Appalachian History

I spent a large portion of my life in the Chief Vann house with my old master, Mr. Edmondson. He had a daughter by the name of Jennie. Jennie had a waitress who was named Tein. Another of his daughters was Sug, whose waitress was Fannie. Another one of his daughters was Georgia whose waitress was Elvie. These were all of the single daughters that Mr. Edmondson had when I was with him, but he had three married daughters whose names were Harriet, Sallie and Sue. Harriet married Bob Anderson, Sue married Street, and Sallie married Dr. Mathis.

Levi and Mandy Branham, Spring Place, GA, about 1920.

One of my young masters was John Edmondson, another, Tom Polk Edmondson. I was Tom Polk's waitman until he went to the Civil war between the North and South. Bill, the youngest, was quite small. All of the waitmen and waitresses stayed in the Edmondson house now known as the Chief Vann house. The room in which we stayed had a fine carpet on which we slept. Mr. Edmondson gave us fine blankets and we surely did sleep warm and comfortable.

My old mistress, "Miss Beckie," was very good to us. She took more pains with us darkies than our parents did, simply because she had more to care for us with, and too, she loved us. Occasionally "Miss Beckie" would give us tea for medicine. She had a hard time getting this tea in me, but I had to take it after all. Sometimes she would give us peach brandy which I was always glad to get. Sometimes we would pretend that we were sick so we could get sweetened coffee and buttered biscuits which certainly tasted good to us darkies. I thought as much of "Miss Beckie" as I did my mother.

When all the white boys and girls would be away "Miss Beckie" would gather the little negro children around the fire and talk with us. One day I said to "Miss Beckie": "Why do we little negro children have to work for you?" She said, "That's the way our fore-parents fixed the matter." I said to her, "when I get grown I am going to change the situation somewhat."

My Mistress told me that the negroes were brought from Africa so that they could be enlightened and that they may be taught to serve God. That may be so, but I hardly know what to think of it. I had a colored friend who is now dead, who always argued with me that negroes were brought from Africa to be enlightened. It seems that the negroes do not stick to one another as the white people do. If one negro has money the others will stick to him, but if he has no money they are all down on him.

The negro race is a peculiar race, so far as color and mind is concerned. Some are black, some dark black, some are dark brown and some light brown, some are yellow and some are nearly white. To me they resemble Joseph's coat. They all have many different minds. I believe the North Georgia negroes had better treatment and were more enlightened than the South Georgia negroes.

The Vann House circa 1930. Branham's memoir was published the year before.

Once upon a time Major Jackson and I carried a drove of mules that belonged to Mr. Sam Carter to South Georgia. The white man in South Georgia to whom we carried the mules, said he did not allow negroes in his house. I said to him, "I was reared in white folks' house." He said, "the negroes here would steal if they had to steal the dish rag." This white gentleman treated us very nice. Some of those negroes down in South Georgia said they wished Mr. Carter would bring them a sack of flour, because they had had no biscuits since last Christmas and it was almost Christmas again.

The old colored folks in South Georgia told me that the negro foremen were as hard again on them as their owners were. One old negro in South Georgia told me that they had to steal or perish because the white folks did not give them enough to eat.

I thank the Good Lord that my master always gave me plenty to eat and treated me like I was a human being.


from "Memoirs of a Slave/My Live and Travels," By Levi Branham (1852-1944), published 1929 by the A. J. Showalter Company of Dalton, GA. Online at http://www.murraycountymuseum.com/ms_3_1.html

It calls into question the definition of civilization.

Hollywood and pop culture would have you think that Native Americans are poor, uneducated, lazy, shiftless relics of a bygone era who can't handle their firewater and are dependent on the federal government for a hand-out. But, one look at the Chief Vann House and all of that goes out the window.

The Chief Vann house is located on Spring Place Road, three miles west of Chatsworth, Georgia, at the intersection of Highways 225 and 52-A. It is one of the oldest remaining buildings in North Georgia, featuring beautiful hand carvings, a 12 foot mantle, and a cantilevered 'floating' staircase that left me speechless, when I first saw it as a kid on a school trip. It is one of the few buildings in the Southeast Tennessee/North Georgia area that I would feel comfortable in calling a mansion.

In the 1790s, Chief James Vann, a half-Scots/half-Cherokee leader and instrumental force in the Cherokee Renaissance, created the largest and most prosperous plantation in the Cherokee Nation, covering 1,000 acres of what is now Murray County. He was "feared by many and loved by few." But, at the start of the 19th Century, he was one of the richest men in the Western Hemisphere and a member of the Cherokee Triumvirate. He was responsible for bringing in the Moravian missionaries, to teach the children Christianity. In 1804, he finished building his 2½ story Federal-style brick home that has been called "the Showplace of the Cherokee Nation."

Chief James Vann had three wives and five children. After he was murdered in 1809 for killing his brother-in-law in a duel a year earlier, his eldest son, Joseph, inherited the mansion and plantation, and eventually became even wealthier than his father. In 1819, "Rich Joe" entertained and lodged President James Monroe at the house.

After the Georgia Gold Rush, Joseph hired a white man to run the plantation, unknowingly violating a new Georgia law forbidding whites from working for Cherokees without a permit. The Georgia Guard tried to take over the house. Spencer Riley claimed he won the house in the Land Lottery of 1832 and the Vanns were caught in a struggle between Riley and the Guard. Col. Bishop, of the Guard, threw a smoldering log on the cantilevered steps and smoked Riley out of the house.

The Vanns were eventually forced out of the house in March, 1835. That November, Col. Bishop imprisoned John Howard Payne (the composer of Home, Sweet Home) for 13 days on the grounds, charging him with sedition for supporting the Cherokee over the state of Georgia.

The rest of the story, though, is that Chief James Vann also owned approximately 200 slaves. According to the house's tour guide, the house had two rooms in the basement. One served as a wine cellar. The other served as a torture chamber for misbehaving slaves.

And, this brings us back to our original issue-- what does it mean to be civilized?

Two hundred years later, it's still a beautiful house. It is filled with items that scream refinement. You cannot walk through the house and claim the Vanns were barbarians.

But, they owned other people. And, when those people didn’t act like they wanted them to, they tortured them.

And, I've got a problem with that.

I try to tell myself, "He was a man of his time." I walk around the house and I say to myself, "This wasn’t just a mansion; it was early 19th Century siegecraft."

But, I can't get past the irony, that underneath the house was a universal symbol of refinement and opulence, as well as a universal symbol of tyranny and evil.

TWH


[Sources: http://www.gastateparks.org/info/chiefvann/; http://ngeorgia.com/ang/Chief_Vann_House_Historic_Site; http://chieftainstrail.com/sites/chief_vann_house.html; http://www.northga.net/murray/vann.html; http://www.georgiaencyclopedia.org/nge/Article.jsp?id=h-2726]


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