Every Wednesday we will feature a little known but important women in history.
If you watched the movie “The Harder They Fall” in 2021 you would have seen the real-life historical figure named Stagecoach Mary played by Zazie Beetz. Mary Fields was a 6 ft tall, 200 lbs. woman who drank whiskey, cursed like a sailor, wore pants under her skirt, and packed a pistol in the folds of her apron. She definitely was NOT a delicate flower! She was allowed to patronize saloons and taverns at a time when women could not.
Mary Fields was born enslaved in Hickman County, Tennessee, in about 1832. After Emancipation, she made her way to Florida, worked on a Mississippi River riverboat and lived in a convent in Ohio. She eventually ended up in Montana to nurse her friend, Mother Superior Mary Amadeus Dunne, back to health. She lived in her convent with the nuns but was kicked out by the Bishop because she swore and drank too much. She did odd jobs to get by – laundress, restauranteur, and took on roles that were considered men’s work – maintenance, repairs hauling freight, and construction. She was the first African American woman to work as a mail carrier for the US Postal Service. She got the job because she was the fastest applicant to hitch a 6-horse stagecoach; that was how she got her nickname, Stagecoach Mary. She worked as a mail carrier from 1895 to 1903. She was fearless but carried several guns to protect herself from wild animals, stagecoach bandits and robbers. Her life story has been portrayed by Esther Rolle, Dawnn Lewis, Kimberly Elise, Erykah Badu, Zazie Beetz, and Whoopi Goldberg between 1976 and 2024.
February is Black History Month! Although Black History is American History, February is a time to showcase Black Excellence in our history and culture. Thank you for subscribing to The Family Jewels newsletter. Try to make researching your family history a priority this year. If you would like to discuss a specific topic or have a genealogical question, send me a message and I will feature it in the next newsletter.
HAPPY BLACK HISTORY MONTH!
This year’s Black History Month theme is African Americans and the Arts. Art has many categories. The arts encompasses visual arts (painting, sculpting, filmmaking, photography, drawing ceramics & architecture), literature, performing arts (dance, theater, music) and culinary arts (cooking, candy making & wine). It’s a mixture of African, Caribbean and American culture intertwined with the happiness, pain, and heartache that we have suffered in our history. Our films, fashion and art reflect this, making sure that it tells the history of our people.
African American art, literature, music and culture became well-known during the 1920s and 1930s during a period called the Harlem Renaissance. This was only a snapshot in time because our art began with the creation of the pyramids in Egypt, the Mayan ruins, the fiddlers that entertained on plantations, even the Lowcountry sweetgrass basket weavers in South Carolina and Georgia who have been weaving baskets for over 300 years.
No matter what genre, Black artistry has a flavor that no one can duplicate.
Looking for Long Lost Relatives?
If you want to research your family history (and I strongly encourage everyone to do so), let me know and I can assist you. I offer several affordable packages depending on your research needs. If you are an amateur genealogist/family historian, I can create a research plan to guide you in the right direction. I am always willing to help.
I grew up with Reader’s Digest magazine. My mother had a monthly subscription along with Jet Magazine. It was my turn to read it only after my mother and grandmother had their hands on it. I enjoyed the articles, the fashion and the recipes. What I didn’t know until recently was the existence of the Negro Digest! It was first published in November 1942 by the same publishers of Jet and Ebony, John H. Johnson of Johnson Publishing Company. The magazine was marketed directly to the African American community. Writers reprinted articles from other publications that were of interest to the Black community. Eventually, Negro Digest had its own staff writers and produced its own articles.
Magazine Marketing
Of course there was pushback in producing a magazine only geared toward African Americans and Johnson could not get funding. No one would take a chance and publish his magazine. He took out a $500 loan using his mother’s furniture as collateral so that he could send out letters from the mailing list of the insurance company he worked for. The letter was a marketing tool to solicit African Americans with a prepaid $2 per year subscription plan. His plan was a success and he secured the funding necessary to print and mail the magazine.
