African-American | Grandma's Ramblings
Because of Covid our plans for continuing our exploration of Michigan this summer did not materialize. However, we did get in just a little adventure on a recent trip back to Illinois to visit family. During that trip my husband and I took a side tour to Otterville, Illinois.
My husband was interested in the area because many of his mother’s family had once lived there. During research on his family tree, he discovered that one of his ancestors (his tenth great grandfather) was actually a slave from Angola. From previous trips to that area we knew there was a school that had been established in Otterville for the education of black students. Intrigued by the idea that a school for black students had been established in the same area where the branch of his family descended from a slave had also resided, he wanted to check out this school.
Hidden away in this small country town is a jewel of history. The building we found there is no longer in use as a school, but has been listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Classes were actually held there through 1971. Beginning in 1983 the site has been open for tours and an annual Hamilton Primary School Festival is held each year in September.
This school’s claim to fame is that it was the first integrated school in the nation. Years before the Civil War and before the landmark Supreme Court decision in 1954 Brown vs Board of Education, the Hamilton Primary School opened in 1835 as a free school open to everyone regardless of financial resources or color of skin.
Named after its benefactor, Dr. Silas Hamilton, a stone schoolhouse was opened in 1836. The finances for this school came from $4,000 Dr. Hamilton left in his will for construction and operation of a building for both educational and religious purposes. Razed in 1872, rebuilt and enlarged classes were held here until 1971.
Hamilton Primary School in 1835
Dr. Hamilton, a physicial originally from Vermont established a practice in Nashville, Tennessee. Saddened by the treatment of slaves that he saw, he bought a plantation in Mississippi in 1820. His mistaken idea was that he would treat his 28 slaves humanely and that would serve as a model for his neighbors. Of course, this did not work.
Recognizing this was an unrealistic and impractical experience, he traveled to Ohio where he freed his slaves. Moving west, he settled in what became Otterville and opened a medical practice.
While still a slave owner in Mississippi and on a trip back to Vermont he found a little boy whose parents had been sold at a slave auction. He purchased the young boy whose name was George Washington. While he freed George, the young man came with him to Otterville. The residents of Otterville were supporters of abolition and it is rumored that the town may have been a stop on the Undergrand Railroad.
On his death, Dr. Hamilton provided funds for the school to be built.
“Believing in the very great importance of primary schools, and desiring that my friends and relatives in this neighborhood should receive the benefit of them, I give and bequeath $4,000. dollars for the establishment of a primary school. $2,000 dollars to be appropriated to the erection of a building suitable for the school and a place of public worship, and $2,000 dollars to constitute a fund for the support of a teacher, said house to be erected not to exceed one mile south of this residence, nor one mile north, nor a quarter of a mile east, but at or near the point called the Four Corners, and I desire my executors to oversee the erection of such a building…”
Influenced by Dr. Hamilton, George Washington continued to live as the doctor had – caring for his neighbors. He was a successful farmer and active in the Otterville Baptist Church. An excellent singer, he often lead the singing and taught a Sunday School class also. Those who shared stories about George to their family members said that whenever a family had sickness, he would show up with wood for the fire and food for the table. He was the community “grave digger” working for free. As long as he stayed in Jersey County he was a free citizen. However, on a trip to the nearby city of Grafton (Calhoun County), he was assaulted by some men and placed in jail charged as a fugitive slave. Fortunately, a Jersey County businessman heard of his arrest and was able to procured his freedom.
On his death he left a sizeable estate to pay his debts, provide a monument to this former master and for the education of “colored persons, or Americans of African descent.”
On his death Washington was buried alongside his former master. While Southern plantation owners often buried their slaves in family plots, this is probably the only incident where the master and slave were buried side-by-side. Also, the only known instance where a former slave erected a monument for his master.
The newer school and church built in 1873 used stones from the original building. Since 1983 it has served as a museum with the halls and classrooms line with photos of past graduation classes, and photos and cermeonies remembering Hamtilton and Washinton.
Another reminder that when you get off the beaten path there is so much history hidden in small towns and unexpected places.
I have been posting each Friday on one of the old hymns/gospel songs of the church. The hymn selected this week is very appropriate as we are in the Lent season looking forward to Good Friday and Resurrection Sunday.
Almost every hymnal published in the last 50 years or so has this song in its collection. No one knows exactly who should get credit for the song but it is believed to be rooted in the African-American spirituals.
Each stanza asks a question:
- Were you there when they crucified my Lord?
- Were you there when they nailed him to the cross?
- Were you there when the sun refused to shine?
- Were you there when they laid him in the tomb?
- Were you there when the stone was rolled away?
These questions are, of course, rhetorical questions. Obviously none of us were there when Jesus was crucified or rose from the grave.
These questions are meant to help us recall those events that the disciples wrote about. At this time of year, these questions are good for us to ponder as we remember what this season is all about.
For slaves in America, this song carried even more meaning. It comforted them to remember that Jesus Christ knew their suffering and just as God was with Jesus on the cross, He was with them in the midst of their great suffering. They could truly relate to the pain and sorrow the first verses of this song portray. The hope that Jesus rose again no doubt gave them hope that some day the chains of slavery would be lifted and they would know true freedom.
