Harry Harter - Koom Ba Yah SATB

Topic: Choral Arrangements
“Kum Ba Yah” was moving beyond music sung by groups for their own pleasure to a performance piece by 1958 when Fred Waring published a choral arrangement by Harry Harter.  It was the first one to use key changes for variation.

Harter emphasized harmony at a slow tempo.  Three groups sang the “kumbaya” verse four times.  None carried the melody, but each had part of it at one time.  After changing from one sharp  to [missing page] the sopranos sang “someone’s a-cryin’” as a descant.

After moving to two sharps, the same high voices sang “someone’s a singin’.”  The first time on one note, the second time with a descending contour, and the third alternating between two tones.

“Someone’s a-prayin’” coincided with a change to five sharps.  It ended with “So, Savior, Savior” rather than the “Oh, Lord” that slid from one note to another.

Performers
Sheet Music
Vocal Soloist: soprano in one section
Vocal Group: soprano, alto, tenor, bass
Instrumental Accompaniment: optional piano
Rhythm Accompaniment: none

Edward Becheras Choir
Vocal Soloist: none
Vocal Group: all male group singing arrangement for mixed voices
Vocal Director: Nelson Kwei
Instrumental Accompaniment: none
Rhythm Accompaniment: none

Credits
Cover: African Spiritual
Dedication: “To the Maryville College Choir and Mabel”
Footnote: African dialect meaning: “Come by here.”

© Copyright MCMLVIII by SHAWNEE PRESS, Inc., Delaware Water Gap, Pa.

Notes on Lyrics
Language: English
Pronunciation: dialect for “mah”; drops terminal G’s

Verses: kumbaya verse repeated with allusions to those published by Cooperative Recreation Service (CRS)

Pronoun: someone
Term for Deity: Lord, Savior
Special Terms: none
Basic Form: four-verse song
Verse Repetition Pattern: none
Ending: uses “Savior, Savior” in last line

Notes on Music
Opening Phrase: 1-3-5; same melody as that published by CRS; appears most often in alto part

Time Signature: none specified, 4/4 implied
Tempo: largamente, quarter notes = 42; gets progressively slower
Rhythm: same as CRS version

Key Signature: one sharp changes to [missing page], then to two sharps and ends with five sharps

Dynamics: varies between soft (“p”) and normal (“mf,” “mp”)

Basic Structure: two sections with key change marking division

Singing Style: one syllable to one note; two syllables for “Lord” one time

Length: 3:15

Harmonic Structure: Emphasis is on harmony with group repeating the “kumbaya” verse; the upper voices begin to sing verses as a descant in second half

Vocal-Accompaniment Dynamics: piano marks rhythm with four-part chords; Edward Becheras Choir sang a capella

Ending: slows tempo

Notes on Performance
Sheet music
Cover: long African mask of face in center
Color Scheme: black ink on white paper

Edward Becheras Choir
Occasion: 2016 concert
Location: stage with wooden surround
Microphones: none visible
Clothing: Black suits, white shirts, black ties

Notes on Movement
Edward Becheras Choir
Stand with feet apart on risers

Audience Perceptions
A sheet music footnote explains the title is an “African dialect meaning: ‘Come by Here’.”  The Fort Wayne Bible College interpreted “come by here” to mean one was “inviting Christ into the home.” [1]

The Music Educators Journal told readers that “Koom Ba Yah” was “an authentic African spiritual with unique appeal.” [2]

Notes on Audience
The Music Educators Journal mentioned Harter’s arrangement in February 1959, which was early enough for it be purchased for the 1959-1960 school year.  The first references I’ve found to performances are before “Kumbaya” was popularized by Joan Baez in late 1962. [3]

The arrangement must have been popular because Shawnee Press republished it for young men in 1959 and for women’s groups in 1960.  These are discussed in posts for 8 October 2023 and 29 October 2023.

Notes on Performers
Fort Wayne Bible College was founded by the Mennonite Brethren Church in 1904. [4]  The church became the United Missionary Church in 1948. [5]

Ballard, Washington, grew around a shipbuilding company that attracted Scandinavian immigrants.  It was absorbed by Seattle in 1907, [6] but kept its local high school [7] and ethnic heritage. [8]

The Edward Becheras Choir is associated with the all-boys’ Catholic High School in Singapore, which was founded by Becheras in 1935. [9]  He was born in France and trained at the Sepulchins’ Major Seminary in his native Viviers before affiliating with the Société des Missions Etrangères de Paris. [10]  In 1950, the Marist Brothers took over the school’s administration and added classes for younger boys. [11]

Nelson Kwei, director of the school’s choir, was raised in Singapore and earned a master’s degree in choral conducting from the Royal Academy of Music in London. [12]  The choir won its first major award under Kwei in 1999.  It since has become known for have students young enough to sing the parts normally reserved for female voices. [13]

Harter is discussed in the post for 29 October 2023.

