Many Rivers Episode 4: Should We Go Or Should We Stay?

My response to Episode 4 Many Rivers To Cross: Making A Way Out Of No Way.

I started off with a small poem I wrote and then highlighted a few of my ancestors that made a difference in their communities and in their own personal lives.

Should We Go or Should We Stay?

How can we make a way out of no way?

Got to buy me a pick, a shovel, a small plot of land

With the Grace of God, I will do what I can.

                                                                                                                         Forces are against us, white sheet and hoods                                      

Looking at every truck that comes through our neck of the woods.

Right and left in the day go the sway of our head

Praying and praying we don’t come up dead. 

As we lend our ears to the sounds that say Get up!

Don’t even bother to dress, they are on their way

Peeking out the window late at night

Consoling our kids who are shaking with fright

Peace be still

Should we go or should we stay?

Can we hold our heads up high as we walk down the street?

Being men why should we shuffle and look down at our feet

We love our women;  yes, we too love deep

Trusting and protecting as we tip toe through the waters of life

Should we go or should we stay?

Trouble the water, down in the lower South

 In this new day of reconstruction

Or take a trek where life springs a new beginning

As we wade in those troubled waters

Regardless of where we stay
We will make a way out of no way.



Jimmy The Ugly Crow:

My aunt Ethel's grandfather Richard Chapman family had to endure this awful charge and continue to make a way out of murky water.

Most of my ancestors chose to stay in Texas for whatever reason. They lived in counties like Galveston, Fayette, Liberty, San Jacinto, Grimes, and Harrison. However many of their children moved to other cities as they got older. 

Texas had numerous teaching jobs that needed to be filled as more and more schools were built.

Uncle Owen Daviss had several teaching and principal positions. Kenedy School was one of the ones he was troubled with towards the end of his career in that town.

  

This is a letter that my uncle Owen sent to a Mr. Jacquet telling of his concern about not only him losing his job because of desegregation but for all the other Negro teachers who would be displaced. 

The Bad: This letter below tells of his concern in 1955 of the aproaching storm. 

Here is a portion of the letter as he breaks down the stream of unfairness.

 The response Uncle Owen received was cloudy and stagnant:

Breaking down the bad came down like a rolling waterfall.

Low and bitter as if he knew all they went through instead of playing the blame game on that bridge over troubled waters.

After all that was said and done Uncle Owen went on to be one of the best educators in Grimes and Liberty County Texas.

One of my collateral great uncles Wash Lester  helped to build numerous Rosenwald schools in Harrison County.

Relatives went to Bishop and Wiley College. One uncle Rev L.R. Taylor was a trustee at Bishop for years before they moved the school to Dallas. He was also a Moderator for the Texas Louisiana Baptist Association.

My paternal relatives attended  Praireview and Texas Southern and taught at schools like Paul Quinn in Waco.

Harry Daviss went to Texas State University for Negroes

Some went on to attend Meharry in Tennessee like my great grandfather J D Daviss and came back to Texas to practice at the Houston Colored Hospital as well as private practice.

Those who migrated and chose to stay in their perspective states:

A better life was made for and by them as well as their offspring.  From Pullman Porters, School Principals, and just plain hardworking men who took care of their families in hard times and good times.

William D. Williams:    New York

Lloyd Williams:            Washington

Lee Williams:               California

R.D. Burks:                   California

Jerome Burks:               California

T.R. Daviss:                 Colorado

Moses Davis                 Colorado

Wright C Daviss:          Oklahoma

Floyd Mitchell:             Oklahoma

Harry Davis:                 Kansas

Many Rivers To Cross Episode 3: Oh Freedom!

Someone told me once that darn near everyone had an ancestor that fought in the United States Colored Troops. While I have not made that connection yet, I do have more than a few “troopers” that I admire, be it for the betterment of the cause of humanity or just because they are who they are.

The Women:

My first pick is every single one of my female ancestors who survived the brutal acts of slavery.

Secondly, I cry out to the mothers who saw their loved ones off to war, some who never returned, and some who returned with the full effects of the war with missing limbs and missing thoughts of why they survived.

When the New York Union League Club proclaimed their support for the men of the 20^th United States Colored Troops, I can imagine their gut wrenching pride and tears. 

The club was made up of women whose relatives and neighbors were getting ready to head out to war.