Strategy to Sales
The next obstacle he had to conquer was getting newsstands to sell his magazines. Newsstand owners believed that Black people would not buy it. Johnson came up with the idea to have any Black person he knew go to the newsstands requesting it. Eventually, the newsstands carried the magazine and it became an overnight sensation. The magazine became so popular that even white writers contributed to the magazine. First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt wrote an article for the “If I Were a Negro” column and sales doubled!
Ebony Magazine
Johnson Publishing Company created Ebony Magazine in 1945 which mimicked Life Magazine. Jet Magazine, a weekly digest, launched November 1951. These magazines became extremely popular which caused the downfall of Negro Digest. It ceased publication in 1951 but came back to life in the 1960s under the new name, Black World. The new magazine had a whole new perspective because it focused on politics, activism, the economy and spirituality unlike Negro Digest. Black World came to an end in 1976.
Client Corner – Gloria Baker Goodwin
Words cannot express how much I appreciated all the work Tanya has done in opening up my family history tree. Tanya connected all the dots for me and made all the “leaves” make sense! I couldn’t wait until my next visit with my cousin to share the information, so I called her on the spot! Tanya was presenting me with my Family History Binder and I had to interrupt her to get my cousin on the phone so she could share with both of us. My cousin is the true family historian and I knew she would love to be a part of this discussion. I am so blessed to have Tanya as my genealogist.
Featured Article – Celebrating Black History Month
Black History is American History and should be celebrated every day. This year’s theme is African Americans and the Arts. Artists are the gatekeepers of truth. Because of our culture and heritage, we speak the truth to fight racism, discrimination and injustice. Let’s celebrate this month starting with some of the firsts in African American Arts.
Visual Arts
Henry Ossawa Tanner was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania on 21 June 1859. He was an American artist who moved to Paris in 1891 to study art. He was the first African-American painter to gain international fame. His most famous painting was The Banjo Lesson.
Mary Edmonia Lewis was a Free Person of Color born in 1844 In upstate New York, She was of African American and Native American (Mississauga Ojibwe) descent. She was the first African-American and Native American female sculptor who gained critical acclaim. Her most famous sculpture was The Death of Cleopatra.
Oscar Micheaux was born in Metropolis, Illinois on 2 Jan 1884. He was an author, director and producer who produced and directed 44 silent films in his lifetime. His most famous movie was Body and Soul.
Gordon Parks was the first Black photographer hired by Life magazine. He was multitalented in the visual arts. He was a pioneering photojournalist from the 1940s to the 1970s, a film director (“Shaft,” “The Learning Tree”), a best-selling novelist and a composer. His most famous work was a photograph called American Gothic.
Robert Robinson Taylor was born 8 Jun 1868in Wilmington, North Carolina. He was the first African American student allowed into MIT and graduated as an architectural student. He was the director of the Department of Mechanical Industries at Tuskegee Institute (now University). His most famous building was The Chapel at Tuskegee built in 1898. A fire destroyed the chapel in 1957.
Literature
Phillis Wheatley was born in West Africa about 1753 and was enslaved in Boston Massachusetts. She published her book, Poems on Various Subjects, Religious and Moral, in 1773. Manumitted in 1774, Wheatley became the first African American to publish a book and the first African American to achieve an international reputation as a writer.
Performing Arts
Arthur Mitchell was born on 27 Mar 1934 in Harlem, New York. He was the first African American male dancer in a major ballet company. He also became the first African American principal dancer of a major ballet company, the New York Ballet in 1956.
Lincoln Theodore Monroe Andrew Perry, also known as Stepin Fetchit, was born 30 May 1902 in Key West, Florida. He was an American vaudevillian, comedian, and film actor. Perry became the first African American actor to have a successful film career, earning him $1 million dollars.
George Washington Johnson was born about Oct 1846 in Virginia. He was a singer and recording artist. Johnson was the first African American recording star of the phonograph. His most popular songs were “The Whistling Coon” and “The Laughing Song.” He moved to New York after the Civil War and became a street entertainer who was famous for his whistling.
