By Dr. Rhondda Thomas, Calhoun Lemon Professor of Literature, Call My Name Faculty Director, and Coordinator of Research and Community Engagement for the African American Burial Ground and Woodland Cemetery Historic Preservation Project

This post is re-published from the June 2023 newsletter. Download the full June 2023 newsletter

On March 11, 1946, among the five topics that members of Clemson College’s Buildings and Ground Committee discussed was “Markers for graves of convicts and slaves on Cemetery Hill.” According to committee member Mr. Newman, “it was his understanding that on Cemetery Hill are buried some 200 to 250 slaves and convicts.” After a discussion, the committee “unanimously voted to recommend that some type of permanent marker be established on Cemetery Hill to indicate this colored graveyard.” One day later David J. Watson, chair of the committee, advised Clemson President R. F. Poole and Business Manager John C. Littlejohn of the motion and recommended that “accurate information should be obtained and placed on the marker.”¹ Eleven years later, Watson sent a memo to Henry Hill, director of auxiliary enterprises at Clemson, for the “Clemson Cemetery.” Although they were mainly concerned about the maintenance of Woodland Cemetery, the following recommendation was also included: “Enclose area of colored graveyard within a securely constructed wire fence. There is a space approximately 100’ x 125’ about 400 feet west of Calhoun plot enclosure.”² Neither of the recommendations was enacted. Thus, Clemson missed the opportunity to memorialize and protect the African American Burial Ground. What follows is a brief overview of the history of this sacred site based on research we have conducted thus far.

The first burials of people of African descent on the land where the Fort Hill Plantation was established and later the Clemson Agricultural College of South Carolina was built likely occurred during the antebellum period. In 1801, Reverend James McElhenny, a Presbyterian minister for the Old Stone Church in Pendleton, SC, moved onto the land with his family. McElhenny owned 25 enslaved African Americans who likely built Clergy Hall, the four-room home where the minister and his extended family lived.³ Some of the enslaved persons who labored for the McElhenny family may have been buried on the site that would become known as Cemetery Hill.

After Rev. McElhenny died in 1812, Floride Bonneau Colhoun purchased the land. John C. Calhoun moved his family to the property in 1826. Enslaved carpenters added 10 rooms to the four-room Clergy Hall, and Calhoun renamed the property Fort Hill. The Calhouns along with Thomas Green Clemson owned over 100 enslaved persons who labored on their plantations and in John Calhoun’s mines in South Carolina, Georgia, and Alabama. To date, however, researchers have only been able to find documentation for one enslaved person, 74-year-old Thom, owned by Mrs. J.C. (Floride) Calhoun, who died in 1850 and was buried at Fort Hill.⁴ Although there are other death records for enslaved persons who labored at Fort Hill, their burial place is not noted in the documents. These include Nelly, owned by Floride Calhoun, who died in childbirth in 1856.⁵ Then at the end of the Civil War, 70 persons, mostly children, died of whooping cough and measles.⁶

However, there are several elderly enslaved persons listed in various records who are not included in the last inventory of enslaved persons at Fort Hill completed in 1865. For example, was 100-year-old Phebe was listed in the “Schedule of Slaves with the Names and Ages” in the deed for the sale of Fort Hill in 1854.⁷ Additionally, in 1849, Joseph Scoville reported meeting 112-year-old widow Monemi whose husband Polydore “had lived to a very old age.”⁸ Also, enslaved persons died in America at disproportionately higher rates during the antebellum period because of harsh living working conditions and the violence associated with slavery.

After the Civil War ended, African Americans continued living, working, and dying on the land where Clemson University was built through the mid-twentieth century. Recently emancipated African Americans were employed as sharecroppers, domestics, and tenant farmers at Fort Hill during Reconstruction. Clemson trustees leased mostly African American convicted laborers, ages 14-67, from the state penitentiary to build a school for young white men. Twelve African American convicted laborers died while building Clemson and are believed to have been buried on Cemetery Hill. Clemson administrators and faculty hired African American wage workers as cooks, barbers, farm hands, laundry workers, nurses, construction laborers, and domestics to provide much needed support services for the college. Initially, they lived near white employees on the main campus but were gradually pushed into segregated neighborhoods, including areas in and around the cemetery.

