From “THE FUGITIVE SLAVE'S APOSTROPHE TO THE NORTH STAR”
STAR of the North! though night-winds drift
The fleecy drapery of the sky,
Between thy lamp and me, I lift,
Yea, lift with hope, my sleepless eye,
To the blue heights wherein thou dwellest,
And of a land of freedom tellest.
Star of the North! while blazing day
Pours round me its full tide of light.
And hides thy pale but faithful ray,
I, too, lie hid, and long for night:
For night;—I dare not walk at noon,
Nor dare I trust the faithless moon,—
Nor faithless man, whose burning lust
For gold hath riveted my chain;
No other leader can I trust,
But thee, of even the starry train;
For, all the host around thee burning,
Like faithless man, keep turning, turning.
I may not follow where they go:
Star of the North, I look to thee,
While on I press; for well I know
Thy light and truth shall set me free;—
Thy light, that no poor slave deceiveth;
Thy truth, that all my soul believeth.
John Pierpont (1841)
The Underground Railroad In Southern Ohio
The Ohio River was a formidable obstacle for escaping slaves. Many runaways from Kentucky were aided by James Poindexter, an African-American barber and local resident, who picked up fugitives in Kentucky and rowed them across the Ohio River to Portsmouth.
After arriving on the Ohio side, they were sometimes hidden by another man of color, John Adams, in his home on Chillicothe Street near Eleventh.
Riverboat captain William McClain, whose principal route was between Cincinnati and Portsmouth, picked up runaways on the Kentucky side of the river and delivered them safely to the Portsmouth stations of Joseph Ashton and Milton Kennedy or northeast to J. J. Minor in South Webster. Minor, in turn, would see them to the Lucas or Love farms at Huston Hollow located six miles north of Portsmouth.
The Huston Hollow community draws its origin from the infamous “Black Friday” expulsion of Portsmouth's black population on January 21st, 1831, when the city expelled approximately eighty African-American residents from its limits under the threat of enforcement of Ohio "Black Laws."
Complying with the request of city officials the Portsmouth Courier sadly memorialized this event: “The citizens of Portsmouth are adopting measures to free the town of its colored population.” The "Black Laws" stipulated that all African-American residents were to register with their county clerk, proving their free status.
Andrew Feight, Ph.D. writes …
“Runaway slaves who decided for various reasons to make a go at it here – rather than seek greater security and freedom in Canada – as well as those who may have been born free but did not have proper papers, made Portsmouth their home, often finding employment on the margins of society, scrapping by in the shadows of the law.”
(Andrew Feight, Ph.D., “"Black Friday": Enforcing Ohio's "Black Laws" in Portsmouth, Ohio,” Scioto Historical, accessed October 23, 2021, https://sciotohistorical.org/items/show/108.)
Forced to leave their home and belongings, several of the displaced African Americans formed the community of Huston Hollow. Feight reports: “The expulsions in Portsmouth, however, led to the establishment of a black community in Huston Hollow, which proved to be a critical link in the secret and illegal network of area residents, white and black, who helped the runaway slave reach freedom in Canada and other black communities to the North.”
The families of Dan Lucas or Joseph Love families at the Huston Hollow stop on the Underground Railroad would then take people 37 mile north west to the Pee Pee (PP) Settlement in Pike County.
Pike County conductors moved them to Chillicothe or to other places of safety – usually through Bourneville to Frankfort and then west of Circleville. Finally, the fugitives would be taken north to Franklin County. Sometimes, fugitives followed the trail from Portsmouth to Chillicothe, where they would be taken northward to Franklin County. Elm Grove in Pike County, near Piketon offered a safe haven for fugitives on the way to the P. P. Settlement in Pike County or to Chillicothe.
Pee Pee Settlement
The Pee Pee Settlement was located along Pee Pee Creek in Pebble Township. The creek was named for Peter Patrick, an early white resident of the area, who formerly lived in Virginia. Patrick and two or three other families came to this area in the mid-1700s as squatters, and after years of scrimages with Native Americans, they were forced to return to Virginia.
However, before leaving Peter Patrick decided to leave proof of his existence by carving his initials on a tree -- “PP.” In the early 1800's the surrounding hills were called PP after the initials carved on the tree. The stream which flowed near the tree was called the PP Creek.
In the early 1820's thirteen families came from Virginia and settled in Pebble Township of Pike County. Some of the families were former slaves while others were freeborn people of color. Other families joined this first group and the settlement soon spread into Huntington Township in Ross County.
Most residents of Pee Pee earned a living as farmers, with some becoming sizable landowners and most being prosperous.
