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The Curious Roots podcast digs deep in the living earth of our personal, familial and communal lives to help us understand how we exist in the world today. Though the format of the podcast may vary from season to season, be it narratives, one-on-one interviews or panel discussions, the root line is the same. What are the stories from our family and community histories that travel with us into the present? How do we understand and work with these histories as both individuals and as collectives to create the world of now and the future?
Season one of the podcast begins with the maternal story of my own curious roots, still buried, but breathing and holding fast in Harris Neck, Georgia. Each week, in six short form episodes, I’ll share the story of my mother’s people and how it informs my life today.
Curious Roots is hosted by Michelle McCrary and is co-produced by Moonshadow Productions and Converge Collaborative.
Curious Roots E2 - Until Buckra Came
Otis Johnson [00:00:00] And on January the 16th, 1865, General Sherman issued Field Order number 15, which gave the freed slaves all of the land from North Carolina down to Florida, from the Sea Islands, 30 miles inward through Field Order number 15. This has been commonly known as the 40 acre and a mule deal.
Michelle McCrary [00:00:33] This is the voice of former mayor of Savannah, Georgia, Otis Johnson. He's speaking on C-SPAN in about 2011, discussing the formation and dissolution of Field Order 15.
Otis Johnson [00:00:47] But shortly after that field order was issued, you know that Lincoln was assassinated. President Johnson with the Southern Sympathizer. So it didn't take long for that field order to be voided. And that put a stumbling block in the way for African-American slaves who had been freed to have an economic foundation in what was then an agrarian society. So that's one of my favorite stories.
Michelle McCrary [00:01:19] Curious Roots is a podcast that takes deep into the living earth of our personal, familial and communal lives to help us understand how we exist in the world today.
Terri Ward [00:01:35] But among some of the first families there, we would find, say, the former soldiers such as Mustapha Shaw, Robert Dellegall. They had originally been on Saint Catherine's as part of what we called the experiment with black leadership that Tunis Campbell managed to bring to the region. So as they had gone back and rescinded the order in 1866, because unfortunately, once President Lincoln was assassinated and Johnson came in to play, that was one of the first things that he did.
Michelle McCrary [00:02:16] Welcome The Curious Route. I'm Michelle McCrary. We're continuing with the history of Harris Neck with some help from researcher and genealogist Terri Ward of Ujima Genealogy of coastal Georgia. At this point, Field Order 15 is in place and the period known as Reconstruction is underway. Terri mentions Tunis Campbell. Campbell was from New Jersey and one of the most powerful black politicians of the Reconstruction era. According to the New Georgia Encyclopedia, Campbell founded an anti Colonization Society in 1832. He pledged to, quote, never leave this country until every slave was free on American soil. End quote. By 1865, he was chosen to oversee the resettlement efforts that were part of Field Order 15, specifically for Ossabaw, Delaware, Colonel, St Catherine's and Sapelo Island. The very next year, in 1866, President Lincoln is assassinated and the fight for all of the freedmen to hold on to their land becomes even harder as Field Order 15 is revoked under the new regime of President Andrew Johnson.
Terri Ward [00:03:32] Then you have Johnson, who's basically at his core, is born a Southerner. He's got the Southern traditions and attitudes. And so all of the progress that was put forth, and the intentions, I should say, with Lincoln, would fall apart under the Johnson administration. So essentially, people were driven off of St Catherine's. So like I said, I know that Mustapha and Robert Dellegal, there's a great story out there written by Alison Dorsey showing exactly how they ended up at Harris Neck. Nephew's point first and then Harris Neck. And then there are other soldiers such as Daniel Dunham, Daniel Spalding. There's a couple of union soldiers who show that they had actually settled in there.
Michelle McCrary [00:04:25] Mustapha Shaw was one of the former soldiers who fought with the Union Army and received land through Field Order 15. Shaw went to Ossabaw Island to start his new life. Before the war he escaped the delegate plantation on Harris Neck to join the 33rd colored Infantry alongside my third great grandfather, Lester Grant. Mustapha hated his father with good reason. His father, Edward W Dellegal, was also his enslaver on the Dellegal plantation where Mustapha was born on Harris Neck. Mustapha changed his name when he joined the Army, taking what my elder would call his basket name Mustapha and pairing it with Shaw in honor of Robert Gould Shaw, who led the 54th in the Civil War, another all black regiment, just like the third colored infantry. As Field Order 15 was under assault, the former enslavers and human traffickers began returning to the islands to remove freedmen who had already made their homes there. According to Professor Alison Dorsey's research in the paper Black Settlement and Community Development on Ossabaw Island, Georgia, 1865 to 1900 Mustapha was eventually forced from his home on Ossabaw. But he did not leave without a fight. Armed with a pistol and a bowie knife alongside Robert and Lee Dellegal, most likely his cousins and a man named Paul Doe Brown, the men fought to defend their land, which was rightfully promised to them under Field Order 15. Shaw defended his home when the former slave owners tried to return and retake the land, under Andrew Johnson's new Circular Order 10, which revoked Field Order 15. Mustapha ultimately had to flee Ossabaw Island as authorities hunted him and his cousins for, quote, defiance. Shaw ended up purchasing ten acres of land from his hated father, Edward W Dellegal, all for $1 in 1868. This land that Mustapha Shaw purchased would become part of the foundation that grew into the community of Harris Neck.
