On November 1, 2011, President Barack Obama signed an executive order making Fort Monroe a unit of the National Park Service. Fort Monroe is located on Old Point Comfort, where the Dutch ship containing the first 20 and some odd Africans temporarily stopped in Virginia. It was at Fort Monroe in 1861 that Union General Benjamin Butler decided he would not return Frank Baker, James Townsend and Sheppard Mallory, three slaves who fled their bondage and called these fleeing people “contraband of war.” Which while still termed people as property, this was an important movement in the liberation of enslaved people in the South. Following the release of the Emancipation Proclamation, a few United States Colored Troop regiments were raised at Fort Monroe and other regiments passed through there on their way to and from Virginia and North Carolina. While there is only but one member of the staff at Fort Monroe currently, the superintendent is committed to telling the myriad of stories ranging from these issues to Virginia Indians (among other Native people), the imprisonment of Confederate President Jefferson Davis in the aftermath of the Civil War, and on through the 1800s, 1900s, and up to the end of the fort as a military installation in 2011.
These are just a few examples of where the public history field is in practice and yet as Coates points out and as I have experienced, there is still a struggle in getting Black people to these places. So we’re back to the question of why?
I suggested at the Association for the Study of African-American Life & History Conference (ASALH) back in October that at some point those of us in the Black community must have a “community conversation.” In that conversation we need to ask why we do not go to historic sites and move beyond the blame the museum/historic site/local,state, and National Parks.
Part of the conversation must include a nod to the Baby Boomers who grew up in the post-World War II era up to 1964 are a large segment of the population. Those Boomers who are Black people mostly attended poorly funded, underserved schools which (often) had ratty history books that were published with the Lost Cause doctrine written throughout them. My mom was one of those students. Black and White children were politicized by their communities throughout the country as school integration was pushed forward through the actions of Black students, their parents, and the landmark Brown v. Board of Education (1954) decision by the Supreme Court. These Boomers often never went to a National Park or a historical museum when they were children because they were not welcome or only welcome on certain days of the week or in certain areas of the building.
The Boomers’ children (born in the 1970s through the mid-1980s), might not have been exposed to cultural heritage sites. Their parents may have believed that there was no need for them to take their children because they had not been and that their parents and grandparents had also not gone. The most many of these children (and often Generation Z) are exposed to figures of “Black History” is for the month of February.
As a part of our “community conversation” we also need to think about the phrase “We are a proud people,” which is heard in many in ethnic minority communities or even in nationalist views. However, how proud are we?
Recently, Gladys Knight received an award at the 2011 Soul Train Awards. In her thank you speech she said that she stands on the shoulders of those who went before her, which included those who survived the Middle Passage and enslavement to those like Martin Luther King, Jr. who fought for equality. However, the audience, dominated by Black entertainers, executives, and folks of a variety of backgrounds who were lucky enough to secure tickets, sat dormant when she commented about enslaved people and roared into applause at the mere mention of King. WHAT?!
These matters are connected to the issue of where are Black people at Civil War sites and battlefields. I believe for too much of Black America, we decide that our history begins about 1950. It is during the middle of the 20th century that iconic people such as Rosa Parks and Martin Luther King, Jr. are placed as peaceful, non-violent folks beside the vitriolic segregationists platforms and actions of those like George Wallace and Bull Connor. America largely has a problem with violence. Therefore we do not commemorate people like Malcolm X, the Deacons for Defense or the Black Panthers. Black History Month programs so often commemorate an almost scripted series of people and events: King, the Selma March, Brown v. Board of Education, the Prince Edward County, Virginia school closure; the Civil Rights Act and the Voting Act.
During Black History Month we popularly give a nod to only three people who were enslaved: Frederick Douglas, Booker T. Washington, and Harriet Tubman. However, we really do not analyze much about them. At the ASALH conference in October, even I (who has a M.A. in History) surrounded by a room full of scholars, people with many varied degrees, and people who just have an interest in history and most of us were truly shocked at the amount of activity that Harriet Tubman was involved with in South Carolina during the Civil War. She literally got dozens upon dozens of enslaved people off their owners’ plantations toward some level of freedom. We say that Harriet Tubman was the “Moses of her people” but how many students know she was helping Union generals and naval personnel in Lowcountry South Carolina navigate in Confederate territory and simultaneously get enslaved people out of slavery?
