Blog for those interested in History, History120

Post 3: Where in the world is Barrow's Plantation?

Located two miles southwest of Philomath Georgia is the remanents
of old Barrow's Plantation. Approximately sixty
slaves lived on the plantation, their houses were gathered
around that of the master. Running through this section of the
plantation was a road and across the road was the gin house.
Wooded areas and cottons fields make up the rest of the
plantation. This map of Barrow's Plantation is full of clues
that lead us to a deeper understanding of history.

Viewing a present day satellite photo of the area reveals that
the land has been reclaimed by woods, it is now a tree farm. In
addition, it shows us an error with the map. The  orientation.
To rectify this error, the top of the map should actually be
the bottom. Turning the map thirty degrees to the left is the
last correction needed to make it appear as it actually is.

The Barrows themselves are the focal point of the plantation.
In terms of slaveholders, the Barrow Family was quit ritch.
"Less then 1% of all families owned more than 50 slaves".[2]
The plantation owner, David Barrow was married to Sarah Pope
Barrow who was the granddaughter of the former governor. Their
son, David C Barrow Jr., was well educated and later became
chancellor of the University of Georgia.[3]

The map change from 1860 to 1881 is quite drastic. The 1881 map
shows us what Barrow's Plantation looked like after slavery was
abolished. Since most of the slaves had no money and everyone
they knew was on the plantation, they became tenant farmers for
Barrow. With their newfound freedom slaves could live anywhere
on the plantation they wanted, and thus picked locations
closest to their fields to avoid previous trekks across the
plantation. Tenant farmers actually increased production on
Barrow's plantation because the harder they worked the more
money they got to keep for themselves.[1] The South fought an
entire war to retain slavery when all those lives could have
been saved if they realized the tenant farming system was
actually more productive and required less work by the
plantation owners. Other wars like the cold war could have been
prevented if people though more about the pros and cons between
two different ideas.

Citations:
Barrow, David. "A Georgia Plantation". Scribners monthly, an
illustrated magazine for the people March 1881: 830-836.

Goldfield, David. The American Journey. Fourth. Upper Saddle
River, NJ: Pearson Prentice Hall, 2006.

"Georgia Encyclopedia". Georgia Humanities Council and the
University of Georgia Press.. 10/19/07
<www.georgiaencyclopedia.org>.

Post 2: Remember the road traveled by few

In the winter of 1832, Pigeon's Egg Head and several others
from the Assinneboin tribe were selected for a delegation that
would meet in Washington. Upon return from this eight-thousand
mile trip, the great warrior Pigeon's Egg Head was seen as a
wizard amoung tribesmen for his accurate depiction of what
happened on this trip to the east. Subsiquently, Pigeon's Egg
Head was shot and killed for spreading his 'lying medicine'.
The story of Pigeon's Egg Head should be remembered, as it
forshadows the dangers of corruption and americanization that
the beautiful native american culture will face.

As a brave warrior and decorated war veterian, son of the
chief, Pigeon's Egg Head was the quintessence of native
american culture. Catlin describes his dress as "classic and
exceedingly beautiful", but this is not the reason for his
dress. He dresses in this manner also for practicality. The
outfit is loose so it doesn't constrict movement, the shoes
offer protection for the soles of his feet and don't allow
enemies to hear when he is sneaking up on them. It's amazing
Native Americans can be ready for battle even when they are
showing off in fancy clothes.

The corruption of the white man was well remembered by the
village chiefs, and they saw this in Pidgeon's Egg Head after
his return from the east. The Indian Removal Act of 1830 was
fresh in the chief's minds--1/4th of the 125,000 native
americans relocated in this way perished on the journey to
Oklohama[1]. The chiefs were right in a way, after his journey
east, Pigeon's Egg Head had lost the values of his culture. He
was no longer a great warrior, but a drunk who sought only to
entertain.

This tale does not to say that Pigeon's Egg Head was a bad
person, his intentions of spreading knowledge were pure, but he
went about it the wrong way. If instead of dressing in flashy
impractical clothes and telling drunken stories to impress he
had kept his values, then he would have his credibility intact
and people would take him seriously. Clearly there are many bad
things that the native Americans could and did learn from
Americans, but there are also a lot of good things. Imagine a
society that combined the advanced technology of Americans with
the Native Americans resourcefulness and ability to make good
use of everything in the environment.

Citation:

Goldfield, David. The American Journey. Fourth. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Prentice Hall, 2006.