Claiming Freedom
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128 pages
English

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Description

An exploration of the political and social experiences of African Americans in transition from enslaved to citizen

Claiming Freedom is a noteworthy and dynamic analysis of the transition African Americans experienced as they emerged from Civil War slavery, struggled through emancipation, and then forged on to become landowners during the Reconstruction and post-Reconstruction period in the Georgia lowcountry. Karen Cook Bell's work is a bold study of the political and social strife of these individuals as they strived for and claimed freedom during the nineteenth century.

Bell begins by examining the meaning of freedom through the delineation of acts of self-emancipation prior to the Civil War. Consistent with the autonomy that they experienced as slaves, the emancipated African Americans from the rice region understood citizenship and rights in economic terms and sought them not simply as individuals for the sake of individualism, but as a community for the sake of a shared destiny. Bell also examines the role of women and gender issues, topics she believes are understudied but essential to understanding all facets of the emancipation experience. It is well established that women were intricately involved in rice production, a culture steeped in African traditions, but the influence that culture had on their autonomy within the community has yet to be determined.

A former archivist at the National Archives and Records Administration, Bell has wielded her expertise in correlating federal, state, and local records to expand the story of the all-black town of 1898 Burroughs, Georgia, into one that holds true for all the American South. By humanizing the African American experience, Bell demonstrates how men and women leveraged their community networks with resources that enabled them to purchase land and establish a social, political, and economic foundation in the rural and urban post-war era.


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Publié par
Date de parution 22 février 2018
Nombre de lectures 0
EAN13 9781611178319
Langue English

Informations légales : prix de location à la page 0,0005€. Cette information est donnée uniquement à titre indicatif conformément à la législation en vigueur.

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CLAIMING FREEDOM
CLAIMING FREEDOM

Race, Kinship, and Land in Nineteenth-Century Georgia
Karen Cook Bell

The University of South Carolina Press
2018 University of South Carolina
Published by the University of South Carolina Press
Columbia, South Carolina 29208
www.sc.edu/uscpress
27 26 25 24 23 22 21 20 19 18
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data can be found at http://catalog.loc.gov/
ISBN 978-1-61117-830-2 (cloth)
ISBN 978-1-61117-831-9 (ebook)
Front cover photograph: St. Bartholomew Episcopal, Burroughs, Ga., Wayne Moore
To Clarence, Clarence Jr., Chris, and Kiara
Contents
List of Illustrations
Acknowledgments

INTRODUCTION
Claiming Freedom in the Lowcountry
1
THE SLAVE S DREAM
2
WAR AND FREEDOM
3
FULL AND FAIR COMPENSATION
4
THE STATE OF FREEDOM IS THE STATE OF SELF-RELIANCE
CONCLUSION

