Former slave's new life, proud legacy

It is sometimes difficult to fathom the world from which our elders came.

Kim Drake has been hearing stories about the past for years, and some of those anecdotes included a character -- Drake's great-great-great grandmother, called "Gar." That was her nickname, attached to her later in life perhaps because of her gardening experience as a slave on a Southern plantation. Priscilla was her recorded name.

"There are a few pictures of Priscilla around the house, so I always knew who she was," said Drake a program coordinator at the Vanderbilt Ingram Campus Center in Nashville, Tenn.

But three years ago, her respect for the past mixed with a sudden curiosity to know more, and that led to discoveries that linked Drake and her family to one of Charleston's historic plantations, Middleton Place. Suddenly, history came alive.

It began, as it often does, with death.

Cordelia Adelaide Floyd-Jones, Drake's grandmother, died on March 24, 2008. Cordelia's sister, Anna Priscilla Floyd, moved in with Drake's mother, and the family began to clean out the vacant house.

Preparing for the funeral, Drake came across burial plot records from Greenwood Cemetery in Nashville and began to look up the names.

"I went to the archives library downtown and spent a whole day there," Drake said.

She printed out death certificates for all the people (about 10) listed on the cemetery document. The certificates included next-of-kin signatures beside each of the names.

"So that was my next link," Drake said.

"Priscilla Robinson" was written by the name Margaret Robinson Floyd -- Priscilla's daughter.

"Now I know the name is Priscilla Robinson," Drake said. "Mom said she had thought Priscilla was in Cambridge. So I started Googling 'Priscilla Robinson, Massachusetts.' "

One of the search results included information about Middleton Place, so Drake called and spoke with historian Barbara Doyle.

"She knew exactly what I was talking about," Drake said.

Reclaiming history

The story of Gar emerged thanks to contributions from various sources -- stories heard by Drake, reminiscences offered by whites who knew Gar as their nanny and documents discovered by the staff at Middleton Place.

Much is still unknown about Gar's early life on the plantation. But a portrait now can be drawn of a woman who easily might have been lost to history, and her descendants can better appreciate the legacy of a slave who found freedom and left a small mark on the world.

For a long time, Tracey Todd, vice president of museums at the Middleton Place Foundation, and his colleagues, Doyle and curator Mary Edna Sullivan, have been hoping to learn more about Priscilla and other slaves who worked on the plantation before emancipation.

In recent years, they have had some success in identifying slaves owned by the Middleton family and reconstructing what life was like when the rice crop was the premier source of income. Not far from what's left of the plantation house is a small shack, called Eliza's House, that the staff converted into a mini-museum featuring slave lists and photo displays.

Behind the restaurant is a burial ground that includes three surviving grave markers, one that belongs to John Johnson, believed to be Priscilla's father, who was a domestic slave and, therefore, had some status compared with laborers.

The staff continues to gather historical information, sometimes from descendants of Middleton slaves who attend the organized reunions scheduled every four years. (One is coming up in October.)

The first mention of Priscilla in the family records is an 1846 entry noting slave values for the estate of S.C. Gov. Henry Middleton. Probably she was just old enough to work because her value was listed as $150. Babies and very small children often had no value assigned to them.

In 1853, 1854 and 1856, she is mentioned again on the slave list, grouped with her mother, Kate, and John, who died in 1859.

Here's what happened to Priscilla:

Migrating north

In February 1865, Union forces occupied Charleston, sacked Columbia and chased Confederate troops out of the state. It is likely that Priscilla witnessed the burning of Middleton Place on Feb. 22, and it is certain that Dr. Henry O. Marcy, who had been attached to Union troops, also was there that day.

Marcy beseeched renegade soldiers to at least spare the library and paintings, but his pleas went unheeded. He took it upon himself to rescue a few volumes and pictures before fire consumed the property.

Marcy himself may have informed the Middleton slaves that the war had ended and they were free. During a visit to the plantation, he asked Isaac, a driver and possibly Priscilla's uncle, "if he could obtain for me a reliable well-trained woman to go with me to Boston as a nurse for my mother."

Isaac recommended Priscilla, who left Middleton Place in August 1866.

She remained with Marcy's mother seven years until the old woman died. "(She) had nearly $1,000 in the bank to her credit" by the end of her service and had married Madison Robinson in 1872, bearing him three children, the records show.

Priscilla made a career for herself in Massachusetts as a nursemaid. The Macomber family of Newton first hired her, then the Schipper family invited her to help raise Ann and Carl. She acquired the nickname "Gar" when she was with the Schippers.

Once Carl went off to college, Priscilla went to work for the Sloane family, who lived nearby. Many years later, Margaret Sloane remembered Gar as "a very diminutive lady of great warmth, intellect and ability."

Gar died a very old woman in or around 1946, and the Sloane family set up a memorial for her at the Cathedral of the Pines in Rindge, N.H., a site established by Sybil and Douglas Sloane III in 1945 to honor those, including their son, Sandy, who were killed during World War II.

In the early 1990s, an elderly Margaret Sloane came to Middleton Place. "It brought back poignant memories of a well-loved friend," she wrote to the staff.

Family pride

Drake learned all this after doing a lot of research and consulting with the staff at Middleton Place. Her mother had a book about the Cathedral of the Pines that had Priscilla's name in it. The Sloane family had taken a stone from the South Carolina grave of Arthur Middleton to Priscilla's memorial in her honor.

Soon after making these discoveries, Drake searched online for the name Ann Schipper and found an obituary that listed Ann's twin children. Drake called both men, leaving messages. Both called back within 15 minutes.

"I remember my mom saying how much she loved and admired Gar," one of the twins told her.

Drake told them about her family reunion scheduled for later that week, so the Schippers swung into action.

"(They were) sweet enough to box up all those pictures and things and ship it to me overnight so I would have time to put it together," Drake said.

Not only historical facts made their way through the years to Drake; she also learned something about Priscilla's character and accomplishments.

"It's amazing how her personality is so genetically woven into the women of this family," Drake said. The nurture gene has trickled down through the generations.

Drake's mother was a social worker, and her grandmother looked after kids to make money. She is starting a rites-of-passage program for young girls.

"Priscilla was feisty and tenacious," Drake said. "And all of us, every single one of the women on this side of the family, are like that. It's hilarious to me."

Reach Adam Parker at 937-5902.