Availability
Sheet Music:  Harry Harter.  “Koom Ba Yah.”  Delaware Water Gap, Pennsylvania: Shawnee Press, Inc., 1958 edition for SATB.  The copy I purchased was missing pages 3-7

Concert: “Koom Ba Yah.”  Fort Wayne Bible College A Capella Choir, Fort Wayne, Indiana, 1961.  Reported by the school newspaper, the Fort Wayne Bible College Vision, in January-February 1961.

Concert: “Koom Ba Yah.”  Ballard High School Concert Choir, Seattle, Washington, 28 February 1962.  Reported by The Ballard News on 28 February 1962 on page 1.

Concert: Harter, arranger.  “Koom ba yah.”  Big Twelve Festival Chorus and Orchestra, Champaign High School Champaign, Illinois, 31 March 1962.  Recorded by Century Custom Recording Service of Saugus, California. [WorldCat entry.]

Concert: Catholic High School Edward Becheras Choir, Singapore.  “Koom Ba Yah.”  Uploaded to YouTube website on 22 June 2016 by alex30059.

Graphics
Cover for Shawnee Press sheet music.

End Notes
1.  “A Capella Choir Tour Planned.”  Fort Wayne Bible College Vision, Fort Wayne, Indiana, 9(1):1:January-February 1961.

2.  Item.  Music Educators Journal 45(4):February-March 1959.
3.  Joan Baez’s recording is discussed in the post for 9 October 2017.
4.  “Taylor University.”  Wikipedia website; accessed 23 September 2023.
5.  “Missionary Church.”  Wikipedia website; accessed 23 September 2023.
6.  “Ballard, Seattle.”  Wikipedia website, accessed 23 September 2023.
7.  “Ballard High School (Seattle).”  Wikipedia website; accessed 23 September 2023.
8.  Wikipedia, “Ballard.”
9.  “Catholic High School, Singapore.”  Wikipedia website; accessed 23 September 2023.

10.  “Father Edouard Becheras, MEP.”  History of the Catholic Church in Singapore website.

11. Wikipedia, “Catholic High School.”
12.  “Nelson Kwei.”  Wikipedia website; accessed 23, September 2023.
13.  “Catholic High School Edward Becheras Choir.”  VY Maps website.

Waccamaw Civil War

Topic: Early Versions - Waccamaw Neck
The Civil War on South Carolina’s Waccamaw Neck accelerated the unification of plantation cultures into a local one that had been occurring whenever slaves from one locale met those from another. [1]  It began as soon as the state seceded from the Union on December 20, 1861. [2]

On December 30, South Carolina’s governor asked the area to erect “batteries to protect and defend the entrance to Winyah Bay and Santee River.” [3]  Welcome Bees told Genevieve Willcox Chandler that he had “gone to make a battery to Little River and to Charleston and to Florence.” [4]  The carpenter lived at Oatland, which was owned by Martha Allston Pyatt [5] and was located south of Brook Green on the Waccamaw River. [6]

At the same time, the governor was asking for military volunteers. [7]  The state’s Tenth Regiment elected Arthur Middleton Manigault its colonel. [8]  The company defending the Waccamaw Neck was commanded by Thomas West Daggett [9]  Below him was Captain Joshua Ward.  His younger brother, Mayham Ward. was first lieutenant and his youngest brother, Benjamin Huger Ward, was second lieutenant. [10]

Georgie remembered that her father, Define Horry, “have to go.  Have to go ditch and all and tend his subshun.” [11]  As mentioned in the post for 10 September 2023, Georgie appears to be the sister of Ben Horry, who lived on Joshua Ward’s Brook Green plantation.

Late in 1861, on November 11, Union forces took control of Port Royal, including Saint Helena Island in southern South Carolina.  Management of the abandoned plantations and slaves was given over to missionaries from the North, like Laura Matilda Towne and Harriet Ware. [12]

Once the United States navy had a Southern port, it began patrolling the coast.  In December, it stationed two vessels off the mouth of Winyah Bay. [13]  Manigault warned planters in January, 1862, they should prepare to move their slaves inland with provisions for a year. [14]

The need to act became acute on April 14 when Robert E. Lee ordered the movement of South Carolina’s regiments [15] to Richmond to defend the Confederacy. [16]  Manigault left Winyah Bay on March 28, leaving Ward’s local troops to defend the area [17]  As soon as the troops were gone, slaves began fleeing to Union ships. [18]

Willcox did not interview any slaves who fled, for the obvious reason they did not return after the war’s end.  Gabe Lance recalled: “Some my people run away from Sandy Islant.  Go Oaks sea-shore and Magnolia Beach and take row-boat and gone out and join with the Yankee.  Dem crowd never didn’t come back.” [19]

