A Piece of the Pie: Patterns of African-American Land Ownership in Haywood County
Dorothy Granberry, Ph.D., Tennessee State University
Before the yellow fever epidemic in 1878 created a stream of refugees fleeing towns and cities for the countryside; before the election of William Winfield and Samuel McElwee to county offices in the 1880s; and before the pivotal election of 1888 when massive voter fraud was leveled against county officials, African-Americans in Haywood County had established themselves as farm owners, as well as tenant farmers. These landowners, along with those that rented and sharecropped, constituted the majority of area farmers until the 1960s. Land was important to these people. Land was the means by which they fed their families. Land was the foundation for economic and social life. The story of land ownership in District 2, focusing on the Douglass Community, is typical of the saga repeated across the South during the period from the end of the American Civil War to 1940.
The earliest known landowner of African descent in District 2 was Cato Walker (born 1835) and his first wife, Patty, who acquired a 250 acre farm in 1872. The farm was purchased for $7,500 payable in three installations of $2,500 each. This farm, located about four miles east of Stanton and two miles from Douglass Church, was known as the Walker farm and is still remembered by long-time community residents. Walker and his family of four sons and two daughters worked this tract along with several renter and sharecropper families. Patty Walker died not long after the family finished paying for the land. When the widower, Walker, married Lucinda Perry in 1879, their pre-nuptial arrangement included the designation of fifty acres of land as her property.
By 1889, there were thirteen other African-American farm owners in addition to Walker. The average size of these farms was 80 acres. These families built comfortable houses along with barns, cribs, smokehouses, and other outbuildings required on an operating farm. Marion Sweet (born 1842), Elias Foster (born 1833), Henry Carney (born 1852), and Paul Jackson (born 1820) in the St. John Community are typical of this group of owners. Marion Sweet acquired a farm of 127 acres, in two tracts. Before 1900, he and his wife, Celia, erected an eight-room, two-story farm house. The remnants of this house still exist on the land owned by his great grandson, John Claybon and his wife, Shirley.
- The New Farmers of America, Douglass Chapter, late 1950s, pictured with the community representative, Mr. Tom Sanderlin, and instructor, Mr. Theodore Giles. These young men are from the Douglass Community, Stanton, TN. This was a skills-teaching opportunity.
The 1890s and early 1900s witnessed an increase in farm ownership by area African-Americans, along with the purchase of land for church sites by local congregations. This occurs despite the rise of racist oppression during the era. Ed Jackson (born 1867) and his wife, Annette, bought a 68-acre farm from J.E. Douglass during this period. Jackson had lived on Cato Walker's place and rented farm land from Douglass before buying his plot. After acquiring his modest farm, Jackson planted a pecan tree on the land he bought. This tree, more than 100 years old, still stands on the land presently owned by Jackson's great niece and nephew, Lelia and T.G. Greer. As the years of the new century passed, more families acquired modest farms. Among them were Dave (born 1848) and Sallie Archibald and their family of three sons and a daughter. The sons, Dave, Jr., Zinnor, and Windsor and the daughter, Katie Bowles, all farmed in the Douglass Community. By the 1920s, the farms of the early owners had passed into the hands of their children. Henry Sweet, along with his sister, Julia Sweet Bishop, and brother, Louis Sweet, were left equal shares of Marion and Celia Sweet's farm. Elias and Mariah Foster's farm passed to their son, Caleb. Henry Carney's farm was in the hands of his son, Henry, Jr. Paul Jackson's land was farmed by his step-son, Martin Peterson, and his family.
This farming community, severely impacted by the depression of the 1930s, was selected as a site for a Farm Security Administration (FSA) farm project which came to be locally known as "The Project" and was located in the Douglass Community. Thirty-seven farms were carved out of a tract of land bought primarily from Willis Burchett Douglass, the son of J.E. Douglass. In addition to cropland and woodland, each farm contained a five-room clapboard house, waterpump, barn, smokehouse, and outdoor toilet. A new school, Douglass Junior High School was also built to replace Antioch School which was situated in what is now part of the Douglass Church Cemetery. Representative of the settlers on the FSA project were Richard (born 1885) and Mattie Mae Ragland who purchased a 160-acre farm on the road to Dancyville. A 1940 report to the FSA noted the gains the Ragland family had made during their participation in the project. They had diversified their crops, increased their canning, and increased the family's overall cash flow.
- The Drum and Fife Band, Fredonia Lodge, early 1940s at the Annual 8th of August Picnic, Douglass School grounds. This celebration was a community effort and is still observed to this day. Stanton, TN
Early on, the original (FSA) participants decided to commemorate their community with an annual picnic, the Eighth of August Picnic. This affair was a celebration of land ownership, bountiful crops, and community. Sometime during the afternoon of the day of the picnic, you could hear the BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! of Haley Massey's drum in the Freedonia Lodge Drum and Fife Ensemble announcing that a picnic was taking place. The all-male band would play into the night as picnic goers rode the flying horses, ate barbecue cooked by Jackson Sanderlin and other men, and visited with their neighbors. This celebration continues as an annual event in the Douglass community.
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