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BLACK HHTOR Y M O NTH 1999
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ZWEDRU’S CHILDREN: PART THREE
smile on his free. “ Looks like w e g o a f
watering the horse, the y oung boy cam e
trom here.” Then, picking up grains o f
B \ S tephen H anks
over to her and said, “M y grandfather
died.' Akey, who now had learned En
glish, replied, "Y es, 1 know .’But then the
boy George asked, "W h y did he die?”
.Akey thought for a m om ent then an
swered, “ Evertone dies." B ut the young
boy G eorge was persistent, “D id your
grandfather die?” This w as the first time
continued, "D o you know what “pepper"
F inally, the ‘ Providence’ ’ entered the
waters o f the English colonies. O n June
8*, 1725 itpulledintoaportat Yorktown,
V uguuaw ith 161 enslavedhumansouls.
W ithin days o f its arrival, the ship’s
"cargo” was being adv ertised in the town
paper, with an auction already scheduled
to have a celebration tonite, cause m as
ter Eskridge’s cornin’ hom e tonite, and
the whole fam ily's getting ready tor one
big party,” says Jack. Suddenly, they all
hear footsteps com ing from the main
house. ‘Shhh,’ says Jack, “som eone’s
coming.” It w as only one o f the white
indentured servants that w orked there
going over to the sm oke house. The
plantation was run by over sixty blacks
to take place. As chance w ould have it,
Akey and Bodebe. who also called him
self Botswain, were again put together
and sent with others to a ‘pen, w here
they would be kept until auction day.
W hen auction day arrived, people
cam e from miles around: planters, busi
ness owners, lawyers, judges, politi
cians, clergymen, and slave traders. The
selling would be fierce, each one trying
to choose w hat they considered the
“bestpickofthe lo t” Akey and Botswain
were “sold” together. The African m en
and w omen comprised m any tribes:
Ashanti, Yoruba, G ola, B a ssa V ai,
Mandingo. W ith all their strength, dig
nity, and faith, they gathered themselves
with all the courage they had left to try
and comprehend w here they were and
why. A s the auction appeared to die
down and lose steam, the Africans who
were s&ll left were taken back to the
pens. Soon they w ould be shipped to the
next towns along the riveis until each
and every last one o f them were taken.
Akey and Botsw ain w ere transported
into the northern neck o f the colony to
a tobacco plantation in W estm oreland
County, ow ned by a man nam edCokm el
G eorge Eskridge. They w ere handed
over to a black overseer, a Virgiman-
bom slave named Jack King. Hiere thy
w ere led aw ay to the slave quarters to
receive their first “breaking in” session.
‘ They call’s m e Jack King, but 1 ain’t no
k in g ‘ro u n d h e r e ...w h e r e y a ’a ll
from ?.. .ya’all speak any E nglish?...I
don’t know where ya’all from, but this
here’s tobacco leal’. . .now watch me.
this is how you pick it...w a tc h m e
n o w ...”
Akey and Botswain watch in confii-
sion, not understanding a w ord fins old
m an has said to them. Soon ole’ Jack
K ing gets frustrated and tired. Frus
trated o f not being understood by these
newcomers, and tired o f having to do
these “sessions” in the first place, tired
ofhaving to do this ju st so to not have to
w ork as hard in the fields yet still receive
his extra helpings o f food that the other
field hands didn’t g et O ff to the side
another slave observes, anAfrican named
Q uam ino, an Ashanti from Ghana, w ho
was brought here two years ago. Quamino
stands and listens to the language o f
Akey and Botswain. Suddenly his eyes
widen as he hears a w ord that sounds
femiliar to him. H e approaches them
andbegins to speak Unexpectedly, Akey
and Botswain quickly become animated,
speaking sounds in the .Akan tongue with
Quam ino, a language m any W est Afri
cans share together from different tribes.
Sitting in file com er is Jack, with a big
and three white indentured servants.
T h at n ig h t, w h ile g u e sts from
W estm oreland C ounty continued to
stream to the party inside the m am house
dancing and tipping their glasses to the
kegs o f cider brandy, the Africans cel
ebrated their ow n hom ecom ing. Back
aw ay from the m ain house and into file
yards o f the ten to twelv e sm all house
cabins dotted along the fields entered
A k ey a n d B o tsw a in , e s c o rte d b y
Quamino, as they were introduced to
each family in the cabins. T hose w ho
were on hand to greet their new ex
tended family m em bers w ere Mingo,
Q uam ino’sw ifeTafly,W illiam & E liza-
beth, and “Congo” Judy . There also were
A key had ever
b e e n a sk e d
such a ques-
is? People com e to his house to buy
pepper, guinea pepper.” The boy George
then picked the sand up also, saying
“pepper...pepper.”
