African American Life in South Carolina's Upper Piedmont, 1780-1900

by W. J. Megginson, Orville Vernon Burton (Foreword by)

Overview

A rich portrait of Black life in South Carolina's Upstate

Encyclopedic in scope, yet intimate in detail, African American Life in South Carolina's Upper Piedmont, 1780–1900, delves into the richness of community life in a setting where Black residents were relatively few, notably disadvantaged, but remarkably cohesive. W. J. Megginson shifts the conventional study of African Americans in South Carolina from the much-examined Lowcountry to a part of the state that offered a quite different existence for people of color. In Anderson, Oconee, and Pickens counties—occupying the state's northwest corner—he finds an independent, brave, and stable subculture that persevered for more than a century in the face of political and economic inequities. Drawing on little-used state and county denominational records, privately held research materials, and sources available only in local repositories, Megginson brings to life African American society before, during, and after the Civil War. Orville Vernon Burton, Judge Matthew J. Perry Jr. Distinguished Professor of History at Clemson University and University Distinguished Teacher/Scholar Emeritus at the University of Illinois, provides a new foreword.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781643363387
Publisher:	University of South Carolina Press
Publication date:	08/03/2022
Edition description:	second edition
Pages:	572
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 1.75(d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

W. J. Megginson (1943–2020) was a native of Upstate South Carolina. He received his PhD from George Washington University and taught at Arkansas State University, Hendrix College in Arkansas, Drexel University, and La Salle University.

Table of Contents

List of Illustrations ix

List of Tables xi

Foreword Orville Vernon Burton xiii

Acknowledgments xix

Editorial Note xxiii

Prologue: Milly Dupree 1

Introduction: A Piedmont Setting 4

Part 1 The Setting, the Peoples, and Their Work

Introduction to Part 1 17

1 The Early Years, 1784-1810 19

2 Piedmont Peoples, Their Environment, and Their Work 30

3 The Puzzling Free Persons of Color 51

4 Those Who Were Free Persons of Color 60

Part 2 Interactions between Black and White

Introduction to Part 2 73

5 Laws, Courts, and Resistance 75

6 Churches, a Shared Setting 96

7 Ambivalent Interactions 113

Part 3 African American Subculture and Life on the Plantation

Introduction to Part 3 123

8 Carving out a Niche 125

9 Families, Mortality, and Names 140

10 Material and Emotional Conditions 157

Part 4 Transitions

Introduction to Part 4 179

11 War Years, the Home Front, and African Americans 181

12 Reconstruction's First Months, 1865 196

13 Reconstruction Evolves, 1866-68 213

14 Panorama of Black Families in Freedom 230

Part 5 Community Building: Organizations, Concepts, and Opportunities

Introduction to Part 5 251

15 Black Political Activity, 1867-75 253

16 Black Politics Curtailed, 1876-90 274

17 Community Building: Churches and Schools 286

18 Black Communities, Town and Rural 311

19 Anderson's Urban Community 335

20 Divergent Views of Blacks 354

Part 6 Changing Conditions, for Better, for Worse

Introduction to Part 6 371

21 Societal Attitudes and Oppression 373

22 Political and Economic Subjugation 391

23 1900: One Year in the Life of a Community 405

List of Abbreviations 421

Notes 423

Selected Bibliography: An Essay 509

Index of People 519

Index of Subjects 533

About the Author 547

What People are Saying About This

Loren Schweninger

"Relying on a broad range of contemporary and statistical evidence, Megginson offers a new perspective concerning the complex nature of race relations over more than a century in an area where the black population remained in a minority and stable over several generations."
—University of North Carolina at Greensboro

Allen B. Ballard

This remarkable and totally engrossing piece of scholarship—among the very best works ever published about African American life in the South—stands as a model of local history and research writing. Every page casts new and revealing light on such subjects as race relations and Black religion, education, and social life in the South during the period.