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Past as Prologue: Sea Island Cotton as Heuristic Metaphor for the Port Royal Experiment

Past as Prologue: Sea Island Cotton as Heuristic Metaphor for the Port Royal Experiment 662105 SGOXXX10.1177/2158244016662105SAGE OpenThrone research-article2016 Article SAGE Open July-September 2016: 1 –8 © The Author(s) 2016 Past as Prologue: Sea Island Cotton as DOI: 10.1177/2158244016662105 sgo.sagepub.com Heuristic Metaphor for the Port Royal Experiment Robin Throne What would happen if no cotton was furnished for three years? 1860 valuation of “four million people worth at least $3 billion” (W. Johnson, 2013). Combined, the abandoned England would topple headlong and carry the whole civilized property became a unique socioeconomic opportunity for world with her. Chase to launch the Port Royal Experiment (Breitbord, 2011; Ochiai, 2001; Rose, 1964; hereafter, “the Experiment”), No, you dare not make war on cotton! and Chase dispatched 53 abolitionists, teachers, doctors, missionaries, and clergy to the Sea Islands as a first test case No power on earth dares make war upon it. of slavery-to-freedom (Ochiai, 2001). These efforts were fueled by altruistic motivations of some emancipators to Cotton is King. arm the newly emancipated “with the educational and —U.S. Senator James Henry Hammond of South Carolina, 1858 social tools to build independent, productive, free lives” (Breitbord, 2011) while others continued to view the status of the emancipated as problematic (Brabec & Richardson, Background 2007). On November 7, 1861, the U.S. Union Army occupied the The Experiment headquarters became the Department Sea Islands following an invasion of the Port Royal Sound of the South throughout the duration of the war, which led that left some 10,000 former slaves to be cared for and 80,000 to a preponderance of written first-person narratives by confiscated acres of Sea Island plantation property to be cul- emancipators who visited, managed, and lived within this tivated (Hazzard, 2012; Ochiai, 2001; Rose, 1964; Rowland, first test of preemption and emancipation (Brabec & Moore, & Rogers, 1996). A historical, economic, and cultural Richardson, 2007; Ochiai, 2001), and many quoted or view of the Sea Islands and low country, a culturally and eco- chronicled the experiences of the emancipated. This quali- logically unique 250-mile stretch along the coast of South tative study focused on these archival personal narratives Carolina and Georgia (Brabec & Richardson, 2007; Rowland and other first-person oral and written accounts of the et al., 1996), is not complete without consideration of the Sea emancipated and emancipators in the first 24 months of the Island’s cotton economy (Ochiai, 2001; Porcher & Wick, Experiment (November 1861-November 1863) as interpre- 2005; Sink, 2010) and the particular strain of Sea Island cot- tations of the record of first-person accounts has been lim- ton, the lucrative “silky staple” that sold for a premium at ited (Cross, 2012; Pollitzer, 1999). The study offered an US$2 per pound, and was meticulously refined by seed selec- “experience-near” retrospective (Geertz, 1983; Pratt, tion, fertilization (saltmarsh mulch and oyster shells), cultiva- 1986) before The Freedmen’s Bureau was established and tion, and gin techniques (Porcher & Wick, 2005; Sink, 2010). before many of the Experiment provisions were reversed However, the harvest of the 90,000 pounds of this zenith and under the Johnson administration that followed Lincoln’s lucrative 1861 cotton crop, seized by the Union Army in the death (Abbott, 1967; Hazzard, 2012; Ochiai, 2001; Pease, Port Royal occupation was difficult, if not impossible, with- 1957; Rose, 1964). Current researchers including Guthrie out the free labor acquired via the experiment in the first year and Peevely (2010) have paralleled the historical impact of of the war (Hazzard, 2012; Ochiai, 2001; Porcher & Wick, the pre-emancipation cotton economy and its impact on 2005; Rose, 1964), which resulted in a US$500,000 profit for contemporary educational outcomes and chronic poverty. the U.S. treasury (Ochiai, 2001). The authors posited that The U.S. treasury department, led by Secretary Salmon P. Chase, an influential anti-slavery advocate within the Northcentral University, San Diego, CA, USA President’s cabinet (Breitbord, 2011; Ochiai, 2001; Rose, Corresponding Author: 1964), was quite interested in the profits of the 1861 Sea Robin Throne, Northcentral University, Historic Decatur Rd., Suite 100, Island cotton crop (Ochiai, 2001) coupled with the human San Diego, CA 92106, USA. capital that had built the great cotton kingdom with an Email: rthrone@ncu.edu Creative Commons CC-BY: This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License (http://www.creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/) which permits any use, reproduction and distribution of the work without further permission provided the original work is attributed as specified on the SAGE and Open Access pages (https://us.sagepub.com/en-us/nam/open-access-at-sage). 2 SAGE Open given the historical links between cotton, southern political institutions, and intergenerational poverty . . . a critical consideration for the overall health and economic development of the Black belt . . . If the educational outcomes of the Black Belt were improved, it would be so significant as to improve the international educational standing of the United States. (p. 14) Therefore, this study has a contemporary relevance for cur- rent Sea Island heirs’ property challenges, the erosion of their land culture, and the apparent, yet often, overlooked linkages between the historical record and Sea Island property reten- tion among emancipated descendants that remains an ongo- ing contest (Brabec & Richardson, 2007; Center for Heirs’ Property Preservation, 2013; Dyer & Bailey, 2008; Dyer, Insightinto the Emancipated Lived Experiences Bailey, & Van Tran, 2009; Hazzard, 2012; Jones-Jackson, 2011; Rivers, 2007). Figure 1. Metaphoric interaction: Frame and focus. Metaphoric focus and frame interaction results in new meaning. Source. Adapted from Ayoob (2007). Heuristic Metaphor Sea Island cotton was a genus of Gossypium that represented (Ayoob, 2007; Black, 1979), but a dynamic analysis of the an epoch of enslaved African toil to clothe English and French interaction of the focus and the frame (see Figure 1). This royalty and aristocracy, culminating in the wealth of South systematic theoretical lens was used to explore and discover Carolina Sea Island planters whom many have purported to unknown experiences ascertained from first-person accounts have achieved an economic pinnacle from sales of the finest of the Experiment using archival personal narratives and pri- quality cotton fiber ever grown (Porcher & Wick, 2005). As a mary accounts and reports of the lived experience for experi- heuristic metaphor, Sea Island cotton (specifically Gossypium ence-near perspectives (Geertz, 1983; Moustakas, 1990; barbadense L., ca. 1753) offered an interactive metaphor (M. Pratt, 1986). Johnson, 1981) and depictive image (Stambovsky, 1988a, b) Thus, this qualitative heuristic study was founded on by which to explore a complex cultural context of the Sea Black’s (1954, 1958, 1962, 1979) ITM for metaphoric inter- Island emancipated as their lives were intertwined and invested action between a focal word or phrase (Sea Island cotton) within Sea Island cotton (Moustakas, 1990; Porcher & Wick, predicated by the primary subject (the Emancipated) within a 2005). As a transdisciplinary research metaphor (Belenky, specific frame and setting (the Experiment; Black, 1962, Clinchy, Goldberger, & Tarule, 1986; McGregor, 2004), Sea 1979; Stambovsky, 1988b). The use of a conceptual meta- Island cotton illustrated the complexities and transdisciplinar- phor as a semiotic and creative inference has been used ity of the lived experiences of those first emancipated in the across disciplines including the hard sciences where the cre- Experiment that led to eventual abolition of U.S. slavery. The ative inference of metaphor can be tempered by rigorous objective for use of the heuristic metaphor was to seek objec- research method selection and design (Kretzenbacher, 2003). tive over reflexive insights into a primary subject to explore a While ITM has had its critics (Ayoob, 2007), and even Black secondary subject as retrospective (Hirsh & Olson, 1995; (1954) noted the dangers of oversimplification or opacity in Kleining & Witt, 2000, 2001). This use paralleled Ruaune the use of an interactive metaphor unique to time and setting et al.’s (2007) definition of the use of a heuristic metaphor as a of the primary subject, the metaphor was a relevant frame- source domain to connect with the target domain and work to explore the previously unknown lived experience of Stambovsky’s (1988a) prediscursive domain of meaning to the study phenomena (Ellis, 1997; McGregor, 2004; convey metaphoric or non-literal insights of the depictive Moustakas, 1990; Wu, 2001) and an experience-near retro- image using a heuristic and hermeneutic means (Moustakas, spective (Geertz, 1983; Pratt, 1986). Thus, Black’s (1954, 1990). More simply, the metaphor aided in the discovery and 1979) ITM allowed for exploration of a heuristic metaphor elucidation of previously unknown insights into the perspec- with no intention for literal meaning, but a desire to gain new tives and experiences of the newly emancipated in the insight into a lived phenomenon (McGregor, 2004; Experiment from intersecting historical, cultural, and socio- Moustakas, 1990; Wu, 2001) paralleled with an actual life economic contexts (Belenky et al., 1986; Black, 1979; experience (Brandt & Brandt, 2005). Moustakas, 1990; Patton, 2002) as shown in Figure 1. Conceptual Framework Method The interaction theory of metaphor (ITM) is not a simple A qualitative heuristic study was used for a naturalistic comparison of the primary subject with the secondary subject inquiry to explore Sea Island cotton as heuristic metaphor for Throne 3 the experiences of the emancipated in the Experiment Table 1. Emergent Themes (N = 25). (Douglass & Moustakas, 1985; Lieblick, Tuval-Mashiach, & Category Frequency % Zilber, 1998; Moustakas, 1990) using archival first-person narrative accounts as qualitative data for the lived experience