November 2010 Election: The legacy of exercising the right to vote

Robin Foster, November 2, 2010

I have more reasons to be grateful than I can count.  Perhaps these feelings can be attributed to all the research and writing I have been doing lately on the Reconstruction Era.  On my way to the polls today, I thought back on  the testimonies that I have read given by my great great grandfather, Beverly Vance (1899-1832) and others.  I was so overcome with gratitude to be living in a country where I can make my own choices.

Tears almost welled up as I remembered that this type of freedom had not always been enjoyed by my ancestors, and women were denied the right even longer.  I could feel Beverly looking down on me pleased that I was not having to look over my shoulder to see who was watching or worried that I would be harassed.

I have never felt these impressions in this way on other election days.  Casting your vote for a person of your choosing truly is an expression of gratitude for past sacrifices and symbolic of the freedoms we hold dear.  I am glad to have happened on historical records documenting my ancestor in his struggle for the freedoms I enjoy.

After I completed the ballot and turned to leave, their stood a friend and we exchanged a warm hug.  This was again a complete contrast to the way things were in 1868 and in 1876.  How we have progressed.

I love The United States of America, and I particularly love South Carolina.  I am walking in the footsteps of many of my maternal ancestors who were born, worked, and died in this state.  Today I  carved out more memories for my posterity to cherish.

See:

Remembering when casting a vote could have meant loss of property or life

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29. Tuesday Tip: Search Reconstruction records to learn more about an emancipated ancestor

African American History Monument on The State House grounds
Columbia, South Carolina

Many Reconstruction Era resources can help you identify the following important information about your ancestor:  former slave owner’s identity, land ownership, military experience, occupation, family life, and more.  

Search the local library for books about Reconstruction.  Search the local university libraries and the local archives.  Search "Reconstruction" at Google Books as well as the name of your ancestor along with the county
and state where he lived.


During Reconstruction, most newly emancipated African Americans became Republicans and the white farmers (Red Shirts) who were mostly Democrats sorely persecuted the former slaves.  This is an excerpt of one of Beverly's testimony which I found:

THE MISCELLANEOUS DOCUMENTS OK THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES FOR THE SECOND SESSION OF THE FORTY-FOURTH CONGRESS IN SIX VOLUMES:

BEVERLY VANCE—ABBEVILLE COUNTY. (page 417)

Columbia, S. C, December 22,1876. Beverly Vance (colored) sworn and examined.

By Mr. Cameron : Question. Where do you live ?—Answer. I live in Abbeville when I am at home. Q. What township or precinct -?—A. I live in Cokesbury township. Q. What is your age?—A. I am forty-four. Q. Are you republican ?—A. Yes, sir.

Q. How long have you belonged to the republican party ?—A. Ever since the emancipation.


Q. Where were you on the day of election ?—A. I was at the ballotbox at Cokesbury precinct.
Q. Yon may state whether or not there were any armed democrats at that polling-place on the day of the election.—A. Well, there were men armed there with pistols.


Q. You may state whether or not they had guns when there.—A. Yes, sir; they bad guns. Some had double-barreled shotguns in their wagons, I suppose, I will say, in from thirty five to one hundred yards of the polling place; they had some of these old muskels, old Army guns, about three hundred yards from there, in Mr. Conner's store.


Q. What else did the democrats have there that day ?—A. Well, sir, they had a good deal of whisky, and one thing and another around there. They had a barrel of whisky in about fifty yards, in Mr. Conner's store, and then they had some jugs in their wagons where they camped tbe night before. There was a good, large crowd of them camped there, and they had a barrel of whisky and a big supper, and was eating and drinking the night before the election.

Q. You may state whether or not the whites threatened the republicans before the election in any way.—A. O, yes, sir; they did that a great deal in every direction, 1 suppose, three months before the elec tion. Myself was threatened the night before the election. I had to have a body-guard around me the whole night. We laid out the whole night. We were expecting them. They had sworn they would kill me.

I also found Beverly in  a 1869 Militia Enrollment for South Carolina and on a 1868 SC Voter's Registration in Abbeville County.  See US Reconstruction Era records help to document ancestor's and link to slavery.

Each type of record will vary according to geographical location.  Here are the results I received from searching Google for South Carolina Reconstruction records:  Click here.  This search led to several great resources that I did not know existed.

If we are to have any hope of finding out more about an ancestor who lived during slavery, we must uncover all we can to document them between 1865 and 1877.

Sources:  THE MISCELLANEOUS DOCUMENTS OF THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES FOR THE SECOND SESSION OF THE FORTY-FOURTH CONGRESS IN SIX VOLUMES; SC Department of Archives and History; Hurrah for Hampton!: Black Red Shirts in South Carolina during Reconstruction,  By Edmund L. Drago

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19. Follow Friday: FamilySearch, a tribute to an old standby

The following is an excerpt from my book,  "Brought Home by a Story:  How family history changed my life"  which illustrates how FamilySearch resources have helped me to link to generations past: 

"After I had put so much together on my mother's parents, it occurred to me that I did not know much about her grandparents. I knew if I wanted to be able to trace them, I needed to start gathering what oral history I could.  I just started by asking my mother to tell me about her grandparents.