Shortly after Clemson sought and received permission in 1960 from the Oconee County Court to dissenter the remains of African Americans from the west side of the cemetery and reinter them on its south side. This order led Clemson to destroy the African American Burial Ground, utilizing the soil to build dikes around Lake Hartwell. As the soil was removed, however, the remains of what were believed to be several African American children were disturbed and then reburied on the south side of Woodland Cemetery.⁹

Until July 2020, Clemson had designated about a one-acre site on the south side of Woodland Cemetery as the “Fort Hill Slave and Convict Cemetery.” After then Clemson students Sarah Adams and Morgan Molosso discovered the neglect of the burial ground shortly after being encouraged to visit the site during a Call My Name campus tour in February 2020, they initiated a process that led to the hiring of a team that conducted Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR) to detect the number of possible unmarked burials on the site.¹⁰ Researchers are currently analyzing the GPR data and historical records to ensure that all who are buried in Woodland Cemetery and the African American Burial Ground are respected and honored.

Citations

1. Minutes of the Building and Grounds Committee, March 11, 1946, Series 7, Box 1, Folder 6, Robert F. Poole Presidential Records, Committee Files, 1928-1955, Special Collections and Archives, Clemson University Libraries.
2. David J. Watson to Henry Hill, November 22, 1957, Mss 366, Box 2, Folder 17, Papers of Carrel Cowan-Ricks, Special Collections and Archives, Clemson University Libraries.
3. Third Census of the United States, Pendleton, South Carolina, 1810, Bureau of the Census, Record Group 29, National Archives, Washington, D.C. Accessed through Ancestry.com.
4. Register of St. Paul’s, Saint Paul’s Episcopal Church Records, 1819-1971, South Carolina Digital Library Collections, https://scdl.contentdm.oclc.org/digital/collection/spr/id/1367/rec/52, 307.
5. Register of St. Paul’s, 307.
6. Floride Clemson, A Rebel Came Home; the Diary of Floride Clemson Tells of Her Wartime Adventures in Yankeeland, 1863-64, Her Trip Home to South Carolina, ed. Charles M. McGee, Jr. and Ernest M. Lander, Jr. (Columbia, SC: University of South Carolina Press, 1961), 90-91.
7. Calhoun, Floride; Calhoun, Cornelia M.; and Calhoun, Andrew P., “Deed to Fort Hill plantation and enslaved persons between Floride Calhoun, Cornelia M. Calhoun and Andrew P. Calhoun, 1854 May 15” (1854). Thomas Green Clemson Papers, Mss 2. 210, https://tigerprints.clemson.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1209&context=tgc.
8. Joseph Scoville, “A Visit to Fort Hill,” New York Herald, July 26, 1849, 1.
9. State of South Carolina, County of Oconee, Court of Common Pleas, Ex parte: The Clemson Agricultural College of South Carolina, In Re: The Purported Cemetery of Unknown Deceased Persons, Petition, 22 August 1960, and Order, 3 September 1960, Mss 366, Box 2, Folder 17, Papers of Carrel Cowan-Ricks, Special Collections and Archives, Clemson University Libraries; Carrel Cowan-Ricks, Note to File, September 18, 1991, Mss 366, Box 2, Folder 17, Papers of Carrel Cowan-Ricks; Carrel Cowan-Ricks, Report of Interview with Robert E. Ware, July 17, 1992, in Series 613, Site History, 1895-2008, The Woodland Cemetery Stewardship Committee Records, https://tigerprints.clemson.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1012&context=woodland, all in Special Collections and Archives, Clemson University Libraries.
10. Zoe Nicholson, “Clemson students to honor unmarked burial ground for slaves, convict laborers on campus,” Greenville News, March 26, 2020.

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.

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

By Lucas DeBenedetti, Undergraduate Research Assistant

This past month Sue Hiott, curator of exhibits for Clemson University Libraries’ Special Collections and Archives, recovered new evidence, in the form of four color photographs, which adds more context to the destruction of the lower, western half of Cemetery Hill and how it connects to the construction of the upper and lower dikes around Clemson’s campus.