Contraband 114 37.0 Experiment labor 69 22.4 of the emancipated and emancipators (Hiles, 2002; Lieblick Military recruitment 42 13.6 et al., 1998). The study design objective was to seek “narra- Economic independence 40 13.0 tive truth . . . to keep the past alive in the present” as meaning and interpretations of the past can be incomplete (Ellis, 1997; Note. 308 coded excerpts. Hirsh & Olson, 1995) and as a form of open-ended heuristic narrative inquiry. The study was guided by one research question: Table 2. Concomitant Themes (N = 25). Experiment labor Contraband Economic independence Research Question 1: What were the perceptions and lived experiences of the newly emancipated in the Port Note. 308 coded excerpts. Royal Experiment as depicted by the metaphor of Sea Island cotton through archival personal narratives and saturation for the emancipated perspective alone was unlikely other first-person reports of the emancipated and and restricted (Pratt, 1986). Full-text transcripts were emancipators? imported into the Dedoose software application for data analysis that used Hiles’s (2002) heuristic indwelling, a mod- The research question was central to the inquiry as it guided ified procedure of the Douglass and Moustakas’ (1985) heu- the analysis of the phenomenon to explore the lived experi- ristic analysis cycle: (a) choose, (b) engage, (c) indwell, (d) ence of non-living subjects whose own heuristic introspec- sift through, (e) reflect (iterative phase), (f) formulate, and tion was no longer possible, but worthy of exploration (Hiles, (g) share. The data analysis method allowed for emergent 2002; Moustakas, 1990; Pratt, 1986). narrative patterns and themes from archival primary texts The use of 25 archival personal narratives and related (Hiles, 2002; Moustakas, 1990; Polanyi, 1966) viewed first-person accounts and reports as qualitative data offered a through a theoretical lens of Black’s (1979) ITM to identify heuristic opportunity to explore narratives of the phenome- experience-near perspectives (Geertz, 1983; Pratt, 1986) non written contemporaneously within the metaphoric focus within a metaphoric focus and frame (see Figure 1). and frame for an external “other/observer” perspective for necessary discernment (Hiles, 2002; Kleining & Witt, 2000, 2001; Pratt, 1986). Purposeful sampling allowed for the Findings selection of relevant archival first-person narratives, reports, Twenty-five primary narrative data transcripts that met the and other primary documents pertinent to the study frame; data collection criteria were imported into Dedoose for the the heuristic research design; and met the data collection cri- heuristic indwelling analysis (Hiles, 2002). Five major teria. These included primary sources from nine emancipated themes emerged from the indwelling data analysis (see and 16 emancipators comprised of two school principals, Table 1), and three of the themes were found to be con- two missionaries, two Union generals, one Union colonel, comitant (see Table 2). Nine transcripts were from the one Union soldier, one Union military aide, and seven aboli- Experiment emancipated and 16 were from emancipators tionists. Data collection was conducted over 1 week in July (an umbrella term for all abolitionists, military, educators, 2013, at the Southern Historical Collection of the University and missionaries who assisted in the test of emancipation) of North Carolina–Chapel Hill Louis Wilson Library to comprising a final sample of 25. gather the archival data. Additional digitized data sources Limitations of the first-person accounts of the emanci- included pertinent slave narratives gathered from the Federal pated were evident not only due to the disparity in the sheer Writers’ Project, 1936-1938 and other digitized documents number of lines of narrative, but also in the lack of contem- from the Library of Congress, Manuscript Division, the U.S. poraneous accounts of the experience from the emancipated National Archives and Records Administration, and other perspective. The noted limitations of first-person accounts publicly available digital collections. for the emancipated and lack of contemporaneous narratives Data were reviewed for proximity and relevance to the within the period of the study led to a continued view of the study frame and excluded if criteria were not sufficiently emancipated from the emancipator viewpoint, which com- met. Kleining and Witt’s (2000) four rules to optimize dis- prised the majority of coded narrative excerpts (97%). Slave covery were followed throughout data collection and analy- sis for an observational/reflective account, and while Spindel narratives were recorded years after emancipation and the (1996) and others have noted the reliability and validity challenges of age and memory reduced these experiences issues with slave narratives, these data were relevant to the (Spindel, 1996) especially when compared with emancipa- study objective and met the data collection criteria; yet, data tors who recorded their perspectives concurrently within the 4 SAGE Open Experiment. Many emancipators also held a significant sump’en ’bout de Civil War. I been young lad when de big semantic advantage, and thus, served to dominate the charac- gun shoot and de Yankee pile down from de north.” Instead, terizations of the Experiment experience from an outsider illustrations of the emancipated perspective and experience perspective as reported by some emancipators (Breitbord, were reported by emancipators such as Emancipator 6 who 2011; Spindel, 1996) and worthy of mention as a limitation said, of results. They have many vices and petty weaknesses of character, but they are all of the kind you would naturally expect to find among Contraband a people brought up under the system of slavery. These vices are, of course, serious obstacles in the way of their elevation, The emancipated did not self-reference as contraband, but and try seriously the patience and faith of those who work did present allusions to self as property or chattel (46.2%). among them. All three of these terms (contraband, chattel, and property) were used widely and often by emancipators to describe the estimated 10,000 emancipated that eventually converged on Experiment Labor the Sea Islands within the first 2 years of the war (Brabec & Emancipators depended on the Experiment’s freed labor to Richardson, 2007; Rose, 1964) and less-often referred to as assist in the harvest of the seized 1861 Sea Island cotton crop refugees by emancipators. As a term of war, contraband and to fulfill the altruistic motivations fueled by the aboli- illustrated the coexistent realities of the continued and syn- tionists to prepare the emancipated for a self-sufficient life of chronous economic value of the newly freed labor and cotton autonomy and freedom from slavery (Ochiai, 2001; Rose, as a singular asset as economic gain from one could not be 1964). This use of free labor under the Experiment was initi- attained without the other (Brabec & Richardson, 2007; ated and described by Emancipator 7: Rose, 1964). This fact was due to not only the tremendous physical labor necessary for this work, but also the founda- We were so entirely cut off from the mainland that there was tional knowledge held by the emancipated in the planters’ little or no danger of raids from the enemy, and thus a measure absentia. The value of this knowledge and enjoinment of cot- of security, one of the most important conditions of regular and ton and the emancipated labor was reflected on by faithful labor among an ignorant class of people, was obtained. Emancipator 14 who said, Military leaders and abolitionists alike saw the economic If you can induce some old man who is a good judge, I would let benefit of the Experiment labor force as noted by Emancipator him pick select cotton all through the season for seed . . . This is 14, who said, the way the most intelligent planters got up their famous varieties of seed, and we ought to be able to use as much brains as they did. Negro labor has got to be employed, if at all, because it is profitable, and it has got to come into the market like everything Other emancipators focused more on the humanitarian else, subject to the supply and demand which may arise from all aspects of the oversight for the newly emancipated as contra- kinds of enterprises in which it chances to be employed. It is not band now the Union’s responsibility, and the resulting reali- likely that it can be protected on a large scale by the amount of ties for their care. Emancipator 5 illustrated the distinction in disinterested philanthropy which happens to be present on the views between those who viewed the contraband as a Sea Islands, but if it can be open to private enterprise, by an occupation of lands free from unnecessary restrictions and under resource windfall versus those with a more collective socio- a proper sense of the security of property . . . We want first to economic perspective whereby “cotton agents think their prove that it is profitable, and then it will take care of itself. interests, and their personal use of negroes, horses, and houses” were priority whereas “the military, are all preju- Emancipator 14 also explained this disparity between the diced, especially the subordinates; the lower you go the northern acquisitions of the cotton economic enterprise with worse the feeling.” Emancipator 16 noted the realities of care free labor versus contraband: driven by those seeking refuge: I don’t agree with you about avoiding publicity for our enterprise What we shall do for the thousands now coming and destined to . . . If we succeed financially, it will prove that free labor is self- follow, I know not. My heart sickens at the prospect of want. But sustaining, and that the Blacks are capable of becoming a useful the people welcome any amount of suffering, so they gain their laboring class immediately after leaving their masters’ hands, liberty . . . The people see not our soldiers; so much as they see and this fact is of vast importance. God. Their faith unwaveringly claims freedom despite appearance, and to all human appearance God wills their freedom. Military Recruitment However, as noted, recollection of the emancipated as con- traband were less specific because they were gathered years Military leadership perceived an immediate value in the after the