Saturday, October 10, 2009

Reverend Edgar Sunny Timmons Sr

The passing of our family member: Edgar Sunny Timmons Sr.

Please visit the Obituary for Edgar Timmons (Sunny) Sr.

The Obituary

Georgia Outdoor News and Vernon Holt

Vernon Holt
The Saga of Harris Neck NWR

THE SAGA OF THE HARRIS NECK WILDLIFE REFUGE
Follow this discussion here: Georgia Outdoor New Forum

At the recent mention of hunting on the Harris Neck National Wildlife Refuge, I thought it might be of interest to give an account of how the refuge came into being.

The refuge occupies 2800 acres of coastal land and is in reality an island, being separated from the mainland by salt water rivers, marsh, and tidal creeks. The lands originally were granted to a handful of influential individuals (the Kings, Harris’, and Thomas’) in the 1736’s to 1740’s. They were slaveholders who cleared and worked the land for long staple Sea Island Cotton as well as for rice culture.

This agricultural system thrived until the Civil War period when this source of labor no longer existed. With it no longer feasible to work the plantations, the lands were simply abandoned since they had virtually no value.

The freedmen were given small tracts or were simply allowed to squat on the lands which they had formerly tended. Harris Neck then became an isolated community of small farms scattered over some four square miles. These people were self sufficient, working their small farms and gardens, and tending their livestock. Many of them were heavily dependent upon the bounty of the sounds, streams, and marshes. They rowed their heavy bateaus out to the oyster grounds on ebb tide, where they harvested the bounty when low tide exposed the fine quality oysters. They returned to the landing, utilizing the flood tide to make the task less burdensome. They utilized the same process to make their way to the mud flats where they cast their handknitted nets for the bounteous shrimp and mullet. I have heard it said many times, “you could never starve a man who lives on the river”

All was peaceful for these people and their little bit of Eden until the advent of air travel dictated a need for emergency landing strips at intervals along the coast. In the mid 1930’s the Civil Aeronautical Adm. Acquired some 200 acres in the middle of Harris Neck and constructed a grass landing strip capable of handling DC-2 aircraft. With minimal effect the people of Harris Neck carried on with their normal lifestyle.

All was well until 1941 when the US was thrust into World War II. Surveyors and Lawyers moved into the community of Harris Neck without warning and began condemnation proceedings to acquire lands for an Army Air Corps base. The people were totally bewildered and helpless to resist the taking of their lands. They were told to move immediately. As they did so their houses, barns and any evidence that people had once lived there were bulldozed and totally removed.

The air base was activated in 1942 and operated until 1944 when the war ended in Europe . During this time it served as a training facility for fighter pilots (P-39’s and P-40’s) which were utilized mostly for enemy submarine patrol along the coast.

Shortly after the war ended, the property was deeded to McIntosh County with the provision that the county keep it open for air traffic and further that they do an acceptable job of maintaining the facilities, including lights on the runways. In complete defiance of the special provisions in the deed, the county powers that be (County Commissioners and Sheriff)) proceeded to strip and loot everything of value from the base, wiring, plumbing, pumps, electric motors, even to the extent of moving entire buildings which were converted into dwellings.

In addition to the looting of the facility the county commissioners leased the entire airbase, including the old colonial Livingston Mansion (which had been the officers club) to the county sheriff to be operated as an “exclusive club”. When the Feds learned that the county had sub-leased the property to the sheriff, they promptly informed the county that they were repossessing the property due to failure to perform the requirements of the provisional deed.

The Harris Neck Army Airbase was then turned over to the US General Services Adm. For disposal. When the US Fish and Wildlife learned of this turn of events, they requested that the land be turned over to them to be utilized as a waterfowl refuge with emphasis on providing a rest stop for migrating geese. Their request was honored.

The US F&W Service wanted the land because it was available, and not because of its suitability as a waterfowl refuge. Land in this coastal area leans heavily toward wetland. Not so with this particular piece of land. I would estimate that no more than 5% of the total area is in wetland. To counter this wetland shortfall, the Service diked areas on and around the old runways and then dug wells and set up huge pumps to provide water for the man made potholes. One small wetland on the edge of the refuge provided a site for a rookery for Egrets, Herons, Wood Storks, and Alligators.

What Might Have Been: If the Fish and Wildlife Service truly needed a Waterfowl Refuge at this point along the Ga. Coast, prime wetland sites were available for their choosing. Fact of the matter is that they could establish a dozen new refuges today on the Atlantic Flyway and they would not increase the number of ducks. Ducks cannot be manipulated like chessmen.

There is a social aspect to this matter. Condemnation continues to this day to be a controversial subject. This land was taken from these people for a worthy cause. Most people who are familiar with this history have strong feelings that the land should have been turned over to the families of the former owners. I happen to be one of these.

The Harris Neck Wildlife Refuge is a lovely place to visit today. While it makes little impact on “waterfowl” today, the service promotes it as a great place for bird watching. As a token to hunters, they allow three days for hunting deer. They also have a boat launching ramp. The humanitarian aspect associated with this refuge is seldom mentioned today.

My knowledge of this area stems from the fact that I lived within five miles of Harris Neck while this story unraveled. I knew many of the people who were affected by this based being established. I also knew the local officials who by their own greed cost the citizens of McIntosh a wonderful resource. I hunted for 35 years on property immediately adjacent to Harris Neck.

