Sapelo

We got up really early on Tuesday, and went to Sapelo Island.

It's a barrier island off the Georgia coast. You get to the island by ferry. It was really a beautiful place.

There's not much there, really:

It has a post office.

And a gorgeous beach

incredible vegetation

and a turkey fountain, with this lovely face on it, that R.J. Reynolds installed for one of his many wives on their Sapelo estate.

But we didn't go to Sapelo because of R. J. Reynolds' house. We went there to see the remnants of the island's longstanding (but shrinking) African American community.

Today, most of Sapelo is owned by the state of Georgia. But in the antebellum period, much of the island was owned by Thomas Spaulding, a large slaveholder. The part of the Island that remains in private hands is a few hundred acres, home to a community called Hog Hammock.

The residents of Hog Hammock are descended from the Spaulding plantation's slaves. The island's population is falling, and it's clear that Hog Hammock's way of life is in jeopardy.

Looking at my photographs, I realise I didn't take any pictures of the houses in, or the residents of, Hog Hammock. It wasn't a conscious decision -- but I wonder if it came from my feeling that we should tread lightly, and try not to be too intrusive, while we were there. Maybe now I'll be less quick to judge those who take pictures of places that erase people from the landscape, since I basically did it myself because I didn't want to seem rude!

Ironically, even though I didn't take her photograph, it's easy to find a picture of Cornelia Walker Bailey. She's written a book about her life. She's even got an entry in the New Georgia Encyclopedia.

Anyway, over lunch, Ms. Bailey spoke about the island's religious practices, about cultural norms, and a little about the end of slavery days.

The thing she said that made me think the most was that she didn't use the word slave owner.

She called the ex-plantation master a slaveholder. For Ms. Bailey, it was important to distinguish between the two, because she said (I paraphrase) that you can't own someones soul.

I surely hope she's right that people always hold onto a spark of autonomy, regardless of their circumstances, but I am pessimistic enough to wonder if she's really right.

Can someone own another person so completely that they don't have any independent thought or action? Or does a light of humanity always shine through?

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