Akey’stamily at that time was Bodebe,
who also called him self Botswain, and
his wife Jenny, George & Hannah, and
Rose. A n
o th e r
daughterwhich they namedSusan. Frank
and Akey had been married six yeais
now, just before Dr. Eskridge left for
England after deeding the land to Mr.
Jackson. A s A key w as sitting and hold
ing her baby daughter outside the smoke
house, the boy George, w ho was now
12, cam e over to her, and both o f them
began to reminisce about the things that
had occurred over the years during the
occasions he h ad com e to visit. T hen
A key ask ed him , “do you rem em ber
w hen you w ere the size o f m y little
S usan, and M r. E skridge died ?” ‘N ot
really,” said G eorge, “ 1 ju s t rem em
b er m any p eo p le com ing and going,
and th e horse w agon slow ly going
dow n the ro ad w ith ev ery o n e follow
ing b ehind it.” B ut then G eo rg e added,
“ I also rem em b er seeing you o v e r by
the horses, and you w ere show ing m e
the sa n d .’ A key then ask ed him , “ D o
you know w h y I w as sh o w in g you the
sand? It w as b ecau se you had asked
m e if m y g ran d fath er h ad died. Y ou
even asked m e w here w as h e.” “W hat
did you tell m e?” G eo rg e inquired.
the apple orchards, or hanging m eat in
the sm oke house, young Frank would
w ork next to Akey. She still w ouldn’t
smile, but each tim e he w alked b y her,
their eyes w ould meet. The day Akey
finally sm iled w as w hen Frank slipped
A key w ent on, “ I told you that 1 did not
know ifh e w as alive o r not, b u t that he
lived in a far aw ay p lace across the
ocean. I p ick ed up the sand to explain
and fell in the w ater while Botsw ain was
trying to show him how to fish along the
Potomac river. A kruFrankw asnot. A nd
w hen Akey w ould catch som e fish but
Frank didn’t, he wondered w hat had
robbed Frank o f his smile, if only for a
moment. Yes, Botswain w as happy that
now his niece had found a friend.
TenyearslaterC olonelE skndgedied
three year old son George.
There was no work to be done in the
fields on this day. The sixty m en and
w om en stayed close to their small cab
ins, while file friends and fam ily ofC olo-
nel George Eskridge cam e to pay their
respects. A s people gathered in the
parlour room , the boy G eorge w an
dered outside to play. A s A key was
George & Hannah, and Rose. Another
femily that lived next to them were
Q uam ino & lafty , W illiam & Eliza
beth, and Frank. O neofCokm el Eskridge
sons. Dr. Robert Eskridge, placed this
family o f five on his property, which
happened to be next door to his father’s.
A key’s family remained at the same
place. Thus, both families w ere still able
to live near each other. Dr. Eskndge
later sold his property to a m an named
arrangements. The boy G eorge came,
too, accom panying his m other Mary
Washington. Akey, w ho w as now 29,
was also now married to Frank and had a
the sam e age as Akey. about one year
older. He becam e fond o f A key from
that day on, to m eet this young beautiful
black skinned girl. H e did not know
where she w as from, orw hy shecouldn't
speak English, but he knew som ething
terrible had robbed her smile. B ut as ‘a
true friend loveth all the time, and is a
brother bom w hen thou is in distress,"
young Frank settled to ease A k ey ’s
bruised heart and spirit. W hether it w as
hoeing in the tobacco fields, picking in
N ow his estate w ould be divided among
his six children, including the Africans
on i t A fter the funeral, the colonel’s
family gathered at the m ain house to
w elcom e relatives and friends. The
colonel’s adopted daughter M ary and
her husband Captain A ugustine W ash
ington soon arrived along w ith their
A story o f a West African family in Liberia,
and a voung girl ’s life as she is brought to
Virginia.
Jackson.