The Oaks [20] was the home of Hagar Brown’s parents.  At nearby Brook Green, Georgie said “Time o’ the war the colored people hear ‘bout Yankee.  Not a one eber understand to run way and go to Yankee boat from WE plantation.” [21]

On May 22, Union boats sailed ten miles up the Waccamaw River where they seized rice and accepted slaves. [22]  They learned more about the plantations and the loyalties of the owners from those who fled. [23]  On June 30, they sailed thirty miles up the river, [24] on July 21 destroyed salt works run by Joshua Ward, and on July 29 targeted the plantation of John D. Magill, who was reported to be an “unkind” master. [25]  By the end of the month, the Navy had 1,700 run-away slaves. [26]

After the first foray in May, 1862, the Union commander reported: “The rebels are just now very much frightened, and are leaving their plantations in every direction, driving their slaves before them to the pine woods.” [27]

Horry told Chandler that: “Two Yankee gun boats come up Waccamaw River!  Come by us Plantation.  One stop to Sandy Island, Montarena landing.  One gone Watsaw (Wachesaw landing).  Old Marsh Josh and all the white buckra gone to Marlboro county to hide from Yankee.  Gon up Waccamaw river and up Pee Dee river, to Marlboro county, in a boat by name Pilot Boy.  Take Colonel Ward and all the Cap’n to hide from gun boat til peace declare.” [28]

Once they had time, planters moved their slaves on flat boats down the Waccamaw to the bay, then up the Pee Dee river.  Sabe Rutledge, who lived on the Ark Plantation [29] north of Murrells Inlet, told Chandler: “Flat boat full up gone down Waccamaw.  Uncle Andrew Aunt the one got his eye shot out (by patrollers) took ’em to camp on North Island.  Never so much a button and pin in my life!  Small-pox in camp.  Had to leave ’em.” [30]

Horry recalled Ward had agents “take all the people from Brookgreen and Springfield—and carry dem to Marlboro” county. [31]  Similarly, Georgie recalled: “They put you in the flat and put you over there.  When they tink Yankee comin’ you take to Sandhole Crick for hide.”  She added: “De Ward didn’t lose nothin’.  They move out the plantation.  Col. Ward took ’em in a flat to Mulbro.” [32]

Ellen Godfrey, who lived on Ward’s Longwood plantation, said it was “Flat ’em up to Marlboro!  (All the slaves)  Ten days or two weeks going.  PeeDee bridge, stop!  Go in gentlemen barn!  Turn duh bridge.  Been dere a week.  Had to go and look the louse on we.  Three hundred head o’ people been dere.  Couldn’t pull we clothes off.  (On flat.)  Boat named Riprey.  Woman confine on boat.” [33]

Hagar Brown was born during the journey.  “Ma say they on flat going to islant (island), see cloud, pray God send rain!” [34]  Her cousin-in-law, Louisa Brown, gave more details: “My husband mother have baby on the flat going to Marion and he Auntie Cinda have a baby on that flat.” [35]

Chandler asked about the trip, but not about life in makeshift camps.  Godfrey did tell her: “Get to Marlboro where they gwine.  Put in wagon.  Carry to the street.  Major Drake Plantation.” [36]  She added, they had a “dirt camp to hide we from Yankee.  Have a Street Row of house.”  She indicated she continued to weave there. [37]

Marlboro County is on the border between South and North Carolina. [38]  Zachariah Alford Drake [39] had land near the Scots settlement of Blenheim where he raised corn, mules, sheep, and hogs. [40]

The movement of slaves, with their owners and overseers, into Marlboro County probably benefitted the landowners whose sons, like Zachariah Jordan Drake, [41] were among the thousand men sent to the front. [42]  Slaves owned by Joshua Ward and Thomas Pinckney Alston [43] had to have stayed there for more than two years, from the time of flight until Union troops liberated them on their march north at war’s end.

One guesses the displaced slaves learned more skills because they had to have had to grow their own food in a different environment.  One suspects slaves from different plantations owned by Ward mingled more, which would have contributed to the developing common culture.

While the slaves were sequestered in Marlboro County, Murrells Inlet was converted into a port by blockaders who were kept from Charleston and the mouth of the Winyah Bay.  They attracted more attention from the Union navy. [44]

By late November of 1864, Joshua Ward had resigned from the Confederate Army and moved to England.  Mayham was left in command of the local troops. [45]  He soon joined his wife and children in the North. [46]

End Notes
1.  This is discussed in the posts for 3 September 2023 and 10 September 2023.

2.  “South Carolina in the American Civil War.”  Wikipedia website; accessed 14 September 2023.

3.  George C. Rogers.  The History of Georgetown County, South Carolina.  Columbia: University of South Carolina Press, 1970; reprinted by Georgetown County, South Carolina, Historical Society, 2002.  388.