They presented the flag/ banner and stated that it was an emblem of prayers, freedom and faith.  The love of a common country and the devotion to the country was imprinted in their minds.

Excerpt from article found in the New York Daily Tribune March 7,1864

These women loved their sons, husbands, uncles, nephews and neighbors

These women stood tall swelling with pride 

Thirdly Isabella also known as Sojourner Truth

Born a slave in 1777  she was a strong force in fighting for the abolishment of slavery, temperance and suffrage. Isabella changed her name to Sojourner Truth after she became disillusioned with a Mr. Matthews who ran away with money his followers had invested. She was a devoted follower of him and his wife and was accused of being involved in the trickery.  Promising to clear her good name she made a pact with herself to spend the rest of her life fighting slavery. Mrs. Truth lived to be 106 years old.

One of my favorite speeches was Ain’t I A Woman found in the 1992 issue of The Guardian.

Last but not least Fannie: Love Letter Straight From My Heart, keep us so near while apart

Theophilus and Harriet Person Perry lived in Harrison County Texas.  When the civil war came Theophilus took Norfleet, a bondsman of his father Levin with him as his man servant. Fannie was also enslaved by Levin Perry and was Norfleet’s companion. Harriett went to stay at Spring Hill, Levin Perry’s Plantation.

As we know, the enslaved more than likely did not pen this letter however someone wrote it for her with the intention of it getting to Norfleet, the love of Fannie's life. 

Here is what the letter stated dated December 28, 1862     

The original letter is located in the Person Family papers housed at the Manuscript Division at Duke University in the William R Perkins Library                                       

The Men: Texas State Legislators: Reconstruction Era

These are a few of the brave men who served in the Texas Legislator during reconstruction.

A. B. Houston Bassett served in Grimes County and lived near my grandparents James Penn and Gertrude Sims Daviss.

David Abner Sr, served in Harrison County Marshall Texas the home of my maternal ancestors.

Ed Patton served in San Jacinto County and was once married to Easter Thornton in my Williams line. 

        A Song for the seasons past: Oh Freedom sung by Shirley Verrett   

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      

Steal Away, Steal Away, King Cotton is Coming!

My take on the PBS Special

The African Americans: Many Rivers To Cross
Episode 2 : The Cotton Economy and Slavery

I have often wondered how my maternal and paternal families got to those places, according to the census, say they were from.

Did they come with the enslavers who ran from other states in order to keep their slaves?  Or did they slip away silently in the night’s light of the moon and the signs from the stars. 

After viewing Episode 2 of Many Rivers to Cross and scouring news articles from the papers during the era of 1800 – 1860, I started to wonder if any of my ancestors were among the runaways.

Looking at this article in The Texas Gazette was one of my ancestors a part of these Virginia ten who ended up lost on a Pennsylvania Ridge?  Why were their lives not important enough to the family that took them in, fed them and turned them over for a reward. (Eat, drink, and be merry for tomorrow you may die)

Were any of my ancestors in any of these groups trying to get to Canada? 

Were the weapons they took with them enough to protect them until they crossed over the Niagara (I got my shield and sword) 

Was George or John one of my ancestors?

In my family tree there are numerous George’s and John's. Did he by chance make his way to North Carolina? Was he captured and sent back into slavery like so many others.(Let my people go)

                                            Louisville Morning Courier July24,1844

Was Mary my ancestor?

No wonder she ran away; she had a whip mark under her eye and the back of her neck. I pray she made it to where she may have been set free, A place like like Canada. 

(Ain’t Gonna Let Nobody Turn Me Around)

                                                  Ad found in The Daily Picayune July 13,1844

 Were any of those people part of the enslaved who worked the cotton fields in Harrison, Fayette and Grimes county Texas where my ancestors lived?

How much cotton did my gg-grandparents John Lewis and his wife Sallie Jefferson  Lewis have to pick in order to satisfy their slave owner in Grimes County Texas? 
Sallie was around 9 yrs old before she saw the end of bondage and John was going on 20 years. (But still I rise)

In Marshall, Harrison County, Texas how much cotton did my elusive Mariah have to pick before she was allowed to take her shackles off. 

According to Randolph Campbell’s book A Southern Community in Crisis: Harrison County Texas 1850-1880  on page 53 table 5, you can see that cotton is definitely King. 

