6:56 AM
Saving Stories
Thank you, Caroline! This is a moving piece that brings great hope for what the future will hold as we think about bringing attention to slave dwellings and their first occupants. It is great to see descendants take part. We appreciate you sharing the history of Nacoochee Valley as well as the impact of The Slave Dwelling Project experience at the African American Heritage Site at the Sautee Nacoochee
Center
Robin Foster
About Our Freedom
"It's Living History" in Nacoochee Valley
Submitted by, Caroline
Crittenden, project coordinator
 |
| Andy Allen (left), Caroline Crittenden (center), Stacy Allen (right). Photo credit: Billy Chism, White County News |
In
1822, slaves came to Nacoochee Valley in Northeast Georgia
against their will with the early white settlers to clear and cultivate the
land in corn fields, gold mines and mills of wealthy white landowners. There
were 462,198 slaves in Georgia
"We
were worked in all weathers,” wrote
Frederick Douglass. “It was never too hot
or too cold; it could never rain, blow, hail, or snow, too hard for us to work
in the field. Work, work, work, was scarcely more the order of the day than of
the night. The longest days were too short for him, and the shortest nights too
long for him.”
One
hundred and fifty years after emancipation, the descendants of a slave owner in
Nacoochee Valley
preserved slave dwelling, an antebellum artifact, and the impact of a “peculiar
institution” on Nacoochee
Valley
And
so it was, on April 27 at the African American Heritage Site at the Sautee Nacoochee
Center
A
re-enactment about runaway slaves who became black Union soldiers and a
presentation about the Slave Dwelling Project in front of the Nacoochee slave
cabin was the kind of program envisioned by those who have been so deeply
involved in this preservation project.
Collaborators
from Bean Creek were enthralled by the re-enactment and reassured that
this project is guided by a determination to honor this unique heritage, a shared
legacy of slavery, and a desire to strengthen the ties that bind.
Proud
to play his part, Bean Creek resident Lawrence Dorsey participated for the first
time as a re-enactor, a silent back drop for Joseph McGill’s program. Lighting
lanterns and tending the fire, Lawrence
As
the sun set behind the cabin and dusk descended, the lanterns hanging from tree
branches drew our attention toward the black soldiers dressed in the uniforms
of the Massachusetts
Echoes
of “Am I Not a Man” were words once uttered
by Frederick Douglass during the War, “If
anyone asks if a slave would fight, tell him no. If anyone asks if a Negro
would fight, tell him yes.” Recounting the assault on Morris Island
When
re-enactor James Brown began his harrowing account as a runaway slave,
recaptured and tortured and undaunted, he captured the crowd’s attention with
the BOOM of a black powder rifle, like those used by black soldiers in blue. “Before I be a slave, I be buried in my
grave,” he wailed. The re-enactors’ performance of story telling and the
Slave Dwelling program was compelling.
Questions
during the “talk-back” (Q&A) session ranged from the Slave Dwelling
Project, to paraphernalia worn by soldiers during the Civil War, to the
suffering of people in bondage, to other slave dwellings in Georgia
The
highlight of the evening for me was being with a small group who gathered
with Joseph and James in the cabin long after the audience was gone. I
was grateful for the time and attention they devoted to Bean Creek
residents Sabrina Dorsey and Stacey Allen as they shared their personal
experiences with overt and latent racism, with discrimination as children and
as adults.
McGill’s
presence and his performance provided an opportunity for Sabrina to uncork
bottled up feelings in the intimate setting and safety of the cabin with Joe
and James and Stacey that night. Another companion, Sabina’s contemporary and
classmate, shared her "ah haaah" moments, when her social consciousness
was awakened, as a young white college student, by dramatic scenes of police
brutality and instances of social injustice during the Civil Rights era.
Andy
Allen was pleased that her son Stacey shared the experience and spent the night
with Joe and James. As a close personal friend, I was moved by the way Stacey “took”
to Mr. McGill and Mr. Brown, like a child watching in wonder, soaking up wisdom
and oral history, sitting on the knees of his elders.
Stacey embraced
his junior status role and nickname "Youngblood" as he sat
quietly rocking by the flickering fire, poking embers, nursing his pipe,
listening intently to Joe and James, absorbing the "awesome"
experience, and sipping some “Oh, Be Joyful” (Brown’s brandy).
Stacey
settled in for the evening as though that cabin were his home. For
all intents and purposes, it could be his ancestral home, and it will
be there for his grandchildren. Indeed, it may have been the same or a
similar dwelling for one or more of his ancestors who lived in bondage.
