Menevee Slave Reunion

Pick one.

February contains close to a hundred special days such as Valentines Day, National Weatherperson’s Day, Pay a Compliment Day, Read in the Bathtub Day, and a couple of presidential birthdays.

This is also Black History Month. I’ve done about all I want to do with my family history for now. It comes and goes, and it isn’t much of a challenge.

Black History is another matter. While having lunch with a friend, he commented how difficult it was to find information about his family history, where they came from, lived and who they were related to.

Generations of slavery disjointed many family lines, and unless someone was able to keep the continuity going, it was easy to lose it.

I picked a couple of people who lived in my family neighborhood, learned as much as possible about them, then wrote about them. Some of the neighbors were interesting, others lived non-remarkable lives and are only sketched out in public documents.

My father told stories about Ananias Kimpson and showed me a house he built for his family on what is now Punkintown Rd.

An issue of the “Old Campbell County Historical Society Newsletter” featured a synopsis of an article from the Atlanta Constitution on Monday, September 28, 1903, by writer Robert Timmons. I found a copy of the original page. The article was headlined, “Aged ex-slaves gather at home of old master.”

According to the article, the reunion was conceived and organized by one of the former slaves. The fifteen attendees were the only surviving former slaves of the Willis Menevee plantation, which was just south of Palmetto, GA. The article also included pictures of six of the attendees.

At the time only one former slave lived in Palmetto, with the remainder coming from different points of the state. Eightyyear- old “Uncle” Edmund Menevee traveled fifty miles from his home near Hiram, in Cobb County. He walked the entire way.

The oldest former slave was ninety-yearold “Aunt” Hennie Menevee, who had been the head cook and resumed her role. She announced dinner at noon by blowing her conch shell horn.

The writer described how the children of former slaves and slave owner enjoyed lunch under the spreading backyard oaks. They talked about the old days, revisited familiar sites on the farm, sang songs and boarded afternoon trains to resume their lives.

It never occurred to me that former slaves would want to revisit that period of their lives. Nearly forty years had passed since the end of slavery in America.

The writer reported that the former slaves were prosperous, with many being property owners.

A reproduction of the article from 1903 is on display in the Douglas County Museum of History and Art.

joenphillips@yahoo.com