Douglass is probably the most quoted former American slave. He was a powerful force in the abolition movement; however, everyone must do more to include voices that were not in agreement with Douglass and others who were. Even in his time, Douglass could share the stage with others.
My larger point is that as a proud group of people, we must connect ourselves to commemorating the Civil War. We can all do this across races, generations, and regional locations by reading more. We have to get out of the house and go to plantations, to cemeteries, to battlefields. There is room for everyone to demand to know more. At the ASALH conference, author Kate Clifford Larson reflected on a play she saw with some young students. One young White girl was outraged that no one had ever told her about how busy Harriet Tubman was in helping people escape to freedom. She said in front of a large audience that she was mad because she needed a heroine too!
We (and here I mean ALL of America) must look into the Civil War to understand how our country existed before, during, and after the conflict. What areas of concern for people in the Civil War era are relevant to our lives today? How do we (individuals of the present) fit into the past? Well, maybe we can start to answer these questions when we all stop thinking that historic sites have nothing there for us and go find out what took place there.
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I am so pleased to report what many of you may already know. Fort Monroe, located on Old Point Comfort in Hampton Roads, Virginia became an addition to the National Park Service on November 1, 2011. President Barack Obama used the Antiquities Act of 1906 to sign an executive order putting the fort into the NPS system.
Fort Monroe, was named in honor of the nation’s fourth president, James Monroe. It was here that young Robert Edward Lee and his wife, Mary Custis Lee lived and had their first child, George Washington Custis Lee in the early 1830s. It was here that Chief Black Hawk, a Sauk Indian was imprisoned at Fort Monroe in 1833 for attacking settlers in the upper Midwest. Lt. Jefferson Davis escorted him to the fort.
Robert E. Lee and his wife, Mary Custis Lee lived in this building at Ft. Monroe between 1831 and 1834. It was here that their first child was born. Photograph by Emmanuel Dabney, 2007.
In 1619, the first ship bearing Africans to Virginia stopped briefly at Old Point Comfort before continuing on to Jamestown Island. In 1861, three enslaved men, Frank Baker,Sheppard Mallory, and James Townsend fled to Fort Monroe seeking protection from the heinous slave institution. Union General Benjamin Butler used the issue of secession and the law to refuse to give up those three men to Confederate authorities. Butler argued they were contraband of war. By war’s end there were thousands of runaways living in and around Old Point Comfort because of the actions of three men who fled bondage and one Union general that is popularly raked over the coals in the Civil War community. Out of the contraband camps rose a series of problems, such as disease and malnutrition which cannot be forgotten; but also came positive things such as community solidarity, the enlistment of United States Colored Troops and men into the Union navy as well as women and children working as nurses and learning how to read and write.
In 1865, Davis, the former Confederate States President, was indicted for treason and imprisoned in Fort Monroe.
Fort Monroe is a great bastion of talking about the history of America in its positive aspects and negative. As of today, Kirsten Talken-Spaulding, a native to Williamsburg, a graduate of the College of William & Mary, and a 20 year veteran of the NPS has been made the first superintendent of this new national monument. I know we will all be tuning into the future of this great site! You can check out the new website for Fort Monroe National Monument. Keep in mind that it is a new park and more content will come in the future.
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Interpreters of war face numerous challenges in interpreting past military events such as interpreting violence which was the subject of some posts by John Hennessy which you can read here and here (If you care where I stand on the subject of interpreting violence-I believe is essential to understanding that the romantic visions Civil War soldiers left home with were dramatically altered between 1861 and 1865. Unfortunately, in the post-war period, romanticized versions of battle reappeared and these notions often guide modern thought processes on the Civil War.)