The community grew relatively quickly, with residents establishing a church – the Eden Baptist Church in 1824 (though a building was not built until the 1830's or 1840's). They constructed a school and government building soon thereafter. African American residents also actively assisted runaway slaves along the Underground Railroad.
The Eden Baptist Church in Pebble Township became the center of this African-American community. Many members of the congregation were either former slaves or descendents of former slaves of President Thomas Jefferson. Nearby the church is the Barnett Cemetery, which contains the remains of many Jefferson slave descendents.
Ohio History Central records ...
“For several years, Jefferson's former coachman, Israel Gillette Jefferson, served as the church's treasurer and as a deacon. Another church member was Madison Hemings. Hemings was also a former slave of Jefferson. While much evidence suggests that Jefferson fathered several children with Sally Hemings, one of his slaves, it does not appear that Madison Hemings, although he was one of Hemings's sons, was a descendent of this liaison.”
______________________________________Historical Note:
“At the age of 68, Madison Hemings claimed the connection in an 1873 Ohio newspaper interview, titled, "Life Among the Lowly," which attracted national and international attention. 1998 DNA tests demonstrate a match between the Y-chromosome of a descendant of his brother, Eston Hemings, and that of the male Jefferson line.”
(“Life Among the Lowly, No. 1.” Pike County Republican. March 13, 1873.)
“After Madison and his younger brother Eston were freed, they each worked and married free women of color; they lived with their families and mother Sally in Charlottesville until her death in 1835. Both brothers moved with their young families to Chillicothe, Ohio to live in a free state. Madison and his wife Mary lived there the remainder of their lives; he worked as a farmer and highly skilled carpenter. Among their ten children were two sons who served the Union Army in the Civil War: one in the United States Colored Troops and one who enlisted as a white man in the regular army.”
Another source identified Madison Hemings as “a favored architect and builder in the local area (Pike, Ross), having learned those skills from his father, Thomas Jefferson. One of his finest public buildings was the Emmitt House (hotel) in Waverly.”
The book My Name Is James Madison Hemings by Jonah Winter (2016) is credited as an “NCSS-CBC Notable Children’s Trade Book in the Field of Social Studies” and a New York Times “Notable Book” and reviewed as the following:
“In an evocative first-person account accompanied by exquisite artwork, Winter and Widener tell the story of James Madison Hemings’s childhood at Monticello, and, in doing so, illuminate the many contradictions in Jefferson’s life and legacy. Though Jefferson lived in a mansion, Hemings and his siblings lived in a single room. While Jefferson doted on his white grandchildren, he never showed affection to his enslaved children. Though he kept the Hemings boys from hard field labor -- instead sending them to work in the carpentry shop -- Jefferson nevertheless listed the children in his 'Farm Book' along with the sheep, hogs, and other property. Here is a profound and moving account of one family’s history, which is also America’s history.”
_________________________________
Unrest
Pike County was known as an unfriendly county to people of color. Most African Americans lived in East Jackson Township or near Ross County in the Pee Pee settlement or in Harris Station.
Harassment by white neighbors drove ten of the original farmers from the Pee Pee settlement.
This report is taken from Ohio History Central and historian Henry Howe ...
“Many white residents of Pike County objected to the African Americans' presence. Two white families, the Burkes and the Downings, which lived closest to the Pee Pee Settlement, especially despised the African Americans. On several occasions, these whites led violent attacks against the Pee Pee Settlement.
“On at least one occasion, whites burnt the home of an African American resident, Minor Muntz. Muntz was a conductor on the Underground Railroad. Undaunted by the whites' actions, Muntz rebuilt his home and was forced to defend it by sitting inside his front door armed with a shotgun.”
Geneology.com states: “Minor Muntz's death in a steamboat accident was covered in the Pike County Republican newspaper, August 13, 1874.
The Pee Pee Settlement remained a vibrant community until the early 1900s when the settlement lost its identity as a separate community for African Americans. With whites increasingly showing African Americans tolerance, many African Americans began to find acceptance in traditionally white communities. Difficult economic conditions also prompted many African Americans to move away.
Nearby Waverly, Ohio
For much of the 20th century, thousands of northern public buildings and suburban city limits had signs that said “N—-r, don’t let the sun go down on you in this town.”
“It is well established that Waverly was a 'sundown town in which people of color knew better than to hang around after dark. Supposedly, a covenant had been written in the deed for the Pike County Courthouse property stating that it would revert to the original owner 'if an African American was ever allowed to settle within the town.'
