UNCOVERING THE ROOTS OF ANAKAH: BRIDGING THE GAP BETWEEN AMERICA AND WEST AFRICA A THESIS SUBMITTED TO THE FACULTY OF CLARK ATLANTA UNIVERSITY IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF MASTER OF ARTS BY MELVIN J. COLLIER DEPARTMENT OF AFRICAN-AMERICAN STUDIES ATLANTA, GEORGIA MAY 2008 ABSTRACT AFRICAN-AMERICAN STUDIES COLLIER, MELVIN J. B.S. MISSISSIPPI STATE UNIVERSITY, 1995 UNCOVERING THE ROOTS OF ANAKAH: BRIDGING THE GAP BETWEEN AMERICA AND WEST AFRICA Advisor: Dr. Daniel O. Black Thesis dated May 2008 This research explores the history of an enslaved African-American family who descend from an eighteenth-century ancestor named Anakah, through archival records in order to uncover any inconspicuous clues and a preponderance of evidence positively linking her family to its West African origins. This research also unearthed the Africanisms that prevailed within her family during slavery. Anakah's family was linked to two possible regions in West Africa, but no concrete evidence was found to definitively link the origins of her family to one of those regions. Additionally, familial customs and practices that mirrored West African customs were found among four generations of her enslaved descendants in South Carolina and Mississippi. This research displayed how definitive links to specific West African regions can be plausibly asserted in some families through an in-depth, historical analysis. Although certain Africanisms can not serve as conclusive evidence to adequately identify the West African origins of this family or any African-American family, the documentation of the West African cultural retentions served as an integral part of successfully bridging the gap between Anakah and her family in America and West Africa. ©2008 MELVIN 1. COLLIER All Rights Reserved ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to express an enormous thanks to my family members, the late Robert Danner, the late Sammie Davis Hayes, and Isaac Deberry Sr., for their rich oral accounts of our family's history. Their stories were invaluable; without it, this journey into time would have been met with more brick walls. I thank God for their profound wisdom and for their enthusiasm to discuss our history. I would like to thank the staff at the Memphis-Shelby County Library, the Mississippi Department of Archives & History, the South Carolina Department of Archives and History, and the Fairfield County, South Carolina Archives in Winnsboro for their assistance during my research. I would like to thank Angela Walton-Raji, Tanica Campbell, Kwame Bandele, and the many wonderful researchers of AfriGeneas for their suggestions and wonderful resources as I ventured down this historical road. I would like to thank my thesis committee, Dr. Daniel Black and Dr. Mary Twining, who not only encouraged my pursuit of this topic for my thesis, but whose guidance was invaluable. Finally, I would like to extend special heartfelt thanks to my parents, Jimmie and Versia Reed Collier, and my sisters, LaVonda and Iva, for their love and support and for always encouraging me to tell the story of our ancestors. ii TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS 11 LIST OF FIGURES 111 LIST OF TABLES IV ABBREVIATIONS V DEFINITION OF TERMS VI CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 1 Significance of the Study 2 Statement of the Problem 4 Theoretical Framework 11 Methodology 14 Research Questions 18 Chapter Organization 18 CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW 20 African-American Genealogy 21 The Transatlantic Slave Trade in South Carolina 26 --- The Transmission of West African Cultural Elements 29 CHAPTER 3: THE HISTORY OF ANAKAH AND THE TURNER FAMILY 33 CHAPTER 4: BACK TO THE MOTHERLAND: DIRECT LINKS TO WEST AFRICA 48 CHAPTER 5: AFRICANISMS IN ANAKAH'S FAMILY: MORE LINKS TO WEST AFRICA 68 CHAPTER 6: CONCLUSION 90 Appendix A: Easter Quiller and some of her descendants reported in the 1870 U.S. Federal Census of Newberry County, South Carolina and Dallas County, Alabama 98 Appendix B: Some of the descendants of Dick and Bess reported in the 1870 and 1880 U.S. Federal Censuses of Panola and Tate County, Mississippi 101 Appendix C: Isaac McCrorey and some of his descendants reported in the 1870 U.S. Federal Census of Fairfield County, South Carolina 107 Appendix D: Bills of sale showing the transference of Agnes Turner Boyce's slaves from her daughter, Mrs. Mary M. Boyce Bobo, to and from Mary's son, Barham F. Bobo, Panola County, Mississippi, December 31,1857 109 Appendix E: Descendancy Diagram of Anakah's Family 110 Appendix F: 1820 Map of Fairfield County, South Carolina 111 BIBLIOGRAPHY 112 LIST OF FIGURES l. Percentage of Africans imported into South Carolina from identifiable West African regions, 1763 - 1807 67 2. The children of Dick and his sister, Bess, and their children who were named after family members (generations one and two) 74 3. The children of Dick's daughter, Mattie Clarissa Bobo, and their children who were named after family members; The children of Mattie Clarissa's daughter, Louisa Bobo Danner, and their children who were named after family members (generations three, four, and five) 75 4. The 1870 U.S. Federal Census of Lafayette County, Mississippi showing Anakah's son, Jack Turner, and his wife Nancy and daughter, Annica 77 5. A map of Panola County, Mississippi denoting the area in the northeast part of the county where over one hundred direct descendants of ~ Anakah resided during and after slavery 85 III LIST OF TABLES 1. IMPORTATION FIGURES FOR SOUTH CAROLINA FROM 1735 TO 1775 ..................................................................... 