4.  Welcome Bees, interviewed by Genevieve Willcox Chandler.  1–10 in Coming Through: Voices of a South Carolina Gullah Community from WPA Oral Histories Collected by Genevieve W. Chandler, edited by Kincaid Mills, Genevieve C. Peterkin, and Aaron McCollough.  Columbia: The University of South Carolina Press, 2008.  8.

5.  Coming Through.  1.

6.  Charles Joyner.  Down by the Riverside: A South Carolina Slave Community.  Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1984.  Map on page 17.

7.  Rogers.  387, 389, 391.
8.  Rogers.  390–391.
9.  Rogers.  389.

10.  Rogers.  392.  Rogers assumed the “Wards provided the necessary equipment and provisions.”

11.  Georgie, statement provided by Ben Horry.  2:236–238 in Slave Narratives: A Folk History of Slavery in the United States From Interviews with Former Slaves – South Carolina Narratives.  Compiled by The Library of Congress from interviews by the Works Projects Administration, Federal Writers’ Project.  Washington: Library of Congress, 1941.  2:236.

12.  Saint Helena Island is mentioned in the posts for 20 September 2018, 25 September 2018, and 27 September 2018.

13.  Rogers.  394.
14.  Rogers.  396.
15.  “Robert E. Lee, Day-by-Day.”  Lee Family Archive website.

16.  Benjamin F. Cooling.  “The Civil War; 1862.”  184–208 in American Military History.  Washington, DC: United States Army, Center of Military History, 1989.  221.

17.  Rogers.  397.
18.  Rogers.  399.

19.  Gabe Lance, interviewed by Genevieve Willcox Chandler.  274–275 in Coming Through.  275.

20.  The Oaks is discussed in the posts for 23 July 2023 and 30 July 2023.
21.  Georgie.  2:237.
22.  Rogers.  400.
23.  Rogers.  398–399, 402.
24.  Rogers.  401.
25.  Rogers.  402.
26.  Rogers.  399.
27.  George A. Prentiss, quoted by Rogers.  402–403.

28.  Ben Horry, interviewed by Genevieve Willcox Chander.  2:219–236 in Slave Narratives.  2:227.

29.  Slave Narratives.  4:49.

30.  Sabe Rutledge, interviewed by Genevieve Willcox Chandler.  4:59–70 in Slave Narratives.  4:51.  North Island is in Winyah Bay. [47]

31.  Horry.  2:233–234.
32.  Georgie.  2:237.

33.  Ellen Godfrey, interviewed by Genevieve Willcox Chander.  2:118–127 in Slave Narratives.  2:119.

34.  Hagar Brown, interviewed by Genevieve Willcox Chandler.  In Slave Narratives, volume 1, no pages in on-line edition.

35.  Louisa Brown, interviewed by Genevieve Willcox Chandler.  In Slave Narratives, volume 1, no pages in on-line edition.

36.  Godfrey.  2:119.
37.  Godfrey.  2:120.

38.  “Marlboro County, South Carolina.”  Wikipedia website.

39.  KesterDV.  “MAJ Zachariah Alford Drake.”  Find a Grave website, 8 June 2013.  His wife, Sophia Alford, was the mother of Agenora Drake, who married James Alexander Peterkin. [48]  Their son, William George Peterkin, married Chandler’s daughter. [49]  Zachariah’s second wife was Susan A. Peterkin.

40.  J. A. W. Thomas.  A History of Marlboro County with Traditions and Sketches of Numerous Families.  Atlanta, Georgia: The Foote and Davies Company, 1897.  192.

41.  KesterDV.  “CPT Zachariah Jordan Drake.”  Find a Grave website, 9 June 2013.

42.  William Light Kinney, Jr.  “Marlboro County.”  South Carolina Encyclopedia website, 8 June 2016; last updated 11 August 2022.

43.  Jose Allston, mentioned in the post for 6 August 2023, lived on The Oaks plantation around 1854.  When he died in 1855, it reverted to his maternal grandfather, William Algernon Allston.  He died in 1860 and The Oaks fell to his half-brother, Thomas Pinckney Allston. [50]

44.  Rogers.  408, 410.
45.  Rogers.  414.
46.  Rogers.  426.
47.  Rogers.  Map on inside back cover.

48.  Herman Ruple Durr.  “Agenora Drake Peterkin.”  Find a Grave website, 12 July 2009.

49.  Herman Ruple Durr.  “William George Peterkin Sr.”  Find a Grave website, 12 July 2009.

50.  James L. Michie.  The Oaks Plantation Revealed: An Archaeological Survey of the Home of Joseph and Theodosia Burr Alston, Brookgreen Gardens, Georgetown County, South Carolina.  Columbia, South Carolina: Waccamaw Center for Historical and Cultural Studies, 1993.  12.