Appendix
Notes
Bibliography
Index
Illustrations
FIGURES
Plantation districts, Savannah-Chatham County
Subdivision of William Miller s plantation, Ogeechee district, 1883
Articles Authorizing the Election of Corporate Officers, Burroughs, Georgia, 1898
Rice cultivation on the Ogeechee, January 5, 1867
TABLES
Table 1 .
Rice Production in Lowcountry Georgia, 1860
Table 2 .
Population of Lowcountry Georgia, 1860
Table 3 .
Families Who Received Land Titles in 1865, Grove Point Plantation, John R. Cheves
Table 4 .
Families Who Received Land Titles in 1865, Grove Hill Plantation, William Habersham
Table 5 .
Families Who Also Received Land Titles in 1865, Grove Hill Plantation, William Habersham
Table 6 .
Landowners and Renters, Burroughs, Georgia, 1910-1920
Table 7 .
Age of Landowners, Burroughs, Georgia, 1910-1920
Table 8 .
Gender Analysis of Landowners, Burroughs, Georgia, 1910-1920
Table A.1 .
Savannah Planter Merchants Who Received and Sold West Africans from Rice Growing Regions, 1765-1798
Table A.2 .
Slaves Imported into Savannah by Origin and Time Period, Early Period, 1755-1767
Table A.3 .
Slaves Imported into Savannah by Origin and Time Period, Middle Period, 1768-1771
Table A.4 .
Slaves Imported into Savannah by Origin and Time Period, Final Period, 1784-1798
Table A.5 .
Institutional Property Owned by Selected Mutual Associations, Savannah
Table A.6 .
Leadership of African American Women in Selected Benevolent Associations, Savannah, 1867-1868
Table A.7 .
Summary of Cultivation, Landowners
Table A.8 .
African American Farms Classified by Size, Chatham County, 1910
Table A.9 .
Occupation of Landowners, Burroughs, Georgia, 1910
Table A.10 .
Occupation of Landowners, Burroughs, Georgia, 1920
Table A.11 .
Occupation and Real Estate Value, Ogeechee District, 1870
Table A.12 .
Average Daily Wages in Selected Occupations in Savannah, 1874
Table A.13 .
African American Women Landowners, Chatham County, 1876
Table A.14 .
Self-Help Societies in the Lowcountry with Accounts Established in the Freedmen s Bank, 1867-1871
Acknowledgments
I owe a debt of gratitude to several persons and organizations who assisted me both directly and indirectly in unveiling the experiences of the men and women in this study. W. W. Law, who passed away fifteen years ago, and the Beach African American Cultural Center strengthened my commitment to writing about the experiences of rural African Americans. I am especially indebted to Law for sharing his wisdom and knowledge about the African American experience in Savannah. Gertrude Green, who worked incessantly with rural African Americans in Chatham County during the Great Depression, also shared her knowledge and insights about the Burroughs community and provided a deeper understanding of the plight of rural African Americans. I must also acknowledge the support that I received from Michael Sherman and the administrative services staff at the Chatham County Courthouse.
During the course of my teaching career at Savannah State University, I have had the good fortune to interact with several professors and community organizations who encouraged my work and supported my development as a professor and scholar. I am eternally grateful to Merolyn Stewart for her wisdom, patience, and foresight as chair of the Department of Social and Behavioral Sciences. I am likewise grateful to Otis Johnson, who supported and encouraged this project as dean of the Liberal Arts College. Johnson provided institutional support for research and study in Senegal, West Africa, which allowed me to gain a deeper understanding of the African background of this study. I am indebted to Alusine Jalloh, director of the Africa program at the University of Texas, Arlington, for directing the study abroad and allowing me to participate. I have been enriched by the experience on several levels, the most important of which is my understanding of community.
The paradigm of community is central to this study. Community organizations assisted in sharing their history and traditions through an oral history project that I directed in 2001. The Sapelo Island Cultural and Revitalization Society and the Sapelo Island community opened their hearts and minds and shared their collective memories. I must thank Maurice Bailey, Cornelia Bailey, the Grovenors, Carolyn Douse, and all of the student participants in the Sapelo Island Oral History Project. An American Dissertation Fellowship from the American Association of University Women (AAUW) provided needed funding to write this study. I am grateful to the AAUW for their support. I am grateful to several scholars who read portions of this manuscript and provided direction for revisions. Daryl Michael Scott, Edna Greene Medford, Julius Akinyele, and Janice Sumler Edmonson shared their time and insights, and this study is a reflection of their generosity.
I am indebted to the staff at the National Archives; the Special Collections staff at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill; Bowie State University s Thurgood Marshall Library; and Savannah-Chatham County Live Oak Library for providing assistance accessing records and books used in this study. I must also acknowledge colleagues in the Department of History and Geography at Morgan State University, Towson University, and Bowie State University who vicariously aided in the completion of this study. I am indebted to several churches, which provided spiritual support: St. Paul Christian Methodist Episcopal Church, led by Pastor Henry Delaney; Overcoming by Faith, led by Pastor Ricky Temple; Immanuel s Church, led by Pastor Charles Schmidt; and Reid Temple A.M.E. Church, led by Lee P. Washington.
Finally, this book would not have been possible without the support that I received from my family over several years of research and writing. My husband, Clarence, endured my absence and time away from family functions and family events during the writing of this study. My children, Chris, Kiara, and Clarence Jr., missed their mother on numerous occasions and had to contend with my preoccupation with book-related matters. Their patience and understanding allowed me to press on to write and complete this project.
INTRODUCTION
Claiming Freedom in the Lowcountry
Absented from her master, a negro wench, supposed to be about 14 years old, named Lucia. She has a black stroke over each of her cheeks as a mark of her country; she has a very particular flesh mark on her upper lip right under the middle of her nose, it consists of a small round hollow spot, in the middle whereof is a smaller protuberance quite round and fastened underneath by a small shank. Whoever takes up said wench, and brings her to the subscriber, shall have ten shillings reward paid by John Reinier.

Savannah Georgia Gazette , November 19, 1766
L ucia, a young girl transported to the Georgia lowcountry during the 1760s, brought with her a deft understanding of her provenance. Prior to her forced migration, her father established her identity by placing a black stroke over each of her cheeks as a mark of her ethnicity. 1 Her family s conception of their historical reality no doubt included reverence for naming ceremonies, secret societies and the rituals associated with such societies, gendered roles, warrior traditions, and untrammeled freedom. It is likely that Lucia was a Mande speaking Malinke (Mandingo), as similar descriptions of country markings appear in advertisements for runaways identified as Mandingo. 2 For Lucia, running away was the final act of resistance to enslavement. It was a Pyrrhic victory against a system that sought to subsume her traditions and knowledge of herself. Within this system of inhuman bondage, however, enslaved Africans such as Lucia remained free. They retained a sense of themselves and relied on an informal network of both enslaved and free Africans for support, including the quasi-maroon communities developed by Africans who escaped enslavement.
The eighteenth century was foundational for the establishment of slavery in Georgia and represented the formation of oppositional communities in the lowcountry. Oppositional communities were communities of resistance that were based on shared transatlantic pasts; these communities were linked by regional origins, American destinations, and New World cultural developments. 3 Claiming Freedom investigates the ways in which African Americans created oppositional communities by delving into the complex networks of relations

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