My father and his friends knocked on the doors of each other’s thresholds early on New Year’s Day. Once inside, they’d reach up to place a couple of quarters on the headers above the doors. They were carrying out two traditions at once — a man must be first to enter a house to bring good luck, and coins above the doorways offer prosperity and protection in the coming year. A glance up at these silvery rows never fails to pull a smile, and I pay homage here to the late Rederick C. Henderson (who traveled all over town with a pocket full od quarters being the first man for his friends) and Herbert Woodard, and to David Speight.
Are you familiar with these New Year traditions? What do y’all do?
The “Over Home News, Beaufort, South Carolina” column reported Daniel C. Suggs‘ Emancipation Proclamation Day oration on 1 January 1916. (Which, actually, was the 53rd anniversary of that executive order.)
My deep appreciation to all who supported Black Wide-Awake in 2022 through likes, comments, contributions, corrections, shout-outs, and shares. It was another tough year; this time because we lost my beloved father, my most immediate link to the world I chronicle here. I leaned heavily into the blog as a distraction at times, and as ever drew comfort and encouragement from the ancestors I met.
For more than 50 years, Wilson’s African-American community celebrated Emancipation Day on January 1st, the day the Emancipation Proclamation took effect in 1863. People gathered to hear speeches, poetry and musical performances and to enjoy communal meals, celebrations that perhaps wiped away bitter memories of slavery-time hiring days.
In honor of all whose journey to freedom began 160 years ago today, Black Wide-Awake wishes you a happy New Year!
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Some 2022 stats:
785 posts
209,498 views (an increase of 16% from 2021)
87,227 visitors (an increase of 15% and hailing from 142 countries and territories)
My deep appreciation to all who supported Black Wide-Awake in 2021 through likes, comments, corrections, shout-outs, and shares. It was another tough year, but we made it, and Black Wide-Awake’s journey was sweetened by, among other things, the addition of Say Their Names to the Freeman Round House Museum’s permanent exhibition and the outpouring of support for the Lane Street Project. (See my 2021 resolution.)
2022 dawns strangely warm, but gray, with a shape-shifting pandemic still spreading grief and chaos. Still, I’m encouraged by the strength and perseverance of those whose lives I chronicle here. Here’s to a happier New Year!
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Some 2021 stats:
693 posts
181,021 views (an increase of 5% from 2020)
75,612 visitors (an increase of 18% and hailing from 145 countries and territories)
My deep appreciation to all who supported Black Wide-Awake during the craziness that was 2020.
Black Wide-Awake has been both inspiration and consolation this year as the joys and sorrows of the ancestors lent valuable perspective to my own.
The deaths of Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbury, and George Floyd gave urgency to the critical importance of documenting Black Lives. Of calling our people’s names, resurrecting their memory, and ensuring they are never again forgotten. They matter. We matter.
And even as it seemed to bend the world out if its frame, the coronavirus pandemic could not stop virtual connection, and I am grateful for likes, comments, shares, tips, corrections, general feedback, and, especially, supportive new friendships. Despite all, 2020 is the year that Lane Street Project gained an army.
Here’s to 2021’s journey! I’m glad you’re with me.
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Some 2020 stats:
660 posts
172,391 views (an increase of 83% from 2019!!!)
64,139 visitors (from 102 countries and territories)
On 27 December 2019, Time magazine published Olivia B. Waxman’s sobering and insightful article on the hiring of slave labor, “The Dark History of New Year’s Day“:
“Americans are likely to think of New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day as a time to celebrate the fresh start that a new year represents, but there is also a troubling side to the holiday’s history. In the years before the Civil War, the first day of the new year was often a heartbreaking one for enslaved people in the United States.
“In the African-American community, New Year’s Day used to be widely known as “Hiring Day” — or “Heartbreak Day,” as the African-American abolitionist journalist William Cooper Nell described it — because enslaved people spent New Year’s Eve waiting, wondering if their owners were going to rent them out to someone else, thus potentially splitting up their families. The renting out of slave labor was a relatively common practice in the antebellum South, and a profitable practice for white slave owners and hirers.”
Please read the article and revisit these blog posts:
Hire of Charles from the estate of James A. Barnes
My deep appreciation to all who supported Black Wide-Awake in 2019 through likes, comments, shares, tips, corrections, and other feedback. Looking forward to continuing this journey of discovery in 2020!
It’s always hard to trust the ever-hating Wilson Advance. The crowd may have been small, but Wilson’s African-American community celebrated Emancipation Day on January 1st, the day the Emancipation Proclamation took effect in 1863, into the 20th century.
