Cheesy Grits: "The Two Black Kings of Edisto Island"—John Thorne's Real Estate

According to Charles Spencer's history of Edisto, there were sixty-two full-fledged plantations on Edisto Island in 1850, and most if not all of them were growing Edisto's most famous crop: Sea Island Cotton. Comes now the Civil War: all the plantation owners and their families left the island in 1861 and the now-former slaves left in 1862. Edisto Island was mainly left empty aside from a few Union troops.

On January 15, 1865, General W.T. Sherman issued his famous Special Field Orders, No. 15, which set aside the Sea Islands from Charleston south all the way to the St. John's River in Florida exclusively for resettlement/ownership by former slaves. It was these orders that gave rise to the slogan "Forty acres and a mule" as an expression for the government's promise to provide homesteads: spaces to live and land to farm to earn a living. (None of the orders actually mentions mules.)

The former Edisto slaves, many of whom had been evacuated just across the sound to neighboring St. Helena Island, quickly returned to Edisto and began to restore the overgrown and run-down properties and to bring the land back under cultivation. No former plantation owners were allowed onto the island, although they tried mightily to get back.

With the accession of Andrew Johnson to the office of the U.S. presidency, however, the former plantation owners of Edisto thought they might have a more sympathetic ear than they had expected from the now-murdered Abe Lincoln: they petitioned President Johnson directly, asking that their lands on Edisto be returned to them. Never mind that the former slaves were already on the land pursuant to Sherman's Field Order, growing crops and making lives as free men and women.

The former plantation owners had played a shrewd card: President Johnson acceded to their request and sent General O.O. Howard to Edisto Island to set up a system whereby title to the lands would be returned to the former owners, but they would be required to negotiate labor contracts with the former slaves.

The African-American Edistonians didn't need a weatherman to tell them which way the wind was blowing. Their first response was a letter to General Howard that included these paragraphs:

"You ask us to forgive the land owners of our Island,  You only lost your right arm. In war and might forgive them.  The man who tied me to a tree & gave me 39 lashes & who stripped and flogged my mother & my sister & who will not let me stay In His empty Hut except I will do His planting & be Satisfied with His price & who combines with others to keep away land from me well knowing I would not Have any thing to do with Him If I Had land of my own.–that man, I cannot well forgive.  Does It look as If He Has forgiven me, seeing How He tries to keep me In a condition of Helplessness..."

"General, we cannot remain Here In such condition and If the government permits them to come back we ask It to Help us to reach land where we shall not be slaves nor compelled to work for those who would treat us as such..."

General Howard responded that it would now require a quite literal act of Congress to provide the land once promised to the former slaves of Edisto. The betrayal of the Edistonians was apparently fait accompli. Their reply was an impassioned and eloquent letter of their own to President Andrew Johnson:

"We the freedmen Of Edisto Island South Carolina have learned From you through Major General O O Howard commissioner of the Freedmans Bureau. with deep sorrow and Painful hearts of the possibility of goverment restoring These lands to the former owners.  We are well aware Of the many perplexing and trying questions that burden Your mind. and do therefore pray to god (the preserver Of all. and who has through our Late and beloved President (Lincoln) proclamation and the war made Us A free people) that he may guide you in making Your decisions. and give you that wisdom that Cometh from above to settle these great and Important Questions for the best interests of the country and the Colored race:  Here is where secession was born and Nurtured   Here is were we have toiled nearly all Our lives as slaves and were treated like dumb Driven cattle,  This is our home,  we have made These lands what they are.  we were the only true and Loyal people that were found in posession of these Lands.  we have been always ready to strike for Liberty and humanity yea to fight if needs be To preserve this glorious union.  Shall not we who Are freedman and have been always true to this Union have the same rights as are enjoyed by Others?  Have we broken any Law of these United States?  Have we forfieted our rights of property In Land?–  If not then! are not our rights as A free people and good citizens of these United States To be considered before the rights of those who were Found in rebellion against this good and just Goverment (and now being conquered) come (as they Seem) with penitent hearts and beg forgiveness For past offences and also ask if thier lands Cannot be restored to them   are these rebellious Spirits to be reinstated in thier possessions And we who have been abused and oppressed For many long years not to be allowed the Privilige of purchasing land But be subject To the will of these large Land owners?  God fobid,  Land monopoly is injurious to the advancement of the course of freedom, and if government Does not make some provision by which we as Freedmen can obtain A Homestead, we have Not bettered our condition.

