Category: Guest Posts

By Marquise Drayton, Community Engagement Assistant for the African American Burial Ground and Woodland Cemetery Historic Preservation Project

This post is re-published from the July 2023 newsletter.

Ironically, both flagship universities in South Carolina and Louisiana stake their claim over who’s “the real Death Valley.”¹ According to a 1945 account by Presbyterian College Head Coach Lonnie McMillan, after a 76-0 loss from Frank Howard’s Clemson Tigers, he referred to the stadium as “Death Valley” because of the heat within it that made it hard to play as well as its natural ravine shape.² But after the recent bout between the shared mascot schools, LSU may have more of a stake in that claim. In 2015, University of Michigan Football Head Coach Jim Harbaugh smashed a buckeye nut with a hammer atop former coach Bo Schembechler’s grave ahead of the annual Michigan v. Ohio State rivalry game.³ University of Notre Dame fan Sylvester Cashen cared for the former Fighting Irish Football Head Coach Knute Rocke’s gravesite for many years.⁴ Ahead of the 2008 Georgia Bulldogs v. Alabama Crimson Tide game in Athens, GA, then University of Alabama Strength-And-Conditioning Coach Scott Cochran exclaimed in practice that “They’ll be wearing black because they’re coming to their own expletive funeral” as word came around that the Bulldogs were wearing an all-black uniform combination.⁵ From stadium nicknames to graveyards dedicated to beating opponents on the road, there is a unique commemoration of life’s end in college football regarding ways to document big wins.

However, the heroic folklore of the gridiron on Saturdays detracts from more realistic, dismal, and historical issues at southern Power Five schools. In September 2016, during my sophomore year at the University of North Carolina (UNC)-Chapel Hill, I tearfully witnessed a memorial to the 400+ unmarked burials of Black individuals in the Old Chapel Hill Cemetery.⁶ UNC Basketball Head Coach Dean Smith, dramatist Paul Green, and previous UNC chancellors rest eternally at the campus cemetery. The sacred space is across from Carmichael Arena, where “Mike” Jordan once graced their hardwood floors as a student-athlete.⁷ In the fall, many Clemson Football fans who wear orange and purple inside Memorial Stadium are unaware of the vast unmarked burials of Black people from different generations since enslavement in Woodland Cemetery that sits above the south stand of the home side. And although the University of Georgia inters its past live dog mascots inside Sanford Stadium⁸ and the University of Alabama’s Bryant-Denny Stadium has silent occupants that contrast from the loud fanbase on Saturdays,⁹ they also must reckon with their past ties to chattel slavery with cemeteries nearby their respective sporting venues. Thus, I seek to give life to underrepresented death at Clemson, UGA, and Florida State, which each holds deadly traditions for sport.

Before I dive into the facts about “the real Death Valley” in Woodland Cemetery beside Memorial Stadium (Nicknamed “Death Valley”), I want to address the folklore that Clemson Football shares in deadly traditions. As the Community Engagement Assistant for the Woodland Cemetery and African American Burial Ground Historic Preservation Project at Clemson University, I thoroughly enjoy asking undergraduate students to do this social experiment while taking them on tours of the campus cemetery. To pass the time while we walk to the next stop at Memorial Stadium from Walter Riggs’ tombstone (The first head coach for the Clemson Tigers football program¹⁰), I ask those who have cellphone access to look up “Clemson graveyard” on Google Images. What they often find in their lookup is fascinating. Many results in the search include pictures of the “The Graveyard” for Clemson Football, located next to their Allen Reeves Football and Indoor Practice Facility. There are only so many students who find more images of Woodland Cemetery within the algorithm. In researching this dichotomy, there is far more information about Clemson Athletics’ graveyard known than about the resting places of Black people in the African American Burial Ground.