Similar problems have gripped our historical sense of smell. In most American and European households of the 21st century, we have fairly contained spaces for excrement, cooking, and bathing. Likewise, most of us do not have animals living around us or with us and even so they are typically pets such as birds, cats, dogs, and fish and not animals for work or food supply. We cologne and perfume our bodies, deodorize fridges with baking soda, and even add floral and fruit scents to cleaning agents and candles. In short: our noses are highly sensitive to smells while simultaneously becoming desensitized to the odors of the past which were often common place even if not welcome.
In our day-to-day lives as human beings we generally converse using a limited number of words. I think this really can help separate those who, I think, sometimes can use obscure words just for the sake of their use and public historians. We should find a way to connect people to the historical past through a sense of smell; but how when those smells are not present?
While some historic sites have opted to use scents to portray the past this is not always an option to a historic site. We should aim to connect visitors’ consciousness to a smell with its presence in the past and really to aid in portraying the multitude of smells that combined which impacted people. Take for example the scents of the Civil War.
In the midst of the battle the most obvious scent is the sulfur smell in black gunpowder. Living history demonstrations often feature groups of folks firing reproduction Civil War weapons which are described in detail. This is a chance to get visitors to imagine on a large scale the smell of tens of thousands of muskets going off along with dozens if not a hundred plus cannon. Men and animals were sweating as well producing a wide range of body odors.
When the battle was over, the odors only magnified. Bodies continued perspiring, depending on the situation men may not have bathed in days or longer already and may have no opportunity to do so following. When I do my soldier life at Petersburg program, I try to encourage people to think about the smell. As a Union chaplain wrote “you smell dust.” In the Union trenches of the Ninth Corps the men urinated and defecated where they were instead of use the latrines located in the rear of the line, out of fear that they may be shot by Confederates. A similar situation developed within the Second Corps’ sector of the trenches. When the rain came to alleviate the summer heat and dust, the trenches filled with water. Vermin bred in that water which produced diseases but it was also stagnant water which many of us have smelled from a mud puddle but I encourage people to magnify that scent across a 37 mile front stretching from around Richmond to south and west of Petersburg.
Fort Sedgwick, Petersburg, Va., 1865. Image shows the trapped water which can be used to think about smelling the turbid water and damp earth. Library of Congress, LC-B811- 3194.
Another place where I typically encourage people to think about the use of their nose and scents is in discussing the aftermath of the Battle of the Crater. For readers who do not know, after a month of digging in the summer of 1864, a mine was exploded underneath Confederate troops outside Petersburg on the morning of July 30, 1864. After a sustained combat from about 5AM until approximately 2-2:30 P.M. Confederate troops won delivering a punishing defeat to Union troops and especially to United States Colored Troops engaged that day. Anyway, for many visitors to Petersburg National Battlefield, this is the biggest draw. I have some themes that I hope are take away messages for people and one of those themes incorporates the aftermath of the carnage beyond a gaping hole in the ground.
The wounded lay on the battlefield in the no-man’s land until August 1, 1864. However, so too did the dead. Those in good physical health remained behind earthworks but a putrid, fetid stench permeated the noses of Union and Confederate troops. The 35th Massachusetts’ historian wrote that this smell “penetrated the clothing and impressed the senses.”[1]William H. Stewart recalled years later refusing to eat for a period after the battle due to the smell. Theodore Lyman, a staff member of Major General George Meade wrote on August 1, 1864 that on that battlefield “rose a sickly stench.”[2] The weather was hot on July 30, 31, and August 1. The grotesque smell of rotting human beings did impact the soldiers and officers who viewed this scene and in no small part helped contribute to Union soldiers’ morose view of their ultimate success in the late summer of 1864.
So what are some methods of interpreting loss smells of the camps and battlefields? In part this can be done through images. The images around taken around Petersburg can be used in a multitude of ways but in the context of this post, the stagnant water and mud in the trenches can connect people to how the soldiers experienced Petersburg. Luckily, we also have reconstructed a composite earthwork at Tour Stop 3 in the Eastern Front of the battlefield. After a hard rain, visitors can at that moment be encouraged to take in a deep whiff of foul smelling water and mud and contemplate how soldiers may have felt when living in conditions that included the offensive odors but also sharpshooting, mortars and cannons blasting off, issues regarding food, etc.