37 2. THE SLAVE INVENTORY OF JOHN TURNER'S ESTATE, FAIRFIELD COUNTY, SOUTH CAROLINA, TAKEN SEPTEMBER 9, 1807 ........................................................... 44 3. THE SLAVE INVENTORY OF JAMES LAW'S ESTATE, NEWBERRY COUNTY, SOUTH CAROLINA, TAKEN SEPTEMBER 13, 1836 .......................................................... 55 4. THE SLAVE INVENTORY OF DAVID BOYCE'S ESTATE, UNION COUNTY, SOUTH CAROLINA, TAKEN FEBRUARY 23, 1831 ........................................................... 71 iv ABBREVIATIONS B In the U.S. Federal Census records, "B" means "Black" in the "color" column. DAR Daughters of the American Revolution DNA Deoxyribonucleic acid MorMu In the U.S. Federal Census records, "M" means "male" in the "sex" column, "mother" in the "relationship" column, "married" in the marital status column, or "mulatto" in the "color" column. m In the U.S. Federal Census records, "m" means "months" in the "age" column. MDAH Mississippi Department of Archives and History, Jackson, Mississippi MS or Miss. Mississippi S.C. South Carolina SCDAH South Carolina Department of Archives and History, Columbia, South Carolina SCHS South Carolina Historical Society, Columbia, South Carolina WPA Works Progress Administration Va In the U.S. Federal Census records, "Va" means "Virginia" in the "place of birth" column. v DEFINITION OF TERMS Africanisms - A characteristic feature that can be traced back to African cultures. Also a characteristic feature of an African language occurring in a non-African language. Conceptual incarceration - The highest and most sophisticated level of scientific colonialism. It is the process in which alien ideas or concepts are utilized to explain the reality of a particular people. 1 Consanguineous - Related by blood; descended from a common ancestor. Cross cousins - The children of a brother and of a sister. Culture - A process which gives a people a general design for living and patterns for interpreting their reality. 2 Custom - A repeated, common, and long-established practice to many or to a particular place or class. DNA - Deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) is the chemical inside the nucleus of a cell that carries the genetic instructions for making living organisms.3 Ethnic group - A group of people who identify with each other, typically on the basis of a common genealogy or ancestry, or by common cultural traits.4 Extended family - Refers to family members who are cousins, aunts, uncles, grandparents, foster children, nieces, nephew, etc. - people who are outside of the parent/children 1 Wade W, Nobles, A/ricanity and the Black Family. The Development a/a Theoretical Model (Oakland, CA: The Institute for the Advanced Study of Black Family Life and Culture, Inc., 1985), 102., 2 Ibid, 3 National Human Genome Research Institute, "Deoxyribonucleic Acid (DNA)", available from http://www,genome,,gov/; accessed 17 September 2007., 4 Afi'ican Ancestry, Inc", African Ancestry Guide to West and Central Africa (Washington, DC: African Ancestry, Inc, 2005), 5., This researcher has avoided using the word tribe and have chosen ethnic group to refer to a group of people of the same ethnicity" This researcher posits that the term tribe carries a social meaning (or lack of value) placed on groups of people, especially in Africa, by European thought and practice., vi group. They sometimes contain people who are unrelated, especially among African Americans. In African cultures, the extended family is the basic family unit. Genealogy - The study and tracing of family lineages. This study entails the building of a cohesive family tree by collecting the names of living and deceased family members and establishing the family relationships based on primary and secondary records and also circumstantial evidence. Gullah or Geechee - A distinctive group of African-Americans from the low-country areas of South Carolina and Georgia who have been able to preserve more of their African cultural heritage than any other group of African-Americans. Linguistics - The scientific study of a language. Lots - Lots refer to the family grouping of slaves, typically listed in slave inventories. Lots often contain a mother and her children, sometimes the father if he was on the same plantation, who are bequeathed or sold to another. Onomastics - The study of proper names and the study of the origins of names. Parallel cousins - The children of two brothers or two sisters. Slave ancestral genealogy - The study of tracing pre-Civil War ancestors who were held in slavery. This is a complex process that involves more than affixing a collection of names to a family tree.