“The Graveyard” can be visited by fans during the year to see how the football program documents ranked road wins dismally. Every offseason, Clemson HC Dabo Swinney and upperclassmen student-athletes unveil new tombstones to the current team that symbolizes wins earned from the previous season’s ranked away games.¹¹ The athletic program bases the ranking qualifications on the Coaches/Associated Press (AP) Top 25 Poll during the fall season (It used to be the Top 20 Poll until it expanded for both in the early 1990s).¹² One tombstone at the front row chronicles road wins over Top 20 teams from 1948-1986. A manufacturing company in nearby Easley, SC, initially crafted the symbolic tombstones.¹³ But since 2004, Kornegay Funeral Home of Camden, SC, has done so since then for Clemson Athletics.¹⁴ The cost of preparing a marker is undisclosed to the public.¹⁵ As of 2023, thirty-seven tombstones are in the makeshift graveyard beside the Seneca River.¹⁶ Swinney is responsible for twenty-six staked there, including two exclusive black granite stones at the far left denoting the 2016 and 2018 national championship victories against Alabama.¹⁷ One tombstone declares the 29-28 victory over the Virginia Cavaliers on October 10, 1992, as “the greatest comeback in Clemson history, as the Tigers scored the last twenty-nine points over the final thirty-two minutes of the game.” These granite markers tell stories of epic wins against adversaries away from Clemson, SC, like the controversial ending to the 2019 Fiesta Bowl against #2 Ohio State¹⁸ and the lopsided beatdown of the 2019 Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) Championship Game as the Tigers trumped the #22 Cavaliers 62-17 with it being the most significant margin of victory in conference championship game history.¹⁹ Two tombstones designated for ranked away wins against the Notre Dame Fighting Irish sport a four-leaf clover atop each tombstone, perhaps paying homage or poking fun at former Clemson Athletics Sports Information Director (SID) Tim Bourret’s connection to Clemson, SC, and South Bend, IN.²⁰ In early April, I walked out to the football cemetery to see two new tombstones dedicated to the double-overtime victory against #16 Wake Forest in Winston Salem, NC, on September 24, 2022, and the dominating win over #22 North Carolina on December 3, 2022, for the ACC Championship in Charlotte, NC. Both away games I attended as a Clemson fan. However, it is not an original idea from the Tigers, as it has directly resulted from another ACC deadly tradition in Florida State University (FSU)’s “Sod Cemetery” for their football program.²¹ The first tombstone dedicated to Florida State on September 9, 1989, can further tell how Clemson mimicked FSU’s idea.