Speaking of food, Civil War living history programs often feature soldiers cooking army rations. What if, appropriate to your site, there was a special diet kitchen in a hospital scenario? Replace the hardtack and salt pork with oyster soup, pies, and pickles which inherently will draw some interest about “Did Civil War soldiers eat that?” You could then discuss army rations versus general kitchens and special diet kitchens.
Do not forget to include animals in your discussion of camp and battle. With thousands of cattle, horses, and mules along with scatterings of fowl and mascots these animals were sweating, urinating, defecating just as well as the troops on the field.
Alfred R. Waud, a Civil War artist, drew this picture of a dead horse during the Civil War. What the drawing fails to illustrate is the noxious fumes that would have developed due to the horse's decay. Approximately 3,000 dead horses were left on the Gettysburg battlefield after the end of the July 1-3, 1863 battle. Library of Congress, DRWG/US - Waud, no. 468.
Words are powerful, particularly when derived from those who experienced the camps and battlefields. Often I let visitors read selections from soldiers who were on the battlefield. I admit that I have not done this much with the sense of smell but I aim to improve that. Your own vocabulary may be increased through looking up synonyms for words and perhaps reading a little fiction from time to time, which often encourages the reader to use all his/her senses.
Some campaigns of the war have unique smells. Consider fires which destroyed homes and businesses and some have large numbers of rotting horse carcasses left behind alongside dead soldiers.
The odors of war ultimately do not change their results but they did impact the people who were participating in the war. Connie Y. Chang explores the sense of smell in history in her article “The Nose Knows: The Sense of Smell in American History,” Journal of American History, 95 (2): 405-416.
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I apologize for my readers that I have not been active in the bloggining lately. Working on some new thoughts now.
In the meantime AND for the future, I encourage y’all to check out Emerging Civil War. This group of fourteen women and men, black and white provide unique perspectives on interpreting the Civil War. I believe it is destined to be read by many and I think those here will find the reflections on Emerging Civil War to be intriguing and inspiring.
You will also find the blog under the blog roll.
Again, I promise, a post soon. Hint: Prepare your sense of smell.
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I am fresh from spending the day at the Carlyle House Historic Park in Old Town Alexandria, Virginia. I first heard about this house from an assigned reading in an undergraduate course called Interpreting and Preserving African-American Sites & Structures taught by my favorite undergrad professor, Carter L. Hudgins. Several of my best friends from undergrad and I went to the site in May 2008. However, this summer I was asked by an employee there if I could come and interpret one of Carlyle’s slaves for their 1753 event. I excitedly said yes. The program started at noon today and ran over as people were still knocking on the door at 4PM (when the event ended). I spent most of my day at the side of John Carlyle (portrayed by a regular volunteer there), as I was portraying an enslaved manservant. Unfortunately, I have no photographs of us together or any of me in the house. I saw someone who works at the site snapping a few photographs so maybe in coming days I can point you to some pictures.
We were all portraying early August 1753. On the first of the month, John Carlyle, a merchant of Alexandria, Virginia and his wife, Sarah (Fairfax) Carlyle moved into their house that had taken two years to complete. At the time it was the largest house in Alexandria and the only one constructed of stone. John owned two lots, the one his house was on and another directly behind that fronted the Potomac River. Carlyle, through his marriage, was related to the immensely wealthy Fairfax family. His brother-in-law, George William Fairfax inherited Belvoir (now at modern army base, Ft. Belvoir) in 1757, which was a plantation of 2,200 acres. However, Carlyle was doing well in his own right having thousands of acres of land, slaves (65 by the time of his death in 1780), trading grain crops to the Caribbean sugar plantations, tobacco crops to England, had a foundry and mill, and was a founding trustee of the Town of Alexandria.
