In my secret, undercover life I am an amateur genealogist and have been working on compiling my family pedigree since
I was about seventeen. Recently, I discovered a familiar name in the
most unlikely of places!!! As I was preparing to teach my ENGL 3960
course, "The Gullah Presence in African American Literature by Women," I
read as much background info to refresh my perspective. I picked up
the book Drums and Shadows: Survival Studies among Georgia Coastal Negroes
(1986) expecting to find some interesting folklore I could share with
my class. As I read the interviews from formerly enslaved persons and
their descendants in Yamacraw, Georgia I was floored when I read the
testimony of James "Stick Daddy" Cooper:
Out
beyond Yamacraw, where the old brick and dirt streets of the community
give way to the broad, paved Augusta road, an old Negro named James
Cooper has for years conducted a miscellaneous business in a ramshackle
push cart. 1
James sells lunches to the workers at the Savannah Sugar Refinery; he
also cobbles shoes and repairs anything from broken pots to roller
skates. Because of his skill as a wood carver, particularly of walking
sticks, he has become known in the vicinity as "Stick Daddy." A
decidedly original technique is evident in his carving, but he smiled
when this was mentioned.
"I nevuh bin taught," he said. "I took up cahvin as paht time jis fuh the fun of it. Muh granfathuh, Pharo Cooper,
he used tuh make things frum wood an straw, sech as baskets an cheahs
an tables an othuh things fuh the home. I guess I sawt of inherited it
frum, him."
One of "Stick Daddy's" canes is a slender, snake-encircled rod with a handle made from a large black and white die (24).
[paragraph
continues] Another, slightly thicker, is carved with a single
crocodile. The third, a heavy stick topped with a flashlight handle in
which the snapshot of a young Negro girl has been inserted, is artfully
decorated with a turtle, a large crocodile, and a small, sinuous
snake. The chief characteristic of "Stick Daddy's" work is the boldness
with which the carved figures, dark-stained and highly polished, stand
out against their unfinished natural wood background. Very different
is another stick that was found abandoned in an office building in the
city. This has a man's head for a handle but the stick proper is so
covered with minute, unpatterned crisscrosses that the little figure of
a man upside down, a horned head also upside down, and an undetermined
object which may be either man or animal, are noticed only when the
cane is carefully studied.
"Stick Daddy," besides being a general repair man and carver, knows a few "sho cuos" for illnesses (25).
Pharo
Cooper, you see, just happens to be the name of my paternal
great-grandfather. I only recently recovered "Pharo Cooper" as my
relative and had done minimal research on him at the time I was
reading. I have since been on a whirlwind adventure trying to prove or
disprove that the craftsman Pharo Cooper, referred to by "Stick Daddy,"
is the same Pharo Cooper from whom I am directly descended.
I have discovered, through the agency of Ancestry.com, that
my ancestor was born between 1859-1862. The earliest record in which I
can locate him is the 1880 Federal Census. He was living in Indian,
Williamsburg County, South Carolina. I researched the area to see if
there was a plantation owner with the surname Cooper. I discovered that
William Cooper also lived in Indian, Williamsburg County, South
Carolina along with more than one hundred people of African descent
carrying the surname Cooper. Now, logically this leads me to believe
that William Cooper was the owner (former owner by 1880) of a huge
number of slaves including Pharo's parents (Manassa and Nannie) and
possibly had possession of Pharo during slavery. Williamsburg County is
one county inland from the South Carolina coast and given the
historical fact that the enslaved population outnumbered the slave
owning population, especially in South Carolina, I willingly assume that
Pharo Cooper participated and was fluent in what we now refer to as
Geechee/Gullah culture.
By
1900, Pharo had married and moved to Sycamore Town, Irwin County,
Georgia. He sired at least 12 children that can be documented in the
census record. I have run up against a brick wall in my next phase of
research: trying to locate a direct connection between James "Stick
Daddy" Cooper's parentage and Pharo Cooper's progeny.
While
I am proud of my lineage regardless if my Pharo Cooper was a craftsman
and furniture maker or not, I am certainly excited about the possibility
of finding my ancestors name in a published book! Before reading Drums and Shadows,
I was uncertain where my paternal ancestry would lead me. I was
inspired to make a familial connection with the Pharo Cooper in the book
and discovered a whole new branch of my family history that is
connected to Geechee/Gullah corridor. I am continually amazed at how I
am able to intersect my work with my personal life. As some black
feminist critics would say, "the personal is political." I have always
had an interest and profound respect for Geechee/Gullah culture; I see
it as the origin of African American culture as we know it. So to
discover that I have ancestors that are more than likely part and parcel
of this originating culture is profoundly humbling and satisfying. I
have a REAL, tangible connection to Geechee/Gullah Culture!!!! This
make my experience at St. Simons even more horrific (See my earlier
blog), but it also fuels my passion for this part of the south and for
the preservation/reclamation of the African American legacy. I still
don't know if "Stick Daddy" may be a distant relative, but I'm always
working toward finding that answer! More to come soon!
