Dwelling Place

by Erskine Clarke

  Not the faintest zephyr stirs the sleeping forest leaves. Not a waving shadow breaks the entire outline of houses and groves. The giant oaks and lofty pines are perfectly daguerreotyped upon the lawn, whose even surface, still thickly strewed with autumnal leaves, reflects a golden tint; whilst the pure white walks of the garden stand out like silvery highways.

  In the profound stillness of the night, Mary felt as if she alone were “awake in the vast universe around and above. And yet,” she wrote, “I know that I am not alone: I feel encompassed by countless evidences of an omnipotent, omniscient, omnipresent Deity.” And within, she felt the “witness of the Blessed Spirit, witnessing with my spirit” to the sustaining love of God. “Oh, the sweet and precious consolations that have often flowed into my soul—far from living friends and kindred and all the joys and supports and sweet sympathy of my beloved children! Yes, here in this utter solitude my Heavenly Father hath given me songs of rejoicing even amid the utter loneliness and desolation of a widow’s heart and a widow’s home.”43

  As the days of her departure approached, Mary struggled mightily with the sense that her beloved Montevideo, in spite of its beauty and past associations, was finally empty without the people she loved and the work that had informed her life as a plantation mistress. As she walked through gardens or looked around at the familiar rooms of the house, she began to feel that Montevideo had been home for her not because of its beauty or geographical location but because it had been a place occupied with loved ones and because she had felt here a deep sense of duty, a vocation, to look after and care for the Gullah people who had made this spot on the earth a place of such beauty and comfort. Now with loved ones gone or scattered and with the freed people rejecting her proffered care and claiming their own independence, Montevideo seemed a mere reminder of days gone by when it had been her happy home.

  Mary’s growing awareness of the present emptiness of Montevideo kept her love for her low-country world from finally collapsing into romanticism and melancholy. She did not try to deny her love for the beauty of slow flowing rivers and marshes, of carefully developed gardens and vistas. She thought, after all, that the natural world possessed its own integrity as the handiwork of the Creator. But what she found in her loneliness was that Montevideo needed human habitation and association in order to be for her a living place. To be sure, it was not any human habitation that she missed but the habitation of family and of old friends; and the association that she missed was with servants for whom she felt a deep sense of responsibility. Without loved ones to share Montevideo’s beauty, without duty that called for purposeful activity at her plantation home, only a romanticism of the rootless, only its longings, remained to this lovely place. Such romanticism could not sustain Mary in her loneliness, and in her vulnerability she confessed that her true home was with God and that no place could finally hold her widow’s heart except the heart of God.

  A few days before her departure, she wrote of her ending days at Montevideo: “I have felt that it might be the very last I should ever spend at my once happy and privileged home, which now appears more like the grave of my buried hopes and affections than as the dwelling place of living and attractive associations. The scenes of the past have been coming up in rapid review. They are so painful in contrast with the great changes that are now upon my heart and life!”

  As she remembered the past, she prayed to “the Greater Searcher of hearts” and asked for pardon for her sins as she “tried to acknowledge and repent of them in all the relations of life” which she had sustained at Montevideo—“as a wife, a mother, a mistress, a professing Christian, a neighbour, and member of society. In each and all,” she wrote in her journal, “I have been an unprofitable servant to the Great Master who appointed my work and way on earth.” She asked God’s forgiveness through the love and grace of Jesus Christ.44

  Mary left for her New Orleans home in January 1868. Shortly before she left, Charles Scribner had published, after Charlie’s tireless editorial work, the first volume of Charles’s History of the Church of God. The publication had been an obsession for Mary, and while the volume would quickly pass into obscurity, seeing it in print brought a deep satisfaction to her, as if Charles’s last precious years were somehow caught up and bound in the volume itself. Now what remained for her was seeing that Charles’s grave was marked with a proper gravestone and inscription. Before she had left Liberty County, she had purchased bricks from Dr. Raymond Harris, who now owned the Retreat. The old plantation home had been burned in the spring of 1866, apparently set on fire by thieves, and while the graveyard had not been damaged, all else had been consumed, even the great oaks and gardens that surrounded the house. The chimneys and brick columns that supported the house had been left a rubble, and from this Retreat rubble had been selected bricks to build a base for a marble slab over Charles’s grave. The bricks had been carried to Midway and stacked in the cemetery to await Mary’s return and the arrival of the slab.45

