The Red River Sankofa Project

After combing the streets of Belcher on my last roadtrip looking for any remnants of Bradford Chapel, I stumbled across a gentleman sitting on his porch who goes by the name, Floyd, and asked him “Where is Bradford Chapel”? Looking down Belcher Oil City Rd, he eventually pointed to a vacant piece of property that at one time served as church grounds for the chapel but stated it has long since fallen  apart. “Do black folks still live out here?” I asked and Floyd, being of a certain age, smiled and gave me that “I’m glad you asked look” and soon began to unravel the disappearance of black landowners in that neck of the woods. “The old folks started dying out and because their kids started getting city jobs, many of the kids wanted to be closer to their jobs so they began relocating to Shreveport or out of the area into larger places like Dallas and Houston for  jobs or better job possibilities.”
What he said made sense.  When you think about the land passing on to the kids, because they no longer are tied to the area after their parents pass on, they start selling or allow the land to sit stagnated.  However, because of the widely known mineral value of the land, this area has always been attractive to investors and thus non-blacks buy in and before you know it, the landownership gradually migrates back to how it originally started before
Emancipation Proclamation.  Are black folks taking land ownership for granted? I guess when you factor in heirs multiplying  as years pass,
tax bills pieced together by multiple owners, and when no one wants to agree on what to do with the land, selling doesn’t sound like a bad idea right? But is selling the best option on the table? Not only is this scenario in my own family, it’s a reoccuring theme all over rural black america.  Pondering this question made me think about the following…

So after Emanicipation Proclamation some blacks, particularly in NW LA, purchased land or were donated land from former slaveowners.  And then there were some who were not so lucky who ended up share-cropping which usually left mounting debt to the landowners delight in which both parties knew would never get paid off… thus lies your legalize form of slavery. Those that were fortunate like my great-grandparents, purchased land during the 1910’s and together with their labor and the labor of 11 offsprings, made an income from farming to sustain themselves and their family. This was a common  way of life pieced together during those times with the hope and prayers that  everything worked together at the end of the day.  You ran this family farming business and relied on your kids as employees, their kids if they were big enough to hold a crocker sack, good weather, and your faith to carry you through.  Your offsprings were often forced to forfeit their education and attend school only during the months that did not demand their labor.  Times were hard not to mention this time period I’m referring to was on the brink of the Great Depression.  Now during the Depression if it was bad for white folks, it was disastrous  x 5 for blacks when you layer on Jim Crowism, separate but never equal and encounters with ex-confederate formed militias who wanted to take back control of “their country” in the name of God.  Sounds familiar Mr. & Mrs. Teabaggers? But our African American ancestors perservered and somehow manage to withstand the economic pressures and hold on to their rural land.  Not only did they keep their land they also managed to make sure their kids received more education than they did and have better lives.  Often times their kids had their own houses on family acreage and lived in what was considered a family village.  This was a common economic solution and cultural tradition practiced on the continent they descended from.  So fast forward to the 1950’s & 1960’s era…the depression is over, the marches & protests are occurring, our beloved Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. is mobilizing and making wonderful speeches and somehow traveling along Highway 71 off the  main roads  you would actually find a black owned gas station, grocery store, funeral parlor, beauty shops, churches, fruit stands, mass farming & etc.  Not only was this prosperity occurring in NW LA but also around the country when you take into consideration the agriculture census of 1910 put black folks owning 15-17 millions of rural acres. But what happened?? A 13 year old USDA agriculture study completed in 1997 reported black rural landownership shrinking to just  1.5 million acres.

to be continued…

SAVE THE DATE: May 29, 2010

The more you look at a map, the more it tells you.  Old maps are the best because they serve as modern-day, date-stamps  giving valuable time and space information that carries details necessary to reconstruct the past.  Maps can provide clues about where your ancestors lived and where to start your own sankofa.  Many of the towns in NW LA were actually established after the plantations that once thrived in those communities.  Places were plantations flourished like Hayti, Plain Dealing, Willowchute, Cashpoint and  Coushatta still exist as towns/villages on maps today.  It is not uncommon to find many of the streets in the area where plantations once stood baring namesakes like Kingston Rd., Foxwood Rd., Southside Rd., Buckhall Rd., Brownleed Rd., Palmetto Ave., and many others.  (see http://www.redriversankofa.org/plantationlocations.html) .

