A HISTORIAN'S 



lamb, he did not think that his slaves needed 

 anything of the sort." 



Sometimes, the slaves' game was not 

 quite as wild as raccoons and opossums. 

 Tidewater farmers allowed their hogs to 

 graze freely in the woods, where they lived 

 cheaply off acorns and roots until rounded 

 up for slaughter. Multitudes of these hogs 

 lived in coastal woodlands, and their rapacious 

 grazing habits contributed to the forests' 

 parklike appearance. Many hogs grew wild 

 over generations, resembling wild boars. 



Runaway slaves relied heavily on feral 

 hogs, but Parker pointed out that they were 

 also important to plantation workers still in 

 bondage. One of his harshest 

 taskmasters was a farmer 

 named Elisha Buck. "He did 

 not treat us at all well," Parker 

 noted, "and it was not often 

 that we had all we wanted to 

 eat." Buck caught and 

 whipped Parker and another 

 slave the first time that they 

 killed a free-grazing hog. 



"It did not do much good 

 to either of us," recalled 

 Parker, "for on the following 

 Sunday I went into the woods 

 again and got another pig 

 which I dressed in the night." 

 He realized that there were 

 many poor whites quite 

 willing to take advantage of a 

 neighboring planter's hogs so 

 long as a slave took the risk for them. 



"As I did not have every advantage of 

 a first-class slaughter house I was obliged to 

 manage as best I could," Parker wrote. 

 "Accordingly I built a fire and gave the pig 

 a good singeing and while he was warm 

 from the effects of the fire. I put him into 

 water, and then scraped him with a case- 

 knife and finally got him clean. 



"When he was properly dressed," he 

 continued, "I carried him on my shoulder 

 about three miles, and turned him over to a 

 'poor white' who took him to a neighboring 

 town the next day, and sold him for me. I 

 got back to quarters before the hands were 



called in the morning so that no one knew 

 where I had been. 



"In due time the 'poor white' gave me 

 my share of the money he got for the pig. 

 With this money I bought some cloth, which 

 a white woman made into a coat and a pair 

 of pants for me." 



Many planters allowed slaves to keep 

 vegetable and herb gardens around their 

 cabins, so long as they tended them only in 

 their spare time. Other slaves clandestinely 

 trapped, fished, and gardened in the wild, 

 keeping the fruits of their labor for their own 

 tables or, like Parker with his hog, trading 

 them with poor whites nearby. A desire for 



Slaves in Stokes County are believed to have made 

 this white oak basket used for holding cotton. 



more varied, healthier diets led slaves 

 whenever possible into their own gardens, 

 into the forest, and on to the rivers and sounds. 



Parker shows how slaves relied on the 

 "book of Nature" beyond simple knowledge 

 of the land to a more personal relationship 

 with, and even communication with, the 

 natural world. For instance, slaves used the 

 subtle variations in owls' calls to take heed 

 of the approach of their masters, which 

 enabled them to hide successfully or to labor 

 clandestinely for their own gain. 



"The slaves not only believed that the 

 owl was their friend, and that his language 

 was intended entirely for them, but also 



believed that his language was not under- 

 stood by the white folks," he recalled. 



According to Parker, Albemarle slaves 

 found meaning in all sorts of natural signs. 

 "A cloud over the moon, a rainy night, the 

 barking of a dog, or any other circumstance 

 [that] seemed to aid them in carrying out 

 their plans, they thought that it was intended 

 especially for their benefit," he wrote. 



This sense that nature was on their side 

 might arise in any oppressed people living 

 off the land. But I wonder if, to some degree, 

 this conviction originated in a theological 

 outlook prevalent among the Ba-Kongo, 

 Igbo, Asante, and many other West African 

 peoples imported to the 

 Americas. Their religious 

 backgrounds were very 

 different, but most did share a 

 world view in which ancestors 

 played an active role in the 

 affairs of the living. Many 

 believed that the ancestors 

 sometimes expressed 

 themselves through wild 

 animals and natural events. 

 Most also believed in lesser 

 deities, or spirits, that were 

 keepers of rivers, forests, and 

 other wild places, which 

 further imparted a sacred 

 character to nature. 



I do not know how 

 deeply the attitudes of 

 Albemarle slaves toward 

 nature embodied African spiritual beliefs. 

 Certainly, I have observed an intimate 

 communion with coastal lands among the 

 most knowledgeable of the old-timers — 

 black, white, and red — with whom I have 

 had the privilege of exploring swamps and 

 forests. 



Nevertheless, when I read through 

 Allen Parker's Recollections, I am drawn 

 again and again to the almost sacred attitude 

 that Albemarle slaves displayed toward the 

 natural world. And at such times, I wonder if 

 in those pages we might have far more to 

 learn than I ever expected — and not just 

 about the past. E 



COASTWATCH 



