18 January 1831: A Local Census Tally

On this day in 1831, the Athenian posted this breakdown of the population count for Clarke county and the city of Athens:

In 1831, Clarke county was significantly larger than it is today, including all of the land now in Oconee county, which cut Clarke in half when it was created in 1875.

The black population is almost equal to the white population, but most interesting is the 29 "free colored" people living in Clarke county in 1831. Georgia had some of the harshest laws for free blacks, including forbidding them from becoming masons or mechanics, skills that would likely lead to economic stability. Georgia and Virginia were the only two southern states that did not allow free blacks to vote.

The state also gave anyone who suspected their supposedly white neighbors of  only pretending to be white to take them to court to make them prove they had less than 1/8th "Negro blood," lest they continue to have the privileges of marriage, literacy, suffrage, and professional employment. However, despite such hardships, free African-American communities did exist, such as Springfield near Augusta, Georgia.

Learn More:

• Athenian, January 26, 1827 - March 13, 1832 on Microfilm in the Heritage collection.
• A Story Untold: Black Men and Women in Athens History by Michael L. Thurmond in the Heritage, young adult, and general collections.
• Life Upon These Shores: Looking at African American History 1513-2008 by Henry Louis Gates in the new books collection.
• Freedom: Georgia's Anti-Slavery Heritage, 1733-1865 by Michael L. Thurmond in the general collection.
• Neither More Nor Less Than Men: Slavery in Georgia, edited by Mills Lane in the general collection.
• Black Heritage Sites: An African American Odyssey and Finders Guide by Nancy Curtis in the reference collection.
• Springfield: A Free African-American Community in Georgia website.
• "I Was Not Born a Slave, Nor in a Log Cabin" by UGA history student Daniel Jenkins.
• Antebellum African-American Resources from the free Archives.com Experts section.
• Before Freedom Came: African-American Life in the Antebellum South, a bibliography compiled by the Smithsonian Institution.
• Free Blacks in Antebellum America in the African American Odyssey exhibit of the Library of Congress' American Memory site.

27 September 1833: Legislator Madison Davis Is Born

On this day in 1833, Madison "Mat" Davis was born a slave in Athens, Georgia. He was owned by a local carriage maker, but was freed at the end of the Civil War at the age of 31. He spent some time as a U.S. Customs Surveyor in Atlanta, and in 1866 was Captain of Relief No. 2, Clarke County's first black fire company. Davis was "involved in" the purchase of land for the Knox Institute school that opened in 1867, named for Major John J. Knox, the Athens Sub-District Assistant Commissioner of the Freedman's Bureau.

In 1868, Davis and another former slave, Alfred Richardson, were elected to represent Clarke County in the Georgia House of Representatives. That September, members of the Georgia Legislature decided that while it may be legal for black men to vote, there was nothing in the state constitution that made it legal for them to serve as representatives. Of the 29 black men elected to the Georgia House, 25 were ejected, with a committee appointed to investigate the backgrounds of the four representatives who could not immediately be proven to be more than one-eighth African-American, including Madison Davis. After the investigation, two more representatives were expelled, but Davis and former Union officer and Wilkes County representative Edwin Belcher, were not "because of their light complexions." In 1869, the Georgia Supreme Court ruled black legislators did have the right to hold office, and the expelled representatives were reinstated.

Davis was re-elected in 1870, and was considered "an efficient lawmaker." He introduced bills to build a new Georgia Railroad line through the city of Athens, and in the 1870-1871 session passed a measure to provide assistance to a prominent white family in Athens that had fallen on hard times after the war. He was, however, considered a black politician, and both of his electoral wins were dependent upon the black vote. He chose not to run again in 1872, and pursued a career in real estate. Davis remained active in Republican politics, and in 1890, he was appointed Postmaster of Athens by President Benjamin Harrison.

In the 1870, 1880, and 1900 censuses, and the 1889 Athens City Directory, Madison Davis is listed as living with his family, his wife Ella Church Davis and their children and sometimes their grandchildren, on Newton Street. The couple was married for 44 years, and several of their children were also engaged in serving their communities. Their daughter Elizabeth married A.M.E. Bishop Archibald J. Carey, Sr., and daughter Mattie Beulah married C.M.E. Bishop James A. Bray and was president of the black Women's Club of Athens. Their son James P. Davis was an administrator in the Federal Department of Agriculture, and an informal advisor to Franklin Delano Roosevelt as part of the "Black Cabinet" in the 1930s.