Waccamaw Slave Life

Topic: Early Versions - Waccamaw Neck
The quality of life of slaves on the Waccamaw Neck depended, in part, on the prosperity of their masters.  They were more likely to be sold when their owners died or were in debt.  Indebtedness, in turn, was related to both personal character and international markets.  Men had problems when prices for rice fell.

According to Peter Coclanis, prices were relatively stable from the late 1810s through the early 1830s, with a severe dip in the middle 1830s. [1]  Planters had limited resources: the supply of available land was limited by the action of the tides.  Once individuals had converted all their swamps into rice fields, there was no more.  Likewise, once the trans-Atlantic slave trade closed, the only source for new labor was internal increases.

The one element planters could control was the quality of their seed.  As mentioned in the post for 6 August 2023, Joshua John Ward planted 400 acres of his Carolina Gold in 1842, and all his fields in 1843.  The larger grains gave him an edge over his neighbors, until 1844 when he made the seed available to them.  From that time, the prices paid for South Carolina rice rose according to Coclanis.

Rather than invest his profits in a grander house or social life in Charleston, as many of his contemporaries did, Ward purchased their plantations.  By 1850, he owned six along the Waccamaw River: his original Brook Green; Prospect Hill [2] and Alderly [3] which he acquired from the family of Benjamin Huger; Orzanita which came from John Izard Middleton, Jr.; [4] Longwood [5] and Springfield. [6]

Little has been published about Ward, beyond his ownership of plantations and the fact his estate owned 1,130 slaves in 1860. [7]  It is not known how many slaves came with each plantation, or how many were on any one.  Ward owned other land that would have used captive labor.

What we do know about slave life on Ward’s land comes from Ben Horry, [8] whose father was a driver at Brook Green.  He was born in 1854, [9] a year after Ward died [10] and his son, Joshua Ward, inherited the plantation.

The Wards used the standard form of labor organization on their plantations with drivers answerable to overseers.  Joshua John was using an overseer at Brook Green even before he began buying plantations. [11]  One reason his son used overseers was he spent his summers on the French Broad in the mountains to avoid malaria. [12]

Horry had few good words for the overseers.  He described them as the “worst kind of ‘White trash’—respected less by negroes than by whites.” [13]

Apart from class, he attributed their behavior to economic insecurity.  “White oberseer a little different for one reason!  White obersheer want to hols hid job.  Nigger obersheer don’t care too much.  He know he going stay on plantation anyhow.” [14]  He added, “Them things different when my father been make the head man.” [15]

While slaves lived in quarters on particular plantations, Horry suggested the younger Ward moved slaves from place to place as needed.  Horry recalled: “Left Brookgreen go Watsaw; left Watsaw done Longwood.  Plant ALL DEM plantation.  I work there.  Cut rice there.” [16]  This did not disrupt families, and contributed to the culture that shared along the Waccamaw that was suggested in the post for 3 September 2023.

Horry told Genevieve Willcox Chandler about three tasks he remembered.  Depending on the season, he was expected to break up or mash half an acre in a day, dig ten compasses, or cut rice on half an acre. [17]  These all were jobs that required physical strength, rather than special knowledge.  He also recalled the way some drivers manipulated the task system.  “If one them driver want you [. . .] they give you task you CAN’T DO.  You getting this beating not for you task—for you flesh.” [18]

No one was spared.  Horry’s mother was a nurse.  He remembered seeing a long gash on her. [19]  “I stay there look wid DESE HERE (eyes)!  Want to know one thing—MY OWN DADDY DERE couldn’t move!  Couldn’t venture dat over-sheer!  (Colored overseer)  Everybody can’t go to boss folks! [. . .]  Some kin talk it to Miss Bess.  Everybody don’t see Miss Bess.” [20]

Some of Horry’s father’s status on Brook Green came from his musical talents.  He and his two brothers “were Colonel Ward’s musicanier.  Make music for his dater and the white folks to dance.  Great fiddlers, drummers.  Each one could play fiddle, beat drum, blow fife.  All three were treat with the same education.” [21]

It sometimes is difficult to place Horry’s memories into a chronological framework.  Joshua John was called the Colonel, and so Horry would not have known about the dance first hand.  Georgie, who appears to have been Horry’s sister, echoed what became family tradition.  She recalled her Daddy “wuz a kind of musicianer for the Ward fambly. [22]

What is clear from Horry’s recollections is that slave children not only were taught to work at a young age, but to perform.  Joshua and Bess Ward returned from their summer in the mountains with fabric for new clothes for the slaves.

“Sund’y come we have to go to the Big House for Marse Josh to see how the clothes fit.  And him and Miss Bess made us run races to see who run the fastest.  That the happiest time I members when I wuz a boy to Brookgreen.” [23]

End Notes
1.  Peter A. Coclanis.  “Distant Thunder: The Creation of a World Market in Rice and the Transformations It Wrought.”  The American Historical Review 98(4):1050–1078:October 1993.  Charts on pages 1073 and 1075.