Experiment as Emancipated 9 said, “But I know sheer numbers of emancipated men in the Experiment and Throne 5 desired to gain a military advantage through military recruit- Economic Independence ment as well as a demonstration of autonomy (Ochiai, 2001; Emancipator observations and perspectives on the attain- Rose, 1964). Emancipator 7 said, ment of the emancipated economic independence varied greatly and appeared to differ based on the perspectives of When Port Royal fell into our hands, about ten thousand Negroes military/government, religious or secular views on abolition, and only one White man were found there. And just here let me and/or education. say, that one reason of the great success of the free labor Emancipator 8 noted the emancipated looked to the experiment in that department is found in the fact that none of Experiment for livelihood, and were “constantly comparing the old masters were left behind to interfere with the plans adopted for the elevation of the freedmen. the time when they used to obtain shoes, dresses, coats, flan- nels, food, etc., from their masters, with the present when Others, such as abolitionists who stayed on the Sea Islands little or nothing is given them.” Others felt they knew what saw many deserters who had no desire for military service. was best for the emancipated especially as land proffering Emancipator 10 said, from the abandoned plantations was considered, such as Emancipator 4, who said, “The chief object of ambition It will be very bad now, if they do not take him, to live on here among the refugees is to own property, especially to possess an outlaw, working his wife’s cotton but not able to resume his land, if it be only a few acres, in their own State.” Thus, plow or his old position in any way—yet if he is taken again he Experiment employment of the emancipated as paid labor or will never make a good soldier. The whole thing is wrong from recipients of land proffering remained tumultuous and divi- the foundation, and should be given up, and all those who did sive among emancipators as a pathway to economic indepen- not volunteer sent to their homes—if any are then left in the dence. Emancipator 8 posited, regiments. I think it would be most unwise and injurious to give them lands, Other emancipators argued for military recruitment as a Negro allotments; they should be made to buy before they can multi-purpose solution to the Union’s diverse perceptions feel themselves possessors of a rod. There are some who are and value of the emancipated. Emancipator 4 noted that the now able to buy their houses and two or three acres of land, by sensibilities of the emancipated could be inspired to support the end of the year their number will probably be greatly increased. These will be the more intelligent, the more democracy and said, industrious and persistent. However, give them land, and a house, and the ease of gaining as good a livelihood as they have The spiritual or religious sentiment also strongly characterizes been accustomed to would keep many contented with the the African race; developed in somewhat rude phase, it is true, smallest exertion. I pity some of them very much, for I see that among Southern slaves, especially rude in the cotton States, but nothing will rouse and maintain their energy but suffering. powerful, if appealed to by leaders who share it, as an element of enthusiasm. If the officers of colored regiments themselves feel, and impart, as they readily may, to their men the feelings Others, such as Emancipator 9, suggested the solution was a that they are fighting in the cause of God and liberty, there will labor system reconstructed from be no portion of the Army, the Commission believe, more to be relied on than Negro regiments. the system on the plantation, first, by turning off all the hands not wanted; second, by adopting a new system in regard to the Likewise, Emancipator 1 noted the conflicting objectives privileges and compensation of the people. The privileges are free houses, free land for provision crops, free use of wood, and, that resulted from the military recruitment and described the with certain restrictions, of the animals and implements. I should motivations of the emancipated: do away with these privileges, making them pay house-rent and land-rent, making them pay for their wood, if of certain qualities, They say they will get in the cotton here that had to be abandoned and for the use of teams and implements—for their own work. when the Black regiment was formed. They are quiet and good, Then I should increase their wages, with fixed prices for the anxious to do all they can for the people who are protecting various kinds of work. I should wish to be able to discharge any them. They have not the least desire, apparently, to welcome one whose work did not suit me, and remove him from the back their old masters, nor to cling to the soil. They want only plantation. These reforms cannot possibly be instituted now, and what Yankees can give them. can never be, probably, on this island. In the meantime, if the people were only honest and truthful, other matters would be of Emancipator 14 concluded that the Experiment objective, comparatively little account, but they are the most provoking “politically, upon the solution of the great social, political set, in this respect, that you can easily conceive. They are almost problem which we have got to solve . . . the worthiness and incorrigible. capacity of the Negro for immediate and unconditional emancipation” needed to be upheld in spite of conflicting However, views of the emancipated were not always par- priorities and realities of the war. allel to those held by the emancipators. Emancipated 6 6 SAGE Open recalled, “De Yankee pay we for wuk and I tek my money to be lazy and shirk, who tell tales of others, of which themselves are the true subjects . . . In the meantime, if the people were only and buy twenty acre ob land on Parri Islandt. I ain’t had dat honest and truthful, other matters would be of comparatively land now ’cause de Government tek em for he self and mek little account, but they are the most provoking set, in this respect, me move.” Still, others viewed the land proffering as an that you can easily conceive. They are almost incorrigible. essential vehicle to economic independence and autonomy for the emancipated such as Emancipator 1 who cheered Emancipator 8 described a different perspective of the these efforts: “Hurrah! Jubilee! Lands are to be set apart for attitude and enthusiasm of a free laborer, who noted he went the people so that they cannot be oppressed, or driven to work for speculators, or ejected from their homesteads.” out to help his “old woman” pick cotton, and walked by my side talking of the fine crop, and that next year there would not be land enough for the people . . . he was as bright and jolly as you Concomitant Themes ever saw any honest farmer when his crops were in fine Three of the four major themes co-occurred and were found condition. to be concomitant (40.1%): (a) experiment labor, (b) contra- band, and (c) economic independence (see Table 2). Finally, the recognition of the conjoined value of Experiment Experiment labor and contraband were often used synony- labor as contraband leading to economic independence was mously and reported within the same passage as both cotton summarized by Emancipator 7: and “contraband of war” (Rose, 1964) as they were put to work in exchange for the expense of their care and steps At the sale of land which took place at the opening of the season toward self-sufficiency, yet, the avenue to attain self-suffi- of 1863, four plantations were bought by the freedmen living on ciency remained inconsistent between the emancipators them, and worked by them for their own benefit. One of these places produced a crop of cotton worth four thousand dollars; (Ochiai, 2001). This concurrence was also driven by parallel another a crop worth fifteen hundred dollars; another a crop but inconsistent desires for the freedom and autonomy of the worth one thousand dollars, and the other a crop worth between emancipated, often expressed as a need for economic inde- three and four thousand dollars. pendence. This was illustrated by Emancipator 5 who said, Then let all those Sea Islanders now working under government Discussion and Conclusion orders be so registered. If you get general emancipation, this will be unnecessary; but if, under either success or disaster, some Many past researchers and analysts have noted the tragedy wretched compromise is made, you may hereafter, without it, that the chronicle of the Experiment and resulting journey of have a hard struggle to prevent these freemen here being given the emancipated from slavery to freedom to land ownership back to their rebel masters, with thousands of others who have to self-sufficiency may always remain incomplete due to the dug our trenches, or otherwise struck a blow for the Union! paucity of contemporaneous first-person accounts of the experience, metaphorically or literal, and due to the limita- Likewise, Emancipated 6 noted the continued need for cot- tions and misinterpretation of language to record such first- ton laborers in this effort, “De Yankee tell we to go en Buckra person accounts, concurrently or in retrospect (Cross, 2012; corn house and git alt we want for eat. Den I come back to Pollitzer, 1999). While the temporal and etymological hin- Beaufort and go to wuk in cotton house.” The joint value drances have remained a reality for recounts of the upheld between a value of the available, captive labor within Experiment, social justice efforts have continued to protect the Experiment and the more altruistic pursuits of freedom, the cultural heritage of the emancipated and their heirs that autonomy, self-sufficiency, and independence for the eman- continue to reside within the Sea Islands (Hazzard, 2012; cipated (Rose, 1964) brought a mix of objective expectations Jarrett, 2004; Rivers, 2007), and current research that has described by Emancipator 1 who noted, included more diverse perspectives and better cultural under- standing of the emancipated, their descendants, and their After telling each man that he should be paid exactly according land-based culture has also continued since the Experiment to the quantity of cotton he put in, they all went to work with a manumission and emancipation (Brabec & Richardson, will, and each man did his task per day, but that two women each 2007; Breitbord, 2011; Guthrie & Peevely, 2010; Hazzard, did two tasks a day and were to be paid accordingly. 