BDC Facebook Posts in February 2023

Here's a re-cap of all the Facebook posts on the BDC's page during February 2023: 

February 1: Overview of February 2023: We begin the month with two learning opportunities. The Historically Speaking series continues with the "sold out" "The Battle of Port Royal Island, 1779" tomorrow. I hope to see you at the Stuarts Town Symposium on Saturday. Expect to see books and historical tidbits regarding the 2023 Black History Month theme of "Black Resistance." The 30th birthday of this particular Beaufort Branch Library building (1992, 1998) will be on the 11th. All Library units will be closed on February 20th for Presidents Day.

Black History Month 2023 "Black Resistance" Related Posts: 

February 1: "Black History Note Wednesday:" You will notice a theme in my FB posts on Wednesdays this month. First up: Slave Law and the Politics of Resistance in the Early Atlantic World by Edward Rugemer (2018) compares the development of slavery in Jamaica, Barbados and South Carolina and how some individuals resisted the systems used to keep them enslaved. The BDC has a copy in our Research Room and there is one copy you can borrow through the SCLENDS consortium with your library card.

February 3: Today's "Finding Aids Friday" features a small collection of correspondence relating to a bold resister to the South's peculiar institution. I am referring to the man with guts of steel, Robert Smalls. As most of you know Smalls steamed the Planter into the Union's naval line under the nose of the Confederates in Charleston Harbor in 1862. Though the man and his feat were nationally famous during the Civil War and Reconstruction eras, Dorothy Sterling (1913-2008) was the first author in the 20th century to take note of the significance of the act and of the man. She wrote a book for young adults entitled Captain of the Planter: The Story of Robert Smalls (1958). We have letters between Sterling and Beaufort Township Library staff from 1955 to 1956 in the Research Room. Sterling was doing her due diligence trying to separate fact from fiction and reconcile conflicting accounts of some of the details of Smalls' life. Sterling's book was well received. The Research Room and a few other reference collections in the SCLENDS consortium have a copy of her published book. Her book has been reprinted at least twice so far. The Dorothy Sterling Letters Finding Aid is in the BDCBCL: Lists, Links and Finding Aids blog.

February 7: Beaufort County's own Thomas Barnwell of Hilton Head Island is featured as the February 2023 honoree in the SC African American History Calendar. Be sure to watch the video that the calendar has posted about this man who personifies non-violent Black Resistance to economic, political, and social inequities. Long a friend to the special collections department, we have his History in Development, 1972 -- and Wild Horse Court Phase II... that deal with affordable housing on Hilton Head Island; The Fishing Co-op Role in the BASF Conflict and the popular Gullah Days: Hilton Head Island Before the Bridge that he co-wrote with Emory Campbell and Carolyn Grant.

February 8: "Black History Note Wednesday: Black Resistance" - I am allowed to collect materials about broader South Carolina history when I determine that a particular item helps to provide context for Beaufort District's more specific local history. Though the Stono Rebellion occurred in what is now Charleston County, it scared the beejezus out of the planters who owned slaves - and hardened their planters' hearts against any attempts at resistance. The laws governing the enslaved were tightened; the behavior of the whites in charge tightened against Black persons in the state.

Peter H. Wood wrote a groundbreaking thesis in 1972 that was turned into a monograph in 1975 entitled Black Majority : Negroes in Colonial South Carolina from 1670 through the Stono Rebellion. It has remained in print ever since. Wood explored the consequences of importing the largest single group of non-English-speaking migrants to the North American colonies on United States history through a thorough and penetrating case study of the Palmetto State during the period. He ends it with the Stono Rebellion of 1739 and its aftermath. The BDC has a copy but there are also plenty of copies that you can check out through the SCLENDS consortium.

February 13: "Materials Monday : Uniquely BDC" - The Denmark Vesey Affair was an important example of Black Resistance to the shackles of enslavement and Black Codes of the antebellum period. The BDC has the only original published copy of An official report of the trials of sundry Negroes : charged with an attempt to raise an insurrection in the state of South Carolina: preceded by an introduction and narrative; and in an appendix, a report of the trials of four white persons on indictments for attempting to excite slaves to insurrection (1822) in the SCLENDS consortium. (19th century book publishers loved descriptive - and long - title/subtitle combinations.) Learn about the trial and its consequences in our Research Room: bdc@bcgov.net; 843-255-6468.

February 15: "Black History Note Wednesday: Black Resistance" A more contemporary version of the Trial of Sundry Negroes ... mentioned here on Monday is Designs Against Charleston by Edward Pearson (1999). On July 2, 1822, officials in Charleston, South Carolina, executed a free black carpenter named Denmark Vesey for planning what would have been the most extensive slave revolt in U.S. history. Pearson provides a fascinating and comprehensive account of the Vesey conspiracy that uses both primary and secondary sources including the words of the accused. Plenty of copies of this title are available for check out from the SCLENDS consortium. If you really want to read up, check out the other items on the flyer too.