  In December 1868 Mary made the long trip back from New Orleans to Montevideo. Charlie came down from New York and met her. Gilbert went to the depot and brought the marble slab in his oxcart to Midway. Audley King came to the cemetery to help with the brickwork. Porter and Stepney came from Arcadia and joined Gilbert and Charles from Carlawter. They all worked together, this remarkable little group—Audley King and Charlie Jones, Porter Way, Stepney West, Gilbert Lawson, and Charles Lawson—in mixing an oyster-shell mortar and laying the Retreat bricks, and placing the white marble slab over the tomb.46

  Mary made a quick visit to the island with Julia King and found all the Kings struggling to make their way in a new world. Only Mary King Wells seemed to be thriving. She was busy and “says she never was happier in her life althou she has not a dollar she can command of her own. Works hard, sleeps well, has no headaches now and God blesses her with a grateful, cheerful spirit.” On their return from Woodville, Mary and Julia stopped and “looked upon the ruins of Maybank.” And from Montevideo, Mary wrote Mary Sharpe: “The place is beautiful, but O! how sad! And every day some new perplexity. My child! Be thankful your lot has been cast elsewhere.”47

  Broken monument to Joseph Jones in the Retreat cemetery, late twentieth century (author’s collection)

  Mary returned to New Orleans, and there, on 23 April 1869, she died after a short illness. Mary Sharpe asked her mother in her final hours whether she wished to be buried at old Midway. Mary had replied: “I have always said, ‘Where I die, there let me be buried’; for ‘at the last day we shall all be raised in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye.’ My whole trust is in the Saviour. I stand in his righteousness, my righteousness is as filthy rages.” So Mary chose as an act of freedom and faith to be buried in a distant place far from Montevideo and the marshes of Medway and all their sacred memories.48

  A few months after Mary’s death Robert Mallard returned to Liberty County for a visit with his brothers and sisters and to see after some business matters. He stopped at Midway and wandered in the cemetery beneath the ancient oaks. There he found a new marble slab with an inscription that read in part:

  Joe Jones, Stepney West, and probably Elsey Maxwell at the grave of Charles Colcock Jones (1804–1869) (Charles Colcock Jones Papers, Tulane University Manuscript Department)

  Sacred

  to the memory of

  Revd Charles Colcock Jones D.D.

  Born in Liberty County, Georgia

  December 20th 1804,

  Departed this Life at Arcadia Plantation

  March 16th 1863

  …..

  The devoted Husband and Father, the firm friend &

  Kind Master, the public Benefactor, the zealous

  Evangelist, the profound Theologian, the learned

  Author, the pure Patriot, and the exalted Christian.

  In his Character were combined all those virtues and traits

  Which dignify, ennoble, and benefit mankind.

  Robert went to Arcadia, and “all there
expressed sorrow” over Mary’s death. He rode to Montevideo. He wrote Mary Sharpe what he found:

  The people were in the field opposite thecedars and soon discovered and came to the road to greet me. In the van were Tenah and Charles. Found Lucy at the house. All were in good keeping. Lucy rather thinner than when you saw her last. They were sincerely glad to see me. I am sure I was to see them. Little Abram came to the buggy to meet me.

  He found that Tenah had another child, “a pretty little girl” named Lucy, after her grandmother. “They all made inquiries after you and the children,” Robert wrote Mary Sharpe, “and sent a ‘tousand howdyes.’”

  Robert walked around the house and then went out and sat for a while in the garden on a rustic seat where the cedars ran down to the river. And there he remembered “the scene of a youthful and happy pair admonished in the gathering gloom of twilight by a kind voice saying ‘I Wisdom dwell with Prudence.’” And he recalled “the wedding feast and the wedding night which united my earthly destines with a dear one for whom respect and love only grow with the flying years.”49

  Six months earlier, in late January 1869, at the courthouse in Hinesville, a young Cash Jones was married in a simple service to Rachael Stevens. Young Cash had made his way back to Liberty County from the distant place to which he had been sold with his mother, Phoebe, and his father, Cassius.50

  PRINCIPAL CHARACTERS

  Names in bold are principal characters. The principal characters among African Americans are all slaves of Charles Colcock Jones (1804–1863) and Mary Jones (1808–1869) unless otherwise noted.