2012; Moore, 1980; Ochiai, 2001; Pease, 1957; Rivers, 2007; Rose, 1964). Conversely, Emancipator 9 reported frustration with unmet As a heuristic metaphor and with a lens of ITM, Sea behavioral expectations of the emancipated: Island cotton may continue to serve as a cultural metaphor and socioeconomic symbol for the emancipated through The satisfaction derived from the faithfulness and honesty of reconstruction in spite of the effusive other descriptions to perhaps thirty is hardly sufficient to atone for the anxiety and distrust with which one regards the remaining ninety, who lie by explain historical, retrospective, and ongoing experiences, habit and steal on the least provocation, who take infinite pains behaviors, and perspectives (Brabec & Richardson, 2007; Throne 7 Pease, 1957; Rose, 1964; Twining & Baird, 1980a, 1980b). Belenky, M. F., Clinchy, B. M., Goldberger, N. R., & Tarule, J. M. (1986). Women’s ways of knowing: The development of self, Likewise, as Campbell (as cited in Jones-Jackson, 2011), voice, and mind. New York, NY: Basic Books. Dyer and Bailey (2008), Dyer et al. (2009), Jarrett (2003, Black, M. (1954). Metaphor. Proceedings of the Aristotelian 2004, 2006, 2008), Hazzard (2012), and Ochiai (2001) have Society, 55, 273-294. all noted, the emancipated and their heirs were members of a Black, M. (1958). Self-supporting inductive arguments. The land culture that continues to be at risk today as land prof- Journal of Philosophy, 55, 718-725. fered and purchased under the Experiment remains a perti- Black, M. (1962). Models and metaphors: Studies in language and nent contemporary legal, economic, and cultural issue within philosophy. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press. the Sea Islands. Future research should continue to examine Black, M. (1979). More about metaphor. In A. Ortony (Ed.), these themes from a transdisciplinary and longitudinal per- Metaphor and thought (pp. 19-43). New York, NY: Cambridge spective to seek authentic truth (Hiles, 2002; McGregor, University Press. 2004) for the intersecting cultural, educational, and socio- Brabec, E., & Richardson, S. (2007). A clash of cultures: The land- scape of the Sea Island Gullah. Landscape Journal, 26, 151- economic aspects as shown in Theme 4, economic indepen- 167. doi:10.3368/lj.26.1.151 dence, and the concomitant themes, to “confront shortages of Brandt, L., & Brandt, P. A. (2005). Making sense of a blend: A resources and human and community capital that has the cognitive-semiotic approach to metaphor. Annual Review of potential to create a perpetual cycle of poverty” (Guthrie & Cognitive Linguistics, 3, 216-249. doi:10.1075/arcl.3.12bra Peevely, 2010, p. 14) from past and current perspectives to Breitbord, M. (2011). Discourse, education, and women’s public inform contemporary realities. The current study findings culture in the Port Royal Experiment. American Educational further illustrated the complex and conjoined aspects of con- History Journal, 38, 427-446. traband, economic independence, and Experiment labor that Center for Heirs’ Property Preservation. (2013). What we do. remain worthy of continued inquiry especially within recent Available from http://www.heirsproperty.org/ cultural and socioeconomic contexts of economic disparity, Cross, W. (2012). Gullah culture in America. Winston-Salem, NC: Sea Island heirs’ property challenges, and the linkages to the John F. Blair. Douglass, B. G., & Moustakas, C. E. (1985). Heuristic inquiry: The ignoble historical record for the emancipated land proffering, internal search to know. Journal of Humanistic Psychology, rescinding, and reacquisition, as past researchers have noted 25, 39-55. the challenges with Sea Island property retention remains of Dyer, J. F., & Bailey, C. (2008). A place to call home: Cultural vital concern today (Brabec & Richardson, 2007; Center for understandings of heir property among rural African Heirs’ Property Preservation, 2013; Dyer & Bailey, 2008; Americans. Rural Sociology, 73, 317-338. Dyer et al., 2009; Hazzard, 2012; Jones-Jackson, 2011; Dyer, J. F., Bailey, C., & Van Tran, N. (2009). Ownership charac- Rivers, 2007). teristics of heir property in a Black Belt county: A quantitative approach. Southern Rural Sociology, 24, 192-217. Acknowledgments Ellis, C. (1997). Evocative autoethnography: Writing emotion- ally about our lives. In W. G. Tierney & Y. S. Lincoln (Eds.), Representation and the text: Re-framing the narrative voice •• Visiting researcher, Southern Historical Collection: (pp. 115-139). Albany: State University of New York Press. Louis Round Wilson Special Collections Library, Geertz, C. (1983). Local knowledge: Further essays in interpretive University of North Carolina–Chapel Hill, July 2013 anthropology. New York, NY: Basic Books. •• 2013 research travel, Northcentral University, Prescott Guthrie, J. W., & Peevely, G. (2010). King Cotton’s lasting leg- Valley, Arizona acy of poverty and southern region contemporary conditions. Peabody Journal of Education, 85, 4-15. Declaration of Conflicting Interests Hazzard, D. T. (2012). The Gullah people, justice, and the land on Hilton Head Island: A historical perspective. Retrieved from The author declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to http://repository.wellesley.edu/thesiscollection the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. Hiles, D. (2002, October). Narrative and heuristic approaches to transpersonal research and practice. Paper presented to Funding CCPE, London, England. The author received no financial support for the research beyond Hirsh, E., & Olson, G. A. (1995). Starting from marginalized lives: travel and/or authorship of this article. A conversation with Sandra Harding. In G. A. Olson & E. Hirsh (Eds.), Women writing culture (pp. 3-42). Albany: State References University of New York. Abbott, M. (1967). The Freedmen’s Bureau in South Carolina, Jarrett, C. W. (2003). Connecting with the soul of a community: 1865-1872. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press. An interactive study of Gullah culture. Journal of Intercultural Ayoob, E. (2007). Black & Davidson on metaphor. Macalester Disciplines, 4, 21-37. Journal of Philosophy, 16, Article 6. Retrieved from http:// Jarrett, C. W. (2004). The Gullahs of Squire Pope Road: A case digitalcommons.macalester.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1 study in social impact assessment. In National Association of 044&context=philo African American Studies & Affiliates (Ed.), Harnessing the 8 SAGE Open future by studying the past (pp. 1355-1369). Biddleford, ME: Pollitzer, W. S. (1999). The Gullah people and their African heri- Author. tage. Athens: University of Georgia Press. Jarrett, C. W. (2006, February). R/UDAT: Ten years after. Paper Porcher, R. D., & Wick, S. (2005). The story of Sea Island Cotton. presented to 10th annual Native Islander Gullah Celebration, Layton, UT: Wyrick & Company. Hilton Head, SC. Pratt, M. L. (1986). Fieldwork in common places. In J. Clifford & Jarrett, C. W. (2008). Journey to wholeness: Gullah perspectives G. E. Marcus (Eds.), Writing culture: The poetics and politics on postmodern American culture. Charleston, SC: BookSurge. of ethnography (pp. 27-50). Berkeley: University of California Johnson, M. (1981). Philosophical perspectives on metaphor. St. Press. Paul: University of Minnesota. Rivers, F. R. (2007). Public trust debate: Implications for heirs’ Johnson, W. (2013, March 31). King Cotton’s long shadow. The property along the Gullah Coast. Southeastern Environmental New York Times, p. 12. Law Journal. Retrieved from http://works.bepress.com/faith_ Jones-Jackson, P. (2011). When roots die: Endangered traditions rivers/3 on the Sea Islands. Athens: University of Georgia Press. Rose, W. L. (1964). Rehearsal for reconstruction: The Port Royal Kleining, G., & Witt, H. (2000). The qualitative heuristic approach: Experiment. Indianapolis, IN: Bobbs-Merrill Company. A methodology for discovery in psychology and the social sci- Rowland, L. S., Moore, A., & Rogers, G. C. (1996). The history ences. Rediscovering the method of introspection as an exam- of Beaufort County, South Carolina. Columbia: University of ple. Forum: Qualitative Social Research, 1, Article 13. South Carolina Press. Kleining, G., & Witt, H. (2001). Discovery as basic methodology Ruaune, D., Carney, D. P., & Keane, J. F. (2007). Rhetorosaurus of qualitative and quantitative research. Forum: Qualitative metaphoric glossary. Retrieved from http://rhetorosaurus. Social Research, 2, Article 16. Retrieved from http://www. blogspot.com/2007/05/metaphoric-glossary.html qualitative-research.net/index.php/fqs/article/view/977/2130 Sink, A. E. (2010). Sea Island Cotton. In Hidden history of Hilton Kretzenbacher, H. L. (2003). The aesthetics and heuristics of Head (pp. 110-112). Charleston, SC: The History Press. analogy: Model and metaphor in chemical communication. Spindel, D. J. (1996). Assessing memory: Twentieth-Century International Journal for Philosophy of Chemistry, 9, 191-218. slave narratives reconsidered. The Journal of Interdisciplinary Lieblick, A., Tuval-Mashiach, R., & Zilber, T. (1998). Narrative History, 27, 247-261. research: Reading, analysis, and interpretation. Thousand Stambovsky, P. (1988a). The depictive image: Metaphor and liter- Oaks, CA: SAGE. ary experience. Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press. McGregor, S. L. (2004). The nature of transdisciplinary research Stambovsky, P. (1988b). Metaphor and historical understanding. and practice. Retrieved from http://www.kon.org/hswp/ History and Theory, 27, 125-134. archive/transdiscipl.pdf Twining, M. A., & Baird, K. E. (1980a). Introduction to Sea Island Moore, J. G. (1980). Among Blacks of the Sea Islands. Journal of folklife. Journal of Black Studies, 10, 387-416. Black Studies, 10, 467-480. Twining, M. A., & Baird, K. E. (1980b). The significance of Sea Moustakas, C. (1990). Heuristic research: Design, methodology, Island culture. Journal of Black Studies, 10, 379-386. and applications. Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE. Wu, K. (2001). On metaphoring: Acultural hermeneutic. Boston, Ochiai, A. (2001). The Port Royal Experiment revisited: Northern MA: Brill. visions of reconstruction and the land question. The New England Quarterly, 74, 94-117. Author Biography Patton, M. Q. (2002). Qualitative research & evaluation methods Robin Throne, PhD, is core faculty and a doctoral dissertation (3rd ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE. chair for Northcentral University and her heuristic research of the Pease, W. (1957). Three years among the Freedmen: William C. Port Royal Experiment and Gullah property rights has continued Gannett and the Port Royal Experiment. The Journal of Negro since 2009. She is the author of Practitioner Research in Doctoral History, 42, 98-117. Education (Kendall Hunt, 2012) and serves on the editorial review Polanyi, M. (1966). The tacit dimension. Garden City, NY: Doubleday. board for the International Journal of Doctoral Studies (IJDS). http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png SAGE Open SAGE