February 22: "Black History Note Wednesday: Black Resistance" - Author Robert Olwell examines how colonial slave societies were different than the "Old South" early 19th century one which most of us are more familiar in the aptly titled Masters, Slaves and Subjects. The book jacket states: "In this study of a colonial older South, [he] analyzes the structures and internal dynamics of a world in which both masters and slaves were also imperial subjects. While slavery was peculiar within a democratic republic, it was an integral and seldom questioned part of the eighteenth-century British empire. [Olwell] examines the complex relations among masters, slaves, metropolitan institutions, officials, and ideas in the South Carolina low country from the end of the Stono Rebellion through the chaos of the American Revolution. He details the interstices of power and resistance in four key sites of the colonial social order: the criminal law and the slave court; conversion and communion in the established church; market relations and the marketplace; and patriarchy and the plantation great house." The Research Room has a copy but you can also borrow one from other parts of the SCLENDS consortium.

February 23: Robert Smalls, arguably Beaufort District's most famous native son, died in his sleep at his home at 511 Prince Street in Beaufort on February 23, 1915 according to his death certificate. He was survived by his two daughters, Elizabeth Lydia Smalls Bampfield, Sarah Voorhees Smalls Williams, a son, William Robert Wigg Smalls, and a number of grandchildren.

February 24: "Finding Aid Friday" - Today's selection results from the process of trying to find an appropriate topic for Black History Month and preparing a Finding Aid for it. We have a folder simply labeled in my predecessor's hand "Robert Smalls" that has been stored in Box 2 of the Miscellaneous small collections for some time. I figured since Smalls had died on February 23rd, a Finding Aids post about the contents of the "Robert Smalls" folder in Box 2 of the Miscellaneous collections boxes would be an easy choice for Finding Aid Friday on February 24th. I was wrong. So while there is no actual Finding Aid to share today, in the course of doing the archival processing work, I came across an article that I think may interest you: The Savannah Tribune account of the funeral of Robert Smalls. It was published on page 1 of the newspaper's March 6, 1915 issue.

According to the newspaper article all of Beaufort attended his funeral on Friday, February 26, 1915. Five Black ministers eulogized Smalls. The choir sang "Shall We Meet Beyond the River" as people paid their respects at the last viewing of the body. With the music of the Allen's Brass Band leading the cortege, members of Masonic Lodge, Sons of Beaufort, No. 36 and the Odd Fellows Lodge No. 2211 carried the body through the streets to the Tabernacle Baptist Churchyard where Smalls was laid to rest with "a most impressive Masonic ceremony.... The funeral was the largest ever held in this city." Floral arrangements were numerous but those sent by the City Council and the Grand Army of the Republic were praised in particular. His survivors were listed as daughters Elizabeth Smalls Bampfield of Beaufort and Sarah Smalls Washington of Orangeburg and a son, W. Robert Smalls of Austin, Texas and several grand children.

Olivia and I will be happy to set up an appointment for you to come to review this or other materials in the Research Room: bdc@bcgov.net or 843-255-6468. JSYK: I plan to write a Connections post about the about the challenges of getting intellectual control, making archival collections more accessible, and reuniting disparate deposits into one archival collection. My goal is to write and finalize a Hillary S. Barnwell Research Papers Finding Aid by the end of March - just in time to close out Women's History Month.

February 25: Learn more about this important aid to African American genealogy research in Connections.

February 26: One of the things that I like most about working in the Research Room is learning new "stuff" from BDC customers. One recent inquiry falls into the "Black Resistance" theme for this year's Black History Month celebration. A history professor at a college in Maine had stumbled across a local newspaper article in which an elderly Black woman claimed to be an escaped slave from Beaufort, SC. After sharing what he'd already tried to see if he could document aspects of the article, he asked for some guidance, The rest of the story is in Connections.

February 27: "Materials Monday: Uniquely BDC" - The Invisible War: The African American Anti-Slavery Resistance from the Stono Rebellion through the Seminole Wars, edited by Y.N. Kly contains 6 articles that together challenges the notion that there was no collective resistance to slavery among the enslaved peoples. Indeed, the authors contend that the error arises from the lack of awareness of African American who self-liberated southward towards Georgia and Florida. The only copies of this title in the SCLENDS consortium are in the Beaufort County Library's special BDC and Gullah Geechee reference collections.

February 28: Books in the BDC with a "Black Resistance" theme to round out Black History Month posts:

Local History Programs:

February 2 (AM): Olivia and I are looking forward to seeing all those with tickets at the lecture today .... Reservations become null and void at 10:55 AM. We open the empty seats to those who may be standing by at 5 minutes before scheduled program start time.

February 2 (PM): What an excellent "Historically Speaking" program today. Thank you Colonel Baxley for sharing your knowledge of local military history as it relates to the Battle of Port Royal Island. Expect to hear more about the American Revolution in Beaufort District in the coming months and years.