Madison Davis died in December, 1902, at the age of 69. Athens newspapers of that time are incomplete, so it is unclear if his death was acknowledged. He is buried in Gospel Pilgrim Cemetery in Athens.

Learn More:

• A Story Untold: Black Men and Women in Athens History by Michael Thurmond in the Heritage, general, and young adult collections.
• Gospel Pilgrim Cemetery: An African-American Historic Site by Al Hester in the Heritage collection.
• Black Politicians & Reconstruction in Georgia: A Splendid Failure by Edmund L. Drago in the general collection.
• The Republican Party in Georgia: From Reconstruction Through 1900 by Olive Hall Shadgett in the Heritage collection.
• Black Reconstruction in America 1860-1880 by W.E.B. Du Bois in the Heritage collection.
• A Constitutional History of Georgia 1732-1945 by Albert Berry Saye in the Heritage and general collections.
• 1889 Athens City Directory in the Heritage collection.
• 1870, 1880, and 1900 Censuses via HeritageQuest Online in GALILEO. (please call for password)
• Expelled Because of Color sculpture on the grounds of the Georgia State House.
• The forthcoming book, Enduring Legacy: Clarke County, Georgia's Ex-Slave Legislators Madison Davis and Alfred Richardson by Al Hester.

More New Books in the Heritage Room

On this day, we'd like to tell you about more of the new books now available in the Heritage Room.

• Terrell County, Georgia Newspaper Clippings, Volume III (1877-1880) and Volume V (1886-1889) by Elizabeth Evans Kilbourne (we already have Volume IV)
  
• History of the Colored Race in America by William T. Alexander (originally published in 1887)
• Clinch County, Georgia, Marriage Records Index, 1846 to 1962 by Jessie H. Paulk and Delma W. Paulk
• North Carolina Slaves and Free Persons of Color: Iredell County by William L. Byrd III and John H. Smith
• The Most Dangerous Branch: Slavery, the Courts, and the Constitution by Randall C. Young
  
• History of the Underground Railroad by Col. William M. Cockrum (originally published in 1915)
• The Gettysburg Nobody Knows edited by Gabor S. Boritt
• Guide to Tracing Your African Ameripean Civil War Ancestor by Jeanette Braxton Secret
• Voices from the Past: 104th Infantry Regiment, USCT Colored Civil War Soldiers from South Carolina edited by J. Raymond Gourdin
• Bounties to Black Soldiers by William W. Belknap (originally published in 1870)
• Tapestry: A Living History of the Black Family in Southeastern Connecticut by James M. Rose and Barbara W. Brown
  
• Cecil County, Maryland, Indentures 1777-1814 by Jerry M. Hynson
• Register of Free Blacks, Rockingham County, Virginia, 1807-1859 by Dorothy A. Boyd-Rush
• Pittsylvania County, Virginia, Deeds 1765-1774 by Lucille C. Payne and Neil G. Payne (covers Deed Books 1, 2, and 3)
• Blacksburg by Richard A. Straw (Images of America series)

31 July 1856: Monroe Bowers Morton Is Born

On this day in 1856, according to the 1900 Federal Census, Monroe Bowers "Pink" Morton was born a slave in Athens, Georgia. Over the next 63 years, he would become a well-known entrepreneur and "one of the leaders of the republican party in Georgia."

Morton started earning his own money at age 6 by working as a hotel porter during the Civil War. Once Morton and his family were emancipated, there is little evidence he received any formal education, though the Freedman's Bureau did open the Knox School in Athens in 1868. In the 1870 U. S. Census he is listed as living with his mother, two brothers (Willie, age 10, and Albert, age 6) and two sisters (Sue, age 5, and Emma, 2), but none of them are mentioned as having jobs or attending school. By the 1880 Census, he was married and was working in "Retail Grocery."

Morton eventually went into the construction and real estate business, at one point owning between 25 and 30 houses in Athens. He was active in Republican politics, and attended the 1896 Republican Convention in St. Louis, Missouri. He was elected to be the Georgia representative on the committee that notified William McKinley of Ohio that he had won the party's nomination. After McKinley's inauguration in March, 1897, Morton was appointed postmaster of Athens, a position he held until 1902.