Past as Prologue: Sea Island Cotton as Heuristic Metaphor for the Port Royal Experiment

SAGE Open , Volume 6 (3): 1 – Aug 12, 2016

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662105 SGOXXX10.1177/2158244016662105SAGE OpenThrone research-article2016 Article SAGE Open July-September 2016: 1 –8 © The Author(s) 2016 Past as Prologue: Sea Island Cotton as DOI: 10.1177/2158244016662105 sgo.sagepub.com Heuristic Metaphor for the Port Royal Experiment Robin Throne What would happen if no cotton was furnished for three years? 1860 valuation of “four million people worth at least $3 billion” (W. Johnson, 2013). Combined, the abandoned England would topple headlong and carry the whole civilized property became a unique socioeconomic opportunity for world with her. Chase to launch the Port Royal Experiment (Breitbord, 2011; Ochiai, 2001; Rose, 1964; hereafter, “the Experiment”), No, you dare not make war on cotton! and Chase dispatched 53 abolitionists, teachers, doctors, missionaries, and clergy to the Sea Islands as a first test case No power on earth dares make war upon it. of slavery-to-freedom (Ochiai, 2001). These efforts were fueled by altruistic motivations of some emancipators to Cotton is King. arm the newly emancipated “with the educational and —U.S. Senator James Henry Hammond of South Carolina, 1858 social tools to build independent, productive, free lives” (Breitbord, 2011) while others continued to view the status of the emancipated as problematic (Brabec & Richardson, Background 2007). On November 7, 1861, the U.S. Union Army occupied the The Experiment headquarters became the Department Sea Islands following an invasion of the Port Royal Sound of the South throughout the duration of the war, which led that left some 10,000 former slaves to be cared for and 80,000 to a preponderance of written first-person narratives by confiscated acres of Sea Island plantation property to be cul- emancipators who visited, managed, and lived within this tivated (Hazzard, 2012; Ochiai, 2001; Rose, 1964; Rowland, first test of preemption and emancipation (Brabec & Moore, & Rogers, 1996). A historical, economic, and cultural Richardson, 2007; Ochiai, 2001), and many quoted or view of the Sea Islands and low country, a culturally and eco- chronicled the experiences of the emancipated. This quali- logically unique 250-mile stretch along the coast of South tative study focused on these archival personal narratives Carolina and Georgia (Brabec & Richardson, 2007; Rowland and other first-person oral and written accounts of the et al., 1996), is not complete without consideration of the Sea emancipated and emancipators in the first 24 months of the Island’s cotton economy (Ochiai, 2001; Porcher & Wick, Experiment (November 1861-November 1863) as interpre- 2005; Sink, 2010) and the particular strain of Sea Island cot- tations of the record of first-person accounts has been lim- ton, the lucrative “silky staple” that sold for a premium at ited (Cross, 2012; Pollitzer, 1999). The study offered an US$2 per pound, and was meticulously refined by seed selec- “experience-near” retrospective (Geertz, 1983; Pratt, tion, fertilization (saltmarsh mulch and oyster shells), cultiva- 1986) before The Freedmen’s Bureau was established and tion, and gin techniques (Porcher & Wick, 2005; Sink, 2010). before many of the Experiment provisions were reversed However, the harvest of the 90,000 pounds of this zenith and under the Johnson administration that followed Lincoln’s lucrative 1861 cotton crop, seized by the Union Army in the death (Abbott, 1967; Hazzard, 2012; Ochiai, 2001; Pease, Port Royal occupation was difficult, if not impossible, with- 1957; Rose, 1964). Current researchers including Guthrie out the free labor acquired via the experiment in the first year and Peevely (2010) have paralleled the historical impact of of the war (Hazzard, 2012; Ochiai, 2001; Porcher & Wick, the pre-emancipation cotton economy and its impact on 2005; Rose, 1964), which resulted in a US$500,000 profit for contemporary educational outcomes and chronic poverty. the U.S. treasury (Ochiai, 2001). The authors posited that The U.S. treasury department, led by Secretary Salmon P. Chase, an influential anti-slavery advocate within the Northcentral University, San Diego, CA, USA President’s cabinet (Breitbord, 2011; Ochiai, 2001; Rose, Corresponding Author: 1964), was quite interested in the profits of the 1861 Sea Robin Throne, Northcentral University, Historic Decatur Rd., Suite 100, Island cotton crop (Ochiai, 2001) coupled with the human San Diego, CA 92106, USA. capital that had built the great cotton kingdom with an Email: rthrone@ncu.edu Creative Commons CC-BY: This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License (http://www.creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/) which permits any use, reproduction and distribution of the work without further permission provided the original work is attributed as specified on the SAGE and Open Access pages (https://us.sagepub.com/en-us/nam/open-access-at-sage). 2 SAGE Open given the historical links between cotton, southern political institutions, and intergenerational poverty . . . a critical consideration for the overall health and economic development of the Black belt . . . If the educational outcomes of the Black Belt were improved, it would be so significant as to improve the international educational standing of the United States. (p. 14) Therefore, this study has a contemporary relevance for cur- rent Sea Island heirs’ property challenges, the erosion of their land culture, and the apparent, yet often, overlooked linkages between the historical record and Sea Island property reten- tion among emancipated descendants that remains an ongo- ing contest (Brabec & Richardson, 2007; Center for Heirs’ Property Preservation, 2013; Dyer & Bailey, 2008; Dyer, Insightinto the Emancipated Lived Experiences Bailey, & Van Tran, 2009; Hazzard, 2012; Jones-Jackson, 2011; Rivers, 2007). Figure 1. Metaphoric interaction: Frame and focus. Metaphoric focus and frame interaction results in new meaning. Source. Adapted from Ayoob (2007). Heuristic Metaphor Sea Island cotton was a genus of Gossypium that represented (Ayoob, 2007; Black, 1979), but a dynamic analysis of the an epoch of enslaved African toil to clothe English and French interaction of the focus and the frame (see Figure 1). This royalty and aristocracy, culminating in the wealth of South systematic theoretical lens was used to explore and discover Carolina Sea Island planters whom many have purported to unknown experiences ascertained from first-person accounts have achieved an economic pinnacle from sales of the finest of the Experiment using archival personal narratives and pri- quality cotton fiber ever grown (Porcher & Wick, 2005). As a mary accounts and reports of the lived experience for experi- heuristic metaphor, Sea Island cotton (specifically Gossypium ence-near perspectives (Geertz, 1983; Moustakas, 1990; barbadense L., ca. 1753) offered an interactive metaphor (M. Pratt, 1986). Johnson, 1981) and depictive image (Stambovsky, 1988a, b) Thus, this qualitative heuristic study was founded on by which to explore a complex cultural context of the Sea Black’s (1954, 1958, 1962, 1979) ITM for metaphoric inter- Island emancipated as their lives were intertwined and invested action between a focal word or phrase (Sea Island cotton) within Sea Island cotton (Moustakas, 1990; Porcher & Wick, predicated by the primary subject (the Emancipated) within a 2005). As a transdisciplinary research metaphor (Belenky, specific frame and setting (the Experiment; Black, 1962, Clinchy, Goldberger, & Tarule, 1986; McGregor, 2004), Sea 1979; Stambovsky, 1988b). The use of a conceptual meta- Island cotton illustrated the complexities and transdisciplinar- phor as a semiotic and creative inference has been used ity of the lived experiences of those first emancipated in the across disciplines including the hard sciences where the cre- Experiment that led to eventual abolition of U.S. slavery. The ative inference of metaphor can be tempered by rigorous objective for use of the heuristic metaphor was to seek objec- research method selection and design (Kretzenbacher, 2003). tive over reflexive insights into a primary subject to explore a While ITM has had its critics (Ayoob, 2007), and even Black secondary subject as retrospective (Hirsh & Olson, 1995; (1954) noted the dangers of oversimplification or opacity in Kleining & Witt, 2000, 2001). This use paralleled Ruaune the use of an interactive metaphor unique to time and setting et al.’s (2007) definition of the use of a heuristic metaphor as a of the primary subject, the metaphor was a relevant frame- source domain to connect with the target domain and work to explore the previously unknown lived experience of Stambovsky’s (1988a) prediscursive domain of meaning to the study phenomena (Ellis, 1997; McGregor, 2004; convey metaphoric or non-literal insights of the depictive Moustakas, 1990; Wu, 2001) and an experience-near retro- image using a heuristic and hermeneutic means (Moustakas, spective (Geertz, 1983; Pratt, 1986). Thus, Black’s (1954, 1990). More simply, the metaphor aided in the discovery and 1979) ITM allowed for exploration of a heuristic metaphor elucidation of previously unknown insights into the perspec- with no intention for literal meaning, but a desire to