as freed slaves, 158
land allotment of, 162, 163–64, 189
in Oklahoma, 155–205
skin color of, 156, 195
as slaves, 160
Navarre, Evelyn Jewell Regis (great-aunt), 112–15, 113, 135, 205
Navarre, Gwen, 115, 135–36
Navarre, Henry, 113, 114–15
Navarre, Jean-Baptiste, 113
near-drowning, 23, 24, 49
The Negro Motorist Green Book, 211
“Never Say Never” (song), 211
New Albion, 210
New Orleans, 113, 210
Newtonville, 51–52, 75
New Year’s Eve, 14–15, 17
Niggaz Wit Attitudes (N.W.A.), 228
Nigger Heaven, 33
North Carolina
Cherokee in, 191
Sandhills of, 201–3
Northup, Solomon, 101–2
N.W.A. (Niggaz Wit Attitudes), 228
Obama, Barack, 65, 132
O’Brien, Jean, 186
Ocean, Frank, 29
oil, 180–81
Okefenokee Swamp, 169
Oklahoma, 155–205. See also Cherokee; specific locations
bootleggers in, 213
okra, 16, 19, 22
One Drop (Broyard, B.), 115
one-drop rule, 100–101, 162
Organization of Afro-American Unity, 224
Osborne, Lane, 174
Osborne, Sam, 173, 174, 177, 178, 181
Osborne-Sampson, LeEtta, 170–82, 204
Our Mother of Mercy, 98, 100, 125, 129
Owens, William, 70
owls, 54
Oya (African deity), 139
Pacific Ocean, 211
Pantaleo, Joe, 236–37
Parham, Charles F., 53
Parker, William, 214–15
PCB. See polychlorinated biphenyl
Peazant, Nana, 22
Peazant, Viola, 22
Penn Center, 65–68
Pentecostal Church, 51, 53–54, 70, 105–6
phenotypes, 100, 117, 186, 242
Philadelphia, 75, 78
Pinckney, Amy, 59–61, 63
Pinckney, Charles, 60
Pinckney, Roger, XI, 59–61, 63, 67
Pittsburgh, 32
plantations, 17, 18, 47
on Butler Island, 42–45
Hampton Point, 31
on Hilton Head Island, 79–80
Keystone, 146, 148
Melrose, 58, 108, 120, 121, 122–23, 125, 128, 148
Sea Pines, 79, 84, 85
plat-eyes, 61
police. See also Los Angeles Police Department
killings by, 236–37
polychlorinated biphenyl (PCB), 38
Pomona, 76, 77, 214
Poole, Lewis, 199
Prayers for Dark People (DuBois), 22
premonitions, 54
Psalms, Book of, 71
Quinn, Anthony, 128
Raccoon Bluff, 39
Raccoon Hogg Community Development Corporation, 38
rape, 45, 149, 150
Rappahannock, 192
Rebel Rousers, 230
Reconstruction Era National Monument, 65
Red Bean Project, 33
Regina (Los Angles woman), 220–25
Regis (family name), 97, 98, 116, 117
Regis, Amanda (aunt), 144, 147, 147, 151
Regis, Angelique, 150, 151
Regis, James (uncle), 147, 151
Regis, Maturin, Jr., 151
Regis, Maturin, Sr., 118, 142, 143, 144–46, 147, 147, 150, 151, 152
Regis, Maturine, 150, 151
Regis, Virginia, 147, 151
restrictive covenants, 216
Reynolds, R. J., 39
rice, 18–19, 47, 48
Robinson, Sherese, 200–201
Robinson, Stephany. See Dr. Buzzard
Rochon, Charlotte, 113
Rochon, Honoré, 113
Rochon, Rose (great-great-great aunt), 113
Rockefeller (family name), 202
Rodríguez Cabrillo, Juan, 210
Roof, Dylann, 244
root doctors, 55–57, 58, 59, 60, 64–65, 67–69, 70
rootwork, 11, 50–60, 64, 69, 70, 245
sachet powder, 59–60, 70
Saint Anthony of Padua Catholic Church, 148
Saint Augustine Church, 125–29
Saint Helena Island, 64, 65
Saint Martin Parish (Saint Martinville), 106–7, 114, 141–52
Saint Simons Island, 22, 30–31
salt marshes, 32, 36
Saltwater Geechee, 34
Sapelo Island, 32–41
cemetery on, 36–38, 41
Department of Natural Resources on, 38, 39, 40, 46
taxes on, 20, 39
Sasakwa, 171, 176
sassafras, 56, 128
Schley, William, 196
Schweig, Eric, 156
SCLC. See Southern Christian Leadership Conference
Scott, Taiwan, 79–83, 85–87, 89
Scott, Walter, 237
seafood, 19, 23, 81
Sea Islands, 18, 19, 30, 35, 68. See also specific islands
Sea Pines Plantation, 79, 84, 85
segregation, 31–32. See also Jim Crow
in Atlantic City, 25, 216
in Los Angeles, 215–16
in Louisiana, 102–3
Seminole, 160
Cherokee and, 203–4
freedmen of, 171–84
hiding in Everglades by, 201
kinship groups (clans) of, 176, 180
land allotment of, 162
oil of, 180–81
slaves and, 169–70
Seminole Baptist Church, 176, 177
Seymour, William J., 53
Shell Hammock, 39
shut-mouth special, 67
Singleton, John, 212, 228
La Siréne (African deity), 139
skin color, 2. See also blackness
of Creole, 105, 131–35
of Native Americans, 156, 195
slaves
of African Americans, 127
as alligator bait, 43
auctions for, 31
buried under Highway 17, 21, 42
of Cherokees, 203, 204
