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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30. My take on uncovering Reconstruction Era resources

African American History Monument at The State House, Columbia
by Robin Foster

I was so happy to be able to attend Tony Burrough's seminar his past Sunday at the Robert Mills Courthouse in Camden.  I have his book, Black Roots,  and I have used it faithfully for almost a decade.  It will never become obsolete.


I have been researching for over 20 years, and I still learned so much.  The greatest thing that I remember he said was, "If you want to locate information about a slave ancestor, research Reconstruction records."








Well, I have only skimmed the surface when it comes to Reconstruction Era records.  A light bulb somehow went on, and now I am on a mission to find all I can.  I am having a great deal of success. It is as if the resources have just been waiting for me.  I am learning so much about this period in our history that I did not know.


A study of Reconstruction can be quite challenging because there are so MANY contradictions and opposing viewpoints.  Freedmen who struggled to exercise and keep their new found freedoms were seen as shiftless, criminals, and less than equal.  You must be able to keep the proper perspective as you trudge through these records.  They are useful to those who have slave owner as well as slave ancestry.


I can certainly see why anyone would want to avoid having to use them in genealogical research, but doing so may result in never finding that link back to slavery (see Reconstruction Era records are neglected genealogical resources).  I have been very successful in locating a few of my ancestors so far.


Even though I have struggled a little this week and had to do some major soul searching, I feel a significant change as come over me.  I understand so much more about the complexities of being African American.  I understand so much more the purpose for me being taught to have integrity and to "NEVER use the word, can't." when I was growing up.


I am understanding more about the responsibility I have to share these perspectives and the resources that can help others find documentation.  Yes, we are working to find evidence to document our ancestry, but in the process we are really discovering ourselves.  Reconstruction was in many respects harsher than slavery.


Freedmen had no monetary value to former slave owners and were even more expendable.  How did they do it?  What were they made of?  I hope I will understand better as I go along.  I will continue to share my feelings here, but I will share resources and how you can access them in a more formal way here:  Columbia Ethnic Community Examiner.  I have written 3 articles this week so far.    Click the "subscribe" button at the top of any of the articles so you do not miss any resources.

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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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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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