"We have been encouraged by government to take up these lands in small tracts, receiving Certificates of the same–  we have thus far Taken Sixteen thousand (16000) acres of Land here on This Island.  We are ready to pay for this land When Government calls for it. and now after What has been done will the good and just government take from us all this right and make us Subject to the will of those who have cheated and Oppressed us for many years   God Forbid!  We the freedmen of this Island and of the State of South Carolina–Do therefore petition to you as the President of these United States, that some provisions be made by which Every colored man can purchase land. and Hold it as his own.  We wish to have A home if It be but A few acres.  without some provision is Made our future is sad to look upon.  yes our Situation is dangerous.  we therefore look to you In this trying hour as A true friend of the poor and Neglected race. for protection and Equal Rights. with the privilege of purchasing A Homestead–A Homestead right here in the Heart of South Carolina.

"We pray that god will direct your heart in Making such provision for us as freedmen which Will tend to unite these states together stronger Than ever before–  May God bless you in the Administration of your duties as the President Of these United States is the humble prayer Of us all.–

In behalf of the Freedmen Committee        

Henry Bram.  Ishmael Moultrie. Sampson Yates.  

It was to no avail; Johnson did not yield. The Freedmen of Edisto had little choice but to abandon their claims to land and to sign labor contracts to work for their former masters if they wanted to stay on Edisto. Many did so, hoping to save enough money to buy a few acres should the opportunity arise.

It was into this turmoil that John Thorne had arrived on Edisto Island. As it happened, a man named Ephraim Baynard ("the stingiest man God ever let live!"), who owned several plantations on Edisto, had died in 1865. One of his plantations, "Seaside" by name, included about 750 acres in the southwestern section of Edisto Island.

In December 1871, John Thorne bought "Seaside" from the executor of Baynard's estate, one Thomas H. Willingham, for $5,000. The narratives between Thorne's purchase(s) and his "co-king" James Hutchinson's purchase(s) are remarkably parallel, with both indicating that they pooled the assets of the small farmers on Edisto to buy the plantations and then subdivided the plantations, allotting each "shareholder" a portion according to his investment. Small wonder that they were seen as "kings" by the African-American Edistonians.

I'd love to see more documentation of these arrangements. In John Thorne's case, he apparently had enough of his own money to enable him to set aside a rather larger portion of "Seaside" for himself, including the pieces of land on which Main's Market/Grant's Store and his former residence currently stand.

This image shows the general location on Edisto Island of Baynard's "Seaside"
plantation, purchased by John Thorne, who subdivided it and resold it
(at fair prices) to the former slaves of Edisto Island. Freedman's
Village was a small settlement of freed slaves on the old plantation. I'm
not aware that any trace remains of it.

Part of me thinks that, coming from Charleston's antebellum elite Free Persons of Color (FPOC) community as he did, Thorne will have had access to at least some financial backing in Charleston. After all, John's father Philip (Jane's great-great-great-grandfather) was the president of one of the FPOC elite benevolent societies, the Friendly Moralist Society; John's sister Rebecca (Jane's great-great grandmother) was married to the son of one of the richest FPOC in Charleston, Robert Howard; John's brother, William Miller Thorne was married to a Cuthbert and another brother, Weston Thorne, was married to a Plumeau; both the Cuthberts and the Plumeaus were amongst the elite FPOC of Charleston. So John Thorne of Edisto certainly wasn't lacking the kind of social connections that so often go hand-in-hand with doing business.

According to the indexes at the Register of Mesne Conveyance office in Charleston, the list below is the Edistonians, both men and women, to whom John Thorne subsequently sold properties. I offer the entire list because some of these family names live on in Edisto, some of them on the very properties purchased from John Thorne.

Stephen Mikell	Amos Bailey	Fred Jenkins
Peter Bright	Roland Brisbane	Cyrus Seabrook
August Deas	Charles Williams	Wallace Westcoat
Amos Brown	Bush Major	Wally Brown
Walley Singleton	Jacob Bailey	Robert Swinton
William Smith	Boston Jenkins	Peter Brown
Samuel Smalls	Susan Ford	Peter Smith
Chloe Green	James Scott	Sarah Wells
John Gadsden	Abram Brown	Brutus Singleton
John Robinson	Albert Bliging	Aaron Simons
Sandy Simons	Joe Jenkins	Friday Ford
Cato Small	Aleck Pinckney	George Bright
John Bush	William Wright	Joseph Frere
Lucy Brown	Taffey Heyward	Prince Bailey
Frances Grimball	Dinah Sparkle	April Frasier
David Frere	Frank Brown	Jane Wilkerson
Billy Seabrook	Cyrus Washington	Joe Coaxum
Abram Brown	Richard Bowles	Will Williams
George Nelson	Otto Wieters	Frederick Seabrook
Samuel C. Miller	John Robinson, et al.	Caesar Seabrook
Ellen Legare	John Perry