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| Botany Bay Road Edisto Island, SC Photo by Jane Godfrey Jan. 2018 |
The central part of the family history agenda was to spend time on Edisto Island, which we've come to love. But it wasn't just for the drive down Edisto's Botany Bay Road; no, no. In recent years, Edisto has come alive with efforts to preserve its singular history, including the African American history, and we were there to help spread the story of John S. Thorne, one of the two "Black Kings of Edisto."
Thorne's story is important because within two decades after the end of the Civil War, he had helped make landowners of perhaps as many as 60 formerly enslaved Edistonians. These were folks who came out of the War owning little more than pockets filled with dreams—dreams that included making livings for themselves and their families from their own land. It's part of the American Dream.
When I first wrote about John S. Thorne, the "Black King of Edisto," I didn't know the finer details of how he had made landowners of the formerly-enslaved Edistonians. I knew the broad story: acting as the agent for a group of African Americans, he had purchased two former plantations, had them subdivided, and then sold the subdivided plots to the "investors." Having been through a mortgage or two myself, I wondered how the paperwork was managed.
As it turned out, my good blog and personal friend, Deborah, whose great-grandfather, John "Jack" Robinson had purchased several plots from Thorne, had copies of the paperwork. But before I get to that paperwork, there is a bit of background that needs to be discussed.
Thorne's effort to make landowners of the formerly-enslaved was actually the second of four such Lowcountry efforts during Reconstruction. The first was organized by a Freedman named John Scanlon and involved the purchase of Remley Point plantation on the north side of Mt. Pleasant. Scanlon incorporated the Charleston Land Company in 1868. That same year, the Charleston Land Company purchased Remley Point. By 1870, it had been resurveyed and subdivided into plots, blocks, and squares. Michael Trinkley's report on Scanlonville for the Chicora Foundation reports that some 35% of the blocks with known purchase dates were purchased in the first year. What is missing from these reports, however, is any documentation of the linkage between dues paid, shares held, and property purchased. So although the outcome was a good one and parts of Scanlonville still exist today, Trinkley reports that many if not most of the organizational documents have been lost, so we don't get to see exactly how it worked. (See below for a link to the full text of the Trinkley report.)
John S. Thorne appears to have been the second such Lowcountry effort, but he went about it rather differently. Although he registered an "Edisto Land Company" with the Freedman's Bank, there is no evidence that he either sought or received a corporate charter, as had John Scanlon.
Rather, it appears that what he did was much less complicated but still as effective in terms of landownership: he had drawn up a "Deed of Trust,"—a contract for the sale of property—which identifies him as the purchaser of two plantations on Edisto Island (Baynard's "Seaside" and "Shergould"), and then lists the names of his "investors" along with their proportional shares to be received.
By making this contract, Thorne made a clear and legally binding promise that he would transfer the properties he had purchased to his investors, and the existence of the written Deed of Trust guaranteed the right of redress should he fail to deliver: the shareholders could sue to enforce the contract.
Thorne apparently didn't see the need for any larger corporate structures to make landowners of his friends and neighbors on Edisto. I suspect that the reason the contract refers to "shares" rather than "acres" regarding the amount of land is because the plantations had not yet been resurveyed/subdivided when the contract was drawn up, so it was unknown exactly how many acres each share would include.
And it is worth noting that not a single one of the men and women Thorne contracted with ever brought suit against him for breach of promise. He was a man of his word; he delivered the goods.
Wonder of wonders, my friend Deborah had a copy of the Deed of Trust executed by John S. Thorne stashed in her electronic backpack, along with a copy of the plot drawn by the surveyor showing the subdivision of "Seaside" and "Shergould". And even more wondrous: the plot drawn by the surveyor identifies the owners of each plot.
The original Deed of Trust is a handwritten document on file at the Registry of Deeds office in Charleston. I've made a line for line transcription of it here if you like to read such things.
The subdivided plots are shown below:
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The Trinkley/Chicora report on Scanlonville may be found at the link below.
http://chicora.org/pdfs/RC%20341%20-%20Scanlonville.pdf
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