Did You Catch This?

Message Day in Beaufort, South Carolina this spring honored Christ-centered fellowship, history and culture. Members of the Beaufort Seventh-day Adventist Church seek to create lasting contributions in this community, a vibrant fabric of low-country traditions and Gullah Geechee influence.

Take a listen to oral history from the church’s Pastor, Dr. Christopher Thompson who wrote this issue’s African American Freedom Timeline. Thompson tells of the escape and capture of the C.S.S. Planter by Robert Smalls, Harriet Tubman’s civil war spy technique, Black folks winning in Beaufort in 1862 Beaufort.

On Robert Smalls, Civil War hero, and iconic “Beaufortonian”:

“Our people have always had agency. Our people have always operated with innovative and genius ideas and strategies,” says Thompson. “Our people have always fought for freedom. We found any way possible to take our dignity back, seize the moment to empower ourselves. Who would have thought of, just a chance opportunity, a chance moment at the dock, seeing the ship, seeing the soldiers leave the ship, saying, “wait a minute,” and just taking it? So, sometimes, you gotta just seize it. Carpe Diem.

They knew how to get stuff done. . . . That’s something we can be proud of and hold onto.”

Dr. Kim Cliett Long’s series, “Black Wealth Activated” is borne out of decades of scholarly study into the global impact of African market women, trade and industry. As the Founding Director of the Jonathan Green Maritime Cultural

Center in Beaufort and partnering with long-time friend, world renowned artist Jonathan Greene, the center captures both Gullah Geechee life and history, and collects artifacts and information regarding the economic skill and trade of African descended peoples.

Describing the market women:

“They’re making the things. They’re selling the things,” said Cliett Long. “Right here in Charleston, which was the Royal African Market, African market women ruled the market for over 200 years into the mid-20th century. They ran that market. And when I say ran, you didn’t come in there if you were disrespectful, even [though the market women were] enslaved. They were “bought” as investments, like stocks and bonds. And, there are records, Charleston city records of people complaining, ‘They’re telling me I can’t come in there.’ ‘They said do you like eating? You better go in there and do what they say.’”