In 1744 Mrs. Elizabeth Eskridge
died, and now her son Sam uel would
inherit the main house and the planta
tion. The family cam e to m ake the final
G eorge & Hannah, Rose, T om , Jenny,
and youngFrank. Young Frank w as about
He did not know where
she was from, or why she
couldn't speak English,
but he knew something
terrible had robbed her
»
to you that m y grandfather grew pep
per, and that people w ould com e to his
farm to buy this pepper, w hich the
berries w hen crushed look like the
sand.” G eorge then asked, his m ind
again becom ing ju s t as curious as it
w as nine years ago, “W h at w as the
nam e o f this place? ’A key proudly told
him . “ It w as called Z w edru, near the
river C a v e lla ” S he even w ent on to tell
him that her grandfather, Sensobo,
w as a sailor and had traveled on ships,
returning hom e w ith m uch w ealth.
T hese things w ere new to the ears o f
this boy. H e did not know w hether to
believe these things or not. T his w ould
be the last tim e G eorge w ould see
A key again.
T hree years later, Sam uel Eskridge
died. T hat sam e year Frank and A key
had another daughter w hom they nam ed
Jane. B ut sadly, fam ilies w ould now
be separated. S am uel E skridge’s son
B urditt took Frank, A key, and their
tw o daughers to South C arolina along
w ith tw o other persons. B odebe re
m ained in V irginia w here ha later died,
never to see his little niece again, the
daughter o f his brother M ennah and
his w ife B ina, o f the villge o f Zw edru.
Frank and A key lived for a tim e, then
they, too, died in S outhC arolina. T heir
daugher Jane m arried a young m an
nam ed W illiam and had five children:
Ruth, B arbara, G eorge, and W illiam
B urgess. A nd w hen B urditt Eskridge
w as killed during the tim e o f the revo
lutionary w ar, his tw o sons Sam uel
and Ribhard di vided W illiam and Jane ’ s
descendants - Sam uel taking som e to
T ennesse, and R ichard taking the rest
o f the fam ily to a plantation in D uck
H ill, M ississippi. The overseer on the
plantation w as a m an w hose nam e w as
M arion H anks.
A s for G eo rg e W ashington, he
stipulated that all A frican-A m ericans
had been m ade slaves and living at his
hom e, Mt. V ernon, be granted free
dom upon his death. H is nephew ,
B ushrod W ashington, becam e the first
president o f the A m erican C oloniza
tion Society, w hich led efforts in re
leasing thousands o f A frican-A m eri
cans from slavery to Liberia, the coun
try w here the K ru still live.
A fter the w ar o f the rebellion, som e
in m y fam ily changed their surnam es.
W e lift M ississippi in the great “ E xo
dus o f 1879” and w ent W est to O sage
C ity, K ansas w here m y great-grand
parents, W illiam and R osetta H anks,
raised ten children. M any o f their de
scendants are still alive and w ell dow n
to this day.
such a question since she cam e to this
strange country, and here now she was
being asked, from a three year child at
th a t “Id o not know ,’’answ ered A key,“It
has been a long tim e since I last saw
him.” “W here is he?” continued the boy,
his curious nund now becom ing en
gaged in this m om entary conversation.
A t first Akey hesitated to answer, but
upon the b o y ’s insistence, she looked
around, and not seeing anyone, bent
dow n eye level w ith the boy and an
sw ered, pointing tow ard the visible
Potomac river, “M y grandfather lives
out there, across the waters far aw ay
Dirty Little Secrets
B y D r . C laud A nderson
Lincoln Didn’t Free Slaves
H istorical facts suggest President
L incoln w as everything bu t “the great
em ancipator o f black slaves.” D uring
the earlier years o f the C ivil W ar,
P resident L incoln p ublicly claim ed
he w ould not and could no t free black
sla v es. He even ack now ledged that the
C ivil W ar w as not about b lack people,
but about national unity.
Lincoln w as not passive in his su p
port o f slavery even w hen U nion co m
m anders issued o rders freeing slaves
in captured C onfederate territory. L in
coln b lo c k e d su ch o rd ers at least
twice. L incoln’s position w as strength
ened by the U.S. C ongress in 1861,
w hen it passed and referred to the
states in an am endm ent to the C o n sti
tution that guaranteed that C ongress
could never abolish b lack slavery in
A m erica. Few northern politicians had
any interest in freeing b lack slaves.
They w ere concerned about breaking
the w ealth and political po w er b ase o f
the South.