  AFRICAN AMERICANS

  ABRAM SCRIVEN, husband of Dinah. He had been a slave of Audley Maxwell (1766–1840) and was inherited by Julia Maxwell King following her father’s death in 1840. He and Dinah both lived on Colonel’s Island—he at the Woodville settlement, she at the May-bank settlement. They had four children: Harry, Sylvia, Abram, and Dublin. When the Roswell King (1796–1854) estate was settled in 1858, the elder Abram was sold in Savannah to a slave trader from New Orleans. In 1863 he was living in Atlanta, where he had remarried. There is some indication that he returned to Liberty County after the Civil War. Name sometimes spelled “Abream.”

  ABREAM SCRIVEN. See Abram Scriven.

  ADAM (1825–1863), youngest son of Lizzy and Robinson and brother to Lymus, Cato, Cassius (Cash), and Porter—see genealogical chart “Lizzy and Robinson.” Not to be confused with Big Adam, the husband of Adam’s sister Sina. He was often called Little Adam and sometimes Old Block. He was an agricultural laborer. In 1858 he married a woman who was a slave of the Reverend Isaac Stockton Keith Axson. In the early days of the Civil War, Adam was sent with seven others from Carlawter to work on the river fortifications of Savannah. While there, he contracted river cholera and died from its lingering effects at Carlawter in the fall of 1863.

  ANDREW (1800–1870+) husband of Mary Ann. He and Mary Ann, together with their four children, were bought by Andrew Maybank at an auction in Riceboro in 1828. Charles and Mary Jones inherited the family when Andrew Maybank died in 1834. Andrew and Mary Ann lived from 1828 until 1863 in the Maybank settlement. Andrew was the driver at Maybank during this entire period. They were members of the Sunbury Baptist Church and had seven children, including Dinah, Charles, Gilbert, and Little Andrew. See genealogical chart “Andrew and Mary Ann Lawson.” In 1863 the couple was moved to Bonaventure plantation on the Medway River. Following the Civil War, they lived at Carlawter with several of their children and their families. They adopted Lawson as their family name.

  BECK (1842–1862), daughter of Porter and Patience. She grew up at Maybank and Carlawter following her mother, who moved between the two plantations as the chief cook for the Jones family. See genealogical charts “Robin and Lizzy West” and “Lizzy and Robinson.” Beck married Ben Lowe, a slave of a neighboring planter, during the Christmas holidays 1860. She died in June 1862 of dysentery following a severe case of measles.

  BEN LOWE. See Beck.

  CASH. See Cassius.

  CASH JONES (1837–1869+), the son of Cassius and Phoebe. He was often called Young Cassius, or Young Cash.

  CASSIUS (1811–1857+), third son of Lizzy and Robinson, and husband of Phoebe. He was named for his maternal uncle and often went by Cash. Cassius was the brother of Lymus, Cato, Porter, and Adam. See genealogical chart “Lizzy and Robinson.” He was moved with his parents and siblings to Carlawter in 1817 and lived there until 1856. He became a “good field hand, basket maker, and handy at jobs,” but also gained, in contrast to his brothers Cato and Porter, a reputation as a rogue and troublemaker. He married Phoebe in 1837, and they had ten children, including Young Cassius (or Cash Jones), Jane, and LaFayette. Cassius had a son, James, by Peggy, the daughter of Hamlet and Elvira, and a daughter, Nanny, by a slave of Roswell King (1796–1854). He and Phoebe were sold in Savannah with their children in 1856.

  CATO (1809–1866), the second son of Lizzy and Robinson. He was moved with his parents and siblings to Carlawter in 1817 and lived there until 1865. Cato was the brother of Lymus, Cassius (Cash), Porter, and Adam. See genealogical chart “Lizzy and Robinson.” He was the driver at Montevideo from 1840 until 1865, and a watchman for the North Newport Baptist Church. In 1839 he married Betsy (1820–1854), the daughter of Jack and Marcia. He and his brother Cassius were thus married to half-sisters: Betsy and Phoebe. Betsy was owned by Joseph Jones (1779–1846) and lived at the Retreat settlement until Joseph Jones’s death, when she became a slave of Charles Berrien Jones. She was moved to Walthourville in 1854. Cato and Betsy had three children, including twins Rinah and Ned (1843–?). Cato married second Jane, who was owned by the estate of Joseph Bacon. They adopted Holmes as their family name.

