A Slave’s Grave

Jim says:

I’m still visiting with my friends Bob and Judy in Summerton, South Carolina. This morning, Bob asked if I’d like to see a slave’s grave…and I said sure.

Less than a five-minute walk from his house we came upon this headstone. It was substantially overgrown with weeds and we had to clear them away in order to take these two photos.

Below his name it reads in part…A leader in the African M.E. Church South near…

A peaceful forest setting…

Bob told me that many years ago this area in which he now lives was a cotton plantation and that this is where the slaves were buried. This was the only headstone we found and I didn’t want to search further because the mosquitoes were really starting to get after me. Fortunately there are no mosquitoes around his house.

It appears this slave was born in 1826 which would have made him about 34 years old when the Civil War began. He was most likely emancipated by Abraham Lincoln’s Proclamation. We also discussed how hard it is to try to envision what the life of a slave was really like. Yesterday was 86 degrees with high humidity. Bob told me by August it will exceed 100 degrees. It’s so hard to picture working in the cotton fields from sun-up to sun-down, six days a week, in those kinds of temperatures. Despite it all, old Joseph apparently lived to be 80 years old.

It was a neat experience, although brief, because not many tourists get to see this site. Another nice RVing happening.

All original material Copyright – Jim Jaillet 2010
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