True Stories of Black South Carolina

by Arcadia Publishing

Overview

From the Upstate to the Lowcountry, African Americans have had a gigantic impact on the Palmetto State. Unfortunately, their stories are often overshadowed. Collected here for the first time, this selection of essays by historian Damon L. Fordham brings these stories to light. Rediscover the tales of Samuel Smalls, the James Island beggar who inspired DuBose Heyward's Porgy, and Denmark Vesey, the architect of the great would-be slave rebellion of 1822. Learn about the blacks who lived and worked at what is now Mepkin Abbey, the Spartanburg woman who took part in a sit-in at the age of eleven and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s visit to Charleston in 1967. These articles are well-researched and provide an enlightening glimpse at the overlooked contributors to South Carolina's past.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781596294059
Publisher:	Arcadia Publishing SC
Publication date:	03/07/2008
Series:	American Chronicles
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	168
Product dimensions:	5.00(w) x 8.00(h) x 0.39(d)

About the Author

Damon Fordham has been an Adjunct Professor of US History and African American Studies at the College of Charleston and a research associate at the Avery Research Center. An accomplished writer, he has been a book reviewer for the Post and Courier, a columnist for the Charleston Chronicle and the Charleston Coastal Times. In addition to numerous articles and papers, he also co-authored Born to Serve—History of the WEMBC with Marvin Dulaney (Avery Research Center Press, 2007), and contributed to The African American National Biography (Harvard University Press), The South Carolina Encyclopedia (USC Press, 2006) and The Greenwood Encyclopedia of African American Folklore (University of Missouri Press, 2006).

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements     7
Introduction     9
For the Brothers Who Aren't Here     11
The Spirit of Miss Martha     15
Appreciation of Life     18
Recollections of Slave Rebellions     22
Br'er Rabbit in South Carolina     29
Augustus Ladson and the Slave Stories     37
The Black Lynchers of Pickens County     49
George Washington Murray and the Black Inventors     55
The Case of Frazier Baker     66
Spartanburg, South Carolina: One City, Two Incidents     75
Edmund Jenkins: From Slavery to Lawman     88
The Charleston Race Riot of 1919: A Forgotten Event     92
Nathaniel Frederick: The Crusading Lawyer     95
Samuel Smalls: The Man Behind Porgy     102
A Forgotten Friendship     110
Frank Dunston: Forgotten Hero     114
The Eleven-Year-Old Activist     120
The Struggle of Esau Jenkins     127
The Day Dr. King Came to Town: July 30, 1967     135
The Other Side of Mepkin     142
Epilogue     163
About the Author     165

Editorial Reviews

College of Charleston professor Damon L. Fordham doesn't just preserve South Carolina's rich black history; he brings it alive in ways that illuminate its poignant human qualities. In True Stories of Black South Carolina, he revitalizes episodes from the region's African-American past. A heritage we should all share.