Previous editions of the history series have detailed the removal of the lower, western half of Woodland Cemetery and its relation to the construction of Lake Hartwell and the protective dikes around Clemson University’s campus.

For context, this removal occurred as a result of the construction of Lake Hartwell by the United States Army Corps of Engineers and the 1960 Court Order, in which Clemson College petitioned Oconee County in August 1960 for the right to disinter the remains of Black laborers they came across while grading and clearing the western slope.¹ The judge granted Clemson permission to do this and together with the Nello Teer Construction Company, Clemson made plans in September 1960 to proceed with the grading and clearing of the western slope.²

While the lower western half was being graded and cleared, the remains of at least five African American children were found and identified by their hair, teeth, coffin nails, and the size of their burial.³

Based on the evidence the project has collected thus far, the dirt taken from the lower. western half of the cemetery was used to build the dikes that currently protect Clemson University’s campus from being flooded by Lake Hartwell.

The photographs depict the lower western half of Woodland Cemetery during different stages of its destruction. Each image bears a small caption detailing the context behind each specific image.

The first image depicts a man staring at a number of field stones and bears the caption “Rotie looking at slave grave markers Cemetery Hill.”⁴ A black and white version of this photograph is also located in the Papers of Carrel Cowan- Ricks in Clemson’s archives. The name Salley was previously known in relation to these images, but the name ‘Rotie’ was unknown to the project. The man is standing in an unknown location on Cemetery.

The three other photographs in the series detail the lower western half of the cemetery in various stages of its destruction:

The second color image includes the caption “Cemetery Hill being cut for use in upper dike Oct. ’60” and shows construction equipment moving dirt from the lower western slope, which has been completely cleared of trees. This photograph appears to confirm that dirt from the lower western half of the cemetery was utilized in the construction of the upper dike near the Esso Station.⁵

The remaining third and fourth photographs found last month were both taken after October 1960. They bear the captions “Moving dirt from Cemetery Hill Nov ‘60”⁶ and “Cutting down Cemetery Hill.”⁷ Both images portray how the lower western section of the cemetery was completely cleared and leveled, demonstrating how the lower western slope was destroyed over the course of two months. Prior to the destruction of this section, the cemetery sloped all the way to the Seneca River and Perimeter Road, with a much greater elevation. The second image showcases this change in elevation, as the lower, western half is almost parallel to Perimeter Road as opposed to sloping into it.

These photographs were likely taken around the time of the 1960 Clemson homecoming football game on November 5, where an aerial image of the stadium and cemetery was taken showcasing the removal of dirt from the western slope. Today, the cleared area serves as a parking lot for Clemson University’s students.

These primary source photographs are the best evidence that the cemetery team has received and analyzed that confirm that the dirt from the lower, western half of the cemetery was used in the construction of the dikes to protect Clemson from the flooding of Lake Hartwell.

Despite the fact that the construction of the dikes around Clemson’s campus was ordered by the US Army Corps of Engineers and contracted by Clemson and the Nello Teer Construction Company, there is a scarcity of documentation, official or otherwise, pertaining to the use of the dirt from the lower, western half of Woodland Cemetery to build the dikes.

It is important to remember that these are not just photographs of dirt being moved or part of a hill being destroyed. They are images of the destruction of individuals’ gravesites, some of them children’s, whose names will likely never be known.

Citations

1. State of South Carolina, County of Oconee, Court of Common Pleas, Ex parte: The Clemson Agricultural College of South Carolina, In Re: The Purported Cemetery of Unknown De- ceased Persons, Petition, 22 August 1960, Mss 366, Box 2, Folder 17, Papers of Carrel Cowan-Ricks, Special Collections and Archives, Clemson University Libraries.
2. Memorandum of Understanding between Clemson and Nello L. Teer Company, September 13, 1960, Mss 366, Papers of Carrel Cowan-Ricks, Special Collections and Archives, Clemson University Libraries.
3. Carrel Cowan-Ricks, Interview with Robert Ware, July 17, 1992, Series 613, Site History, 1895-2008, The Woodland Cemetery Stewardship Committee Records, Special Collections and Archives, Clemson University Libraries.
4. “Rotie looking at slave grave markers Cemetery Hill,” 1960, Unaccessioned Collection of Rotie Salley, Special Collections and Archives, Clemson University Libraries.
5. “Cemetery Hill being cut for use in upper dike Oct. ’60”, October 1960, Unaccessioned Collection of Rotie Salley, Special Collections and Archives, Clemson University Libraries.
6. “Moving dirt from Cemetery Hill Nov ’60,” November 1960, Unaccessioned Collection of Rotie Salley, Special Collections and Archives, Clemson University Libraries.
7. “Cutting down Cemetery Hill,” 1960, Unaccessioned Collection of Rotie Salley, Special Collections and Archives, Clemson University Libraries.