  CHARLES (1820–1870+), oldest son of Andrew and Mary Ann, and husband of Lucy. He was the brother of Dinah, Gilbert, and Little Andrew. See genealogical chart “Andrew and Mary Ann Lawson.” He should not be confused with his master Charles Colcock Jones (1804–1863), who was also called Charles, or with Charles Colcock Jones (1831–1893), who was called Charlie. Charles and Lucy married in 1840 and had their only child, Tenah, in 1841. Charles moved between Montevideo, Maybank, and Arcadia as he was assigned work as an oxcart driver. Lucy generally remained at Montevideo and Maybank working as a domestic servant to Mary Jones. He became a member of Midway in 1852. When Mary Sharpe Jones married Robert Quarterman Mallard, Lucy and Charles became, with Tenah, the property of Mary Sharpe Mallard. In 1863, when the Mallards moved to Atlanta, Charles and Lucy were carried with them, together with Tenah and her new husband, Niger (1839–1891+). After the Civil War, Charles and Lucy lived at Carlawter with other members of their extended familiesand declared their family name to be Lawson.

  CLARISSA (1766–1856), an old slave bought from the Andrew Maybank estate by Charles Colcock Jones (1804–1863) in order for her to remain at the Maybank settlement and at the Retreat. She was often call Old Clarissa or Mom Clarissa and should not be confused with Phoebe’s daughter Clarissa (1825–1865+). She had come to Maybank in 1794 with her mistress Elizabeth Girardeau Maybank, the maternal aunt of Charles Colcock Jones. “Mom Clarissa” would become a source of genealogical information and family tradition for the Charles Colcock Jones family. She spent her last days at the Retreat, where her daughters Sally and Sue cared for her.

  CLARISSA (1825–1865+), the daughter of Phoebe and an unknown father. She was the half-sister of John and of the children of Phoebe and Cassius. She is not to be confused with Clarissa (1766–1856). She apparently remained at Carlawter when her mother was working in Savannah in 1831 as the personal servant of Mary Jones. While she spent most of 1838 in Columbia working as a young domestic under the supervision of her grandfather Jack, she became a field worker and a rather marginal figure in the slave community at Carlawter. Her first child, Phoebe, was born in 1848 of an unknown father after Clarissa had been moved to Arcadia. She married Patrick, a slave of a neighboring planter in 1851. Their first child, Jane, had been born
the year before. She became a member of the Midway congregation in 1853. She and Patrick had three more children before Clarissa was sent to Indianola in 1863 and Patrick married another woman. By 1865 Clarissa was married to Pulaski, a carpenter who had also been sent to Indianola. They returned to Carlawter immediately after the Civil War and took Fraser as their family name.

  DADDY JACK. See Jack.

  DADDY ROBIN. See Robin.

  DINAH (1828–1861), the daughter of Andrew and Mary Ann, sister of Charles and Gilbert. See genealogical chart “Andrew and Mary Ann Lawson.” She lived all her life at May-bank. In 1850 she married Abram Scriven, a slave of Julia Maxwell King. He lived in the settlement at Woodville. They had four children—Harry, Silvia, Little Abram, and Dublin. When Abram Scriven was carried to Savannah to be sold in 1858, Dinah tried desperately but unsuccessfully through Mary Jones to have him purchased by someone who would return him to Colonel’s Island and his family. In the spring of 1861 she married James, a slave of W. C. Stevens of Palmyra plantation. She died of typhoid fever in the fall of 1861 and was buried in the slave cemetery at Maybank.

  DR. HARRY. See Harry Stevens.

  ELSEY (1809–1891+), daughter of Robin and Lizzy, sister of Stepney and Patience, and wife of Syphax, a carpenter who lived at White Oak plantation. See genealogical chart “Robin and Lizzy West.” Her name was often spelled “Elsie.” She worked closely with her sister Patience as a domestic servant and cook for Mary Jones. When Mary Sharpe Jones married Robert Quarterman Mallard in 1857, Elsey and six children and one grandchild became the property of the Mallards. In the spring of 1865 she went with Mary Jones to the Refuge in southwest Georgia, returning some months later to Liberty County, where she and Syphax adopted the family name of Maxwell and rented and then purchased land at Arcadia. She was a member of the North Newport Baptist Church.