Investigations

Map:  “A Georgia Plantation As It Was in 1860”

NOTE:  If the students haven’t come across pictures or descriptions of the cotton gin and developed a rough understanding of its purpose, it may be helpful to spend a few minutes noticing one or both of the cotton gin images (available under Additional Resources, below).

Turning to the 1860 map, we asked:

What do you notice?

What puzzles you?

Map:  “Preempted Land on the J. F. Chaplain Place, Port Royal Island” (S. C., 1864)

NOTE:  It would be helpful to start by reading two paragraphs from the narrative of Sam Mitchell, Ex-slave Age 87, Beaufort County, SC (available in Additional Resources, below).  He discusses, among other things, the shooting and the flight of his master when the Union took possession of the islands in 1861.  The relevant paragraphs appear on p. 3 (at the bottom) through p. 4 (first half) of the 5-page narrative.

Turning to the map of “Preempted Land on the J. F. Chaplain Place,” we asked:

What do you notice?

What puzzles you?

Text:  “Colloquy with Colored Ministers” (Savannah, Georgia, 1865)

For homework, we had asked the students to read the short biographies of the colored ministers on pp. 267-270.

In class, we asked:

What do you notice about these people?

Next, we divided the students into small groups, and assigned each group to read and present to the class one of the numbered questions and answers on pp. 270-275.  When this did not work well, we had everyone read questions and answers #3 and #4 on pp. 271-272.  These excerpts are most connected to the maps, and focusing the entire group on these shorter passages gave the students a larger pool of ideas to draw on as they worked through them.  We asked:

What do you notice?

If time had allowed, we might also have included question and answer #9 on pp. 273-274; it is not long, and it is closely related to the second excerpt from “Life on the Sea Islands” (see subtopic 2, A New Order on the Sea Islands).

Text:  Excerpts from Special Field Orders, No. 15 (Savannah, Georgia, 1865)

We asked the students to read section I and section III.  We provided a short glossary.

We asked:

What do you notice?

When you consider the field order alongside the maps and the Colloquy, what strikes you?

Homework: After discussing Special Field Order No. 15 in class, we asked the students to reflect in writing on these questions:

How would “respectable negroes, heads of families” feel when they hear about this special field order in 1865?  What part(s) of the order would most make him/her feel this way?

Imagine that a “negro, head of family” above gets a license to settle a plot of land as the order describes.  What would this person do next?  What plans would he/she make?

Do you think Sherman’s order represents a significant opportunity for the “respectable negroes,” or not, or somewhere in between?  What makes you think the way you do about this?

Map:  “Beaufort Harbor & Coastline” (c. 1861)

We asked:

When you look at this map alongside these other sources, what do you notice?

The other sources relevant to consider here are:

Text:  Excerpts #1 and #2 from “Life on the Sea Islands” (See subtopic 2)

Map:  “A Georgia Plantation As It Was in 1860”

Text:  “Colloquy with Colored Ministers” (Savannah, Georgia, 1865)

Text:  Narrative of Sam Mitchell, Ex-slave Age 87, Beaufort County, SC

Map:  “Preempted Land on the J. F. Chaplain Place, Port Royal Island” (S. C., 1864)

Text:  Excerpts from Special Field Orders, No. 15 (Savannah, Georgia, 1865)

To read student responses, scroll down to Student Responses and click View More.

Logan:  I can see, like, a river that’s labeled.  I think it says “Little River.”  It seems to be half as long as the plantation.  If it is, it must be an enormous plantation, because rivers are long.

Nora:  The houses are right in the middle of the plantation.

Map:  “Preempted Land on the J. F. Chaplain Place, Port Royal Island” (S. C., 1864)

Rose:  [It’s showing] property of recently freed slaves on [what had been] a white man’s plantation.

Olivia:  I don’t know why it says “HOUSE” [near the curved dotted line] — wouldn’t there be a house on each plot?

Tim:  Because it’s relatively new-sold land.  …  It takes a long time to build a house.