2.  “Prospect Hill Plantation – Georgetown – Georgetown County.”  South Carolina Plantations website.

3.  “Alderly Plantation – Georgetown – Georgetown County.”  South Carolina Plantations website.

4.  “Oryzantia Plantation – Georgetown – Georgetown County.”  South Carolina Plantations website.

5.  “Longwood Plantation – Murrells Inlet – Horry County.”  South Carolina Plantations website.

6.  Description of “Journal of Joshua John Ward plantations, 1831-1869.”  South Carolina Historical Society website.

7.  Tom Blake.  “Georgetown County, South Carolina: Largest Slaveholders from 1860 Slave Census Schedules and Surname Matches for African Americans on 1870 Census.”  Ancestry website.

8.  Ben Horry, interviewed by Genevieve Willcox Chandler.  219–236 in Slave Narratives: A Folk History of Slavery in the United States From Interviews with Former Slaves – South Carolina Narratives.  Compiled by The Library of Congress from interviews by the Works Projects Administration, Federal Writers’ Project.  Washington: Library of Congress, 1941.  2:226.

9.  Coming Through: Voices of a South Carolina Gullah Community from WPA Oral Histories Collected by Genevieve W. Chandler, edited by Kincaid Mills, Genevieve C. Peterkin, and Aaron McCollough.  Columbia: The University of South Carolina Press, 2008.  88.

10.  Patti Yourko Burns.  “Col Joshua John Ward.”  Find a Grave website, 27 March 2009; last updated by Daniel L.

11.  See post for 6 August 2023 on the role of his overseer in selecting Carolina Gold rice.

12.  Horry, interviewed by Chandler.  2:224.
13.  Horry, interviewed by Chandler.  2:224.
14.  Horry, interviewed by Chandler.  2:224.
15.  Horry, interviewed by Chandler.  2:228.

16.  Horry, interviewed by Chandler.  2:223.  Wacheshaw and Longwood were enough north that the rice may have ripened a few days later than on plantations farther south along the river.

17.  Horry, interviewed by Chandler.  2:223.
18.  Horry, interviewed by Chandler.  2:223.
19.  Horry, interviewed by Chandler.  2:223.

20.  Horry, interviewed by Chandler.  2:224.  Joshua Ward was married to Elizabeth Ryan Mortimer. [24]

21.  Horry, interviewed by Chandler.  2:226.  The post for 6 August 2023 includes a description of a dance sponsored by Joshua John Ward where the elder Horry may have played.

22.  Georgie.  2:236–238 in Slave Narratives.  2:237.  Provided by Ben Horry.
23.  Horry, interviewed by Chandler.  2:227.
24.  “Joshua Ward.”  Mormon’s Family Search website.

Assembling Slave Communities on the Waccamaw

Topic: Early Versions - Waccamaw Neck
Land and slaves were treated as items that could be inherited or sold separately.  While the status of slaves as chattel was inherent in the slave trade, its legal basis was established in 1677 when a representative of the Royal African Company [1] sued a Barbados planter for unpaid debts.

The planter, Penny, argued slaves were equivalent to villeins in Medieval English law who were tied to land and could not be separated from it.  The court sided with the merchant, Thomas Butts. [2]

Thus, when Benjamin Allston made a will before his death in 1811, he gave his working plantation to his oldest son, Joseph Waties, [3] and Matanzas [4] to his other sons, Robert Francis Withers and William Washington.  His wife, Charlotte Anne, moved there with the two young boys to manage the land, and repay her husband’s debts in 1819. [5]

Separately, Benjamin allocated 18 slaves to particular heirs, and decreed the other 126 should be divided between his heirs, who included his wife, three sons, and three daughters. [6]  This left Joseph with a plantation with insufficient manpower, and forced all but 107 of the Waverly slaves to be moved to new locations.

Waverly’s land originally was part of a grant made by George I to Thomas Hepworth in 1711. [7]  It lay north of the Hobcow Barony claimed by one of the colony’s proprietor’s, John Carteret, [8] and south of the one given to a landgrave, Robert Daniel, the same year. [9]  Like the other land grants it was a reward for services.  Hepworth was a lawyer who had served as clerk to the House of Commons Assembly. [10]

Hepworth’s son sold an undeveloped tract on Wahocca Bluff to Percival Pawley in 1737.  He was the son of the Percival mentioned in the post for 8 January 2023 who bought the land from the owner of Daniel’s claim, Thomas Smith.  He, in turn, sold it to his brother George in 1743. [11]  George was the one developed the Wachoker Plantation. [12]  At that time, most of the slaves were coming from modern Sénégal-Gambia and Sierra Leone. [13]

George and Mary’s son William died in 1776, and the land was divided into two plantations for his daughters.  The one who inherited Washington’s Valley was married to Josias William Allston, [14] the grandson of the Josias Alston who moved to North Carolina. [15]  All that’s known bout about the daughter who received Montpelier is that she married her sister’s brother. [16]

Nothing is known about the condition of the plantations or their slaves after the British ravaged so much during the American Revolution.  William’s son-in-law could have done little to rebuild Montpelier, since the slave trade was closed until 1801.  Then, slaves began coming from Kongo, Sierra Leone, and the Gold Coast of modern Ghana. [17]

Benjamin Allston bought Montpelier in 1807 and renamed it Waverly. [18]  That was the year the slave trade closed again, and any new slaves either were purchased from neighbors or were offspring of existing slave women.

