|
The Colored People
Source: A History of Marlboro County: With
Traditions and Sketches of Numerous Families,
1897
About sixty percent. of the population of Marlboro
County is of the negro or African race, and their coming
to this country was as slaves. This county had very
few previous to the Revolutionary War, but, as the
culture of the rice and cotton increased and became the
principal crops, the demand for negro labor
increased. About 1830 a negro man would sell for
say three or four hundred dollars; a young woman
probably for less. But about the beginning of the
war prices for similar slaves would be at least three
times as much. This was, no doubt, largely owing to
the growing demand for this labor for the new Western States,
and the prohibition of further importation to this
country about the year 1820. The bringing of these
people to this country as slaves, has proved a great
blessing to their descendants, in giving them
civilization and Christianity, and has also greatly
blessed the South in giving to it the best labor in the
world, adapted to its peculiarities as to climate and
products. The negroes of this county previous to and
during the war were well cared for and protected by their
owners, and seldom during those times was anything
actually cleared from the result of the year's work upon
the farm, further than was expended in the
care, clothing, etc., of the whites and blacks upon the
place. The main property in considering wealth was
the number of slaves owned, and the principal ideal in
obtaining wealth in the South previous to the war was
to take care of the negroes and let them multiply.
During the war the negroes were entirely docile, doing
the work of making the crops in the absence of their masters,
and being faithful and obedient.
With the close of the war
came the freedom of the negro as one of the results of
the conflict, and it was seriously felt by the
former masters that this was a calamity indeed,
principally as they could not conceive of such a state of
things as that a negro would work unless made to do so as
a slave; and also that the two races would not be able
to remain together in any other relationship than as
master and servant.
Neither the masters nor slaves were
prepared for the new situation, and, as was natural, both
made mistakes. The new freedman could not
fully realize that he was free unless he moved from his
old home and confidently expected to be set up with
"forty acres and a mule." Then came reconstruction
and the conferring of suffrage upon the colored
people, which caused political aspirations. During
that exciting and stormy period immediately following
reconstruction, to their credit it must be said that no
outbreaking act of violence occurred in this county, as in some
others.
The conduct of the slaves of Marlboro during the war,
when the able-bodied whites were at the front in the
army, was commendable indeed.
No instance during the whole
four years is remembered where the blacks were other than
faithful to the home and family. It is not too
much to say that no other race of people under similar
circumstances would have been so loyal and
true.
The present development of Marlboro is largely the
result of negro labor. The colored people largely
work as tenants and share-owners of crops, and any
disagreement or litigation with their employers is
very uncommon. The stores of the county are largely
supported by the patronage of the colored people, and it
is rare indeed that credit extended by a merchant to a
colored farmer or tenant is not promptly paid in
the early fall.
Quite a goodly number of colored
people in Marlboro own their own farms and know how to
work them. The following colored men own valuable
farms and have excellent credit in their respective
communities:
Alex. L. Ivy, Silas Easterling, C. C. McRae, George
Pearson, Lewis
Emanuel, Thomas Green, J. Evans Quick,
January Johnson, Richard Reese,
Richard Gibson, Rufus
Tatum, Amos Tatum, Handford David, Noah Melloy,
Edward
Ware, G. W. Steel, Washington Bright, Robert McColl, Tony Lide,
Moses
McLeod, Benjamin F. Quick, Nicholas Kollock, the Cook
brothers, the
McKay brothers, Moses Hodges, H. W. Hines,
Henry Bradford and Dennis
David.
Among the colored population there were few
well-to-do farmers and business men. J. C. Allman
has a large plantation, which he cultivates very
successfully, making from 125 to 150 bales of cotton
annually.
Peter Banks, living near McColl, is another good
farmer and has an excellent plantation, which might,
perhaps, sell for forty dollars per acre. He runs a
four or five horse farm.
E. J. Sawyer came to Bennettsville
about twenty-five years ago.
He has had good educational
opportunities and has received thorough college
training. He served as principal of the Colored Graded School
for a number of years, and has also been engaged in
mercantile and farming pursuits. He has served two
terms as postmaster at Bennettsville. He is a
resident of the town, owning an attractive home, and
numerous other town lots, together with valuable farms in
the country. His property is worth perhaps
$20,000.
The Pee Dee Educator is the name of a paper owned
and edited by E. J. Sawyer, and is creditably supported
by the colored people of the county. Its
circulation is about two thousand, and with one exception
is the oldest colored paper in the country, being in its
seventh year.
The churches of the colored people will compare
favorably with those of other sections. At the town
of McColl there is a small Presbyterian church.
With this single exception all the others are Baptist
and Methodist. The colored Baptist church in town
has a larger seating capacity than any other church in
town. It is a substantial frame building, neatly
painted and well furnished. The building is worth
about $3,000, and was built chiefly through the
contributions of the colored people through the efforts
of the present pastor, Rev. F. W. Prince, who received
his training at Benedict College, Columbia, South Carolina.
The Methodists have a church in Bennettsville, known as
"St. Michael's M. E. Church." For comfort,
convenience, beauty and situation, it is all that could
be desired by any congregation. This church is worth
about $2,500. Both churches have comfortable
parsonages attached. When we remember that so many, and
such comfortable churches, have been erected through the
contributions of the colored people chiefly, were
are amazed at their liberality and religious zeal.
As an illustration of this, Tony Lide, a few years ago,
mortgaged his home and thirty acres of land, all he
owned, in order to make the purchase of one of the parsonages
spoken of above. Below we give the names of twenty of the
country churches, all of which are well-built frame
structures, completed, painted and furnished, the average
value of each being about $1,000:
Hopewell, Sarian, Spears,
Clio M. E., Clio A. M. E. Z., Asbury, Pee Dee, Sardis,
Macedonia, Saw Mill, Level Green, Smyrna, Pine Plains,
Galilee, Wesley Chapel, Ebenezer, Cedar Fall, Shiloh,
Goodwin Chapel, and Dyer's Hill.
There are
others of less value, but neat and comfortable.
As a rule the
colored people avail themselves of every opportunity for
education, frequently keeping up private schools at their
own expense when the limit for the public schools has
expired. Many parents by much sacrifice send their
sons and daughters to colleges. Benedict, Shaw and
Claflin being usually patronized. More detailed allusion
is made to the schools and school buildings in the
chapter on education.
When we consider the rapid strides that
have been made by the negro race along financial, social,
religious and educational lines, we are amazed.
Time nor space will admit of a more extended chapter in this
work.
Nor is any pen adequate to the task of bestowing the
just meeds of praise upon them to which they are
entitled, for having so successfully overcome adverse
fortunes. Their progress and improvement as a race
in the last thirty years has been without a parallel in
the world's history, and their motto is, "Onward still,
to yet better achievements."
|
|
This is a FREE website.
If you were
directed here through a link for which you paid $ for, you can
access much more FREE data via our South Carolina index page
at http://www.genealogytrails.com/scar/index.html
Also make
sure to visit our main Genealogy Trails History Group website
at http://genealogytrails.com for much more nationwide
historical/genealogical data and access to other state/county
data
|
Copyright ©
Genealogy Trails 2008
All Rights Reserved with Full Rights Reserved for Original
Contributor
|
