Month: May 2023

By Lucas DeBenedetti, Undergraduate Research Assistant

It’s difficult to put into words how much this project has meant to me over the past two years. As I prepare to graduate from Clemson on Friday, May 12, I have been reflecting on my time working for the Woodland Cemetery Project.

I joined the cemetery project in Fall 2021, taking part in the project’s first Creative Inquiry class. In that class, I learned about the history of Woodland Cemetery and Clemson University as a whole for the first time and was given the opportunity to research a historical topic that interested me pertaining to the cemetery’s history. My group and I studied how disease and death affected the enslaved population of Fort Hill Plantation. The Creative Inquiry project opened my eyes to the history around me and left me with the desire to help the project in any what that I could. When the opportunity to join the project as a research assistant became available in January 2022 I immediately rushed to apply. I was lucky enough to get the job and have enjoyed working on the project ever since.

Throughout my time as research assistant, I have taken part in some amazing projects. During the Spring of 2022, with Dr. Collini and Nolly Swan, my former coworker, I helped to create the “Visual History of Woodland Cemetery.” This was such an interesting project to research, and we discovered so much new information about the cemetery, particularly the destruction of the western half of the cemetery and how it is related to the construction of Lake Hartwell and Clemson’s dikes. By the end of the semester, we had created the StoryMaps project that is currently on the cemetery’s website.

In the fall of 2022, I went with the team on our trip to William and Mary to meet the Lemon Project and see their monument. This trip was so inspirational, and I was able to get closer to the rest of the team as well as learn how other universities deal with their history of slavery and racism. The trip gave me hope that one day Clemson will build a memorial to the enslaved men and women, convict laborers, and sharecroppers who have largely been ignored in the greater history of Clemson University.

This past semester I took part in Universities Studying Slavery, South Carolina Research Symposium where I presented on destruction of the western half of the cemetery and using digital history methods to present my findings to the public. I was also able to gain new skills in genealogy, with the help of genealogist Deborah Robinson, mapping, and research. I have loved all the projects I have worked on, all the trips we have taken as a team, and all the people I have gotten to meet through this experience. I only hope that I was able to make a positive impact on the project and Clemson history as a whole.

The Woodland Cemetery Project team has been extremely supportive of me throughout my entire time on the project. They have been an amazing community for me and have always looked out for me and helped me throughout the entirety of my time working on the project both inside of class and work as well as outside. Firstly, I want to thank Dr. Sara Collini who has been my main mentor throughout my time on the project. Dr. Collini has been incredibly supportive of all my endeavors both inside and outside the project. She has taught me skills that will help me during the rest of my academic and professional career as well as guiding me on how to be a proper historian. I would also like to thank Dr. Thomas for giving me this opportunity to work on this incredible project and always challenging me with new projects. Dr. Thomas has been such an inspirational figure to me and has inspired me to continue pursuing justice in my historical research. Finally, I would like to thank Dr. Mandi Barnard, Deborah Robinson, and Marquise Drayton. Each of them has been there for me on different occasions and have been amazing to learn from and get to know them throughout my time on the project.

The Woodland Cemetery Project has furthered my love for history immensely and allowed me to discover my passion for justice. It inspired my senior honors thesis, as I combined my loves of World War II history and African American history and led to me writing a thesis on African American soldiers during World War II and how they have been perceived by the American media past and present.

I plan to continue to grow my passion for history and justice at grad school at the University of North Carolina-Charlotte where I will pursue a master’s in history. I will take all the lessons and information I have learned in this project to further the research I began with thesis as well as pursuing new research interests in civil rights history. One day I hope to become a history professor and potentially an expert historical witness in civil rights court cases.

The Woodland Cemetery Project has been the most rewarding and meaningful experience during my time at Clemson. I will miss working on this project and seeing my coworkers and mentors so much. The project provided me with a sense of community and purpose that I had been lacking at Clemson. Working on the project has been an unforgettable experience that will stick with me for the rest of my life and will impact how I study history and look at the world around me going forward. I am honored to have worked on project from the first Creative Inquiry class to the present. Though I am leaving the project, I will never forget the experiences I have had, the opportunities to learn and grow I have gained, and the people I have met. I look forward to seeing what the future holds for this project, and I will miss it so much.

