Alex Gregg, a former slave at the Mars Bluff Plantation, retold stories of his life as a slave and the lives of other slaves to his grandson Archie Waiters. Archie Waiters lived with his grandfather and grandmother beginning at the age of three until he was a young man. Archie remembered the recollections told to him, and these stories have been able to keep a part of African American history alive in the Pee Dee region. Without these recollections, artifacts, and customs we would not know much about slaves that lived in this region, once called the “Pine Barren” region.
When researchers were looking at slave life in South Carolina they were infatuated with the dialect that was spoken on the Sea Islands and how the many cultures came together and spoke a common language. Research was not recorded on the slaves that lived in the Coastal Plain regions and much information was lost. Many believe it was because the slaves living in this region spoke the same as their owners and their family members. Sea Island slaves were not around the plantation owner and this area was mostly populated with Africans. Also, the Sea Island region was mostly a rice cultivating plantation system, as the Coastal Plain region was mainly cotton production and land clearing.
Alex Gregg was brought to Georgetown by boat from Africa. Before the boat was unloaded or docked, the Africans that arrived were bought by Pee Dee farm owners.
Mars Bluff was a new community of farmers. The slaves in this region were very different from those of the Coastal Zone. (Vernon, 1993, 10). The slaves of this region spoke the same or almost the same dialect as their owners.
The homes of the slaves were located on the banks of Jefferies Creek. The slaves would clear the land for the planting of cotton. Due to the invention of the Cotton Gin, more and more land was needed and more and more slaves were needed to clear the land.
The homes of the slaves were built only as shelter. (McAllister, 2005) They would sleep and possibly eat in these one bedroom cabins. They would have beds made of pine straw and the coverings would be scraps of material used to sew a quilt.
The cabins were made from Hewn Timber logs. Notches were made on each log to help the slaves keep track of which log was used in which slot. (McAllister, 2005) Since the slaves were unable to read, they would use these notches to keep the logs in the correct places.
The homes were small but built for protection from the rain and cold. As many as fifteen people would live in one cabin. The walls would be covered with newspaper during the fall. This would serve two purposes, one for protection of the cold wind beating against the cabin, and another as decoration for the cabin walls.
The slaves all ate together in a common area. They would all feed from a wooden trough. The bell would ring to call them from the fields for a middle of the day meal, and they would not return to the cabins until the sun set for the day.
Cultural sayings and tools brought to this region helped shape this area of South Carolina. Sayings such as “Great Da” in reference to the” god”, “ Da”(McAllister, 2005), words such as “cooter” which means, “ turtle”, and “swallow your tongue”, which means “ don’t say those things,” were also brought from the African region. These phrases are used today by many of our grandparents and great grandparents.
Brush brooms made of dog wood branches would be used to sweep the dirt floor of the cabins. Quilt making was also something that the African American slaves would do when they were not working on the farms. Many of the pieces of the material were scraps that were not longer needed by the owner. Sometimes these quilts would tell a story of life or serve as a map to freedom. These items were brought from the African culture and used during and after slavery.
Much of the information about slaves in the Mars Bluff region is very sketchy and not officially documented. If not for the stories told to Archie Waiters as a young child, we would not have any record of what life was like for slaves during this important part of American history.