February 3: We booked all seats in advance but because of "no shows" we were able to seat folks on stand by this time. I've just added more photos that Olivia Santos and Mary Lou Brewton took of the "Battle of Port Royal Island, 1779" local history program yesterday. To see all the photos: Select Photos > Albums > Battle of Port Royal Island with Neil Baxley.

February 6: "Materials Monday: Uniquely BDC" - In honor of our most recent "Historically Speaking" series program, today's selection is First American Victory of the British Southern Campaign, February 3, 1779 : Battle of Beaufort (38BU2336), Beaufort County, South Carolina : March 21, 2020. Daniel E. Battle discovered the site in 2016. The report is quite lavishly illustrated with 149 Figures. He also gave us the print of the battle that now hangs in our Research Room. Give us a call or shoot us an email to set up an appointment to make a research visit: bdc@bcgov.net; 843-255-6468.

February 21: One month to the next Beaufort History Museum/Beaufort County Library local history program: Shrimp Tales: Small Bites of History Author Book Talk by Beverly Jennings. Registration will open on March 7th through the Beaufort History Museum's website.

Finding Aids Friday: 

February 10: "Finding Aid Friday" --... and just in time for Valentine's Day! Mae Onthank of Seabrook, SC wrote letters to her fiancée, Billy MacLeod chronicling her life, activities, and plans for their wedding in June 1915. Many of the letters bespeak of matters of the heart such as:

* July 18, 1914 - Darling I love you to death - Crazy 'bout you - Your Maezie

* October 20, 1914 - Dearest Boy: ... You know I love you too much and I think you were made for me and I had never thought that the war would make any difference with our marrying each other. Write and tell me about it. Do you really think it will? I hope and pray it will be best for us to get married in June.

They discussed guest lists, food, venues, honeymoon plans, etc. - all those things that brides and grooms have discussed since weddings became a "thing." The letters end right before their wedding held in the St. Helena Episcopal Church in late June 1915. There's also plenty of information about daily activities, family, friends, business, illnesses, etc. in northern Beaufort County.

The donor of the Onthank Letters collection, Mae and Billy's descendant Douglas C. MacLeod, put together 3 volumes of transcriptions of some of the letters, added family photographs such as the one shown of Mae Onthank, and wrote introductions explaining the family and social relationships. The transcriptions are bound in book form and housed in the shelves with call numbers SC 929.2 ONT vol. 1, SC 929.2 ONT vol. 2, and SC 929.2 ONT vol. 3. Because the letters themselves are rather fragile, customers are encouraged to use the transcriptions whenever possible to minimize further damage to the correspondence originals.

Mae and Billy would rear a family in Lynchburg, VA and remained married until their deaths. He died in 1979; she in 1983. They are buried in the Spring Hill Cemetery there.

February 17: "Finding Aid Friday:" Today's featured archival collection is the Crofut Diaries. Ellen Augusta Chapman Crofut (Mrs. James M. Crofut) kept a daily diary for most of her adult life. She took note of the weather, family news, and social affairs particularly with extended members of the Onthank Family and at the St. Helena Episcopal Church in Beaufort, SC. There are 31 diaries and 1 folder of loose materials, clippings, and items found in the diaries. If you're on the Library's email distribution list, you already know that she wrote about President Grant's visit on New Year's Day 1880. If you've read Connections, then you know that she wrote about the 1886 Earthquake and aftershocks for several weeks. If you've watched my "Tide of Death" presentation, then you know how disappointed I was that she wrote very, very little about the biggest natural disaster to yet befall Beaufort County, the Hurricane of 1893. I am grateful, though, that she kept social and musical programs for souvenirs attached or loose in her diaries. The Finding Aid is posted on the BDCBCL: Lists, Links and Finding Aids blog.

Special Events:

February 4: Stuart's Town Symposium highlights with photos and video

February 11: There's a party going on at Beaufort Branch this morning, 10 am - Noon. I put together a small display in the BDC's Lobby Board downstairs to commemorate the building of the Beaufort Library extension of 1992/1993 that most residents and visitors think of as the "30 year old" Beaufort Branch Library. The "new" 30-year old Beaufort County Library at 311 Scott Street is simply the most recent iteration of library services delivery from the nexus of Carteret, Scott, Craven and Port Republic streets in downtown Beaufort. There's more in the Connections post of 7 February 2023.

February 16: The Beaufort International Film Festival reminds me that folks are always interested in movies made in Beaufort County. Follow the links to get additional information about the feature films.

For the good of the whole:

February 9: Public Service Announcement: As in years past, volunteers are in some of the Library's facilities to help you with tax preparation on certain days at specific times. The Tax Help page on the Library's website points you to the most current and up-to-date information about tax preparation volunteers and services.

Schedule adjustment announcements were made on February 12 and 17.