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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 E1 - Daughters of Harris Neck
Margaret Baisden [00:00:00] That's another thing I never, because I really didn't... I haven't found out on whose side that Bob and I are related. Whether it was my grandmother, or the Baisdens, you know, the, or... You know the Proctors or the Baisdens.
Mary Moran [00:00:20] It was Eliza Baisden was Robert's father.
Margaret Baisden [00:00:25] Uh huh. Okay. So it comes so, I'm related to the Thorpes from the Baisden side. Okay, cause, I didn't know. I knew it had to be either Baisden or Proctor. And Chester.
Mary Moran [00:00:41] Chester Dunham.
Michelle McCrary [00:00:42] The voice you are hearing is my grandmother's. Her name is Margaret Baisden. She's talking to Mary Moran, who is an important matriarch to the small coastal community in Townsend, Georgia.
Margaret Baisden [00:00:53] My grandmother also.
Mary Moran [00:00:55] But everybody on Harris Neck was cousins. Everybody was cousins.
Margaret Baisden [00:00:59] Everybody was related to everybody else, you know, cause. And everybody, you know, people are dumbfounded when I said Aunt Gladys was a blood relative and Uncle Richard was a blood relative.
Mary Moran [00:01:10] Right.
Margaret Baisden [00:01:10] And they say, what do they do, marry each? I said, no, Aunt Gladys was my aunt from my father's side and Uncle Richard is my uncle from my grandfather's side.
Mary Moran [00:01:21] Right.
Margaret Baisden [00:01:22] So Uncle Richard was my grandfather and Aunt Gladys was (inaudible). Well, I mean, they look at me like I'm...
Mary Moran [00:01:30] Harris Neck was something else.
Margaret Baisden [00:01:31] Yeah. I don't think there was a person out here that wasn't related it to the other person, you know, in some way or fashion.
Michelle McCrary [00:01:37] It's the year 2000. We're sitting in Wilson Moran's bright dining room around a large wood table. Mr. Moran is Miss Mary's son. He's also my grandmother's cousin. He's also my cousin, as is his mother, Miss Mary. But that's a story for later. My grandmother. Mr. Moran and Ms. Mary right now are sharing memories about a place and a community that no longer exists as they knew it. Before we all made our way to this table, I've been helping my grandmother piece together our family's history for about a year. We've come to Miss Mary and her son, Wilson, to help us find some answers about what happened to their community in a place called Harris Neck, Georgia. I'm Michelle McCrary, and these are my Curious Roots.
Michelle McCrary [00:02:30] Curious Roots is a podcast. I dig deep into the living earth of our personal, familial and communal lives to help us understand how we exist in the world. This podcast will unravel the story of what happened to the community and the people of Harris Neck, Georgia. As we come to know the story of what happened in Harris Neck will also come to understand what continues to happen to black coastal communities from North Carolina to Florida to this day.
Mary Moran [00:03:08] You wouldn't believe, I had 13 children.
Michelle McCrary [00:03:08] Really?
Mary Moran [00:03:09] I got nine still living. Lord and the grandchildren and great grand. When they have my funeral, the church will be full.
Mary Moran [00:03:20] This podcast is also about the lessons we can learn about creating life and community in the midst of continuous cycles of apocalyptic societal collapse. It's the story of my family and the rich cultural legacy that shaped them, a culture that stretches from the continent of Africa to Turtle Island. It's also a record for my children and the families they might choose in the future. It will let them know that their ancestors are always with them, guiding them, sending them messages and instructions that they can hear when they truly listen.
Wilson Moran [00:04:02] You need to listen to this. You need to see this again. Uh what's this child's name? Michelle.
Margaret Baisden [00:04:06] Yeah, Shelby.
Wilson Moran [00:04:07] Now momma tell the story behind this.
Mary Moran [00:04:09] Papa had a first cousin named, Sam Doherty. You heard that name? My father's name was Robert Doherty.
Wilson Moran [00:04:17] Well this ain't the story...
Mary Moran [00:04:23] But it was just a Black community and everybody's a cousin.
Margaret Baisden [00:04:28] And everybody was out here to get together. It was just there wasn't an outsiders.