gain new tives and experiences of the newly emancipated in the insight into a lived phenomenon (McGregor, 2004; Experiment from intersecting historical, cultural, and socio- Moustakas, 1990; Wu, 2001) paralleled with an actual life economic contexts (Belenky et al., 1986; Black, 1979; experience (Brandt & Brandt, 2005). Moustakas, 1990; Patton, 2002) as shown in Figure 1. Conceptual Framework Method The interaction theory of metaphor (ITM) is not a simple A qualitative heuristic study was used for a naturalistic comparison of the primary subject with the secondary subject inquiry to explore Sea Island cotton as heuristic metaphor for Throne 3 the experiences of the emancipated in the Experiment Table 1. Emergent Themes (N = 25). (Douglass & Moustakas, 1985; Lieblick, Tuval-Mashiach, & Category Frequency % Zilber, 1998; Moustakas, 1990) using archival first-person narrative accounts as qualitative data for the lived experience Contraband 114 37.0 Experiment labor 69 22.4 of the emancipated and emancipators (Hiles, 2002; Lieblick Military recruitment 42 13.6 et al., 1998). The study design objective was to seek “narra- Economic independence 40 13.0 tive truth . . . to keep the past alive in the present” as meaning and interpretations of the past can be incomplete (Ellis, 1997; Note. 308 coded excerpts. Hirsh & Olson, 1995) and as a form of open-ended heuristic narrative inquiry. The study was guided by one research question: Table 2. Concomitant Themes (N = 25). Experiment labor Contraband Economic independence Research Question 1: What were the perceptions and lived experiences of the newly emancipated in the Port Note. 308 coded excerpts. Royal Experiment as depicted by the metaphor of Sea Island cotton through archival personal narratives and saturation for the emancipated perspective alone was unlikely other first-person reports of the emancipated and and restricted (Pratt, 1986). Full-text transcripts were emancipators? imported into the Dedoose software application for data analysis that used Hiles’s (2002) heuristic indwelling, a mod- The research question was central to the inquiry as it guided ified procedure of the Douglass and Moustakas’ (1985) heu- the analysis of the phenomenon to explore the lived experi- ristic analysis cycle: (a) choose, (b) engage, (c) indwell, (d) ence of non-living subjects whose own heuristic introspec- sift through, (e) reflect (iterative phase), (f) formulate, and tion was no longer possible, but worthy of exploration (Hiles, (g) share. The data analysis method allowed for emergent 2002; Moustakas, 1990; Pratt, 1986). narrative patterns and themes from archival primary texts The use of 25 archival personal narratives and related (Hiles, 2002; Moustakas, 1990; Polanyi, 1966) viewed first-person accounts and reports as qualitative data offered a through a theoretical lens of Black’s (1979) ITM to identify heuristic opportunity to explore narratives of the phenome- experience-near perspectives (Geertz, 1983; Pratt, 1986) non written contemporaneously within the metaphoric focus within a metaphoric focus and frame (see Figure 1). and frame for an external “other/observer” perspective for necessary discernment (Hiles, 2002; Kleining & Witt, 2000, 2001; Pratt, 1986). Purposeful sampling allowed for the Findings selection of relevant archival first-person narratives, reports, Twenty-five primary narrative data transcripts that met the and other primary documents pertinent to the study frame; data collection criteria were imported into Dedoose for the the heuristic research design; and met the data collection cri- heuristic indwelling analysis (Hiles, 2002). Five major teria. These included primary sources from nine emancipated themes emerged from the indwelling data analysis (see and 16 emancipators comprised of two school principals, Table 1), and three of the themes were found to be con- two missionaries, two Union generals, one Union colonel, comitant (see Table 2). Nine transcripts were from the one Union soldier, one Union military aide, and seven aboli- Experiment emancipated and 16 were from emancipators tionists. Data collection was conducted over 1 week in July (an umbrella term for all abolitionists, military, educators, 2013, at the Southern Historical Collection of the University and missionaries who assisted in the test of emancipation) of North Carolina–Chapel Hill Louis Wilson Library to comprising a final sample of 25. gather the archival data. Additional digitized data sources Limitations of the first-person accounts of the emanci- included pertinent slave narratives gathered from the Federal pated were evident not only due to the disparity in the sheer Writers’ Project, 1936-1938 and other digitized documents number of lines of narrative, but also in the lack of contem- from the Library of Congress, Manuscript Division, the U.S. poraneous accounts of the experience from the emancipated National Archives and Records Administration, and other perspective. The noted limitations of first-person accounts publicly available digital collections. for the emancipated and lack of contemporaneous narratives Data were reviewed for proximity and relevance to the within the period of the study led to a continued view of the study frame and excluded if criteria were not sufficiently emancipated from the emancipator viewpoint, which com- met. Kleining and Witt’s (2000) four rules to optimize dis- prised the majority of coded narrative excerpts (97%). Slave covery were followed throughout data collection and analy- sis for an observational/reflective account, and while Spindel narratives were recorded years after emancipation and the (1996) and others have noted the reliability and validity challenges of age and memory reduced these experiences issues with slave narratives, these data were relevant to the (Spindel, 1996) especially when compared with emancipa- study objective and met the data collection criteria; yet, data tors who recorded their perspectives concurrently within the 4 SAGE Open Experiment. Many emancipators also held a significant sump’en ’bout de Civil War. I been young lad when de big semantic advantage, and thus, served to dominate the charac- gun shoot and de Yankee pile down from de north.” Instead, terizations of the Experiment experience from an outsider illustrations of the emancipated perspective and experience perspective as reported by some emancipators (Breitbord, were reported by emancipators such as Emancipator 6 who 2011; Spindel, 1996) and worthy of mention as a limitation said, of results. They have many vices and petty weaknesses of character, but they are all of the kind you would naturally expect to find among Contraband a people brought up under the system of slavery. These vices are, of course, serious obstacles in the way of their elevation, The emancipated did not self-reference as contraband, but and try seriously the patience and faith of those who work did present allusions to self as property or chattel (46.2%). among them. All three of these terms (contraband, chattel, and property) were used widely and often by emancipators to describe the estimated 10,000 emancipated that eventually converged on Experiment Labor the Sea Islands within the first 2 years of the war (Brabec & Emancipators depended on the Experiment’s freed labor to Richardson, 2007; Rose, 1964) and less-often referred to as assist in the harvest of the seized 1861 Sea Island cotton crop refugees by emancipators. As a term of war, contraband and to fulfill the altruistic motivations fueled by the aboli- illustrated the coexistent realities of the continued and syn- tionists to prepare the emancipated for a self-sufficient life of chronous economic value of the newly freed labor and cotton autonomy and freedom from slavery (Ochiai, 2001; Rose, as a singular asset as economic gain from one could not be 1964). This use of free labor under the Experiment was initi- attained without the other (Brabec & Richardson, 2007; ated and described by Emancipator 7: Rose, 1964). This fact was due to not only the tremendous physical labor necessary for this work, but also the founda- We were so entirely cut off from the mainland that there was tional knowledge held by the emancipated in the planters’ little or no danger of raids from the enemy, and thus a measure absentia. The value of this knowledge and enjoinment of cot- of security, one of the most important conditions of regular and ton and the emancipated labor was reflected on by faithful labor among an ignorant class of people, was obtained. Emancipator 14 who said, Military leaders and abolitionists alike saw the economic If you can induce some old man who is a good judge, I would let benefit of the Experiment labor force as noted by Emancipator him pick select cotton all through the season for seed . . . This is 14, who said, the way the most intelligent planters got up their famous varieties of seed, and we ought to be able to use as much brains as they did. Negro labor has got to be employed, if at all, because it is profitable, and it has got to come into the market like everything Other emancipators focused more on the humanitarian else, subject to the supply and demand which may arise from all aspects of the oversight for the newly emancipated as contra- kinds of enterprises in which it chances to be employed. It is not band now the Union’s responsibility, and the resulting reali- likely that it can be protected on a large scale by the amount of ties for their care. Emancipator 5 illustrated the distinction in disinterested philanthropy which happens to be present on the views between those who viewed the contraband as a Sea Islands, but if it can be open to private enterprise, by an occupation of lands free from unnecessary restrictions and under resource windfall versus those with a more collective socio- a proper sense of the security of property . . . We want first to economic perspective whereby “cotton agents think their prove that it is profitable, and then it will take care of itself. interests, and their personal use of negroes, horses, and houses” were priority whereas “the military, are all preju- Emancipator 14 also explained this disparity between the diced, especially the subordinates; the lower you go the northern acquisitions of the cotton economic enterprise with worse the feeling.” Emancipator 16 noted the realities of care free labor