In which Moominmama presses fast forward on Spring, visits the ocean and learns about slavery in Savannah....

The transition over four days of driving from brown fields, to trees with a hazy hint of green and then color everywhere was like time lapse photography. I drove into the exuberance of yellow forsythia by the time I hit North Carolina and watched it give way to leaves and blossoms everywhere through South Carolina into Georgia. What a sight for sore eyes!

My final overnight en route to Savannah was near Fayetteville, N.C. at a horse farm that doubles as a mental health center. The greeting committee consisted of a white dog and two black pigs. By morning I was sharing the field where the Moominhouse was parked with what I think were donkeys or ponies, so I was careful to close the gate behind me when I pulled out.

Yesterday, Moominmama ventured into the historic district of Savannah, which also happened to be the center of the slave trade in the city. Sistah Patt Gunn, a retired civil rights lawyer and Gullah-Geechee activist, met us at the river where captives were offloaded for sale. 

Before coming into Savannah, they were quarantined at a site on Tybee Island at the mouth of the river. Anyone sick or dying after the grueling passage from Africa was thrown overboard to drown. 

The rest were given western names, listed on a ledger with their skills (based on which tribe they came from) and age (a guess) -- and an estimate of how many children they might birth or sire into slavery.

For $1,500 (roughly $40,000 in today's dollars), a buyer might purchase a young woman, along with the estimated potential of seven or more children she might birth into slavery in her lifetime.

Sistah Patt showed us dark, arched chambers with ceilings and walls made of old brick located between the river and the auction block. There are no windows, but there are grates above that funnel in air. There were also narrow troughs on each side, now filled in, where human waste could flow under the street and out to the river.

A tourist plaque describes these chambers as rooms built to store dry goods coming off the boats for sale in Savannah. That they ever held captives is considered an "urban legend" with no "evidence."

But Sistah Patt has found evidence. A forensic study of the dirt in the chambers' waste water system found DNA from people all over Africa.

Sistah Patt is now pushing for further research and hopes to change the display board that dismisses claims that captives bound for slavery were held here prior to auction. 

Besides forensic evidence, she points out that the design, unlike any other storage structures, is eerily identical to slave holding cells on the west coast of Africa -- so much so that filmmakers who don't want to travel to Africa have used these chambers for scenes set in the African fortresses built for the slave trade, she says.

On the brick wall outside one of these chambers are strange, rusted bolts and hooks that a visitor from Benin told her are remnants of a whipping station.

Not far from these chambers, on one of the streets above, is Johnson Square, one of many famous squares of the city. This one is named after the man who brought slavery to Georgia. Here stood an auction block surrounded by the giant oaks that Savannah is known for. The trees surrounding the former auction block are called "witness" trees. Sistah Patt is advocating for the renaming of the square as Jubilee Square, seeking recognition for the suffering that happened here and in other parts of the city, suffering that is integral to the construction and prosperity of the city today.

Jubilee Square's witness trees have the unusual distinction of not being draped in Spanish Moss, she notes. This square and one other, where lynchings and hangings of abolitionists took place, are reportedly the rare Savannah oaks that do not have Spanish Moss, she says. 

The former auction block is now obscured with a monument to a Revolutionary War hero. But the witness trees remain - without Spanish Moss (which Sistah Patt says Gullah-Geechee elders clean and dry and apply to the skin for medicinal purposes). 

Gullah Geechee, she explains, is a a reference to the people who came from Angola (Gullah) and the Geezee people (Geechee) from what's now Liberia. 

Brought  to this country in large number, they were known for their cooking skill, and many of the Gullah Geechee were pressed into service cooking in the plantation kitchens -- from which the famous "Southern" cooking has derived! 


Moominmama's visit has not been entirely educational. The call of the ocean was strong, and a little cold water no longer frightens me, thanks to my friend Henri who is a serious open water swimmer and a member of the Swimmers of Anarchy (love the name.) The human body is a wonderful thing and can adapt if you acclimate gradually. 

As far as I'm concerned, the water was balmy, but I was the only one over the age of 10 wearing a swimsuit, never mind actually swimming. It made Moominmama very happy!







  

Comments

  1. The rich history and continual effort to fill in things intentionally left blank are so important. Thanks for sharing. Glad you arrived safely and got your swim in the ocean!

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  2. Glad you arrived safely and have already had a swim! Forsythia and flowers - what a sight! Your description of the Savannah auctions reminds me of the slave markets of Charleston. Thank you for sharing - I didn’t know Angola was the origin of Gullah. Looking forward to your next post!

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  3. This post about slavery in Savannah brings rich learnings and awakenings to me. Thank you. I've been thinking about you and wondering if you were "on the road." I'll look forward to more posts as you continue on your journey. Or, is this a Pilgrimage?

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  4. Wonderful to hear things are going well. I saw some of the slave holding cells in Senegal, and they did indeed look very similar to your photo.

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  5. Hi, Anne, I look forward to reading more of your adventures, especially the swimming variety. However the history, while harrowing, is also important. Hope to 'see' you Tuesday at the book group.

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  6. It is startling to see such a gorgeous tree and then think about the horrid history attached to it. Thanks for bringing us along on your adventure in words and pictures.

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  7. Hi Anne - Catching up on this and loving every bit of it. Thank you!

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