His other plantation, Matanzas, was on the Peedee river and apparently had been purchased as speculation. [19]  It not only was undeveloped but mortgaged. [20]  His widow hired some of her sons’ slaves out to others. [21]  This exposed them to slaves from other plantations.

When William died in 1823, Robert and Joseph each inherited half his share of Matanzas. [22]  No mention is made of the fate of his slaves.  Some may have been taken back to Waverly by Joseph.

Robert’s mother died in 1824, and he received seven of her slaves. [23]  The disposition of the others is not mentioned.  If any went to her daughters, then they may have rejoined ones moved from Waverly in 1819.

To begin developing Matanzas as a plantation, Robert purchased nine more slaves from his mother’s estate who joined the 33 slaves living on the Peedee land.  Then, in 1828, he bought 34 individuals from the estate of Robert Francis Withers. [24]  This doubled the population of his slave quarters with people who may have had different traditions.  Whether the group adapted or changed the community ethos depended on whether it contained strong or charismatic individuals.

In 1836, Robert sold eight of the Waverly slaves to Joseph’s wife, Mary Allan. [25]  They returned to Matanzas, when she could not pay him.  This probably was related to Joseph’s death in 1837.  He was in debt, and Robert sold fifty-one slaves who left Waverly for other plantations. [26]

The sales of slaves when owners died was not unusual in rice country when men died young.  Benjamin was 43, William was 19, and Joseph 36. [27]

The separation of slaves and land, and the early deaths of plantation owners created a situation that was different from that found in Georgia where Pierce Butler’s slaves were kept on his island plantation for several generations, and created their own Gullah dialect. [28]  Likewise, William Francis Allen found slaves on different plantations on Saint Helena Island during the Civil War each had distinctive ways of speaking. [29]

Along the Waccamaw Neck a more generalized culture could develop.  When Robert started planting on Matanzas, he began with slaves who shared the culture of the slave quarters on Waverly.  When he purchased slaves elsewhere, those men and women were forced to adapt to the existing mores of the Peedee land.

Likewise, when he sold Joseph’s slaves, the Waverly culture was both dispersed with each individual, and altered by mingling on new plantations.  However, those buyers were local men.  Robert made clear, he wasn’t trying to get the highest prices, but was trying to keep “rice” slaves in the area, so people who grew rice did not have to pay higher “cotton” slave prices. [30]  As a consequence, he did most of his trades within his area. [31]

This created an environment where the local patterns of speech became standardized within the region.  Likewise, religious practices would have undergone the same sort of sifting and selection to create something with unique traits along the Waccamaw river.  When slaves returned to Waverly, even for short periods, they brought with them slightly modified variants of the home plantation’s culture.

The trend toward homogenization was abetted by overseers, who often spent little time at any one plantation, but moved from one to another, taking their expectations of slave behavior with them.  Harold Easterby found the names of seven men who served at Waverly, [32] and eight at Manzanos. [33]  Some were dismissed for their cruelty; [34] at least one was described as a bad man at another plantation where he worked. [35]

Like many planters, Robert prided himself for not selling any of his slaves, until the Civil War.  However, Easterby noted he did try to sell some to his sister-in-law and later sold four to the miller at Waverly in the 1850s. [36]  Robert overlooked the disruptions he caused by buying slaves from other plantations.

End Notes
1.  The Royal African Company was controlled by Charles I through his brother James.  It had been established as the Royal Adventurers into Africa in 1660, [37] and was reorganized in 1672 as the RAC.  Five of the owners also were proprietors of South Carolina: John Berkeley, George Carteret, John Colleton, Anthony Ashley Cooper, and William Craven. [38]  The company is mentioned in post for 10 January 2019.

2.  Holly Brewer.  “‘Twelve Judges in Scarlet’ The Seventeenth-Century Contest over a Common Law of Slavery for England and its Empire.”  Penn Legal History Consortium, 3 October 2012.  Republished on Social Science Research Network website.  Only last names appeared in legal records.  Brewer was able to identify Butts, but there were several possible Penny planters on Barbados.

