Evaluating Reparations with the Quarterman-Keller Scholars
In addition to my role as a Student Brand Ambassador for the HistoryMakers Digital Archive, I am also honored to be an inaugural Quarterman-Keller Scholar. In this role, my peers and I interview the families of Randy Quarterman and Sarah Eisner, the descendants of two families tied together by the Trans Atlantic slave trade. George Adam Keller, Sarah’s three-time great-grandfather, enslaved Zeike Quarterman, Randy’s three-time great-grandfather, on Coldbrook Plantation in Savannah, Georgia. The two descendants have taken part in a journey to reinstate the reparations land given to the Quartman’s following emancipation. Through the documentation of these oral histories, I have not only invigorated my transgenerational interviewing prowess, but have also gained insight on the interlinked nature of public and personal history. For my spring break, I took part in the Quarterman-Keller Scholar Spring Break Experience. The experience included a trip to Hilton Head, South Carolina and Savannah, Georgia. There, the scholars engaged in the history of African Americans in the area intimately.
During the second portion of our trip, the QK Scholars made the trip to Monteith, Georgia to visit the land that the Reparations Project is founded on. There, we spoke with Randy Quarterman about his family’s history with the land, and it’s meaning to the larger stance on reparations.
In 1890, Sarah’s great-great-great grandfather, George Adam Keller, gave 10 acres of reparation land to Zeike/Isaac and Grace Quarterman, Randy’s great-great-great grandparents, in Port Wentworth, Georgia, a few miles outside of Savannah where Sherman executed the failed attempt at reparations: Special Field Order No. 15 (“forty acres and a mule”). Today, this land is being threatened by the practice of eminent domain, despite the Quartman Family paying taxes on the land for generations. The fact that this land was acquired as a result of reparations following the Civil War, the preservation of this land is of utmost importance to the preservation of black generational wealth.
HistoryMaker Donald Lyons’ family were the neighbors of some recipients of reparations land following the Civil War. On his experiences growing up he says, “Mama’s neighbor who was like a [grandmother] was on forty acres and she--it was called Heirs Property because I think it was the original forty acres and a mule kind of property…I think it was the original forty acres that they granted and it passed down. She was actually the overseer of it in the sense that therehwere many relatives and often she would have to fend off relatives who wanted to come and sell it. It happened often, it happened more often than I can remember. But it was one of those things where you have this property and it's supposed to stay in the family and then people would come and want to sell it or they would with some tricky logic where they actually wanted to sell their part and it wasn't allowed and so it is still there, it still belongs to the heirs.”
Indeed, the passing down and maintanence of this kind of property is often a tricky endeavor. Thomas Barnwell, HistoryMaker and native of Hilton Head island, spent most of his career in real estate defending fellow black natives of the island. When discussing the topic of heir property, he highlighted some of the challenges that come with dividing the land. He says, “(Heirs property) is a major problem in the Hilton Head [Hilton Head Island, South Carolina] community…because whomever name the land was in did not leave a will. That's the main problem. And because persons at that point and even today have a desire who are part of the heirs' property maybe to build a home or maybe to allow their children to build a home on the property. Or they might want to do a business opportunity on their portion of the property.”
While in Monteith, we traveled to the Promised Land Farm. It is at this location we toured the first piece of reparations land bestowed to black Americans following the Civil War. The land is now an urban farm, owned and operated by two black Vietnam veterans called “Uncle Bob” and “Uncle Bill.” We had the opportunity to interview the family that operates the farm and learn about their childhood experiences picking beans, peas, and other produce for pay to bring back to their families. We also witness their receival of the 2nd Annual Promised Land Farm Grant, which was presented by the Reparations Foundation.
