The Red River Sankofa Project

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

Newly freed Africans and African American descendants began heavily voting the Republican ticket from 1865 – 1868 electing Republican politicians who spoke of legislation that would grant homestead rights to blacks, help provide access to education and discuss equality land redistribution and the white landownership monopoly. Black people simply wanted their rights promised under the constitution and were ready to work hard to become self sufficient, educated, participants in the civic process and tax paying citizens.

Most whites from the South were afraid of the black vote for fear that the promises particularly of black republican politicians would cost them in the form of higher taxes considering they were the majority in taxpayers. Whites in Louisiana and the south in general were recipients of useless confederate money, could no longer prosper from free labor and were firm believers in white supremacy as the American way. The very thought of their property possibly being confiscated and redistributed to Blacks fueled massive voter intimidation & terrorism spurned by angry white mobs all over the South but particularly in Caddo and Bossier parishes. They used whatever tactics were necessary to destroy the black vote and those of white voters who supported a republican government.

Would it have been the worst thing for white landowners to let go of a few acres conceivably paid for 10 times over in profits yielded from free slave labor? Would it have not produce an economic stimulus for the economy to gain more black landowners who convert to a larger taxpayer base for the parishes?

The New York Times reported a national voter intimidation cover-up back in 1876 that also included brief snippets regarding the numerous murders that occurred to black republican voters in 1868 especially in Caddo & Bossier. Cases stem from forgery, assault, murder, kidnapping, you name it, they did it.

Read: “Bloody Caddo” by Gilles Vandal

Despite all of the adversaries, blacks were able to stamp their presence on the political map in LA even if it was only short lived.

I’m searching for all of the black politicians in Louisiana during Reconstruction.

1869 Lieutenant Governor – Oscar J. Dunn, served until his death in 1871. Succeeded by Pickney B.S. Pinchback, 2nd Black Lieutenant Governor who was appointed by President Grant as acting Governor for 35 days after the impeachment of Henry Warmoth

1872-1876 Lieutenant Governor – C.C. Antoine, 3rd Lieutenant Governor, originally from Caddo Parish

William G. Brown- Superintendent of Caddo parish during Reconstruction

I was told Caddo Parish had a Black sheriff briefly during 1867. Still looking for his name.

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

I heard former slaves, Buffalo Soldiers and WWI veterans were buried there yet we could not find anything indicating those designations. According to the markers in the cemetery, the following US Colored Troop Cavalries were considered apart of the Buffalo Soldier regime: 9th Cavalry Regiment, 10th Cavalry Regiment, 24th Infantry Regiment, & 25th Infantry Regiment.

The following were found by my cousin in the cemetery:

Valter Eblet – 24th Infantry Regiment
George H. Lofton – 10th Cavalry Regiment

We saw many other markers that were no longer distinguishable and a few other interesting things like ceramic bowls, used alcohol containers, ceramic vases, and a jar of honey strategically placed.

Those trees alone were well over 100 years old so one can only wish the National Parks Department may have a interest in preserving these natural giants within this designated historical marker.

The heat and mosquitoes proved too much so we left but wondered again were those graves really moved or were we driving over them on the way home?

As previously mentioned we discovered others have not forgotten about this historic burial ground and a movement has started to stop the neglect of where our ancestors lay.  A group of students at Rice University have begun using GPS equipment to find & survey unmarked graves along with a great group of students at YES Prep School & Phillis Wheatley High School who are also turning this site into a laboratory clearing, researching
and helping to restore  pride to this once forgotten place.  My cousin also joined the movement and photographed every single, solitary grave there in hopes of helping family researchers and interested parties
view the gravemarkers online.  If anyone in the Houston area wants to help with the  preservation efforts, please visit Project R.E.S.P.E.C.T.

Evergreen Negro Cemetery pics
Project RESPECT- Evergreen Cemetery