The four hour event found a group of 16 volunteers portraying John and Sarah Carlyle, a midwife, a doctor, indentured servants, convict servants, and gentry persons such as George Fairfax, Anne Fairfax Washington Lee (Sarah and George’s sister, the widow of Lawrence Washington, George Washington’s half-brother), etc. The gentlemen were downstairs in the study, the ladies sat in the upper passage, and the servants (indentured, convicts, and myself as the one enslaved person portrayed) moved through the main floor and the top floor. We answered the door whenever there was a knock, helped the volunteer docents escort people to the back door to exit, ran errands through the household for the Carlyles and their guests, cleaned hearths, and kept up regular chatter about a carter who had misplaced, or lost, or stolen, or sold the Carlyle silver. Visitors were told by the docents to keep in mind it was August 1753 so that was all we knew. A few folks slipped up (like the discussion was one point about the War of 1812, kudos to Matt West and Greg Fisher for keeping that on track or the little girl who was insistent that she had ridden in a minivan from Mobile, Alabama with her family) but generally everyone “got it” and played along.
Most of the volunteers were talking about the arrival of the Carlyles’ new baby boy, William, and the completion of the house. In the study, Carlyle and George Fairfax were being boosters for Alexandria (as it was not a sprawling metropolis in 1753), discussing the “French and their Savage allies” in the backcountry, etc. I have to say that while I do not believe Matt (as John Carlyle) and Greg (as George Fairfax) had ever had someone portray a slave at the house before they played along. When people came into the room to be introduced they would introduce themselves and any other folks that may have been in the room and not introduce me. I could tell in the visitors faces that they were curious and most people then asked about me. Matt was dutiful in noting that I was one of his slaves. As I moved in or out of that room, people were entranced by my clothing but people also struggled with the word “slave.” As one woman said “Are you Mr. Carlyle’s servant?” I said “I am, but I am not free. I am one of his slaves.” She said “I just cannot say that word.” This is refreshing in many ways continuing to illustrate how far a large segment of the population has come; but I responded in character “Many other people such as yourself cannot call us such; but they have no problem owning their ‘servants.’”
Several blogger friends and I (along with formal studies) are interested in who is coming to historic sites. We had a lot of people from out of state and a large segment of people from what in 1753 was Spanish lands (now California, Arizona, New Mexico, Mobile, Alabama, and Spain itself). I was surprised at the lack of times that I heard “Alexandria.” I did no study of how many people came in but I know I saw at least about a dozen black visitors and several people of Asian descent. There were refreshingly a large number of visitors who were 40 and under. In fact, I can only distinctly recall one couple with their grandchildren who were gray haired (though still active).
I received the usual gawks and surprises because I was wearing my suit trimmed in robin’s egg blue velvet, with the same blue turban with silver livery lace and silver thread buttons, and the sterling silver collar. People have conjured up images of slaves dressed in ratty, homemade clothes instead of understanding the diversity of clothing that slaves in different jobs may have had. Still, there were several instances of people trying to make themselves or their children “contemporary slaves.” What I mean by that is statements that a dominant household figure (either the wife or the parents) makes others in the household feel subordinate. However, I was quick to challenge them on this by saying a quick statement such as “Sir, I doubt that you and your wife intend to sell your children away from you.” or “I have doubts that you work in a tobacco field sun up to sun down or as I do, take care of my owner from before he is up until after he is in bed.” Every time I had that issue of contemporary people as slaves, the person apologized and said “No, I should have thought about that.” One family acted as though they had seen a ghost when I entered the Carlyles’ dining room. However, we ended up having a very good conversation about what a manservant’s responsibilities were.
I hope to return to the Carlyle house again to interpret experiences of enslaved domestic servants. Next time I’ll be better too about getting some photos of me at the site!
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This past week, media outlets have been buzzing regarding a gross historical error that was spun into a modern political context by a group who proclaims their value of traditional marriage between a male and a female. Republican Presidential contenders Michelle Bachmann and Rick Santorum signed “The Marriage Vow” which was crafted by a conservative group, Family Leader. While this blog is not a political one, the inclusion of a section in this vow regarding slavery and bearing the signatures of these politicians makes it obvious how politics and history are often not in separate spheres.
