Greene County, GA 1850 - 1885

This past Monday, while waiting in the emergency room with my dad, I was able to finish reading How Curious a Land: Conflict and Change in Greene County, GA 1850 - 1885 by Jonathan M. Bryant. I purchased this book hoping there would be a mention of my ancestors, my 2ggrandparents Jasper and Jane Pierce, or at least a mention of their last slave owner. Sadly, there was no mention of either my ancestors or their owner.

Even though there was no mention of my ancestors, I am glad that I read the book as it gave me a snapshot of what was going on in the county in which they lived prior to and immediately following the civil war. This is not a full blown review of the book but just some of things I noted or that came to mind as I read the book.

One of the interesting things, based on this book, is that a great many of the slaves were able to "freely" move about and visit other farms as the patrol laws were never really enforced in Greene County. And although not legally recognized, they were allowed to marry and they were allowed to build their own church because it was thought they would do better spiritually if they had their own place of worship.

Maybe it was this limited Freedom during slavery that gave the former slaves of Greene County the strength and solidarity against great odds to continue to fight for their rights long after the other former slaves of GA had been put back in their place. They build their own community, Canaan, and they greatly impacted the politics of Greene County for many years. It was a several years before Democrats came back in power in Greene County. (For those that may not know, Lincoln's party was not the Democratic party. The former slaves and their descendants were overwhelmingly Republican and it stayed this way until the 1930s.)

Unfortunately for many of the former slaves of Greene County and yes even for some of the former slave owners, Greene County put all it's eggs into one basket, Cotton, and a market economy over which they had no control. Even though I've yet to visit Greene County, I understand the effects of this decision still hang over Greene County even today.

The one thing that I confirmed by reading this book but had already suspected is that even within Greene County there was further fragmentation depending on where one resided. My ancestors and their suspected but yet to be confirmed owner, Jesse Pierce, lived in White Plains, GA. The White Plains and Siloam areas were known as the Grey Lands due to the light sandy soil. Those that settled this area tended to be small time farmers, usually owning less than 200 acres, with only few slaves (15 or less) and it's reported that the owner's often worked in the fields alongside their slaves. I wonder if having to work alongside the slaves they owned affected the owner's view of slavery. This fact also make me realize that it may be just a bit more difficult than even I imagined to continue past my 2ggrandparents but I refuse to give up.

And lastly, I wonder what my ancestors went through in the years immediately following the civil war. Did they ever think about moving to Canaan? Did they ever try to vote? Or did they just simply want their own little piece of land to farm and raise their family? Eventually, my ancestors left Greene County. My ggrandfather and his brother Lon would eventually end up in Walton County and my great aunt Nuna would eventually end up in Atlanta. I suspect that one by one or together that the rest of my ggrandfather's brothers and sisters left Greene County, too as I've not been able to locate them past the 1880 census. I think my 2ggrandparents more than likely spent their entire life in White Plains. GGgranddad appears on the 1880 census, then never again. I've found what appears to be my gggrandmother on the 1900 census still in White Plains.



Til Next Time!

The Black America Series by Arcadia Publishing

Genealogical perspective changes as one ages. When I was in my 20s, I have to admit that my mind set seem to be to get back as far as I could as fast as I could. And I did that until I hit the proverbial brick walls on all of my grandparents. Yet there was always a part of me that knew it was more than just finding my ancestors but telling their story, yet sometimes one still forgets that it not just names and dates. More than anything, this is the area where my cousin Nicholas has helped more than he knows. As you know Nicholas got me up of the couch after a ten year break. While I've been plugging away trying to figure out new angles for finding Fannie, confirming Cornelius' family, etc., Nicholas has been steadily reading up on the county histories. But it wasn't until I realized that the lynching mom had told me about many years ago (the one that happened while she was attending Morris Brown) was the Moore's Ford Bridge Lynching of Walton County. So, I've slowed down a bit on the documentation efforts in order to better understand what my ancestors might have gone through during their lifetimes.

This has lead me to a wonderful series of books from Arcadia Publishing, The Black America Series, and luckily for me one was available for 3 of the 5 counties I am currently researching or where ancestors resided and possibly still reside. I think I've even discovered one of my granddad's first cousins in the one for Gwinnett County.

The books are mainly pictorial, but they give a glimpse into the black communities of these counties from emancipation through the 21st century and have helped me to hopefully have a better understanding of all three. While these three counties are essentially in the same area of Georgia, they each provide a different prospective.

The following links provide an opportunity to glance at some of the pictures included in these books.

The Etta Hosch in the Gwinnett County one is possibly my granddad's first cousin. Grandad had a first cousin named Etta. I'm hoping to get more information from the writer of the book about the pictures of Etta.

Also, the Albert Martin in the book on Walton county is my Aunt Mattie's (mentioned in an earlier post) brother-in-law. I've come to know a couple of Albert's grandchildren, as I've tried to find out more about Aunt Mattie and if you ever hear me refer to my adopted cousins, that's them.

http://books.google.com/books?id=LaLjxs8pbXkC&pg=PP1&dq=Gwinnett+County+Georgia+Black+America+Series

http://books.google.com/books?id=dBV_UX-OadEC&pg=PA3&dq=Greene+County+Georgia+Black+America+Series

http://books.google.com/books?id=cBAwDQ3jiYgC&pg=PA1&lpg=PA1&dq=Walton+County+Georgia+Black+America+Series&source=bl&ots=zHNxQeK3Of&sig=n3GJBADivttBghGPPZc2DVIQQ04&hl=en&ei=kEdaSpuRC-CFmQe75tmHAg&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=4

Till Next Time!