Rachel:  [The “HOUSE”] could have been the slave owner’s house, because that could have been his plantation — was his plantation.

Tim:  [Agrees]

…

Rose:  I think those [the houses in plot 9] are little slave houses.

Neil:  I think the one in plot 1 is the gin house … it looks like the other one we saw.

…

Olivia:  I think they’re left over from when it was a plantation — they didn’t bother taking them down.

Orlando:  [This map] shows [ex-]slaves can get what they want.  …  They’re away from slavery.  Would you rather be a slave, or [would you rather be] on your own land?

Francesca:  The woods on the left are in their own plot of land.

Ben:  Frank has the best place.  It has water, wood, fish; it could be pretty. …  [Points out the woods below plot 17]  I would live in the woods.

Orlando:  You want to live like a hermit in the woods?

Teacher:  No one’s living there.  Why doesn’t anyone want to live where the woods are?

Tavi:  [Because] they want to have farms and gardens.

Kaylanna:  They want to have food.

Martyn:  It was made on January 25, 1864 … after the emancipation proclamation, but the Civil War’s not over.

Text:  “Colloquy with Colored Ministers” (Savannah, Georgia, 1865)

Logan:  One of the men was free because his mother bought his freedom.

…

Daniel:  Four of them were acquaintances.

Teacher:  They knew each other.

Leila:  Only five were freeborn — all of them were licensed.  None of the ones who were slaves were licensed.

…

Maddie:  They were 26 to 72 years old.

Luya:  Most were connected to slavery somehow.  They or their parents had been slaves.  There were more slaves than not slaves.

…

Kaylanna:  All of them were, like, men.

Ravenna:  A few people bought their way out.

Ryan:  One of them was freed by the Union army.

Tavi:  Some people are from the same place — Savannah.

Leila:  “Reap the fruits of our own labor” means they want to keep what they make.  I don’t get “yoke of bondage.”

Logan:  Oxen were driven — there’s this thing called a yoke placed on their necks binding them to whatever they had to do.  Slavery was binding them to what they had to do.

Kalil:  The question is whether they want to be scattered among the whites or be separated [from them] — something like that.  The whites are prejudiced against them and whatnot.

Jashon:  They want to live by themselves, so they’re isolated from white people.

Cameron:  They want to work on land so they can buy it and make it their own.

Text:  Excerpts from Special Field Orders, No. 15 (Savannah, Georgia, 1865)

Nora:  Four days before [issuing Special Field Orders, No. 15] he was interviewing the colored ministers.

Julia:  Did he give this order because of the Colloquy?

Rose:  [As if answering in the affirmative] There was a question about whether they wanted to live by themselves or with white people.

Kaylanna:  This seems good.  It seems like a lot.  It seems more fair to blacks than the situation in other things we’ve looked at.  …  In the paintings they don’t have places to stay.  [She points to Negro Life at the South as an example, and I understand her to mean that, in the paintings, they don’t have decent places, or places of their own, to stay.]

Logan:  They can get a steamship to come and bring them what they need, and to sell their products.

Logan:  I know in the Colloquy they asked to live by themselves, but even when they buy and sell things, they don’t interact with people other than each other.

Orlando:  [Agreeing that it’s too much isolation] They don’t want to live on a reservation.

Teacher:  What struck you?

Leila:  “Abandoned” struck me.  I wondered why the rice fields were abandoned.

Orlando:  When slavery ended the whites had a lot of land.  The slaves only got forty acres.  That wasn’t fair.  They didn’t’ get what they wanted — they only got freedom.

Daniel:  He was trying to give them a little freedom but still trying to keep them in control.

Jack:  What they got was a lot — a lot of land compared to [what we have today], plus a boat and military protection.  Would you rather have more land without the protection?

Luya:  I think it would be good to get that stuff, but if I were a slave I think I would have already had the right to have that.  Because I’m a person, I have a right to that.

Jack:  I would feel fairly happy considering the fact that 40 acres is a huge amount of land.  …  The part where it said each slave could own 40 acres of land and 800 feet of water.  They would be excited to even own land, let alone 40 acres.