versus contraband: driven by those seeking refuge: I don’t agree with you about avoiding publicity for our enterprise What we shall do for the thousands now coming and destined to . . . If we succeed financially, it will prove that free labor is self- follow, I know not. My heart sickens at the prospect of want. But sustaining, and that the Blacks are capable of becoming a useful the people welcome any amount of suffering, so they gain their laboring class immediately after leaving their masters’ hands, liberty . . . The people see not our soldiers; so much as they see and this fact is of vast importance. God. Their faith unwaveringly claims freedom despite appearance, and to all human appearance God wills their freedom. Military Recruitment However, as noted, recollection of the emancipated as con- traband were less specific because they were gathered years Military leadership perceived an immediate value in the after the Experiment as Emancipated 9 said, “But I know sheer numbers of emancipated men in the Experiment and Throne 5 desired to gain a military advantage through military recruit- Economic Independence ment as well as a demonstration of autonomy (Ochiai, 2001; Emancipator observations and perspectives on the attain- Rose, 1964). Emancipator 7 said, ment of the emancipated economic independence varied greatly and appeared to differ based on the perspectives of When Port Royal fell into our hands, about ten thousand Negroes military/government, religious or secular views on abolition, and only one White man were found there. And just here let me and/or education. say, that one reason of the great success of the free labor Emancipator 8 noted the emancipated looked to the experiment in that department is found in the fact that none of Experiment for livelihood, and were “constantly comparing the old masters were left behind to interfere with the plans adopted for the elevation of the freedmen. the time when they used to obtain shoes, dresses, coats, flan- nels, food, etc., from their masters, with the present when Others, such as abolitionists who stayed on the Sea Islands little or nothing is given them.” Others felt they knew what saw many deserters who had no desire for military service. was best for the emancipated especially as land proffering Emancipator 10 said, from the abandoned plantations was considered, such as Emancipator 4, who said, “The chief object of ambition It will be very bad now, if they do not take him, to live on here among the refugees is to own property, especially to possess an outlaw, working his wife’s cotton but not able to resume his land, if it be only a few acres, in their own State.” Thus, plow or his old position in any way—yet if he is taken again he Experiment employment of the emancipated as paid labor or will never make a good soldier. The whole thing is wrong from recipients of land proffering remained tumultuous and divi- the foundation, and should be given up, and all those who did sive among emancipators as a pathway to economic indepen- not volunteer sent to their homes—if any are then left in the dence. Emancipator 8 posited, regiments. I think it would be most unwise and injurious to give them lands, Other emancipators argued for military recruitment as a Negro allotments; they should be made to buy before they can multi-purpose solution to the Union’s diverse perceptions feel themselves possessors of a rod. There are some who are and value of the emancipated. Emancipator 4 noted that the now able to buy their houses and two or three acres of land, by sensibilities of the emancipated could be inspired to support the end of the year their number will probably be greatly increased. These will be the more intelligent, the more democracy and said, industrious and persistent. However, give them land, and a house, and the ease of gaining as good a livelihood as they have The spiritual or religious sentiment also strongly characterizes been accustomed to would keep many contented with the the African race; developed in somewhat rude phase, it is true, smallest exertion. I pity some of them very much, for I see that among Southern slaves, especially rude in the cotton States, but nothing will rouse and maintain their energy but suffering. powerful, if appealed to by leaders who share it, as an element of enthusiasm. If the officers of colored regiments themselves feel, and impart, as they readily may, to their men the feelings Others, such as Emancipator 9, suggested the solution was a that they are fighting in the cause of God and liberty, there will labor system reconstructed from be no portion of the Army, the Commission believe, more to be relied on than Negro regiments. the system on the plantation, first, by turning off all the hands not wanted; second, by adopting a new system in regard to the Likewise, Emancipator 1 noted the conflicting objectives privileges and compensation of the people. The privileges are free houses, free land for provision crops, free use of wood, and, that resulted from the military recruitment and described the with certain restrictions, of the animals and implements. I should motivations of the emancipated: do away with these privileges, making them pay house-rent and land-rent, making them pay for their wood, if of certain qualities, They say they will get in the cotton here that had to be abandoned and for the use of teams and implements—for their own work. when the Black regiment was formed. They are quiet and good, Then I should increase their wages, with fixed prices for the anxious to do all they can for the people who are protecting various kinds of work. I should wish to be able to discharge any them. They have not the least desire, apparently, to welcome one whose work did not suit me, and remove him from the back their old masters, nor to cling to the soil. They want only plantation. These reforms cannot possibly be instituted now, and what Yankees can give them. can never be, probably, on this island. In the meantime, if the people were only honest and truthful, other matters would be of Emancipator 14 concluded that the Experiment objective, comparatively little account, but they are the most provoking “politically, upon the solution of the great social, political set, in this respect, that you can easily conceive. They are almost problem which we have got to solve . . . the worthiness and incorrigible. capacity of the Negro for immediate and unconditional emancipation” needed to be upheld in spite of conflicting However, views of the emancipated were not always par- priorities and realities of the war. allel to those held by the emancipators. Emancipated 6 6 SAGE Open recalled, “De Yankee pay we for wuk and I tek my money to be lazy and shirk, who tell tales of others, of which themselves are the true subjects . . . In the meantime, if the people were only and buy twenty acre ob land on Parri Islandt. I ain’t had dat honest and truthful, other matters would be of comparatively land now ’cause de Government tek em for he self and mek little account, but they are the most provoking set, in this respect, me move.” Still, others viewed the land proffering as an that you can easily conceive. They are almost incorrigible. essential vehicle to economic independence and autonomy for the emancipated such as Emancipator 1 who cheered Emancipator 8 described a different perspective of the these efforts: “Hurrah! Jubilee! Lands are to be set apart for attitude and enthusiasm of a free laborer, who noted he went the people so that they cannot be oppressed, or driven to work for speculators, or ejected from their homesteads.” out to help his “old woman” pick cotton, and walked by my side talking of the fine crop, and that next year there would not be land enough for the people . . . he was as bright and jolly as you Concomitant Themes ever saw any honest farmer when his crops were in fine Three of the four major themes co-occurred and were found condition. to be concomitant (40.1%): (a) experiment labor, (b) contra- band, and (c) economic independence (see Table 2). Finally, the recognition of the conjoined value of Experiment Experiment labor and contraband were often used synony- labor as contraband leading to economic independence was mously and reported within the same passage as both cotton summarized by Emancipator 7: and “contraband of war” (Rose, 1964) as they were put to work in exchange for the expense of their care and steps At the sale of land which took place at the opening of the season toward self-sufficiency, yet, the avenue to attain self-suffi- of 1863, four plantations were bought by the freedmen living on ciency remained inconsistent between the emancipators them, and worked by them for their own benefit. One of these places produced a crop of cotton worth four thousand dollars; (Ochiai, 2001). This concurrence was also driven by parallel another a crop worth fifteen hundred dollars; another a crop but inconsistent desires for the freedom and autonomy of the worth one thousand dollars, and the other a crop worth between emancipated, often expressed as a need for economic inde- three and four thousand dollars. pendence. This was illustrated by Emancipator 5 who said, Then let all those Sea Islanders now working under government Discussion and Conclusion orders be so registered. If you get general emancipation, this will be unnecessary; but if, under either success or disaster, some Many past researchers and analysts have noted the tragedy wretched compromise is made, you may hereafter, without it, that the chronicle of the Experiment and resulting journey of have a hard struggle to prevent these freemen here being given the emancipated from slavery to freedom to land ownership back to their rebel masters, with thousands of others who have to self-sufficiency may always remain incomplete due to the dug our trenches, or otherwise struck a blow for the Union! paucity of contemporaneous first-person accounts of the experience, metaphorically or literal, and due to the limita- Likewise, Emancipated 6 noted the continued need for cot- tions and misinterpretation of language to record such first- ton laborers in this effort, “De Yankee tell we to go en Buckra person accounts, concurrently or in retrospect (Cross, 2012; corn house and git alt we want for eat. Den I come back to Pollitzer, 1999). While the temporal and etymological hin- Beaufort and go to wuk in cotton house.” The joint value drances have remained a reality for recounts of the upheld between a value of the available, captive labor within Experiment, social justice efforts have continued to protect the Experiment and the more altruistic pursuits of freedom, the cultural heritage of the emancipated and their heirs that autonomy, self-sufficiency, and independence for the eman- continue to reside within the Sea Islands (Hazzard, 2012; cipated (Rose, 1964) brought a mix of objective expectations Jarrett, 2004; Rivers, 2007), and current research that has described by Emancipator 1 who noted, included more diverse perspectives and better cultural under- standing of the emancipated, their descendants, and their After telling each man that he should be paid exactly according land-based culture has also continued since the Experiment to the quantity of cotton he put in, they all went to work with a manumission and emancipation (Brabec & Richardson, will, and each man did his task per day, but that two women each 2007; Breitbord, 2011; Guthrie & Peevely, 2010; Hazzard, did two tasks a day and were to be paid accordingly. 