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

By Alleyia Bailey, Undergraduate Research Assistant

Carrel Cowan-Ricks began her journey in Historical Archaeology in 1980 when she enrolled at Wayne State University to study Anthropology. By 1990 Cowan-Ricks entered the Anthropology Ph.D. program at Wayne State with a desire to study African American cemeteries and burial customs. At this time, Cowan-Ricks was one of three African American women with a graduate degree in archaeology in the United States and very likely the world.

Clemson University hired Cowan- Ricks in 1991 to locate unmarked African American Burials in Woodland Cemetery. These burials include the enslaved peoples of the Fort Hill Plantation; sharecroppers, domestic workers, and tenant farmers who worked at Fort Hill during Reconstruction; and convicted laborers who constructed the early buildings on Clemson’s campus. To aid her in the search for unmarked burials, Cowan-Ricks recruited volunteers from the history, education, engineering, and architecture departments, along with African American high school and middle school students, and local community members.

During the fall of 1991, Cowan- Ricks and her team surveyed the entire west slope of Woodland Cemetery to locate evidence of burials. Her plan did not involve disinterring any possible graves but finding evidence of burial shafts. Cowan-Ricks noted that the purpose of the Cemetery Hill Archaeological Project was to memorialize, honor, and protect the enslaved and convict burials on Cemetery Hill. During these excavations, the team uncovered a number of artifacts, including indigenous projectile points and shell casings fired at military funerals.

During the 1991-1993 excavations Cowan-Ricks concluded the burial ground was much larger than anyone ever thought and that she would need to dig deeper to locate the graves; thus, she would need more time to locate the burials. However, in 1993, Cowan-Ricks was fired from Clemson University due to budget cuts. She would likely have found the graves if she had been granted more time. Between July 2020 and January 2022, more than 500 unmarked burials believed to be those of African Americans were located in the cemetery using ground penetrating radar.

In addition to locating the unmarked burials, Cowan-Ricks also aimed to reconstruct the population of the enslaved peoples during the Fort Hill period. She noted that census data at that time severely under counted the amount of enslaved individuals on the Fort Hill property and wanted an accurate representation of the population. Cowan-Ricks also researched the traditions and customs of the enslaved people of Fort Hill and gave a presentation entitled “African American Plantation Culture” that detailed the daily lives of enslaved people. She noted African American cultivation practices, pottery making and styles, ritual and worship, and day-to-day tasks they would have performed.

Cowan-Ricks continued to show her passion for archaeology after her time at Clemson University. She served on the Detroit Museum’s Black Historical sites committee and at the Society for Historical Archaeology. During her time at the Detroit Museum, she organized a symposium entitled “Is Historical Archaeology White? Prospects for Minority Contribution.” She continued to push the status quo of what traditional archaeology looked like in the United States at that time and advocated for more African American and women voices in the field. Cowan-Ricks also contributed to many archaeological projects, including the Center for Field Research in Watertown, Massachusetts. During this time, Cowan-Ricks’ battle with Lupus was growing stronger, and on January 11, 1997, she lost this battle with the disease.

Cowan-Ricks was a groundbreaking archaeologist who was rewriting what archaeology looked like during this time. Cowan-Ricks also represented a number of people while practicing in the field; she has given strength to aspiring archaeologists who are African American, women, and those who are battling a chronic condition.

One of her life missions was to add more African American and women voices into the archaeological narrative. With her work, we have the knowledge about Woodland Cemetery that we do today. Cowan-Ricks continues to inspire each and every one of us to protect the sacred space that is Cemetery Hill.