Mary Moran [00:04:35] That's right. They could marry among themselves.
Michelle McCrary [00:04:36] Do you remember when the government first came in here or.
Mary Moran [00:04:40] Yeah, back in 1942.
Michelle McCrary [00:04:42] What'd they tell you.
Mary Moran [00:04:42] I was 19 years old.
Michelle McCrary [00:04:45] What'd they tell you when they first got out here?
Mary Moran [00:04:47] Well, I remember this man came by our house. Yes. His name was Bado Dean. He was a white fella. And he had a big paper. And he said that we had to be out of there by, we had two weeks notice. We had to be out there by the 27th of July. Else they woulda burned you out. They did burn out Evelyn and them out. Another house they burned. But, you know (inaudible). You just was dumbfounded they didn't give you but two weeks and people had to get all them things together. Evelyn said when she got, when her and her mother went back in there, to get some more things the chickens were flying and the woods (inaudible) from the fire. The government will suffer what they did at Saint Mary's.
Margaret Baisden [00:05:35] Would they even give you time to...
Mary Moran [00:05:37] That's right. They didn't give us but seven dollars an acre.
Wilson Moran [00:05:37] Those who got paid.
Mary Moran [00:05:41] Those who got paid. Some of them people....
Mary Moran [00:05:43] Miss Mary's explaining that a white man named Bado Dean came to Harris Neck in July of 1942 and told them they had two weeks to leave. At the time, this Mary was pregnant with Mr. Wilson and she was about 21 years old. The entire community had two weeks to pack up their lives. Miss Mary also tells us that those who didn't move fast enough or who refused to leave, like my grandmother's cousin, Evelyn Greer, were burned out. The thriving, bustling community where Miss Mary and her son Wilson lived and where my grandmother spent all her childhood summers was wiped out in an instant.
Mary Moran [00:06:22] A week. And they just took it. The government just take it.
Margaret Baisden [00:06:27] Well, I know my grandmother. I remember one day she came over to my house and she said she had to come out here because she had to sign some papers to get the few dollars that they will give her for her mother or her mother and father.
Mary Moran [00:06:43] Yeah. Right. Mhm.
Margaret Baisden [00:06:48] She did. I think he came back with a deed. I don't know what happened with all that stuff, but she had a deed because it had her name and it had my mother's name. That was the only place, I think besides my mother's marriage license and her birth certificate that had her real name on it. And it had little Willie's name on it.
Michelle McCrary [00:07:18] Over the next six episodes, we'll find out more about what happened in Harris Neck, Georgia, through recorded interviews with my family and insights from scholars and researchers who have studied Black coastal communities with care. In the next episode we'll come back to Miss Mary and to my grandmother, Margaret. We'll also get some context from researcher and genealogist Terri Ward of a Ujima Genealogy. Guess what? We're cousins too.
Margaret Baisden [00:07:48] I hope this thing is...
Michelle McCrary [00:07:51] Yeah, I hope so too. Grandma. Oh yeah. It worked, I tested it last night.
Margaret Baisden [00:07:58] Well see, it was the batteries before.
Michelle McCrary [00:07:59] Because we came out here and Evelyn told all kinds of good stories about when she went to Washington to see Jimmy Carter and all kinds of stuff. And my grandmother gave me a bum tape recorder.
Margaret Baisden [00:08:10] I did no such thing. The batteries were weak.
Michelle McCrary [00:08:14] And I played it back and it didn't have a thing on it,.
Margaret Baisden [00:08:18] I took the old batteries out and put new ones in. It taped everything. It was just that the batteries were weak and I didn't know it. And I brought, instead of bringing this one, I brought the other one. Cause this time we got it plugged in the wall.
All [00:08:30] (Laughter).
[00:08:32] So if it's not taping now, don't look at me. I ain't the manufacturer.
Michelle McCrary [00:08:53] Curious Roots is co-produced by Converge Collaborative and Moonshadow Productions. 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 podcasts. Don't forget to check out curiousrootspod.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's to Terri Ward and Adolphus Armstrong of Ujima Genealogy. And thank you to my relatives who are now with the ancestors, especially Miss Mary Moran and my grandmother, Margaret Baisden White. Thank you all for listening to Curious Roots.