M o s t p o li ti c ia n s k n e w th a t
L incoln’s E m ancipation Proclam ation
w as a sham . L incoln w as P resident o f
the U nion only. H e co u ld not and did
not free black slaves. T he E m ancipa
tion Proclam ation sp o k e gloriously
about freeing slaves in the deep South,
over w hich the U nion h ad no author
ity. Y et, it ignored b lack s in the b o rd er
states over w hich L incoln d id have
authority. T he attitude o f L incoln and
his adm inistration w as succinctly put
in L incoln’s letter o f D ecem b er 22,
1860, to A lexander S tephen, soon to
becom e V ice-P resident o f the C o n
t
J
federacy, “D o the people o f the South
really entertain fears that a R epubli
can adm inistration w ould, directly or
indirectly, interfere w ith the slave, o r
w ith them , about the slaves? Ifth ey do,
1 w ish to assure you, as once a friend,
and still, I hope, not an enem y, that
there is no m ore danger in this respect
than it w as in the days o fW ashington."
T he G reat Em ancipators Sick Joke
T here is an old adage that w hatever
a m an jo k es about is w hat he truly
feels in his h e a rt If there is any truth in
this saying, it speaks poorly for Presi
dent A braham Lincoln. A fter Elijah
L ovejoy, an anti-slavery editor had
been killed b y pro-slavery forces, Lin
coln m ade a jo k e out o f his death. In a
speech in W orchester, M assachusetts,
he said, “ I have heard you have aboli
tionists here. W e have a few in Illinois
and w e shot one the other day.” The
crow d roared w ith laughter. But, on
the serious side, m any o f L incoln’s
form al statem ents revealed he held no
love for blacks, free o r enslaved.
Reparations For
Slaveholders?
A b rah am L incoln w as g row ing in
creasin g ly sensitive to an d fearful of,
the d iv isiv e an d explosive issue o f
slavery. E arly in the first term o f his
p resid en cy , L incoln o ffered repara
tions to sou th ern slaveholders. L in
coln d ev ised a schem e to free the
s la ves graduall y o v er a p erio d o f som e
30 years. H e w o u ld o ffer reparations
to the so u th ern slaveholders and pay
them for th eir “ losses” o u t o f the
national treasury. T o carry out his
plan, he n eed ed the approval o f C on
gress to p ay southern slaveholders
n early a h a lf billio n dollars, only a
p o rtio n o f th eir to tal $7 b illio n in
vestm ent. T h is w as an u n im ag in ab le
am o u n t o f m o n ey for that p erio d in
h isto ry .
Slavery Divided Families and
the Nation
T he C ivil W ar is o ften referred to
as th e G reat D ividing W ar. A lth o u g h
sym b o lically it w as fo u g h t to p re
serv e the U nion, in reality it w as
fo u g h t to preserv e slavery.
It w as P resid en t L in co ln w h o said
th at a house d iv id ed ag ain st itself
w o u ld not stand. H e co u ld h av e been
speaking about his o w n household.
T h e C ivil W ar reach ed in sid e the
W h ite H o u se an d to u ch ed L in c o ln ’s
fam ily, the F irst F am ily o f this n a
tion, and d iv id ed it as it d iv id ed the
n atio n itself, alo n g lines o f U nion
versus C onfederacy.
T he d iv isio n w ithin the L incoln
hou seh o ld b ecam e so g reat that the
U n ited States S en ate C o m m ittee on
the C o n d u ct o f the W ar felt it had to
deal w ith it w as a natio n al issue. T he
co m m ittee m et to co n sid er charges
o f treaso n a g ain st the P re s id e n t’s
w ife, M ary L incoln. L incoln cam e to
h er rescue an d read a b rie f statem ent
d enying that an y m em b er o f h is fam
THE FUTURE OF
AFRICAN-AMERICAN HISTORY
IS NOW!
ily h ad co llab o rated w ith the enem y.
F o u r o f L in c o ln ’s b ro th ers-in -
law w ore C o n fed erate u niform s. O ne
o f them , L ieutenant D avid P. T odd,
w as charged w ith b rutality against
U nion soldiers held as prisoners o f
w ar in R ich m o n d , V irginia. M ary
L in co ln ’s tw o sisters w ere m arried to
C o n fe d e ra te o f f ic e r s , w h ile h e r
brother. Dr. G eorge T odd, w as a vol
unteer confederate surgeon w h o called
Lincoln an “unhung scoundrel."
M T V MOMf BUSMCSS H fU T H U P t
.SSuSiiS
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