Looks can deceive in slave cemeteries
BY JOHN VERNELSON
Fresh breaks from a broken tablet are recovered from a black grave in Charleston. |
"The differences between white and black graveyards often result in
serious damage, loss or legal entanglements," said Chicora Foundation
Executive Director Mike Trinkley. Some of these differences can be traced
to different religious beliefs, while some are by-products of one group
being enslaved by another.
"The location of African-American graveyards in marginal areas, for
example, was probably the result of blacks being enslaved," Trinkley said.
"Not only did owners not want to lose valuable land to slaves, but
controlling even where the dead might be buried was yet another example of
the power plantation owners had over their slaves."
In black cemeteries there are no neat, tidy rows of graves as are
commonly seen in white graveyards, Trinkley said, adding that grave
placement appears to be somewhat random.
Stone markers and monuments were rarely used in black cemeteries;
instead, graves were marked by daffodils, jonquils and dwarf palmetto
trees or with temporary markers made from wood or other transient
materials, suggesting that it wasn't particularly important for future
generations to know the location of specific graves.
"In fact, the use of temporary markers helps, in its own way, to
ensure that the cemetery is always available to those who want to be
buried with their kin," Trinkley said. "As one modern black man explained,
There is always room for one more person.' This, of course, sounds
impossible to many whites, who see cemeteries in terms of a finite number
of square feet. But this is simply not how African-Americans have
traditionally viewed graveyards."
According to Trinkley, whites tend to idealize death and landscape
their cemeteries in ways that look as if the intention is to create heaven
on Earth. "African-American cemeteries have grave depressions and mounded
graves," Trinkley said. "There is no attempt to make grass grow over the
graves or create special vegetation. Trees, typically, are neither
encouraged nor discouraged. Cemeteries appear to be neglected or even
abandoned in contrast to the neat, tidy rows of a white cemetery."
However abandoned King Cemetery may look to whites, Trinkley said such
cemeteries are often well-known to rural African-American communities.
"Where traditional historical and documentary sources fail to provide
information, often oral history can provide impressive details on the
size, number of individuals buried, general locations of different family
plots, and old fence lines," Trinkley said. "Too often, however, these
local sources are not sought out."
In an effort to preserve some of that information, the Chicora
Foundation published Grave Matters: The Preservation of African
American Cemeteries, which was distributed to schools across South
Carolina in February.
"African-American cemeteries are a unique resource," Trinkley said.
"They not only represent the last resting place of black Americans, but
are also storehouses of African-American history. The graveyards and the
grave decorations offer an unusual glimpse of a part of history which is
rapidly disappearing."
If you know of a cemetery that is about to be damaged or destroyed,
please contact the South Carolina Institute of Archaeology and
Anthropology at 803-777-8170. The Chicora Foundation can be reached at
803-787-6910.