Terri Ward [00:06:51] But what's missing from the narrative in the documentation is just that. A lot of it's missing. So you got to piece things together through property deeds and wills because they have either fallen to court house burnings or else they're in private hands. I can say when I say private hands, I was fortunate to run across one safe of the Mifflin family who actually purchased their property from the Brailsfords, because again, as Field Order 15 was rescinded, it placed the freedmen in a position that they would have to deal with the former planters and outright buy it.
Michelle McCrary [00:07:31] According to pension records, Terri generously shared with me after the Civil War, Mustapha was among the people who helped my third great grandparents, Lester and Elizabeth Grant, move back to Harris Neck from St Catherine's Island. I would imagine that they were among those who were driven off of St Catherine's once Field Order 15 was revoked.
Terri Ward [00:07:55] So between 1868 and 1875. It's kind of miraculous. But we see these these land contracts, well labor contracts coming in, basically, where these returning freedmen are negotiating to work for the former planter. And first thing they did is they followed what Garrison Frazier had asked for is to acquire property and land. So they become landowners. And with that responsibility, the males at least become voters. And the whole nature of the Lowcountry community, the the leadership. You have basically now a demographic that is predominantly African-American because the ratio was, say, 4 to 5 African-Americans for every white European male voter. And you have a real shift in the community in terms of who's wielding power and how it's used. And this is kind of, again, one of the parallels that should be pointed out when we look at what's going on now versus what happened then, because basically you expand now the pool of voters. You have voters that, you know, up until this point had been marginalized and ignored. And now they have a powerful voice and they're the core of the community. And the parallel that I like to make is when we look at today, we have got in such a diverse country now and the demographics are changing. We've had an African-American president, and it's very similar in terms of the field in the energy that you see at that point. And basically there's pushback.
Michelle McCrary [00:09:45] So my ancestors enter this period where their ability to live as free citizens is continually under attack. The ability for people attempting to make their lives anew on the Sea Islands was continually undermined and thwarted. Now would be a good time to reflect on the fact that Mustapha Shaw was Miss Mary's grandfather. Her grandfather. I know there is a fiction that all of this happened so, so long ago, and this is all in the past. But Miss Mary is a woman that I met and that I knew. And this was her grandfather. Her grandfather fought in the Civil War. We're not so far from this past. Historian, educator and author Carol Anderson in her book White Rage, says that after the Civil War, quote, America was at the crossroads between its slaveholding past and the possibility of a truly inclusive, vibrant democracy. Further, in that paragraph, to paraphrase Anderson, somewhat inelegantly. Surely at this moment, post a four year war with millions dead and most Southern cities still smoking like the Targaryens lit them up with one smooth dracarys. Surely these white Southerners would concede that there had to be a better way to live. Surely they would consider this. Spoiler alert they did not. As Terri said, Field Order 15 was rescinded after Lincoln's assassination in 1866. This was ten years before the end of Reconstruction. Reconstruction only lasted from December 8th, 1863 to March 31st, 1877, and it was under attack the entire time. All of the black elected officials who were legally elected to govern in many of these Southern states were basically run out of office by these former slave holders and their descendants. When I spoke to Terri, this sense that the U.S. was at another one of these crossroads felt very evident to both of us. We stand at these crossroads again because America refuses to let go of its slaveholding past. My ancestors simply sought to live their lives on their own terms. Informed by a hard won culture, they both retained and created a new under the brutal system of chattel slavery. My ancestors' ability to not only survive but thrive post enslavement was a direct rebuke of the fiction of white supremacy and superiority. That fear that slave owners had of vengeance and reprisal was projected onto black communities in brutal waves of violence all along the coastal south and beyond. Sadly, that brutality would never end. It would only shift, shape and form. But it never ceased this devastating impact upon my family and black families throughout the South. Next time on episode four, we're going to dig into the lives of the people who actually lived on Harris Neck and find out more about what life was like before July 1942. This is Michelle McCrary. Thank you again for listening to Curious Roots.
Credits [00:14:06] Curious Roots is co-produced by Converge Collaborative and Moonshadow Production. Our theme music is courtesy of Makaih Beats. Please rate review and subscribe to the podcast on Apple, Spotify, Stitcher, or however you listen to your podcast. Don't forget to check out curiousrootspodcast.com If you want to learn more about what you've heard. Big thank you to our producer, Pat McMahon. My deepest gratitude to Mr. Wilson Moran and to the community of Harris Neck. Big thank you to Terri Ward and Adolphus Armstrong of Ujima Genealogy. And thank you to my relatives who are now with the ancestors, especially Ms.. Mary Moran and my grandmother Margaret Baisden White. Thank you all for listening to Curious Roots.