Currently, Dr. David Markus and I have been working on cataloging the artifacts recovered from the 1991-1993 excavations that Cowan-Ricks led. The artifacts had been uncleaned and not cataloged, only being stored in plastic bags that were not useful in protecting the artifacts. This process has included cleaning all of the artifacts and completing an inventory. Dr. Markus and I have also assigned the artifacts with field specimen numbers that will aid in finding a specific artifact. We have also upgraded all the artifact bags and assigned the artifacts with specific tags. Our hope for this project is to fully process the artifacts to better understand what was found during the excavations on Cemetery Hill.

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

By Chassidy Olainu-Alade, Director of the Sugar Land 95 Memorialization Project for Fort Bend Independent School District (ISD)

February, the month nationally recognized as Black History Month. For most people, Black History Month is a great time to recognize the accomplishments of notable African Americans, to reflect on the struggles and successes of our ancestors, and to celebrate Black culture. In Fort Bend County, Texas the month of February and Black History Month has a more somber tone as February 19th was a pivotal point in county history.

BACKGROUND ON THE HISTORIC DISCOVERY

On February 19, 2018, a contractor at the construction site of Fort Bend Independent School Districts, James Reese Career and Technical Center (Sugar Land, Texas) uncovered the first human remains. Under the guidance of the Texas Historical Commission, an archaeological firm lead in the exhumation, and was granted permission to study the remains for further analysis. Extensive historical research was also conducted to gain a better understanding of the property and what was found.

What was unearthed during the study was shocking. In total, there were 95 African Americans exhumed from this forgotten cemetery. Through archival research, exhumation, and intensive laboratory studies, the cemetery was found to be associated with the 19th century convict leasing system that operated in the state of Texas. It was concluded that the remains were of 94 men and 1 presumed woman, who labored and died on the Sartartia Plantation, land owned and operated by Little A. Ellis between 1879 and 1909.

The remains showed signs of disease, repeated injury, and gunshot wounds likely sustained during escape attempts. They endured the indignity of corporal punishment, hunger, insufficient clothing, exposure, and severe overwork. The study of their remains was an opportunity to reveal the results of another form of slavery that lasted for nearly 50 years past the end of the Civil War.

HISTORY OF CONVICT LEASING IN TEXAS & LABOR CAMPS IN SUGAR LAND, TEXAS

By the time the Civil war ended in 1865, there were approximately 1,000 prisoners housed in the Huntsville, TX prison. To offset the costs of maintaining the prison, lawmakers explored ways to make it more self-sufficient. Private companies were given the right to lease the labor of prisoners to individuals and corporations and in exchange they were to responsible for feeding and clothing the prisoners. Typically, Anglo convicts were sent to the wood-cutting camps of East Texas and Hispanic convicts were sent to work on the railroad. Black convicts were sent to cultivate crops — primarily cotton and sugarcane — often on the same plantations from which they were freed only six years prior.

In January 1878, the State awarded a five-year contract to two partners, Edward H. Cunningham and Littleberry A. Ellis. The men made a fortune in lease payments, much of which they put into the acquisition of more land. Cunningham, a resident of Bexar County, began acquiring land in Fort Bend County, Texas that would eventually total 12,500 acres. Ellis purchased active labor camps and agricultural fields in Fort Bend County. Eventually, Ellis owned 5,300 acres, which he named Sartartia Plantation.

Using the labor of convicts, Cunningham and Ellis were able to create one of the largest sugar plantations in the country following the Civil War. Convict leasing reached its peak during Cunningham and Ellis’ reign over the prison system. Together, by 1880, Ellis’ Sartartia Plantation and Cunningham’s Sugar Land Plantation utilized 365 convicts, while leasing out hundreds more to local plantations in need of low-cost labor.

Although they were only about 30 percent of the Texas population, Black people made up 50 to 60 percent of the prison population during the convict leasing period from 1871 to 1911. The prison camps established by these men did not cease operation when their lease of Huntsville Penitentiary ended in 1883. Prison labor persisted on newly minted state prison farms across Texas.

