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Self-Sufficiency, Pooling Resources
Self-Sufficiency, Pooling Resources
Families living in the Reservation community had to be resourceful and self-sufficient to survive. Mr. Alexander Lee reflected on his ancestors’ experience:
Source: Alexander Lee 1991, cited in McDonald et al. 1992:36
Archaeological evidence found in Charles Corner, a neighborhood in the Reservation, demonstrates the level of self-sufficiency developed by those living on the land in the Reconstruction and pre-WWI periods. Archaeologists have uncovered fragments of ammunition and cans, which reflect self-reliant practices such as hunting and canning their own goods.
Photo: Collage of advertisements and photographs of archaeological findings from the Charles Corner area. Reproduced from Mahoney (2013).
Listen to brothers Knox Ratcliffe and Harold Radcliffe describe the self-sufficiency practiced by their family in the Reservation:
Source: Knox Ratcliffe and Harold Radcliffe (1984)
In addition to oystering and farming, families fished, hunted, and trapped to secure their living. As cousins Alexander and Harris Lee recalled in oral histories, their fathers supplemented their income by farming, raising cows, pigs and horses, and fishing for trout, croaker, and different kinds of spot. Similarly, Mrs. Beulah Christian Scott, who grew up in the Reservation, recalled that "a lot of those people lived from fishing and hunting...and trapping…they’d trap and sell the skins, and things like that.”
Source: Beulah Christian Scott (1991)
Mrs. Fannie (Pierce) Epps explains that her great-grandparents, William and Betsy Thornton, and her grandparents, George and Fannie Howard, were self-sufficient: "They had hogs, cows, horses, and chickens, guineas, ducks, turkeys, all of those things...They used to buy cloth, you know, material...to make because everybody had to sew then. And they'd make a lot of things..."
George and Fannie Howard also shared their farm produce with their daugther's family, Sarah and Henry Pierce, as Mrs. Epps remembered, "My grandparents had cows and naturally we had all the milk we wanted."
Scroll through these slides to read Mrs. Fannie Epps' memories of her grandparents' farm and the fun she had there when visiting from her home in Williamsburg.
Source: Fannie Epps (1987:55, 44)
George and Fannie Howard would travel from the Reservation to Williamsburg to purchase some staple goods, as Fannie Epps recalls:
"They'd come into Harris' Store and get their sugar and tea and things like that...They'd get flour. Eggs and meal and butter and shortening and all those things, you see, they used to have their own..."
Source: Fannie Epps (1987:55)
Samuel Harris' Cheap Store located at the corner of Botetourt and Duke of Gloucester Streets, Williamsburg, Virginia, circa 1900
Courtesy: Visual Resources, John D. Rockefeller Jr. Library, The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation
In this 1984 oral history, Ms. Grace Radcliffe recalls her maternal grandmother, Elnora Roberts, sewing clothes for her family and lending her sewing machine to others in the Reservation community.
Source: Grace Radcliffe (1984)
Source: James Payne (1991)
Cooperation among families helped to overcome difficult circumstances. Some Black families lived in clusters of houses on shared property, which facilitated the pooling of resources. Thus, due to self-sufficient livelihoods and cooperation, this period was marked by success and growth in the Reservation community.
Business Owners and Public Officials
Business Owners and Public Officials
Most residents of the Reservation were farmers, fishermen, and oysterers; however, community members operated a range of other businesses as well, and some individuals were public servants. In the Charles Corner neighborhood, there were two stores and a post office.
Descendant Betty (Lee) Martin holding a wood planer owned and used by her ancestor James Monroe Lee, a carpenter
Courtesy: Allen Stephens and Betty (Lee) Martin
Justice John A. "Tack" Roberts (1854-1932)
was an oysterman and served as the first Black Justice of the Peace in York County when living in the Reservation - a position he held for 33 years. Justice Roberts was an honorary title given to him while he served in this position.
Justice John A. "Tack" Roberts
Courtesy: Jacquelyn Gardner
Listen to Mr. Alexander Lee describe Justice John Roberts’ responsibilities as Justice of the Peace:
Source: Alexander Lee (1984:30)
Granddaughter, Ms. Grace Radcliffe, recalls how her grandparents did not have access to formal education but her grandfather nevertheless taught himself the law and became a Justice of the Peace:
Source: Grace Radcliffe (1984)
Investing for the Future
Investing for the Future
With these varied resources and income sources, residents invested in their homes and properties and planned for the future. Archaeological studies on the Reservation identified brick foundations, piers, brick-lined wells, barns, hog pens, and privies. Similarly, in a 1993 news article, Alexander Lee recalled living with his parents, John and Martha Lee, and his five siblings in a wood-frame home that “was neatly built with plenty of room." The home, pictured below overlooked Felgate’s Creek where it empties into the York River, and there were steps leading down to the river.