Culinary Arts
James Hemings was born enslaved in Virginia about 1765. He was the brother of Sally Hemings and half brother to Thomas Jefferson’s wife, Martha; he was enslaved by Thomas Jefferson. He trained in France as a master chef in the art of French cooking, the first African American to do so. We can credit him for creating the recipe for macaroni and cheese, French fries and the ice cream cone!
Augustus Jackson was a Free Person of Color born 16 Apr 1808 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He served as a chef for the White House in the 1820s. After leaving the White House, he ran a successful catering business. He was also a candy confectioner who created several ice cream recipes and perfected the method of manufacturing ice cream around 1832.
Thomas Price became the first African American to achieve the certification of American Master Sommelier in 2012. He is the 190th of 262.
John June Lewis, Sr. is recognized as the first African American winemaker in the United States. He took an interest in wine and winemaking while stationed in France during World War I. When he inherited land in Clarksville, Virginia, he started growing grapes. He opened Woburn Winery in 1940.
Editor’s Note – Making the Most of our History
Hello My Peoples! Black History is under fire. Many states ban books and prevent our history from being taught in schools. Why? Many say that it makes students feel uncomfortable and it’s unfair to those students. But is it fair that school curriculum is trying to erase the only history African Americans have? As much as we know, our history started when colonizers kidnapped us from Africa and we arrived in this country. We know that we helped build the United States, therefore we cannot allow school boards and administrators to erase and censor our hard work, determination and perseverence. If your children aren’t learning our history in schools, teach them at home! Take them to cultural events for Black History Month, Juneteenth, and Kwanzaa! Make sure they know who their ancestors are! It’s your job for each one to teach one. Love, Peace and Genealogy.
Thank you for subscribing to our newsletter! November is Native American History Month. We learned the story of Thanksgiving in elementary school so there’s no need to replay the narrative. What has transpired is the focus of Thanksgiving has turned to be more about the Native Americans and less about the Pilgrims. Truth be told, the Native Americans lived here centuries before the English evasion but get no credit for their existence. This newsletter will focus on the indigenous people of North America.
WARTIME CODE TALKERS
Picture courtesy of Intel.gov
The government did not recognize Native American citizenship until 1924 and many places denied Natives the right to vote until the 1950s. However, Natives did not hesitate to join the Armed Forces and fight for the United States. Native Americans called Code Talkers used their tribal language to send secret messages to the battlefield about troop movement and location of the enemy during World War I and II.
During World War I, the code talkers known as the Choctaw Telephone Squad, sent coded communications to the front lines. During World War II, the military continued to recruit Native Americans as code talkers. This was ironic since the government required Native American children to attend boarding schools to assimilate them into “American” culture. Students were punished if they spoke their native language or practiced any of their cultural traditions. The military combined several Native languages to create this code: Choctaw , Comanche, Cheyenne, Ho-Chunk, Cherokee, Osage and Yankton Sioux.
During World War II, the Army recruited Native Americans from the reservations of Oklahoma in 1940. They received basic training and at completion, they were locked in a guarded room together until they produced a code. Because native languages were mostly unwritten, they had to memorize these codes and use them only among each other. The Navy and Marine Corps recruited Native Americans in 1942. They created a language of 211 terms which was eventually increased to 411 words that translated to military words and names. Two code talkers were assigned to each unit, one would work the radio and the other would translate the code into English. Their work was considered top secret until the program was declassified in 1968.
LOOKING FOR LONG LOST RELATIVES?
If you have an interest in researching your family history, let me know and I can assist you. I offer several affordable packages depending on your research needs. If you are an amateur genealogist/family historian, I can create a research plan to guide you in the right direction.