This is a special post re-published from the May 2023 newsletter. Read the full May 2023 newsletter.

By Dr. David Markus, Assistant Professor in the Department of Sociology, Anthropology, and Criminal Justice

One of the most significant points the ongoing research and community engagement of the Woodland Cemetery and African American Burial Ground Historic Preservation Project has brought to the fore is the deep and often overlooked history of the landscape Clemson University now occupies and the connection this history has to different eras and the University’s rise and development. Archaeology has an important role to play in this effort to document and honor the legacy of the communities that once lived on this landscape through the identification, preservation and long-term stewardship of cultural resources.

As a land grant institution, Clemson University is responsible for over 42,000 acres of property throughout the state of South Carolina provided by the Morrill and Hatch Acts that consists, in part, of the ancestral landscape of the Cherokee people, a revolutionary war fort, several former plantations where enslaved African Americans were forced to reside and work, Civilian Conservation Corps work sites, university buildings that were built by African American convict laborers, and World War II military training grounds. Collectively, these time periods constitute what is believed to be well in the hundreds of archaeological sites, though most of our knowledge of their locations come from the broader Clemson and South Carolinian community who have a deep passion for the history of the school and the state.

The site of Fort Rutledge highlights the way in which archaeology can serve to illustrate the interconnectedness of the university’s cultural landscape. Indigenous occupation on the land that is now Clemson started at least 10,000 years ago, and radiocarbon dating from pottery recovered from the site point to a considerable presence of peoples approximately 1,400 years ago. These peoples were the ancestors to the Lower Town Cherokee who established the town of Esseneca prior to the arrival of Europeans. Colonial era naturalists and botanical explorers, such as William Bartram, were guided to Cherokee lands by enslaved persons who represent the first people of African descent to pass through Clemson’s eventual landscape. These explorer accounts give an indication of the size of Esseneca when, during a nighttime raid on July 31, 1776, South Carolina militia attacked the British-allied Cherokee town. The battle, while small, resulted in the death of the first Jewish American soldier in the Revolution, Francis Salvador, who died in the care of a servant who was likely African American. The battle is notable not only for the casualties it caused on both sides but the transformation that occurred to the landscape in its aftermath. Following their defeat to the Cherokee, the South Carolina militia returned several months later and completely razed the town and all of its crops along the Seneca River, now beneath the waters of Lake Hartwell. In an effort to exert control of the region, Fort Rutledge was erected on the ridgetop overlooking the river basin. In operation until it was dismantled by the British in 1780, the fort served as the location for prisoner exchanges during the treaty of Dewitt’s Corner and as the holding location for at least one runaway slave.

After its dismantling, memory of the fort’s location and its history began to fade, and during the 19^th century, references to its deteriorating state were common. In an effort to preserve its memory, members of the Pickens Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution, comprised mostly of the wives of Clemson faculty, commissioned an excavation to locate the corner bastion of the fort using African American convict laborers provided by the university, some of whom may be buried in Woodland Cemetery. In 1908, the Board of Trustees authorizes the use of funds and labor to erect a monument at the fort’s location at the request of DAR using that same labor. Throughout the early 20^th Century this landscape is incorporated into the university infrastructure; as cattle and alfalfa fields, as the location for pumping stations and farm storage and eventually as water treatment and hazardous water disposal facilities. During this time articles in The Tiger reference Clemson cadets looting the site as a recreational activity, underscoring the community’s interests in campus history.

As South Carolina begins to commemorate the Semiquincentennial of its role in the American Revolution, so does Clemson University. Through a grant from the National Park Service and with various stakeholder partnerships including the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians, the sites of Fort Rutledge and Esseneca are being relocated and their histories interpreted for the public, histories that are holistic and inclusive of the many peoples that lived and worked on what is now Clemson’s campus. Archaeology aides in the Woodland Cemetery Project in serving as a reminder that the history that must be honored and memorialized may not always be visible and the narratives that make up this landscape’s past often extend beyond the boundaries of time and space that are placed on them. The history of the Woodland Cemetery and African American Burial Ground is the history of this place.