SUGAR LAND 95 MEMORIALIZATION PROJECT

In 2019, the Sugar Land 95 was reinterred into their original resting places and their graves were marked as “Unknown” temporarily. The cemetery is now named the Bullhead Convict Labor Camp Cemetery and is officially designated as a historic cemetery in Texas by the Texas Historical Commission.

Currently, the work to properly memorialize the Sugar Land 95 is incomplete. There is still much to do to honor their lives and legacies, and to educate our community about the contributions of convict laborers across the nation.

FBISD now has an education exhibit within the James C. Reese Career and Technical Center that serves as a permanent memorial to foster education and community engagement. In 2021, the MASS Design Group was contracted by the district to engage in landscape design visioning, with the intent of creating a proper memorial grounds and outdoor exhibition in honor of the Sugar Land 95

Independent researchers are also conducting ancient DNA studies and genealogical research, with the hopes of reuniting the Sugar Land 95 with their families.

For more information and updates on the Sugar Land 95, please visit www.fortbendisd.com/sugarland95

Architect Visits to Clemson University in January 2023

In January 2023, Clemson University’s office of Campus Planning will continue to host architects who will share their vision for memorial development as we prepare to enter into the memorial design phase for the cemetery project later this year.

Mario Gooden will be at Clemson University on January 5, 2023, to discuss his architectural work related to the Woodland Cemetery memorialization efforts. A Clemson Design graduate from the class of 1987, Gooden is the Interim Director of the MArch Program at Columbia University’s Graduate School of Architecture, Planning, and Preservation (GSAPP), which researches and explores the geospatial aspect of continental Africa and its associated diaspora. Gooden’s previous works include Battiste Residence Hall at South Carolina State University, the Woodson African American Museum in St. Petersburg, FL, the Gerald R. Ford Federal Building and US Courthouse in Grand Rapids, MI, and Hunters Point Shipyard in San Francisco, CA.

Also, Michael Murphy, Int FRIBA, will visit Clemson University on January 26, 2023, to discuss his architectural work on public memory and memorials. Murphy is a Founding Principal of MASS Design Group, which uses architecture and design to spark social change and justice. Their past works include the National Memorial for Peace and Justice in Montgomery, AL, the Gun Violence Memorial Project at the National Building Museum in Washington, DC, and “The Embrace” with Hank Willis Thomas in Boston, MA. Murphy has taught at the University of Michigan, Harvard Graduate School of Design, and Columbia’s GSAPP.

Both of their campus visits will include tours of Historic Properties tours, Woodland Cemetery and African American Burial Ground, a Call My Name campus tour, a visit to the Clemson Area African American Museum, and a presentation of their work for the cemetery team and Campus Planning staff.

PBS’s “Carolina Stories: The Education of Harvey Gantt:” Commemorative Documentary Screening & Historical Documents Analysis

January 31, 2023, 6PM, McKissick Theatre, Hendrix Student Center, Clemson University

Please join the Woodland Cemetery and Historic African American Burial Ground Preservation Project team on January 31, 2023, at 6PM as we commemorate the 60th anniversary of Harvey Gantt winning a class-action lawsuit to desegregate Clemson University as its first Black student in 1963. The cemetery team will be hosting a viewing of PBS’s “Carolina Stories: The Education of Harvey Gantt” documentary made for the celebration of the 50th anniversary of “Integration with Dignity.” Narrated by actress Phylicia Rashad with featured photographs by Cecil Williams, it tells the story of Gantt’s journey into Clemson from repeated applications for admission to his college graduation in 1965. Following the film, guests are welcome to examine the historical documents from Harvey Gantt’s papers from Clemson Libraries’ Special Collection and Archives. In doing so, they can compare the tangible facts within Clemson’s archives with the celebratory film made almost a decade ago. The event is free and open to the public and will be held within McKissick Theater inside the Hendrix Student Center on the campus of Clemson University.