Did you know that enslavers whose slaves were enlisted or drafted into military service during the Civil War received compensation from the government? Why? Not having their slaves presented a financial hardship to the enslaver. Let’s unpack this…
The Emancipation Proclamation only freed the enslaved in Confederate States. Slavery was still legal for the bordering Union loyal states (Maryland, Kentucky, Delaware, West Virginia, Tennessee and Missouri). Soldiers of the United States Colored Troops (USCT) had the largest numbers of claims in these states.
The War Department through Congress passed two acts. 13 Stat. 11 in 1864 & 14 Stat.321 in 1866 allowed slave owners to receive up to $300 for slaves that enlisted and up to $100 for slaves that were drafted during the Civil War. In order to receive compensation, the enslaver had to prove legal ownership, proof of the slave’s enlistment and the owner’s loyalty to the Union. These records are searchable by soldier’s name and enslaver’s name. If you are interested in checking for your ancestor, click here.
CLIENT CORNER – TOMMIEA JACKSON
I had been following Tanya for a while on Facebook and did not hesitate to sign up for the class once it was announced. I am so glad I did. Her wealth of knowledge and desire to help were undeniable. She did not just talk about the theory of genealogy but gave us concrete steps to take and tools to use in our research. I was amazed at how much I learned in just a few hours, and I immediately put those lessons to use in my own research. The class was fun and engaging, which made the time fly.
FEATURED ARTICLE
The Paper Genocide of Native Americans
I was listening to one of my favorite genealogy podcasts on Facebook Live and the discussion turned to Indians suddenly disappearing. That’s the way it seemed, especially in North Carolina. In fact, when I first arrived in Onslow County, North Carolina, I told that the Tuscarora Indians disappeared because they left the area. They assumed the tribe moved away because of the lack of natural resources. I was assured they were not forcibly removed (as in the Trail of Tears). I found this hard to believe so I did my own research.
Race Has Always Been A “Thing”
A person’s race has always been a defining factor in this country and in the world. It seems that a dominant race overpowers any race of color: Slavery was forced upon the Africans; the Holocaust was inflicted upon the Jews; the Japanese were imprisoned in internment camps in the United States during WWII; and Native Americans were forced off their land and removed to a far off area where they would be less troublesome to the colonists. Legal definitions of race were established to classify people based on racial identity and appearance, especially in Virginia. An 1866 Virginia law specified the degree of “blackness” in order to be listed as “colored” or Indian. It was not until 1924, when Virginia passed the “Act to Preserve Racial Integrity” that the Native American started to “disappear.”
Genocide On Paper
Racial definition became important to enforce segregation, especially in Virginia. Walter Ashby Plecker, the Virginia Registrar of the Vital Statistics bureau, enforced the law to push people to categorize their race as either “colored” (Black) or white. “Colored” was the new race for African Americans and Virginian Indians were included in this group. There were many Virginians with mixed African and Native American heritage. Plecker believed that these half Native Blacks stated they were Native Americans in order to “get over” on segregation laws to pass for white. He scrutinized every birth certificate and marriage application for these citizens and manipulated their records. Statistically speaking, he reclassified many with “Indian” mixed heritage as “colored” which eradicated the genealogical heritage of Native Americans in Virginia. He developed and maintained the one drop rule therefore mixed Native African heritage would follow this rule and they would be considered colored.
Erasure
The racial “erasure” initiated by Plecker was one of the reasons that Native Americans “disappeared” from documents and records. Native Americans living on Virginia Reservations (bet you did not know that Virginia has two state recognized Indian reservations) had their status reinstated in 1930 but Plecker’s policy is still felt among the Native American population today. Virginian Natives have been struggling to acquire federal recognition because they do not have the documentation to prove their Native American race and status.
WANT TO HOST A CLASS?
Are you or your organization interested in a group genealogy class? We offer a group session with a special rate to teach 20 or more people how to research their family history. Click here to contact me.