Maps can also helps us understand who lived next door to our ancestors which oftentimes led to the discovery of more ancestors.  Understanding the land and possessing maps in an age where modern day landmen knock on your door with contracts promising questionable rewards for your minerals and oil are simply invaluable.  I’ve updated the map page with thumbnails, see link below.

Additional maps are located below:
http://www.redriversankofa.org/maps.html

There were no schools in NW LA during slavery to teach anyone of African descent how to read or write let alone provide any woodshop skills.  Even after Emancipation there was no institution to provide a vocation to those that survived slavery.  There were no KB Builders around, no Perry Homes yet the ancestors instinctively had the ability to plan,  frame and finish houses and also built the furniture that went inside of them.   They were natural architects, craftsmen, bricklayers and artisans.   And these weren’t always your run of the mill log cabins  they built for their families.  Many of the them had pillars near the entrances, wrap around porches, extensive  hallways with built in wooden stoves and detached outhouses.  I remember hearing about the story of George Paysinger a few years ago from a gentleman name  Dale Jennings from Benton, LA.  Mr. Jennings knew I was interested in researching African Americans in this region and mailed an article titled “The Priceless Slave”.  George, an incredibly gifted craftsman or as we would say now, a modern day architect and furniture designer, had been on the plantation inventory of John Tyler Hamiter from GA.  I later came across George’s great, great grand-daughter who gave me more insight on George.    In 1842, Hamiter and his brother David, accompanied by at least 25 whites and 250 slaves traveled via wagon train from Houston County, Georgia to Bossier Parish, Louisiana where they arrived on Christmas Day along with George Paysinger and his wife Malinda.  George was also a bricklayer and the Hamiter’s  would contract him to other slaveowners in the area for carpentry jobs.  Well story has is that one day another wealthy slaveowner in the area, John Gilmer, was in the market for someone to build some components of his plantation house, Orchard Place, and got George on loan from the Hamiter’s.  Realizing the quality of  George’s work resembled something out of a furniture store, Gilmer decided he wanted to own George.   Gilmer offered $10,000 to the Hamiter’s for George.  While that amount was well above market value for a male in his age range at the time, the Hamiter’s apparently knew what they had and responded to Gilmer by saying  “You’ll never have enough money to purchase George”.  George was involved in building some additions at Orchard Place but eventually returned back to the Hamiter’s.  Eventually George was freed and the Hamiter’s actually deeded land to him after Emancipation Proclamation and George eventually accumulated more acreage later on.   George ended up being a successful farmer who also ran a pretty lucrative cotton gin which was quite an accomplishment for someone who survived slavery.  The land he purchased is still in the Paysinger family today.

This is  extremely rare, federal style  desk  built by George Paysinger and is housed at the Bossier Historical Center.  It had been previously restored by George’s great, great grandson.

George Paysinger's desk

I continue to tell people sometimes the only evidence of one’s existence
is found in the graveyard.  If you are of African descent and
you lived in Louisiana and died before 1915, your tombstone was basically your death certificate.  The state of Louisiana did not start issuing death certificates until after 1915 in Caddo/Bossier parishes.  Just think of all of those ancestors we never knew existed.  Just think about all of those ancestors who came and left with no gravemarker at all.

This past May, the parishioners  of St. Paul CME Church, adjacent to Hettie Adger Cemetery, raised just under $5,000 to help maintain the grounds and make some repairs.  There are  gravemarkers seeping into the boardering marsh that empties into the creek, some buried in brush, and some simply sinking into the ground.

This cemetery is one of the oldest in Northwest LA being one of the first to bury African Americans and survivors of slavery.  The church it is attached to has a vast history that goes all the way back to slavery when it was formed at Rush Point plantation located in present day Belcher, LA.  The enslaved Africans intially organized themselves

while attending Carolina Bluff CME church in Plain Dealing, LA around 1800 with  19 charter members. They mobilized enough resources to branch off and build a log cabin church house at Rush Point plantation in 1815. Rush Point plantation was owned by the Dickson family (of modern day  Morris & Dickson Co.)  and was situated in current day Dixie, LA. In 1897, additional charter members & charter member descendents donated property and deeds to establish and rebuild the sanctuary relocated in Belcher, LA, just north of Dixie. In 1924, a new sanctuary was erected on the same deeded property. In 1961, the present day sanctuary was built and still stands today.  Hettie Adger, a long time parishioner, contributed generously to St. Paul’s C.M.E. Church history by donating additional burial land, which continues to remain the resting ground of many of our ancestors.

Cemetery site: http://www.redriversankofa.org/stpaul.html