in Lowcountry, 18–19
merchants of, 30
mortality rate on, 44
Native Americans as, 160
on plantations, 18, 42–45
on Sapelo Island, 33
Seminole and, 169–70
swimming by, 27
transatlantic trade in, 28, 48, 211
whippings of, 45–46
Smalls, Victoria, 64, 65–71, 73
Smithers, Gregory P., 168
Song of Solomon (Morrison), 246
soul food, 12–17
Soul Food (Miller), 12–13
South Carolina. See also Lowcountry
Cherokee in, 191
Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC), 65
South Pasadena, 215
Spalding, Thomas, 30, 33, 39
Spalding Mansion, 39
Spanish moss, 33
speaking in tongues (glossolalia), 53
spirits (loas), 57, 138
Spookhunters, 230
St. Denis, Louis Juchereau de, 107, 149
St. Denis, Pierre Antoine Juchereau de, 148
Steel Magnolias (movie), 119
Sticks, Stones, Roots & Bones (Bird), 63
Stopper (Seminole man), 177–79, 181
St. Simon’s Island, 35
Studi, Wes, 156
succession records, 143–44
Sunday dinner, 16–17
sundown towns, 215
sweet potato, 16, 19
swimming, 24–29, 31–32
“Take Me to the Water” (song), 37
taxes, 20, 39, 171
Tennessee, 191, 197
Texas, 12, 211, 213–14. See also Houston
mass shooting in, 243
Text
-Aided Archaeology (Little), 44
tobacco, 18, 124
touch, 54
Trail of Tears, 155, 159, 160, 163, 168
trauma, 27–28, 233–34
Trump, Donald, 186, 244
Turner, Ike, 87
Turner, Tina, 87
Turpeau, David DeWitt, 113–14, 117, 144–46, 148
12 Years a Slave (Northup), 102
Twelve Tribes of Israel, 169
Untangling Red, White, and Black Heritage (Davis, D.), 186
Up from the Cane-Brakes (Turpeau, D.), 113–14, 144–45
uppityness, 103–4, 117, 220
Van Buren, Martin, 196
Vann, George Musgrove, 163
Vann, James, 162–63, 203
Vann, Jesse, 199
Vann, Marilyn, 162–67, 170, 195, 199, 203
Vann, Samuel, Sr., 203
veve, 57–58
Voices of Our Nation’s Arts Foundation (VONA), 134
Voodoo, 57
ancestor altar of, 137–39
Christianity and, 136
of Creole, 136–39
“Wade in the Water” (song), 37
Walker (surname), 33
Walker, Cindy, 191
Walkingstick, David, 166–67
Wanderer (slave ship), 30
Warfield, Marsha, 28
Warren, Elizabeth, 186
Warren G, 229
Washington, George, 159
watchnight service, 14, 14n
water, 11, 12, 23–26, 31–32, 48–49, 245
food from, 29–30
to freedom, 37
Gullah Geechee on, 29–30, 34
in Louisiana, 104, 138
rootwork and, 69
on Sapelo Island, 38
watermelon, 16, 19
Watson, Crys, 241–42
Watts Riots, 218–19, 235–36
Weeping Time, 31
Wewoka, 180–81, 212
whippings, of slaves, 45–46
Whipping Tree, of Seminole, 172, 179–80, 181
Wiggins, Gladys (great-grandmother), 51, 62, 73–74, 75
Wiggins, Gwen Davis, 194–97
Wiggins, Mitchell, 199
Wiggins, Peggie, 197, 197–200
Wiggins, Randall, Sr., 194–98, 196, 198, 199, 204
Wiggins, Winnie, 194–95, 197, 198, 199, 204
Williams, A. Wilberforce, 15–16
witchcraft, 50, 53
women
in kitchen, 14
of Seminole, 172
slaves, 45–46
witchcraft of, 50
Woods Memorial Bridge, 68
Wylie, H., 55
X, Malcolm, 224
Yehuda, Rachel, 27
York (slave ship), 30
Young, Tiffany, 19–21, 23, 29–48, 64
Zimmer, Carl, 28
zooters, 229
Zoot Suit Riots, 229
zydeco, 107
About the Author
MORGAN JERKINS is a senior editor at Medium’s ZORA magazine. Her work has been featured in the New Yorker, Vogue, the New York Times, the Atlantic, Elle, Rolling Stone, Lenny Letter, and BuzzFeed, among many other outlets. She lives in New York.
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Also by Morgan Jerkins
This Will Be My Undoing
Copyright
WANDERING IN STRANGE LANDS. Copyright © 2020 by Morgan Jerkins. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the nonexclusive, nontransferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse-engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.
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* The watchnight service is a New Year’s Eve tradition for many Christian denominations, such as Methodists, Anglicans, and Pentecostals. In African American communities, it is said that enslaved blacks gathered in churches on New Year’s Eve in 1862 to wait for the Emancipation Proclamation to go into effect on that January 1, 1863. This tradition is still carried on to this day.
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