First, this vow stated:
“Slavery had a disastrous impact on African-American families, yet sadly a child born into slavery in 1860 was more likely to be raised by his mother and father in a two-parent household than was an African-American baby born after the election of the USA’s first African-American President.” [Please note this has now been removed by Family Leader in the wake of the outrage. Therefore, I do not credit their Monday morning quarterback civil rights.]
While I’m not sure how President Barack Obama has anything to do with children of any race not being raised in a two-parent household; the problem most people have had with this comment (I, not being alone) is that enslaved children were NOT more likely to live in a stable environment in 1860. Stable in being protected by loved ones or stable in even having loved ones around them.
Henry Bibb, born a slave in Kentucky in 1815 wrote in his memoirs about his early childhood:
My mother was known by the name of Milldred Jackson. She is the mother of seven slaves only, all being sons, of whom I am the eldest. She was also so fortunate or unfortunate, as to have some of what is called the slaveholding blood flowing in her veins. I know not how much; but not enough to prevent her children though fathered by slaveholders, from being bought and sold in the slave markets of the South. It is almost impossible for slaves to give a correct account of their male parentage. All that I know about it is, that my mother informed me that my fathers name was James Bibb. He was doubtless one of the present Bibb family of Kentucky; but I have no personal knowledge of him at all, for he, died before my recollection.
The first time I was separated from my mother, I was young and small. I knew nothing of my condition then as a slave. I was living with Mr. White, whose wife died and left him a widower with one little girl, who was said to be the legitimate owner of my mother, and all her children. This girl was also my playmate when we were children.
I was taken away from my mother, and hired out to labor for various persons, eight or ten years in succession; and all my wages were expended for the education of Harriet White, my playmate. It was then my sorrows and sufferings commenced. It was then I first commenced seeing and feeling that I was a wretched slave, compelled to work under the lash without wages and often, without clothes enough to hide my nakedness.
Bibb’s father was white, and so he said his seven siblings were also born of liasons between his mother and white men. Furthermore he acknowledged that his mother was of mixed racial heritage and while he does not say it explicitly, his mother didn’t know who her father was any more than he knew of his. He said exactly that male parentage is hard to puzzle out under the yoke of bondage.
See Henry Bibb, Narrative of the Life and Adventures of Henry Bibb, an American Slave, (New York: Author, 1849), 14-15.
John Brown, born a slave in Virginia and then ended up in Georgia before escape to England recalled in his memoir:
My mother belonged to Betty Moore. Her name was Nancy; but she was called Nanny. My father’s name was Joe. He was owned by a planter named Benford, who lived at Northampton, in the same State. I believe my father and his family were bred on Benford’s plantation. His father had been stolen from Africa. He was of the Eboe tribe. I remember seeing him once, when he came to visit my mother. He was very black. I never saw him but that one time, and though I was quite small, I have a distinct recollection of him. He and my mother were separated, in consequence of his master’s going further off, and then my mother was forced to take another husband. She had three children by my father; myself, and a brother and sister, twins. My brother’s name was Silas, and my sister’s Lucy.
Brown’s mother re-married and even his stepfather was owned by someone else and thus the children lived with their mother in a one-room, mud-floored, poorly constructed slave quarter. His mistress, about 70 years old, whipped slaves (including children) herself with a blue painted whip these enslaved people called the blue lizard.
For more on John Brown see Slave Life in Georgia: A Narrative of the Life, Sufferings, and Escape of John Brown, a Fugitive Slave, Now in England (London, 1855), 1-2.
Next, I point to the terror enslaved children faced while living in these situations that NO ONE should be touting as in ANY WAY better than being born in the United States without slavery. William Wells Brown recalled about his early life:
I was born in Lexington, Ky. The man who stole me as soon as I was born, recorded the births of all the infants which he claimed to be born his property, in a book which he kept for that purpose. My mother’s name was Elizabeth. She had seven children, viz.: Solomon, Leander, Benjamin, Joseph, Millford, Elizabeth, and myself. No two of us were children of the same father. My father’s name, as I learned from my mother, was George Higgins. He was a white man, a relative of my master, and connected with some of the first families in Kentucky.