3.  J. H. Easterby.  The South Carolina Rice Plantation as Revealed in the Papers of Robert F. W. Allston.  Chicago: University of Chicago, 1945.  New edition issued by University of South Carolina of Columbia in 2004.  19.

4.  I am using names used at the time; Matanzas was renamed Chicora Woods in 1853. [39]

5.  Easterby.  19–20.  As mentioned in the post for 6 August 2023, Charlotte Ann Allston was an Allston cousin before she married an Allston.

6.  Easterby.  28.

7.  Susan A. Scheno.  “Ricefields: Our Historical Legacy.”  Ricefields website.  7.  None of the individuals who could have mentioned “Come by Here” to Genevieve Willcox Chandler was associated with Waverly.  I am using it as an example of a Waccamaw Neck plantation because its slave population is well documented.

8.  Henry A. M. Smith.  “The Baronies of South Carolina.  Part X. Hobcow Barony.”  The South Carolina Historical and Genealogical Magazine 14(2):61-80:April 1913.  62.

9.  Daniel’s purchase and his quick resale to another landgrave, Thomas Smith, are discussed in the post for 8 January 2023.

10.  Walter B. Edgar and N. Louise Bailey.  Biographical Directory of the South Carolina House of Representatives.  Columbia: University of South Carolina Press, 1977.  2:313–314.

11.  Scheno.  7.

12.  Robert Walden Coggeshall.  Ancestors and Kin.  Spartanburg, South Carolina: The Reprint Company, 1988.  153.

13.  This information is from the post for 10 March 2019.
14.  Scheno.  8.

15.  Josias Alston was the son of John Allston and grandson of the immigrant John Allston. [40]  He inherited Turkey Hill, which he sold in 1772 to his cousin Joseph Allston, the son of his father’s brother William. [41]  Rowena Nyland said that “the reason Josias sold his inheritance is unknown.  He relocated in the Little River area on the North/South Carolina border on lands which his will suggests he obtained from Joseph Allston.” [42]

16.  Scheno.  8.
17.  This information is from the post for 10 March 2019.
18.  Scheno.  8.
19.  Easterby.  19–20.
20.  Easterby.  20.
21.  Easterby.  19.
22.  Easterby.  28.
23.  Easterby.  28.
24.  Easterby.  28.

25.  Easterby.  29.  She was the sister of Robert M. Allan, a Charleston cotton factor. [43]

26.  Easterby.  29.

27.  Coggeshall.  172–173.  Ages are calculated from birth and death dates and may be off by a year.

28.  Lillian F. Sinclair.  “My Recollections of Darien in the Late Seventies and Eighties.  66–68 in Buddy Sullivan.  High Water on the Bar.  Darien, Georgia: Darien Development Authority, 2009.  67.  “These Butler Negroes were a race apart.  The never, until years after the war, mingled with other Negroes.  They were not allowed to do so by Pierce Butler and, after his death, kept to their tradition.  They had a peculiar lingo which one had to be familiar with before one could understand it.”

29.  William Francis Allen.  “Introduction.”  The Slave Songs of the United States.  Edited by William Francis Allen, Charles Pickard Ware, and Lucy McKim Garrison.  New York: A. Simpson and Company, 1867.  xxiv.  “The different plantations have their own peculiarities, and adepts profess to be able to determine by speech of a negro what part of the island he belongs to, or even, in some cases, his plantation.  I can myself vouch for the marked peculiarities of one plantation from which I had scholars, and which are hardly more than a mile distant from another which lacked these peculiarities.”

30.  Easterby.  30.

31.  George C. Rogers.  The History of Georgetown County, South Carolina.  Columbia: University of South Carolina Press, 1970; reprinted by Georgetown County Historical Society, 2002.  329.

32.  Easterby.  23–26.  Mr. Sessions, John Oliver, Gabriel L. Ellis, George C. Gotea, Benjamin A. Tillman, G. Savage Smith, and Thomas Hemingway.

33.  Easterby.  23–26.  Neighbor, James Hull, Daniel P. Avant, Thomas Sanders, Gabriel L. Ellis, J. A. Hemingway, William B. Millican, and Jessse Belflowers.

34.  Easterby.  24–25.  Avant and Ellis.
35.  Easterby.  25.  Ellis.
36.  Easterby.  29.
37.  Hugh Thomas.  The Slave Trade.  New York: Simon and Schuster, 1997.  198.
38.  Thomas.  201.
39.  Easterby.  19–20.
40.  Coggeshall.  172.

41.  Rowena Nyland.  “Historical Analysis of the Willbrook, Oatland, and Turkey Hill Plantations.”  14–60 in Archaeological and Historical Examinations of Three Eighteenth and Nineteenth Century Rice Plantations on the Waccamaw Neck, edited by Michael Trinkley.  Columbia, South Carolina: Chicora Foundation, May 1993.  30–31.

42.  Nyland.  32.
43.  Easterby.  66.