Many music stars have recorded this song including Johnny Cash, Phil Keaggy, Marion Williams, Harry Belafonte, and Neil Tennant.
As you listen to this song, I hope you will take a few minutes to reflect on the questions asked and remember the great price Jesus paid for our spiritual freedom.
“Salvation is free, but it came at a great cost.”
If you have missed them, check out my other posts on the old gospel songs/hymns.
My Mother Sang Southern Gospel!
It’s Friday and time for a post about another old gospel song.
I have shared several now and hope you have enjoyed them.
This week’s song is one of my husband’s favorites. He has often performed this song in church services and at “gospel sings.”
The song starts with a question:
Why should I feel discouraged? Why should the shadows come?
The song quickly gives the answer:
His eye is on the sparrow and I know He watches me.
This thought is based on the scripture in Matthew 10:29-30
“Two sparrows sell for a farthing, don’t they? Yet not a single sparrow falls to the ground without your Father’s knowledge. The very hairs of your head are all numbered. Never be afraid, then—you are far more valuable than sparrows.”
While this song was made famous by two different African-American singers, Ethel Waters and Mahalia Jackson, it was written by a Canadian lady living in Elmira, New York.
In her own words:
“Early in the spring of 1905, my husband and I were sojourning in Elmira, New York. We developed a deep friendship for a couple by the name of Mr. and Mrs. Doolittle – true saints of God. Mrs. Doolittle had been bedridden for nigh 20 years. Her husband was an incurable cripple who had to propel himself to and from his business in a wheel chair. Despite their afflictions, they lived happy Christian lives, bringing inspiration and comfort to all who knew them. One day, while we were visiting with the Doolittles, my husband commented on their bright hopefulness and asked them for the secret of it. Mrs. Doolittle’s reply was simple: ‘His eye is on the sparrow, and I know he watches me.’ The beauty of this simple expression of boundless faith gripped the hearts and fired the imagination of Dr. Martin and me. The song ‘His Eye Is on the Sparrow’ was the outcome of that experience.”
Ethel Waters was born to a teenager who had been raped. Although she was raised by her grandmother, she took the last name of her father. She demonstrated her musical talents while very young, singing at the age of five at church. On her 15th birthday she won an amateur night and began performing in vaudeville in 1917.
In 1953 she sang this song in the movie “Member of the Wedding” and brought the song to the attention of the world. She loved the song “His Eye is On the Sparrow” and in her later years she often sang it for the Billy Graham crusades.
Mahalia Jackson made the song even more popular when she sang it at the Newport Jazz Festival in 1958. The song became associated with the civil rights movement in the 1960’s. Rev. Martin Luther King Jr said Mahalia did not just sing the song, it was her life story.
Mahalia spoke of the song and its meaning to her:
“When our savior came, now he didn’t come down here just to tell people to believe on him, he healed the sick and he healed the blind, he raised the dead. He did things for people. So salvation and the Word of God can do things for you. It can open doors for you. And I know it can, Studs. Look what it done for me. And my people have–we’re coming along, but my God, we’ve come along so slow till we chokin’.”
For my husband and I, the song has always been a comfort. No matter what the circumstances of life, we can sing and find joy in the knowledge that God truly loves us and is aware of all we face each day.
Continuing my posts on the old gospel songs we used to sing, today I remember the first song I ever performed in public.
As a young girl I took piano lessons and when my father, who was a minister, had speaking engagements he often would have me play and sing something before he spoke. Although I was shy, I think this experience gave me confidence in appearing before an audience that helped me later as I became a speaker for women’s events and a pastor’s wife.
Just how good my voice and piano playing was remains open to question, but with my red hair in banana curls, I was a hit.
The first song I learned to play was an old song born in the slave fields of the southern states. Although the original author of the spiritual is unknown, it is acknowledged that the song arose from the oral tradition of songs passed from person to person and generation to generation among the plantations of the South.
Imagine being a slave and totally at the mercy of the slave owner. What kind of life could it be when you were forced to work from dawn to sunset? When you could be beaten or sold to another slave owner without a chance to even say goodbye to your family? No promise of freedom – how easy it would be to despair of life.
But somewhere in that life of sorrow and pain many slaves found hope in God. In spite of their circumstances they clung to the belief that God was in control and they found courage in that belief.
They sang:
He’s got the whole world in His hands
He’s got the whole world in His hands
He’s got the whole world in His hands
He’s got the whole world in His hands
The song was first published in 1927 in the hymnal Spirituals Triumphant, Old and New. Later it was introduced in the USA and became popular with the folk song crowd in the 30’s and 40’s.
Laurie London, a young British singer, released the song in 1957. It quickly became #1 on the Billboard Hot 100.
Since then many artists have made recordings of the song, but perhaps one of the most famous (and my favorite) is Mahalia Jackson’s version.
The verses have changed depending on who was singing the song but this verse was not in my version of the song. ♥
He’s got the gamblin’ man in His hands He’s got the sinner man in His hands He’s got the gamblin’ man in His hands
He’s got the whole world in His hands