I
quietly savored every moment, every expression, but sensed that Joe and
James might like to pursue their conversation in private with those
young impressionable people. It was a magical
evening, and I was privileged to have been a part of it. Framed
by an open door, the soft glow of lanterns created silhouettes
of the black figures gathered within the cabin as I drove away into the dark
night at midnight.
The
dim light spilling from the doorway of the dark slave dwelling was like an antebellum
image in a time warp, like an aged sepia print or a tin type snapshot of a
moment that symbolized the culmination of a quest to save this cabin and include
the history of black people in the story of Nacoochee Valley
This
little local museum highlighted the history of Native Americans and early white
settlers who migrated to the Sautee and Nacoochee valleys. After perusing the
artifacts and reading the text, an inquisitive black student commented that
there were no exhibits about African Americans on display. “There’s nothing here that speak to me or tells the story of my people.”
Her critique was concise and absolutely correct. When asked what she would
like to see, she replied, “I want to know
about slavery and the contributions of black people to our community.”
This
young girl’s observation about the omission of black people from the history of
the Valley launched a project that focused on the history of black people in
Bean Creek and eventually wove the threads of history of Native, European and
African Americans into the textured fabric that tells a more complete story
about this little corner of Northeast Georgia .
A casual comment created a unique collaboration between the descendants of
slaves and slave owners.
An
immeasurably valuable but vulnerable antebellum artifact was saved when a
dilapidated and deteriorating slave dwelling was discovered, donated, and
restored by the descendants of the slave owner and slaves preserving a shared
legacy of slavery. Together, we preserved this antebellum dwelling and
establish an African American Heritage Site for the inclusion of the black
experience in the history of the Valley. According to Andy Allen, who
desegregated school buses in White County, Georgia, 35 years after Brown vs.
Board of Education, “It’s not about you;
it not about me. It’s about preserving our history and historic sites for
future generations.” We wanted to reveal the history and inhumanity of
slavery and confront the lingering legacy of racial injustice endured by black
people. We wanted to tell the truth about our history, celebrate the
contributions of African Americans, and strengthen bonds between black and
white residents in our community.
On
his quest with the Slave Dwelling Project, Joseph McGill travels from one hard
planked bed to a rough sawn or swept dirt floor to another lumpy sleeping
pallet, never knowing if he’ll be sharing the night with others or the mattress
ticking with a bed of mice, bed bugs or something sinister. On the night of
April 27th, he slept in the relative comfort of a cabin once
occupied by the “house servants” of a slave master in Georgia
In 1860, E.P. Williams owned of 18
slaves and 3 slave cabins. Built on a foundation of hand-hewn timbers and
framed with lumber bearing the tell-tale marks of a sash saw, the 16 x 28
“single pen” Nacoochee slave dwelling perched on stacked rock piers in plain
view of the Unicoi Turnpike for more than 150 years, the only slave cabin to
survive in the region. The conspicuous location and quality of the cabin’s
construction may have reflected the slave owner’s desire to display his
prosperity and his “benevolence” toward the black people enslaved and exploited
by him.
Although
Abraham Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation on January 1st,
1863, it applied only to states occupied by Union forces, so it had little
effect on Georgia Lincoln United States
The Nacoochee slave cabin (circa 1850) survived, in large part,
because the property owners remodeled it as a cottage, long after emancipation,
for use by subsequent generations of white family members. It is a supporting
structure on the National Register of Historic Places. Now fully restored
and framed by 19th century landscaping and antebellum
artifacts, this cabin provides a focal point for the story of a people whose
labor contributed in countless ways to life in the hills and valleys of Northeast Georgia . The
impetus for restoring this cabin came from a sense of urgency shared by the
descendants of slaves and slave owners about preserving this vulnerable and
vanishing history.
On a larger scale, Joseph McGill’s Slave Dwelling Project is
calling the nation’s attention to the plight and importance of preserving
antebellum structures that once sheltered thousands of enslaved black people. Sabrina, Stacey, Andy,
Lawrence and other Bean Creek residents are full of praise for what Joe and
others are doing to raise awareness about this unique and largely untold story.