Francesca:  I think [“respectable negroes, heads of families”] would feel held back, because they can’t get more than the limit of land, but whites can.  [It] says “not more than 40 acres of land and not more than 800 feet of waterfront.”

Clara:  They must have been overjoyed!  When they want land, they can have it with certain regulations.  At least they can get land.  …  Also, having these orders from someone they like would mean that they can trust what he says.

Logan:  Living in an isolated community all by themselves would be a bit lonely, never seeing their customers in person, never seeing anyone with a different colored face than their own.

Neil:  They’d be glad according to the Colloquy.  The Colloquy says that they wish to be segregated from the whites.

Rose:  They would probably feel happy because they get to have their own land.  They might have felt kind of weird also, because it was an old plantation (I think), and it’s not really like they’re being treated normally, because land has to be staked out for them.

Martyn:  They would feel happy that they can settle on land, but not so happy that the inspector will have to give them a license to do so.

Anneliese:  I think they would be happy to be able to buy their own land and to profit from it.  But I think they wouldn’t be as happy that everything they do has to be under the supervision of the Inspector.  Also they can’t buy land anywhere, they can only buy it in certain places.  They might also be unhappy because they have a limit on how much land they can buy.  …  Even though everything has to be supervised and approved by the Inspector of Settlements and Plantations, the ex-slaves have a chance to move themselves up in “society” and get more respect.

Ravenna:  How do they decide who the “respectable negroes” are?  I don’t think for the black people overall that this is a good choice.

Rose:  They would probably feel happy because they get to have their own land.  They might have felt kind of weird also, because it was an old plantation … and it’s not really like they’re being treated normally, because land has to be staked out for them.

Francesca:  I think that they would build a house and plant crops, but it would be hard to find materials.

Luya:  I’d want a certain amount of money to be given to me.  What I could start out with, before finding a solid way to earn money.

?:  It gives them chances to own land, sell land, and to show independence.

Francesca:  [That] the white government will move around in boats just to fulfill the [ex-] slaves’ needs is great.  It is showing the utmost respect for former slaves.  This is an excellent turnaround for all former slaves.  This is a major sign of equality.

Nyla:  … unless the inspector doesn’t want to give the people a license, or Congress takes away one of their titles.  Even if the field order isn’t 100% perfect it seems like a good step in the right direction.

Map:  “Beaufort Harbor & Coastline” (c. 1861)

Alex:   St. Helena Island sounds familiar.

Leila:  It’s where the teacher [Charlotte Forten, author of “Life on the Sea Islands” (see subtopic 2, A New Order on the Sea Islands)] was.

Rachel:  Port Royal Island — that’s where … plots of land [were sold to] negro heads of family.

Leila:  Port Royal was in a lot of places, but one of them was this map [she points out “Preempted Land on the J. F. Chaplain Place”].

Tavi:  A lot of the people in the Colloquy were from Savannah.

[The students look back at the text of the Colloquy, and agree that it happened in Savannah.]

Rose:   Slavery was all over [this area].

Bethany:  And was it taken over by the Union?

Mackenzie:  [Points out Charleston both on the map and in Special Field Orders, No. 15.  At the teacher’s suggestion, she reads the relevant lines:]  “The islands from Charleston, south, the abandoned rice fields along the rivers for thirty miles back from the sea, and the country bordering the St. Johns river, Florida, are reserved and set apart for the settlement of the negroes now made free by the acts of war and the proclamation of the President of the United States.”

[Meanwhile, others locate the islands south of Charleston and, using the concentric circles drawn every 5 miles, count 30 miles up the rivers.]

Narrative of Sam Mitchell, Ex-slave Age 87, Beaufort County, SC.

“A Georgia Plantation,” Scribner’s Monthly XXI:6 (April 1881), pp. 832-836.  This is the article the maps “A Georgia Plantation As It Was in 1860” and “A Georgia Plantation As It Is in 1881” are from.