For more on William Wells Brown, Narrative of William W. Brown, An American Slave (London: Charles Gilpin, 1849), 13.
William W. Brown also recalls how a mixed race enslaved woman, Cynthia, attempted to thwart the advances of a bachelor slave owner. Eventually she gave in as he threatened to sell her into the fields and Cynthia became the man’s housekeepr and had two children by him. Then this slaveholder legally married a white woman and sold Cynthia and his children into “hopeless bondage.” Brown, Narrative of William W. Brown, 44-45.
Lastly, we must remember that children were sold away from their parents, siblings, grandparents and other family members. Thus was the case for a Petersburg, Virginia enslaved woman, Mary. William Still, an operator on the Underground Railroad wrote:
About the 1st of March, 1855, Mary was presented to the Vigilance Committee. She was of agreeable manners, about forty-five years of age, dark complexion, round built, and intelligent. She had been the mother of fifteen children, four of whom had been sold away from her; one was still held in slavery in Petersburg; the others were all dead.
At the sale of one of her children she so affected with grief that she was thrown into violent convulsions, which caused the loss of her speech for one entire month.
For more on William Still and this particular story see William Still, The Underground Railroad. A Record of Facts, Authentic Narratives, Letters, &c. (Philadelphia: Porter & Coates, 1872), 75.
Ms. Bachmann has issued a statement regarding this matter.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/07/13/michele-bachmann-addresse_n_896990.html
I leave it to you to decide whether her statements are legitimate and heartfelt; but, so far as the historical record goes: enslaved children did NOT have a grand and easy time with or without their one or both of their parents. Anyone who suggests otherwise is obviously ignorant of American history.
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Back in March on my way from a road trip I stopped on St. Simons Island to see three original slave quarters.
This original slave quarter is constructed of tabby (a mixture of oyster shells, lime, sand and water). The building is now in the midst of a Methodist church conference complex. This view is of the eastern facade.
The slave quarters survive now in a fairly good condition because at least the one pictured above was being used a meeting when I visited in March 2011. There are two slave quarters on the property of Cassina Garden Club and the one above is part of Epworth by the Sea, a Methodist Church Conference complex. Historically, they were both just three of the slave quarters on the plantation of James Hamilton. Hamilton Plantation, established in 1793 on St. Simons Island for the production of cotton and shipping timber had a big house. Unfortunately, that building burned in 1890. James Hamilton died in 1829 as an extremely wealthy man (of course a wealth predicated on owning other people and forcing their unpaid hands to work for him). It appears these quarters were constructed during the ownership of James Hamilton Couper. Couper owned 386 enslaved people in 1830 and the estate of James H. Hamilton was listed as having 112 enslaved laborers.
These buildings were constructed of tabby (a mixture of oyster shells, lime, sand, and water). However, they were also scoured to appear like they are constructed of ashlar stones.
Detail of exterior wall slave quarter
Today, the slave quarters are located in such a way that (as should be obvious in the photo) makes it appear like a cottage surrounded by beautiful flowers, trees, and spanish moss. The beauty in these photos belies the tragedy of enslavement.
Sadly, the day I was there there was a meeting in the slave quarter at Epworth by the Sea and the nearby two quarters owned by the garden club were inaccessible too. There was recognition of these buildings from the signage directing me to them, but there was little interpretation. The enslaved people who lived here when handling cotton were involved with the plant from the spring through the fall each year. I admit that I do not know enough details about the Hamilton Plantation to know if the people who worked here worked by gang labor (common in the Upper South) or the task system (common in neighboring South Carolina’s lowcountry and not uncommon in coastal Georgia).
The fact that these buildings remain are not only cool, but they can be useful in telling the story of slavery in coastal Georgia. However, there is a need for greater interpretation of these buildings from the entities that own the three quarters. Luckily, the buildings are on the National Register of Historic Places. Those interested in slavery and architecture and the relationship between the two would be remiss if they did not go and check out the buildings while traveling up or down US Route 17.
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