Editor’s Note – Learn Your History
Did you know that Native Americans make up about 2.5% of the U.S. population? They were once the majority and now they have been wittled down to small numbers. Native Americans contributed to this nation’s history in many ways. We hear about the negative and stereotypical information in order to control the historical narrative of America being such a great nation and how they “saved” the savage Indians. We need to remember that they were here first and were the original owners of American soil. They were swindled and hoodwinked out of their birthright and then portrayed to be violent and blood thirsty predators. They were demonized by the land grabbing “privileged” colonists who believed that they discovered America. Okay…jumping off my soapbox now. The truth is now being told. Happy Native American Heritage Month and Happy Thanksgiving.
I featured information about The Negro Motorist Green Book or the Green Book in my June 2022 newsletter. Many people don’t know that the Green Book was more than a 2018 movie with the same title. The movie, Green Book, starred Mahershala Ali as an African American pianist who hired a white New Yorker, Viggo Mortensen, to be his driver and bodyguard. The pianist was touring the Deep South. His record label gave a copy of The Negro Motorist Green Book to the driver prior to the road trip. They recognized that the pianist could not patronize certain establishments because of racism and segregation. I loved the movie however, I knew that many did not understand the significance of the movie title and what that little book meant to a whole race of people.
Driving While Black
When I was a kid, we visited my family in Cape Cod, Massachusetts for summer vacation. My dad was BIG on education (he was an electrical engineer) so a road trip consisted of visiting educational places like museums and points of interest on the 5+ hour drive north. My dad and I would go to the Triple A store (American Automobile Association) to pick up pamphlets and maps for our summer adventure. The pre-Google/GPS days meant maps and atlases were the only navigational tools. I would study those maps, plotting interesting points along the way.
I was intrigued with driving and couldn’t wait until I turned 17 to get my license. It always bothered me that my grandmother never learned to drive. When I asked her why, she explained that it was “too much trouble.” Duke (my grandfather Jonas Davis) would drive her anywhere she wanted to go. She said driving in the South was difficult for Black people. She never explained why and I didn’t dig deeper, which I regret. I could tell she experienced something that she didn’t want to talk about.
Southern Hostility
Fast forward to 2014. I planned to drive to New Orleans for Mardi Gras, fulfilling a bucket list item for my 45th birthday. I told a teacher friend of my plans to drive. She was born and raised in the South so she had legitimate concerns for my solo trip. Her specific instructions included warning me about driving through Georgia, Alabama and Mississippi. She told me to be off the roads and in secure locations before the sun went down (she referenced “sundown town”). She told me which cities were safe and where to gas up along my route. It was through her that I got my history lesson of “driving while black.”
I have personally experienced racism. As a history major, I know about African American history. As a Northerner, I did not know about sundown towns or The Green Book. I asked my dad about them after I returned from my trip. He told me about his experience in Valdosta, Georgia when he was in the Air Force. He and some other airmen went out on liberty on a Saturday might and they had a guide book that told them the safe places they could go, free from harassment by whites. Jim Crow laws were in effect, enforcing racial segregation, unfair treatment and restrictions of Blacks. My dad never said the words, “Green Book,” but I believe that is what he had to guide him.
The Green Book – Created Out of Necessity
Exhibit at African American Museum in Philadelphia PA
It’s a shame that The Green Book existed for the reasons it did. The truth of the matter is that African Americans weren’t safe anywhere – North, South, East or West – from slavery to the Civil Rights Movement. Sometimes I wonder if we are safe now. The Green Book provided spaces for Blacks to feel safe – restaurants, hotels, barber shops, beauty parlors, nightclubs, entertainment.
As cars became affordable, African Americans began to travel more. Cars provided a sense of freedom to African Americans. They didn’t have to sit or stand in the back of buses or trains. There was no fear of being run off the run while walking on the sidewalk or dirt road. They could visit family “down South” and feel protected inside an automobile. But once they stepped out the car, they would be exposed again, unless they were in a place that welcomed them. The Green Book provided that security, to be welcomed to places with people that looked like them, were happy to see them, and didn’t judge or harass them.
Green Book pages at African American Museum in Philadelphia PA
If you are interested in researching your family’s history, there are several packages that could help you determine the information you’re looking for. Contact me at any time!