Coastal Georgia Historical Society...A Bit Of Our History

Gullah Heritage
Transatlantic linkage: The Gullah/Geechee-Sierra Leone Connection


The Gullah, or Geechee as they are known in Georgia, are an extraordinary group of African-Americans who live in small farming and fishing communities on the sea islands of Georgia and South Carolina. Because of their geographic isolation, the Gullah/Geechee have been able to retain more of their African heritage than any other African-Americans. Their ancestors' ability to cultivate rice and their high resistance to malaria due to the sickle trait, a heritable hemoglobin characteristic, are common links to Africans from the "Windward" or " Rice Coast " of West Africa, particularly to the country of Sierra Leone .

The Gullah/Geechee-Sierra Leone linkage is about people separated by time and ocean, who speak a similar language and share similarities of crafts, food ways, music, folk tales, architecture, textiles, ceramics and belief systems.

This exhibition page celebrates the cultural linkage and the rich heritage shared by the descendants of Africans taken from their homeland to work as slaves in America , African-Americans repatriated to Sierra Leone after the American Revolution, and the Sierra Leonians who have sustained through the generations the culture and traditions shared by these three groups.

The warm, semi-tropical climate of the sea islands makes Georgia and South Carolina a perfect location for the cultivation of rice. Rice cultivation was a special skill that captives from Sierra Leone possessed which made them highly prized in slave trading. From ca. 1700-1800, over 50,000 slaves were imported by South Carolina and Georgia planters from the Windward Coast of Africa, specifically, the Senegambia, Sierra Leone, and Liberia, to cultivate large plantations in the growing of rice and cotton. Ethnic and cultural groups from this area included the Djolas, Wolof, Serer, Mandinga, Mende, Temne and Vai. Despite antislavery importation laws enacted in Georgia in 1799, slaves quickly outnumbered their masters on the sea islands. Slaves from Sierra Leone were often purchased in Charleston, South Carolina and Savannah, Georgia to be taken to isolated communities in Georgia such as Sapelo Island and Harris Neck where their unique African culture was preserved.

The slave trade brought the importation of slaves from the Windward Coast region of West Africa to the rice growing regions of the coastal sea islands of Georgia and South Carolina through a complex pattern of migration and relocation. Slaves from Sierra Leonean ethnic groups such as Mende, Temne, Vai and Fula intermingled with slaves from other parts of West Africa . Living on the sea islands, isolated from outside influence, the Gullah/Geechee community still reflects this cultural linkage with Africa .

The profitable slave trade that fed on ethnic warfare in West Africa is represented today by the remains of what was once a major slave trading fortress and castle at Bunce Island in Sierra Leone on the Sierra Leone River . Between 1672 and 1807, the slave trade flourished under the protection of powerful English cannons at Bunce Island . The fort, with its adjacent shipyards, supplied slaves by using a fleet of vessels that cruised the Windward Coast .

By 1870, it is estimated that 10-12 million Africans were taken to the Americas , many of whom perished during the transatlantic voyages. Slaves were purchased by the Europeans for textiles, iron guns, Venetian glass beads, rum and brandy, and were exchanged for rice, cotton, indigo, gold, silver, sugar and tobacco in the Americas .

During the American Revolution, British forces offered slaves freedom and grants of land if they fought for the Crown. Many slaves fled the plantations of South Carolina and Georgia for this promise. Two important figures in the history of the repatriation of sea island slaves were Henry Laurens, an influential planter, slave trader and the Charleston agent for Richard Oswald, a Scotsman who owned Bunce Island during the 1750s and 60s. During the Revolutionary War, Laurens became President of the Continental Congress. Captured by the British, Laurens was rescued by his associate Oswald, then the leader of the British negotiating team for the Treaty of Paris. Laurens and Oswald, though on different sides of the war, tried to force the return of the freed slaves to their owners in America . The British commander in New York refused and, on his own authority, directed the slaves to safety in British Nova Scotia.

In 1787, British philanthropists founded the " Province of Freedom ," which later became Freetown , a British crown colony and the principal base for the suppression of the slave trade. By 1792, 1,200 freed slaves from Nova Scotia joined the original settlers, called the Black Poor. Another group of slaves who had rebelled in Jamaica , , the Maroons, followed in 1800. The British established a naval base in Freetown after outlawing the slave trade in 1807 and patrolled against illegal slave ships. Those rescued from slave ships were taken to Freetown . Over 50,000 recaptives had been settled by 1855. Known as Krios, the repatriated settlers of Freetown today live in a multi-ethnic country embracing such diverse groups as the Mende, Temne, Kono, Vai, Krim Sherbro, Gola, and Loko.

Although the ancestors of the Gullah/Geechee came from different ethnic groups living along the Windward Coast of Africa , many aspects of their contemporary material culture are shared specifically with Sierra Leoneans. In addition to rice and indigo cultivation, there are strong shared traditions of the following skills and crafts between Sierra Leone and coastal Gullah/Geechee communities: Textiles, fishing, foodways, folktales, vernacular architecture, music, basket making, net making, language, belief systems, pottery and woodcarving.

This exhibition is presented by the Coastal Georgia Historical Society, the Museum of Coastal History and the Sierra Leone National Museum . It was made possible by funding from the National Endowment for the Humanities Public Programs. Additional funding assisting the project provided by the International Partnership Among Museums, the United States Information Agency, and the Rockefeller Foundation. Additional information can be obtained by contacting the: Coastal Georgia Historical Society, 101 12th Street, P.O. Box 21136, St. Simons Island, GA 31522, (912) 638-4666.

Acknowledgements This text is from an exhibit brochure presented by The Museum of Coastal History and The Sierra Leone National Museum. Used here courtesy of the Coastal Georgia Historical Society.