Citations

1. McGee, Ryan. 2020. “A Heated LSU-Clemson Debate: Who Plays in the Real Death Valley?” ESPN. The Walt Disney Company. January 3, 2020. https://www.espn.com/college-football/story/_/id/28412865/a-heated-lsu-clemson-debate-plays-real-death-valley.
2. Raynor, Grace. 2018. “Sorry LSU, but Clemson’s Football Stadium Is the Original Death Valley.” The Post and Courier. Evening Post Industries. August 8, 2018. https://www.postandcourier.com/sports/sorry-lsu-but-clemsons-football-stadium-is-the-original-death-valley/article_7437d57a-9403-11e8-9023-8f903fe214b6.html.
3. Smith, Marty. 2015. “Meet than Man Who Takes Care of ‘The Rock.’” ESPN. The Walt Disney Company. September 18, 2015. https://www.espn.com/blog/ncfnation/post/_/id/115661/meet-the-man-who-takes-care-of-the-rock.
4. ESPN.com news services. 2015. “Jim Harbaugh Smashes Buckeye at Bo Schembechler’s Grave.” ESPN. The Walt Disney Company. September 18, 2015. https://www.espn.com/college-football/story/_/id/14219539/michigan-wolverines-coach-jim-harbaugh-smashes-buckeye-bo-schembechler-grave.
5. Towers, Chip. 2020. “Q&A: Georgia’s Scott Cochran Owns up to Infamous ‘Funeral Comments.’” The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Cox Enterprises. September 7, 2020. https://www.ajc.com/sports/georgia-bulldogs/qa-georgias-scott-cochran-owns-up-to-infamous-funeral-comments/CGO6R4BCBFGGJMQGLFNDGPQXZM/.
6. Leoneda, Inge. 2016. “Monument Remembering African Americans Unveiled At Old Chapel Hill Cemetery.” WUNC 91.5. The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. September 20, 2016. https://www.southbendtribune.com/story/sports/college/2020/11/07/clemson-had-its-eyes-on-notre-dame-since-the-1960s/116120204/.
7. UNC Athletic Communications. 2020. “Celebrate Carolina: Jordan at Carmichael.” Go Heels. UNC Athletics. July 26, 2020. https://goheels.com/news/2020/7/26/womens-basketball-celebrate-carolina-jordan-in-carmichael.aspx#:~:text=Michael%20Jordan%20played%20his%20entire,then%20known%20as%20Carmichael%20Auditorium).
8. Durando, Bennett. 2019. “A Very Good Boy: Uga’s Lasting Impact at UGA Extends All the Way to a Puppy Cemetery.” Columbia Missourian. University of Missouri. November 9, 2019. https://www.columbiamissourian.com/sports/mizzou_football/a-very-good-boy-ugas-lasting-impact-at-uga-extends-all-the-way-to-a/article_32fd5686-0331-11ea-8c5c-bb683777a0f5.html.
9. Casagrande, Michael. 2018. “The Story of Alabama Football’s Quiet Neighbors.” AL.Com. Advance Local Media LLC. September 19, 2018. https://www.al.com/alabamafootball/2018/09/the_story_of_alabama_footballs.html.
10. Clemson University. 1996. “Clemson Football Media Guide – 1996” Football Media Guides, pg. 4. Clemson University Libraries. 1996. https://tigerprints.clemson.edu/fball_media/36.
11. Sapakoff, Gene. 2019. “Clemson Aims to Add an Ohio State Tombstone to Its Football Graveyard.” The Post and Courier. Evening Post Industries. December 27, 2019. https://www.postandcourier.com/sports/clemson/clemson-aims-to-add-an-ohio-state-tombstone-to-its-football-graveyard/article_28dfd166-2356-11ea-b02f-efa429d80c68.html.
12. Clemson Athletic Communications. 2023. “The Graveyard.” Clemson Tigers. Clemson Athletics. 2023. https://clemsontigers.com/the-graveyard/.
13. Hale, David. 2016. “Honoring the Past in College Football.” ESPN. The Walt Disney Company. April 6, 2016. https://www.espn.com/college-football/story/_/id/15145869/grave-stones-sod-cemeteries-death-remembrances-college-football.
14. Sapakoff, Gene. 2019. “Clemson Aims to Add an Ohio State Tombstone to Its Football Graveyard.” The Post and Courier. Evening Post Industries. December 27, 2019. https://www.postandcourier.com/sports/clemson/clemson-aims-to-add-an-ohio-state-tombstone-to-its-football-graveyard/article_28dfd166-2356-11ea-b02f-efa429d80c68.html.
15. Ibid.
16. Clemson Athletic Communications. 2023. “The Graveyard.” Clemson Tigers. Clemson Athletics. 2023. https://clemsontigers.com/the-graveyard/.
17. Ibid.
18. Fischer, Bryan. 2019. “No. 3 Clemson Storms Back to Beat No. 2 Ohio State and Setup Tigers vs. Tigers in the National Title Game.” NBC Sports. National Broadcasting Company. December 29, 2019. https://collegefootball.nbcsports.com/2019/12/29/no-3-clemson-storms-back-to-beat-no-2-ohio-state-and-setup-tigers-vs-tigers-in-the-national-title-game/.
19. McGuire, Kevin. 2019. “No. 3 Clemson Wins Fifth Consecutive ACC Championship as They Return to College Football Playoff.” NBC Sports. National Broadcasting Company. December 7, 2019. https://collegefootball.nbcsports.com/2019/12/07/no-3-clemson-wins-fifth-consecutive-acc-championship-as-they-return-to-college-football-playoff/.
20. Bourret, Tim. 2020. “Clemson Had Its Eyes on Notre Dame since the 1960s.” South Bend Tribune. Gannett. November 7, 2020. https://www.southbendtribune.com/story/sports/college/2020/11/07/clemson-had-its-eyes-on-notre-dame-since-the-1960s/116120204/.
21. Sapakoff, Gene. 2019. “Clemson Aims to Add an Ohio State Tombstone to Its Football Graveyard.” The Post and Courier. Evening Post Industries. December 27, 2019. https://www.postandcourier.com/sports/clemson/clemson-aims-to-add-an-ohio-state-tombstone-to-its-football-graveyard/article_28dfd166-2356-11ea-b02f-efa429d80c68.html.

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