Source: Alexander Lee, as cited in Andes (1993)
The Lee Family Homestead in the Reservation, overlooking Felgate's Creek
Courtesy: Navy Mine Depot, Yorktown: Photographs of Buildings, ca. 1919; Box 90; Records of the Office of the Judge Advocate General (Navy), 1799-1950, Record Group 125; National Archives Building, Washington, D.C.
Bricks excavated on Lot #251 in the Charles Corner area.
Reproduced from Mahoney 2013.
Mrs. Fannie Epps, whose grandparents and great-grandparents lived in the Reservation, recalls her grandparents, George and Fannie Howard’s, home from when she visited as a young girl:
“Their house was just a frame house…with a porch that was in the front. It came around a little bit on the side. And I remember there used to be, well, they used to call it the sitting room. And then they had a long dining room…The door was in the center and the sitting room was on one side and the dining room was on the other and that was the only rooms in that part downstairs. Upstairs they had bedrooms…over the sitting room and one over the dining room. And then we had to go out the back door on a little stoop and go out to the kitchen. The kitchen—it was close to the house… but not joining the house.”
Source: Fannie Epps (1987:54)
Pictured: Fannie Epps. Courtesy: Fredi Epps Jackson
These records indicate residents’ anticipation of remaining on this land long-term, as well as their accumulation of assets.
Sources:
Andes, Jennifer. 1993. First-hand reflections. Daily Press, Williamsburg, VA. March 17.
Bell, Martha. 1988. Freedman forfeited their first York home. York Town Crier.
Epps, Fannie. 1987. Series of Oral Histories compiled by Kathleen Bragdon. John D. Rockefeller Jr. Library, The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation.
Lee, Alexander. 1991. Oral History. In McDonald, Bradley M., Kenneth Stuck, and Kathleen J. Bragdon, “Cast Down Your Bucket Where You Are”: An Ethnohistorical Study of the African American Community on the Lands of the Yorktown Naval Weapons Station, 1865-1918. Williamsburg: William & Mary Center for Archaeological Research.
Lee, Alexander. 1984. Oral History. James City County Oral History Collection, Special Collections Research Center, William & Mary Libraries. December 19.
Mahoney, Shannon. 2013. Community Building After Emancipation: An Anthropological Study of Charles’ Corner, Virginia, 1862-1922. Doctoral Dissertation, College of William & Mary.
McDonald, Bradley M. 1994. African-American Family and Society on the Lands of the Yorktown Naval Weapons Station, 1862-1880. Master’s Thesis, College of William & Mary.
McDonald, Bradley M., Kenneth Stuck, and Kathleen J. Bragdon. 1992. "Cast Down Your Bucket Where You Are": An Ethnohistorical Study of the African American Community on the Lands of the Yorktown Naval Weapons Station, 1865-1918. Williamsburg: William & Mary Center for Archaeological Research.
Payne, James. 1991. Oral History. In McDonald, Bradley M., Kenneth Stuck, and Kathleen J. Bragdon, “Cast Down Your Bucket Where You Are”: An Ethnohistorical Study of the African American Community on the Lands of the Yorktown Naval Weapons Station, 1865-1918. Williamsburg: William & Mary Center for Archaeological Research.
Radcliffe, Grace. November 2, 1984. Oral History. James City County Oral History Collection, Special Collections Research Center, William & Mary Libraries.
Ratcliffe, Knox and Harold Radcliffe. November 2, 1984. Oral History. James City County Oral History Collection, Special Collections Research Center, William & Mary Libraries.
Scott, Beulah Christian. 1991. Oral History. In McDonald, Bradley M., Kenneth Stuck, and Kathleen J. Bragdon. 1992. “Cast Down Your Bucket Where You Are”: An Ethnohistorical Study of the African American Community on the Lands of the Yorktown Naval Weapons Station, 1865-1918. Williamsburg: William & Mary Center for Archaeological Research.
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