     The only one she really knew well as Lafayette Franklin Vance (1861-1952), the father of Emory Wallace Vance.  Most of what she could recall about him occurred between the years 1943 and 1951 during the time they lived on the farm in Gadsden, South Carolina.  I began to see similarities in his life that were interwoven in the lives of his children, grandchildren, and great grandchildren.


     We are all hard workers.  Most of us live by high moral standards and have become very involved in the churches with which we are affiliated.  We have strong family values and are actively serving in our communities.  Lafayette helped and served in many communities throughout South Carolina.  He overcame the obstacles which were faced by African Americans from the time of Reconstruction on through segregation.  Like their forefathers, his descendants believe in the power of education.


     I was so fueled by the legacy he left behind, I wanted next to know who his parents were. Unfortunately at the time, no one could help me.  The only online resource that I knew of at the time was familysearch.org.  The 1880 US Census was free, and I figured that since Lafayette was born in 1861, I had a pretty good chance of finding him.


    All that was available where I lived was the dreaded dial up, but that did not matter. The page loaded like a curtain on open night.  I was not expecting what I saw when the screen came into view.  As it loaded ever so slowly, my eyes which were fixed on the center of the monitor, fell upon the name of Lafayette Franklin Vance.


     I had little doubt that I could find him.  What came as a great surprise to me was the fact that his entire family was so large that it practically filled the length of my screen.  I was speechless.  Tears just started streaming down my cheeks as I raised my eyes to the first two names at the head of the family group.

     My mom was waiting to see as well, and for the first time ever, the descendants of Emory Wallace Vance looked upon the names of Lafayette's parents, Beverly and Matilda Vance."

I am truly grateful the folks at FamilySearch for making genealogical resources available to the world for so many years.  This service has been a great benefit to me and to my family.  I am able to identify and preserve records for future generations. The new resources that you are rolling out are making wizards of even the most ordinary family historians.  Thank you!

More Links:

  

South Carolina GenResources 101: 10 ways past your brick wall

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15. Madness Monday: I am not just "Waltzing Matilda"

Grandma Matilda, if it were not for the 1870 US Census, 1880 US Census, an Abbeville County, SC land deed, and my first glimpse of your name in print in an old church hymnal before I was school age, I would think you were only a figment of my imagination.

I have no photograph, and no one living seems to have any recollection of you.  Oh yeah, there's that one mention of you in the biography of your son, Lafayette Franklin Vance in 1919.  I know you were born around 1841 and your mother who is nameless to me was born in Virginia during slavery.   Your maiden name was Dunlap.  I am going mad trying to connect you to parents.  Do you know how many Dunlaps were in Virginia?  Did you leave her behind when you came to South Carolina? Whew!

I suspect your mother could be Sarah Dunlap who had a son named Robert living in Calhoun County near Abbeville, but close is just not good enough.  You have simply got to give me a little more to go on.  You just disappeared after the 1880's with not even a trace in a descendant's memory.  That is pretty hard to do with 8 children...one would think.

I share the blame.  I could have asked more about you when I opened your grandson Emory's hymnal.   He did not volunteer any information other than you were his grandmother.  The fact that hymnal was dedicated to you means you made an impact somewhere.  Only one problem.....someone forgot to keep your memory alive.


For goodness sakes, no one even knows where you were buried or even when you died.  We are only talking  five generations here...what a shame.  I have gone far past that on other lines.   You make me think of the song "Waltzing Matilda."  People are in disagreement about the origins of the song and they even think the song is about  traveling with a bag over your back.  Some argue that the Matilda in the song is a bag not a lady.  See Waltzing Matilda and Waltzing Matilda a little ditty. How could you lose the memory of someone or something you cherish so much?  People love the song so much they have written many versions, but know one is sure what it is about.

I know so much about all your children and your brave husband, Beverly Vance (1832--1899), who I consider a Reconstruction Era hero.  You were there too.  If he made the choice in 1868 to vote, he would have been dead in ten days as he had been warned.  He did not cross party lines though, and in 1876, he was a constable standing guard at the ballot box.

Thanks for that decision....I would not be here.  He was one mile from the place Senator B. F. Randolph was shot and killed in 1868.  A different decision would have cost him the same price.    I wish you were here to experience my day.  I saw a YouTube video, We Are All Cousins, the other night that made me feel so fortunate to have the genfriends that I do. Elizabeth Shown Mills explained that she has never encountered feelings of prejudice among members of the genealogy community.  I feel the same.

So Grandma...I have to be going...I snuck away from the family BBQ.  It's Labor Day.  Just remember, I am not just waltzing here.  I could use some help :). 

Love,
Your GGGrandaughter, Robin

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