This book happens to be in my top 3 likes for books mainly because it is all about my maternal ancestors home city of Marshall and Harrison County. 

Were any of these enslaved people named in this court case  Wheeler vs Coleman and Simms, filed in St Augustine Texas my ancestors? 

Otis Wheeler’s claim was that Abram Coleman and B Fleurnoy Simms were to pay his debt to a Thomas Barnett in exchange for a deed of trust that included twenty slaves and a plantation.

Wheeler stated that he delivered three slaves and forty bales of cotton to them to sell to settle the debt. He then claimed that the two did not sell the slaves but kept them for their own employment.

Among these slaves was a girl that just happened to be named Priscilla. (I’ve been buked and I’ve been scorned)

St Augustine County Texas Court Records; Found in Race, Slavery and Free Blacks, series 11

This is the last bale of cotton that came from the Jonesville Gin situated in Jonesville Texas where my great grandfather Joseph P Taylor was born.

Stronger and Wiser

Many Rivers To Cross1: Rivers of Life Rolling On The River

Living in the Jonah’s of my imagination are the proud women and men who would rather die than be taken from their home leaving countless families alone weeping and crying.

I can hear them saying, "You tried to break me down here in this hell hole of a hull, thinking I would join my aunts and uncles on the bottom of the deep blue ocean." 

Some of our own from one Continent we know, huge and vast coming from the past.

How many I ask are the bones that lie in the deep are a reflection of 

me when they were in the flesh?   

After watching Many Rivers To Cross; the first episode on PBS, my mind 
wandered back and forth between my Texas counties and my ancestors
who may have taken the same route shown. So far I have no documented verification.

                                                                                                                    

Everyone that knows me has been told that I am stuck in Texas with my

research and that I have a million billion trillion bricks and blocks

that have fallen in my way.

Okay I admit I am exagerating about those trillion or so bricks and blocks but I do have 1024 direct descendants who fit in there somewhere.

I am not going to call them walls because I do have human Walls that are in my shared DNA with names like Thelma, Steven and Crystal that I have come to love sight unseen.

This show bought home, that I have had very few rivers in my life to cross.

My Ancestors bore the brunt of that.

Just because I have not found Mr and Ms Elusive does not mean that I have to jump off the top of the roof of my house.

The front porch step will do just fine.

Does Texas have many rivers?  You bet she does; they are long, they are wide and they are wild.

With that being said, Mariah Taylor my elusive 3^rd great grandmother

and her parents may have crossed the Sabine River which snakes all the way from the Gulf of  Mexico up to East Texas.

The Sabine River:

I have not gotten a handle yet on where Mariah was really born but her son

Joseph was born in Harrison County reportedly in Jonesville Texas.  Near

Jonesville there was Swanson’s landing. It was a port that was used

to deliver goods and slaves from New Orleans.

Did Mariah’s ancestors come that way?  

My paternal greats on my Daviss side could have gotten off somewhere 

around Galveston Texas, crossed over the Brazos River or the Navasota River not knowing that one day two of their offspring may meet up one day just like the mighty rivers that kiss the ocean.

The Brazos River

The Navasota River

What about Captain John Taylor who steered the Hannah Elizabeth in 1836 from Barbados. He brought a boat load of slaves to what was known as 

Brigs landing,  a port in Orange Texas. Some he left  and the rest he headed towards Galveston to sell.

Was Mariah’s family on that brig?  Were they shuffled off and transported

to Harrison County Texas? 

(excerpt found in the Gateway to Texas: The History of Orange and Orange County)

In order to stay off that front step, I tend to piddle and hope that my piddling 

will lead someone else to find their family with little nuggets and gems

one step at a time. 

I have no idea if this 34 year old man (they referred to him as a boy)

that was found on the north side of the Sabine was my ancestor; but he was someone's child husband or brother.  His name was George

                                                                                                                                   

            How many rivers does George have to cross to be called a man?

  

                           

                               The Standard Clarksville Texas October 25, 1856 

In the 1870 Census in Albany New York , 27 year old Kate Rivers was listed as a servant. Ms Rivers was born in Africa.

How many Rivers Lord, How Many Rivers To Cross?

                                This is the excerpt of the 1870 census

I went looking for any Davis that I could find to tie into my Daviss.  Even though this particular Davis was not mine he was living in a levee camp in Missouri.