2012; Moore, 1980; Ochiai, 2001; Pease, 1957; Rivers, 2007; Rose, 1964). Conversely, Emancipator 9 reported frustration with unmet As a heuristic metaphor and with a lens of ITM, Sea behavioral expectations of the emancipated: Island cotton may continue to serve as a cultural metaphor and socioeconomic symbol for the emancipated through The satisfaction derived from the faithfulness and honesty of reconstruction in spite of the effusive other descriptions to perhaps thirty is hardly sufficient to atone for the anxiety and distrust with which one regards the remaining ninety, who lie by explain historical, retrospective, and ongoing experiences, habit and steal on the least provocation, who take infinite pains behaviors, and perspectives (Brabec & Richardson, 2007; Throne 7 Pease, 1957; Rose, 1964; Twining & Baird, 1980a, 1980b). Belenky, M. F., Clinchy, B. M., Goldberger, N. R., & Tarule, J. M. (1986). Women’s ways of knowing: The development of self, Likewise, as Campbell (as cited in Jones-Jackson, 2011), voice, and mind. New York, NY: Basic Books. Dyer and Bailey (2008), Dyer et al. (2009), Jarrett (2003, Black, M. (1954). Metaphor. Proceedings of the Aristotelian 2004, 2006, 2008), Hazzard (2012), and Ochiai (2001) have Society, 55, 273-294. all noted, the emancipated and their heirs were members of a Black, M. (1958). Self-supporting inductive arguments. The land culture that continues to be at risk today as land prof- Journal of Philosophy, 55, 718-725. fered and purchased under the Experiment remains a perti- Black, M. (1962). Models and metaphors: Studies in language and nent contemporary legal, economic, and cultural issue within philosophy. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press. the Sea Islands. Future research should continue to examine Black, M. (1979). More about metaphor. In A. Ortony (Ed.), these themes from a transdisciplinary and longitudinal per- Metaphor and thought (pp. 19-43). New York, NY: Cambridge spective to seek authentic truth (Hiles, 2002; McGregor, University Press. 2004) for the intersecting cultural, educational, and socio- Brabec, E., & Richardson, S. (2007). A clash of cultures: The land- scape of the Sea Island Gullah. Landscape Journal, 26, 151- economic aspects as shown in Theme 4, economic indepen- 167. doi:10.3368/lj.26.1.151 dence, and the concomitant themes, to “confront shortages of Brandt, L., & Brandt, P. A. (2005). Making sense of a blend: A resources and human and community capital that has the cognitive-semiotic approach to metaphor. Annual Review of potential to create a perpetual cycle of poverty” (Guthrie & Cognitive Linguistics, 3, 216-249. doi:10.1075/arcl.3.12bra Peevely, 2010, p. 14) from past and current perspectives to Breitbord, M. (2011). Discourse, education, and women’s public inform contemporary realities. The current study findings culture in the Port Royal Experiment. American Educational further illustrated the complex and conjoined aspects of con- History Journal, 38, 427-446. traband, economic independence, and Experiment labor that Center for Heirs’ Property Preservation. (2013). What we do. remain worthy of continued inquiry especially within recent Available from http://www.heirsproperty.org/ cultural and socioeconomic contexts of economic disparity, Cross, W. (2012). Gullah culture in America. Winston-Salem, NC: Sea Island heirs’ property challenges, and the linkages to the John F. Blair. Douglass, B. G., & Moustakas, C. E. (1985). Heuristic inquiry: The ignoble historical record for the emancipated land proffering, internal search to know. Journal of Humanistic Psychology, rescinding, and reacquisition, as past researchers have noted 25, 39-55. the challenges with Sea Island property retention remains of Dyer, J. F., & Bailey, C. (2008). A place to call home: Cultural vital concern today (Brabec & Richardson, 2007; Center for understandings of heir property among rural African Heirs’ Property Preservation, 2013; Dyer & Bailey, 2008; Americans. Rural Sociology, 73, 317-338. Dyer et al., 2009; Hazzard, 2012; Jones-Jackson, 2011; Dyer, J. F., Bailey, C., & Van Tran, N. (2009). Ownership charac- Rivers, 2007). teristics of heir property in a Black Belt county: A quantitative approach. Southern Rural Sociology, 24, 192-217. Acknowledgments Ellis, C. (1997). Evocative autoethnography: Writing emotion- ally about our lives. In W. G. Tierney & Y. S. Lincoln (Eds.), Representation and the text: Re-framing the narrative voice •• Visiting researcher, Southern Historical Collection: (pp. 115-139). Albany: State University of New York Press. Louis Round Wilson Special Collections Library, Geertz, C. (1983). Local knowledge: Further essays in interpretive University of North Carolina–Chapel Hill, July 2013 anthropology. New York, NY: Basic Books. •• 2013 research travel, Northcentral University, Prescott Guthrie, J. W., & Peevely, G. (2010). King Cotton’s lasting leg- Valley, Arizona acy of poverty and southern region contemporary conditions. Peabody Journal of Education, 85, 4-15. Declaration of Conflicting Interests Hazzard, D. T. (2012). The Gullah people, justice, and the land on Hilton Head Island: A historical perspective. Retrieved from The author declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to http://repository.wellesley.edu/thesiscollection the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. Hiles, D. (2002, October). Narrative and heuristic approaches to transpersonal research and practice. Paper presented to Funding CCPE, London, England. The author received no financial support for the research beyond Hirsh, E., & Olson, G. A. (1995). Starting from marginalized lives: travel and/or authorship of this article. A conversation with Sandra Harding. In G. A. Olson & E. Hirsh (Eds.), Women writing culture (pp. 3-42). Albany: State References University of New York. Abbott, M. (1967). The Freedmen’s Bureau in South Carolina, Jarrett, C. W. (2003). Connecting with the soul of a community: 1865-1872. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press. An interactive study of Gullah culture. Journal of Intercultural Ayoob, E. (2007). Black & Davidson on metaphor. Macalester Disciplines, 4, 21-37. Journal of Philosophy, 16, Article 6. Retrieved from http:// Jarrett, C. W. (2004). The Gullahs of Squire Pope Road: A case digitalcommons.macalester.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1 study in social impact assessment. In National Association of 044&context=philo African American Studies & Affiliates (Ed.), Harnessing the 8 SAGE Open future by studying the past (pp. 1355-1369). Biddleford, ME: Pollitzer, W. S. (1999). The Gullah people and their African heri- Author. tage. Athens: University of Georgia Press. Jarrett, C. W. (2006, February). 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Athens: University of Georgia Press. Rose, W. L. (1964). Rehearsal for reconstruction: The Port Royal Kleining, G., & Witt, H. (2000). The qualitative heuristic approach: Experiment. Indianapolis, IN: Bobbs-Merrill Company. A methodology for discovery in psychology and the social sci- Rowland, L. S., Moore, A., & Rogers, G. C. (1996). The history ences. Rediscovering the method of introspection as an exam- of Beaufort County, South Carolina. Columbia: University of ple. Forum: Qualitative Social Research, 1, Article 13. South Carolina Press. Kleining, G., & Witt, H. (2001). Discovery as basic methodology Ruaune, D., Carney, D. P., & Keane, J. F. (2007). Rhetorosaurus of qualitative and quantitative research. Forum: Qualitative metaphoric glossary. Retrieved from http://rhetorosaurus. Social Research, 2, Article 16. Retrieved from http://www. blogspot.com/2007/05/metaphoric-glossary.html qualitative-research.net/index.php/fqs/article/view/977/2130 Sink, A. E. (2010). Sea Island Cotton. 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Among Blacks of the Sea Islands. Journal of folklife. Journal of Black Studies, 10, 387-416. Black Studies, 10, 467-480. Twining, M. A., & Baird, K. E. (1980b). The significance of Sea Moustakas, C. (1990). Heuristic research: Design, methodology, Island culture. Journal of Black Studies, 10, 379-386. and applications. Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE. Wu, K. (2001). On metaphoring: Acultural hermeneutic. Boston, Ochiai, A. (2001). The Port Royal Experiment revisited: Northern MA: Brill. visions of reconstruction and the land question. The New England Quarterly, 74, 94-117. Author Biography Patton, M. Q. (2002). Qualitative research & evaluation methods Robin Throne, PhD, is core faculty and a doctoral dissertation (3rd ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE. chair for Northcentral University and her heuristic research of the Pease, W. (1957). Three years among the Freedmen: William C. Port Royal Experiment and Gullah property rights has continued Gannett and the Port Royal Experiment. The Journal of Negro since 2009. She is the author of Practitioner Research in Doctoral History, 42, 98-117. Education (Kendall Hunt, 2012) and serves on the editorial review Polanyi, M. (1966). The tacit dimension. Garden City, NY: Doubleday. board for the International Journal of Doctoral Studies (IJDS).

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