What a difference a thousand makes traveling south from Wisconsin in April. It was snowing the morning we left to drive to Tifton, Georgia, for a book signing event at the ABACGMA. Driving through the mountains, we noticed purple blossoms of redbud trees amongst evergreens and green leaves of deciduous trees. When we arrived in Tifton, it was enjoyable in the sixties, with colorful pansies in full bloom.
The ABACGMa Folklife Festival supported Song of Jaybird; they set my table up near the still so I could see the firebox firing and, later in the day, discharge rosin, which I described in my last blog, “Another Circle Closed.”
When we arrived in South Carolina, near Charleston, my sister’s garden was full of blooms, roses, ripened loquat, and deep blue hydrangeas growing in pots. We took outings to visit historical places, one of which was Boone Plantation and learned about the Gullah heritage of slaves. After slavery, many laborers worked in the fields as sharecroppers. They were paid in script and had to shop in the company store at outrageous prices. What is this also known as? You know the answer if you have been following my blogs or reading Song of Jaybird: debt Peonage, another meaning of slavery.
We learned the legacy of the plantation, which once had a brick-making business for the rebuilding of Charleston after the Revolutionary War. The slave quarters were built with refuse brick, and children’s fingerprints were left embedded into the sides as they turned the bricks for drying.
The heritage garden was filled with roses, kale, pansies, tall foxgloves, and orange poppies, bordered by hedges of boxwood. In contrast to an unfortunate, sad past, there is beauty in the gardens and the art of sawgrass weaving in the Gullah heritage. A woman of Gullah-Geechee descent shared her heritage in rhythmic prose that sounded like a musical song. She mentioned the book Barracoon by Zora Neal Hurston, which is available in the gift shop. I happily purchased a hardcover with its deckled-edged pages.
As you may recall from previous blogs, Hurston is one of my favorite authors. During her practice as an anthropologist, she interviewed Kossola (Cudjo Lewis), who was on the last slave ship, Clotilda, in 1860. It took about 87 years for her nonfiction, Barracoon, to be published, long after her death.
Before heading home, we have two more stops: the Kitty Hawk Museum and the Rubenstein Library of Archival Collections at Duke University. I have already requested two boxes of papers, letters, and documents to view for my next book idea. I’m anxious to return home and see what has bloomed in our absence, hoping the rabbits have not devoured the tulips’ leaves.