Since we are talking about rivers,  Davis’s next door neighbor

was a Teamster by the name of Red River. He and his parents were from Tennessee according to the 1910 census.

                 How many rivers did Red have to cross to work at the Levee?  

                      Here is a excerpt of  Red listed on the 1910 census

When I lived in Dallas Texas in the early 1970's I used to cross over the

Trinity River Bridge. The area I lived in was dry. You were not able to buy 

beer or liquor. The trip across the bridge was the only way we could secure a 

happy week-end with spirits especially during football season. 

Need I say more?

The Trinity River

Try crossing over this bridge

Yes, Yes, Yes, there are still waters!!

Solomon and The Scoundrels: The Trial and the Tale

Several people that I know or have heard that went to see the movie "Twelve Years A Slave" stated that it was either to hard to watch and walked out or refused to stay because of the brute facts of the film.

Others just refuse to go just because of the stirrings that it may bring. 

In my mind, this blog may be a little easier to digest as you read the newspaper account of the examination of the two scoundrels who kidnapped and sold Solomon Northrup.

The Kidnapping:

Solomon Northrup along with both of his parent was born free. Solomon was born around 1808 and married around 1820. He and his wife and children lived in Saratoga Springs.

In 1841 he was employed by two men to drive a team south to New York for the sum of a dollar a day.

After reaching Washington, Solomon fell ill and got a room at the Gadsden Hotel to rest.

Two men came to his room with offers of medicine to help with the pain.

When Solomon awoke all hell broke loose. He was chained to the floor in Williams Slave Pen.

A slave dealer by the name of James Birch and another man named Ebenezer Radburn stripped him down, beat him and dared him to ever mention that he was a Free Man again.

The Kidnapping Trial as seen in the New York Herald July 1854 from the Saratoga Whig   (Click on all newspaper articles to read for better view)

In The Matter Of Alexander Merrill and Joseph Russell:

These two men were arrested for enticing Solomon to Washington City under false pretense of work and selling him into slavery.

George Scott and Henry Northrup were the prosecutors of the case.  William Wait and John Brothereon represented the two prisoners.

Abel Meeker and David Maxwell were the Justice of the Peace and W. O. Odell was the District Attorney.

The trial or examination as it was called was held at the Balleston Spa on July 11^th 1854.

Solomon Speaks:

Solomon was sworn in and stated he was now 47 years of age. At the time of the occurrence he was in contact with the two men who were now arrested and on trial for enslaving him.

Step by step Solomon related how he was told that he would be paid to drive a team of horses and also to play the fiddle at a circus for a dollar a day.

He told how after arriving in New York the prisoners wanted him to go on to Washington but that he was reluctant to go unless he had his free papers. Once the supposed free papers were obtained they ventured on their way.

They partied together drinking and smoking by day at the Gadsby Hotel.  That afternoon he was feeling sick and by evening, he was very ill and took to his bed.

 When he awoke he was tied to the floor in a slave pen and stripped of all his money and belongings.

Two men Birch and Radburn came in and accused Solomon of lying and being a runaway from Georgia.  They flogged and paddled him with Cat-of 9 tails until he was told to stop or else he would not be any good for sale.

After spending several more days in the slave pen he was sent from there by railroad then by steam boat to Virginia and from there to New Orleans where he was sold.

Solomon Northrop states he was kept in slavery for 12 years, released where he returned to his wife and kids.

Cross Examination:

Solomon stated that he had not been to any of those places before.  On cross he actually stated most of what he said previously except for naming another person by the name of St. John who then testified.

St John told on the stand that the appearance of the two prisoners had changed from long straggly hair to being well groomed. A gold watch and chain hung from Russell’s pocket and loose lips told that he sold the Negro Solomon.

Another witness testifies that he has known Solomon since 1826 or 1827 and that he remembers seeing the two men previously and talked to Solomon about his fear of him going with the two in this adventure.

Mr. Wait, the council for the defendant Russell, called no witnesses. Bail was set at $5,000 dollars each.

The punishment for kidnapping and selling into slavery is no less than 2 years or no longer than 10 years.

The Tale of the Heartless Tape:

Solomon Northrup sued the slavers but lost the fight based on the law that a black person could not testify against a white person.

Even though the slavers were remanded into custody they were eventually released for lack of Northrup’s testimony.