To
see this cabin “occupied” once more during Joseph McGill’s sleepover was an
opportunity for reflection. Three direct descendants of enslaved people slept
in the Nacoochee cabin the night he came to the Valley. That image of dark
figures huddled around a rustic table and highlighted by flickering flames with
light and laughter spilling through an opened doorway onto the swept yard of
red Georgia
We
were extremely fortunate to have someone from the National Trust
for Historic Preservation visit our African American Heritage Site and
grateful that Joseph McGill included the Nacoochee slave cabin in his
Slave Dwelling Project. We are honored that McGill slept here, his
first slave dwelling in the state of Georgia
Among
the 129 people who attended the event, we were pleased to have representatives
from the Georgia Department of Economic Development; University of Georgia/School
of Environmental Design & Historic Preservation; the African
American Programs Coordinator for the Georgia Department of Natural
Resources/Historic Preservation Division; Appalachian Studies Center; the director
of White County Community Planning & Economic Development;
members
of the Sautee Nacoochee History Museum and the White County Historical Society,
as well as many others from near and far, black and white.
Caroline
Crittenden, project coordinator
Below
are some comments about the program by people who were in the audience:
Allen
Stovall:
(our UGA landscape architect from Athens , GA Lawrence
Candice
Dyer:
(writer and contemporary of Stacey Allen and Sabrina Dorsey, commenting on the
intimate follow up conversation in the privacy of the cabin after the
program): I had such a good time last
night -- staying up past midnight having an intense, honest, and illuminating
conversation with people who can teach me something about life. I don't get
that nearly enough. But it also dawned on me how important it was to Stacey to
spend the night there and that he and the other guys might want some space and
time to reflect while they were there, and that I might be distracting or
detracting from that -- unintentionally. I sincerely hope that wasn't the case.
Thank you again so much for cluing me in to this -- I hope you'll keep me in
your magical loop!
Stacey Allen: (descendant of slaves owned by the Williams family, Andy’s son) It was awesome! The Slave Dwelling
Project has regional and national significance.
Jim
Johnston: (cabin donor and
descendant of slave owner E.P. Williams) Well done.
Denise Hartzell: (former history teacher who said
she would crawl over broken glass to get Joseph McGill to come to her
class of young black students in Atlanta
How I wish I'd been a fly on the wall of the cabin for the
late-night conversation! Those are the moments to be savored, and the
biggest reason, to treasure and protect the cabin, come what may... As
time goes on, it will be a place where descendants of slaves, slave owners and
folks from "off" (like me!) can gather to share experiences and
emotions, to promote mutual understanding and (hopefully) healing. Joe McGill's
evening got us off to a good start at that.
McGill is "still waters," meaning that he's a thinker...
We connected in conversation about the slaves who had to live in the attic in
the house in Connecticut Atlanta
Ham Schwartz: (proprietor of the Stovall
House, where the DNR/HPD African American Programs Coordinator stayed.
According to documentation and the oral history of Valley residents, this
B&B was built by a pathologically brutal slave owner at the
opposite end of the treatment-of-slaves continuum from the slave cabin’s
original owner E.P. Williams.)
"The event was excellent, outstanding, captivating!"
Charles Aiken: “The evening's event was
excellent in every way! Thought provoking, socially significant,
historically actuate. There was quite a crowd, and I was especially
pleased to see so many of the Bean Creek residents. The Nacoochee
cabin is a jewel, and you have guarded it and ensured that the
Heritage Site would be a treasure for the community of black and white.”
Anne Prescott (African
American from Douglasville): Thank you so much for making it
possible to share this often hidden history at the Heritage Site. The
impact slavery had on our society is still with us. What you're
doing is meaningful and so important. It was a wonderful evening.
Tom O'Bryant: (Director of White County Community Planning and Economic Development) This story is so unique to our area, and this project is so important for our community and our understanding of the history of African Americans in
Paul Brown: (who sang Civil War tunes and played Spirituals on his banjo) What a wonderful event! I hope to help with any project coming up and mention me to the Bean Creekers about getting up a spiritual singing group. It's great that all your hard work for so many years is paying off so wonderfully!
Carolyn Hayes: (Sweetwater Coffeehouse sponsor) The event was absolutely incredible! I just love what you’re doing for our community. The re-enactment transported me back to my childhood and to the stories told by the black tenement family that lived on our farm. We lived side by side; we loved each other and shared all that we had. I practically grew up in that cabin right along side their children.
Linda Hill Jordan: (Sautee Nacoochee History Museum) As an older, white southern lady, I found it gratifying that these young black men are courageous enough to tell these stories – even some of the harsh stories – in a setting that has been salvaged through joint efforts of descendants of slaves and descendants of slave owners; all with no expenditure of SNCA funds.
Andy Allen: (friend and collaborator on this preservation project, direct descendant of slaves owned by the Williams family) It was great! Truly wonderful! It’s what we wanted. I just wish more young people could see this history. It’s living history.
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