“James Emmitt, Scioto Valley's self-proclaimed first millionaire, lobbied to move the county seat from Piketon. But why would he include such a provision in the deed (assuming he did)? There is a bit of folklore for it. A former resident said that his uncle told him Emmitt's daughter had been impregnated by a black man. She was then disowned by her family and her lover was subsequently hanged beside the courthouse. However, there is no record of this, and no evidence has turned up supporting other aspects of the tale.”
(David Meyers Elise Meyers Walker. Historic Black Settlements of Ohio. 2020.)
A half dozen or so African American families arrived in Pike County from Virginia about a year after Waverly was platted in 1829, settling about four miles northwest of town. Although they were said to have worked hard and did not bother anyone, some of their white neighbors resented their presence. Sometimes they even took action against them. “When Waverly was still in its swaddling clothes,” Historian Henry Howe wrote,
“There was a 'yellow (N word) named Love, living on the outskirts of town. He was a low-minded, impudent, vicious fellow, with the cheek of a mule. He was very insulting, and made enemies on every hand. His conduct finally became so objectionable, that a lot of the better class of citizens got together one night, made a descent upon his cabin, drove him out, and stoned him a long way in his flight to Sharonville. He never dared to come back.”
A local census in 1875 revealed the town had 1,279 residents and “the fact of Waverly not having a single colored resident is a rare mark of distinction for a town of its size. And what makes the fact more remarkable, there never has been a Negro or mulatto resident of the place.”
Those fleeing slavery in the south by using Ohio’s underground railroads avoided Waverly. Known to be anti-abolition and anti-black.
The Waverly neighborhood of East Jackson is a place where many residents have cream-colored skin, red hair, light-colored eyes -- and proudly identify as black in spite of ongoing racial attacks and the presence of white supremacist groups. Sometimes, the bitter divide of race occurs within a single family. And sometimes, these people of mixed racial heritage in southern Ohio are eager to be anything but black.
Officials in Waverly created “East Jackson” -- essentially, one long street off the 335 highway -- by corralling any newcomer they deemed to be black because of their appearance, or by second-class status because they were laborers or housekeepers, into the smaller town. Some forced to stay in East Jackson were not black, but because they all lived in East Jackson, grew up together and were treated as black by law, a community that identified as black took root. They married across racial lines, and had multiracial children. Over generations, as fewer black people sought this area out, black heritage thinned out. But black identity did not.
For over a century, residents have shared the common bond of identifying as African-American despite the fact that they look white.
(Khushbu Shah. “They look white but say they're black: a tiny town in Ohio wrestles with race.” The Guardian. July 25, 2019.)
The town functions as a microcosm of what African Americans have had to deal with in America, says Dr Barbara Ellen Smith, a professor emerita who has spent much of her career focused on inequality in Appalachia. Alongside the rise of anti-slavery laws was a parallel rise of what historians and scholars call “black laws” including the one-drop rule – that one drop of “black blood” disqualified an individual from having the legal status of whites – which became a widely accepted social attitude in Ohio beginning in the 1860s.
Even in 1954, when residents of East Jackson went into Waverly, they were not allowed to use bathrooms in town. Present resident Roberta “Bert” Oiler, like others in the small community, has chosen to stand behind her identity. She does it proudly, despite having heard people refer to their community as trash and the slums as long as they can remember. Even today, Oiler says: “They say East Jackson has negroes. But they don’t say negroes. They say niggers.”
East Jackson is a small community in southern Ohio where many residents identify as black despite appearing white. Photograph: Maddie McGarvey/The Guardian
Black/Land Project considers …
“Residents of East Jackson are black, in part, because they live in East Jackson. The living memory of history that marks Appalachian culture is part of what keeps the sharp line of race alive in Waverly; it also points to the enduring strength of Affrilachian identity.
“The people of Pike County, Ohio ask us important questions: What is blackness? A genetic relationship? A cultural loyalty? An historic legacy? A social status? A choice?”
(“When Place Makes Race.” Black/Land Project. January 22, 2013.)
Sources Include
“Eden Baptist Church.” Ohio History Central. https://ohiohistorycentral.org/w/Eden_Baptist_Church
Howe, Henry. Historical Collections of Ohio in Two Volumes. Vol. II. Cincinnati, OH: C.J. Krehbiel & Co., Printers and Binders, 1902.
“Pee Pee Settlement.” Ohio History Central. https://ohiohistorycentral.org/index.php?title=Pee_Pee_Settlement&mobileaction=toggle_view_mobile
“Pee Pee Settlement (PP): Settlements and Slave ads.” www.angelfire.com
Woodson, Byron W., Sr. A President in the Family: Thomas Jefferson, Sally Hemings, and Thomas Woodson. Westport, CT: Praeger, 2001.
No comments:
Post a Comment