Schedule a Free Virtual Tour of Woodland Cemetery and African American Burial Ground for Spring 2023

Because the Pathways Project will temporarily close down Woodland Cemetery at Clemson University in January 2023, the cemetery team would like to bring our free cemetery walking tour to you all virtually during the Spring 2023 semester. The Woodland Cemetery Preservation Project and Historic African American Burial Ground team will present one-hour virtual tours to classes, local organizations, and campus and community groups. With the help of our Creative Inquiry team, we have developed this experiential storytelling tool to share the history of the cemetery, including the recently recovered unmarked burials of hundreds of marginalized people. If you would like us to present, please contact us via our main email address afamburials@clemson.edu or email the Community Engagement Assistant mdrayto@clemson.edu.

Download the full January 2023 Newsletter | January 2023 Newsletter

On October 30-November 2, 2022, the Woodland Cemetery and African American Burial Ground team traveled to the College of William & Mary (W&M) to meet with the Lemon Project team and their community partners for nearly a week’s exchange of ideas on both respective historic preservation projects. The Lemon Project: A Journey of Reconciliation works to reckon with the College of W&M’s more than 300-year- old past concerning African Americans, from the enslavement era to the contemporary university. The multifaceted project is named for Lemon, an enslaved man who was owned by W&M. According to their mission statement, “The Lemon Project builds bridges between William & Mary and African American communities through research, programming, and supporting students, faculty, and staff.”

Upon arrival, the cemetery team met with community organizations and student researchers over dinner on campus to learn about the different ways of engagement they use to serve the public locally. Earlier the following day was a historical campus tour of W&M. The Clemson team visited the Wren Building (the nation’s oldest academic building), Hearth: Memorial to the Enslaved, and the Sankofa Seed statue dedicated to the first Black students to integrate the school. The focus later during the same day was on historic preservation as the cemetery team visited the Bray School, the First Baptist Church Archaeological site in Colonial Williamsburg, the Historically Black History exhibit at Bruton Heights School, and Oak Grove Baptist Church.

 

A visit to special collections in the library occupied the first part of the final day. The cemetery team examined early African American artifacts about W&M, learned about oral history projects, and toured the “Strollin” exhibit, highlighting Black Greek Letter Organization history at the college. The Community Quilt Project capped off the second half of the last day, where members of the cemetery team contributed to the storied year-long endeavor. The Woodland Cemetery team would like to thank Dr. Jody Allen, Dr. Jajuan Johnson, and Dr. Sarah Thomas for hosting this fruitful exchange.

Explore the rest of the November 2022 WC Newsletter and December 2022 Newsletter.

 

In this issue we provide information about the research symposium keynote speaker Kamau Sadiki of Diving with a Purpose, update the public on Woodland Cemetery, explain the contributions that Carrel Cowan-Ricks put toward the African American Burial Ground, provide research and community engagement updates, and highlight some upcoming local events.

The Woodland Cemetery and African American Burial Ground Historic Preservation Project seeks to tell the stories of the known and previously unknown burials located in Woodland Cemetery on the Clemson University campus. Through research and community engagement we intend to uncover as much as we can about this historic space and to properly commemorate all who are buried here.

Download the full October 2022 newsletter..

On August 18th, 2022, Velma Fann, historian for New South Associates, met with descendant communities within Sirrine Hall at Clemson University to discuss ideas for memorialization at Woodland Cemetery. Based in Columbia, South Carolina, with additional offices in Georgia, North Carolina, Tennessee, and Virginia, New South Associates is a women-owned small business that provides cultural resource consulting services. Their work with history and archeology includes contextualizing cemeteries, highways, and plantations throughout the southeast. Working within federal and state laws parameters, New South Associates makes a concerted effort to involve local community members in their historic preservation process.

Fifteen members of the local descendant community brainstormed ideas for what Woodland Cemetery’s memorial to African Americans buried there could encompass. The responses varied between the two sessions with New South as one group discussed different ideas from 3-5 PM and another from 5-7 PM. The first group was composed of mainly Black residents from Clemson and Seneca. They discussed how to incorporate visual and auditory elements, such as light and the sound of the wind, to commemorate people of African descent who are buried in the cemetery. The second group was primarily composed of Clemson, Anderson, and Pendleton Black descendants. Their approach to a memorial was more steeped in spirituality and tranquility through the creation of a peaceful place on campus to reflect. This initial meeting was the first of a few planned with New South as the Pathways Project for the cemetery is set to begin in January 2023.

Read more project updates in our September 2022 Newsletter.