After leaving government service, he returned to construction. He was involved in the construction of the Wilkes County courthouse in Washington, Georgia in 1904, and built his most famous building, the Morton Theatre, in 1909. He also built "a $10,000 marble building on Clayton Street," which is now home to Helix gifts. Two other Athens buildings on "hot corner," the Samaritan Building and Union Hall, have been torn down. In 1914, Morton purchased a local African-American newspaper, the Progressive Era, from W. D. Johnson, an A. M. E. bishop, and W. H. Harris, a dentist with offices in the Morton building. Morton was listed as editor and publisher of the paper, but no copies from his time as publisher have survived.

Morton, his wife Lula, and their four children lived in a large home at the corner of Milledge and Prince Avenues, where Flowerland florist is located today. He lived there from the 1880s until his death on February 12, 1919, "as a result of chronic heart trouble." In his will, he leaves a piece of property and cash to his two sisters, Susie and Emma, and the rest of his estate to his wife and children. He is buried in a fenced family lot in Gospel Pilgrim Cemetery in Athens.


Learn More:

• Black Vaudeville, the TOBA, and the Morton Theatre by Thomas L. Riis in the Heritage and general collections.
  
• A Story Untold: Black Men and Women in Athens History by Michael Thurmond in the Heritage, young adult, and general collections.
• Athens: A Pictorial History 1801-2001 by James K. Reap in the Heritage and general collections.
• Gospel Pilgrim Cemetery: An African-American Historic Site by Al Hester in the Heritage collection.
• Morton Theatre, Athens, Georgia: Adaptive Rehabilitation of a 1910 Theatre in the Heritage collection.
  
• A Portrait of Athens and Clarke County, Georgia by Frances Taliaferro Thomas in the Heritage and general collections.
• Black Georgia in the Progressive Era, 1900-1920 by John Dittmer in the Heritage and general collections.
• 1860 Federal Census Slave Schedules on Microfilm in the Heritage collection and via Ancestry Library Edition in GALILEO.
• 1870, 1880, 1900, 1910 Federal Census on Microfilm in the Heritage collection and via HeritageQuest in GALILEO. (please call for password)
• Athens City Directory, 1912 - 1913 in the Heritage collection.
• Clarke County, Georgia Ordinary Estate Records-3 (Will Book F, 1912-1927) on Microfilm in the Heritage collection.
• Athens Banner, Dec. 1918 - Jul. 1919 on Microfilm in the Heritage collection.
• Morton Theatre website.
  

1 January 1910 - Quilter Harriet Powers Dies

On this day 100 years ago, quilter Harriet Powers died at the age of 72. She had been born into slavery near Clarke County, and later exhibited her quilts at the Athens Cotton Fair. Powers used appliques to tell stories of the Bible and intersperse celestial and historical events in each panel. Even in the one known photograph of her, she wears an apron with applique stars.

Only two quilts survive, the Bible Quilt (ca. 1886), now part of the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History collection; and the Pictorial Quilt (ca. 1895-1898), now part of the Boston Museum of Fine Arts Textiles collection. The Pictorial Quilt is thought to be a commission, but she did not want to part with the Bible Quilt until financial hardship left her no other option. She would sometimes visit the quilt in owner Jennie Smith's home.

Not much is known of Powers' daily life. She and her husband Armstead, together since before the Civil War when they were slaves on neighboring plantations, had nine children together, with three surviving to adulthood. Her son Alonzo, a preacher, was interviewed by a WPA Writers' Project employee in 1934 in Clarke County. From his words, a small picture of her life before she was freed from slavery comes into view, for though Alonzo was probably too young to remember being enslaved, many of his memories coincide with the historical record. Harriet Powers is buried with her husband and daughter in Gospel Pilgrim Cemetery in Athens, Georgia.

Learn More:

• Athens Banner, Jan. 1910 - Jun. 1910 on Microfilm in Heritage collection.
• This I Accomplish: Harriet Powers' Bible Quilt and Other Pieces by Kyra E. Hicks in the Heritage and general collections.
• Athens Memories: The WPA Federal Writers' Project Interviews edited by Al Hester in the Heritage and general collections.
• Stitching Stars: The Story Quilts of Harriet Powers by Mary E. Lyons in the Children's collection.
  
• Missing Pieces: Georgia Folk Art 1770-1976 edited by Anna Wadsworth in the general collection.
• Gospel Pilgrim Cemetery: An African-American Historic Site by Al Hester in the Heritage collection.
• The Bible Quilt at the Smithsonian National Museum of American History.
• The Pictorial Quilt at the Boston Museum of Fine Arts.