In Those Days, African American Life Near the Savannah River, SEAC Popular Histories

In Those Days: African-American Life Near the Savannah River
by Sharyn Kane and Richard Keeton, 1994

Abstract In Those Days, African American Life Near the Savannah River, is an account of oral history from elderly African Americans in Elbert Co., Georgia, and Abbeville Co., South Carolina. This area, in the northern portion of both states, is a patchwork of tiny woods and rolling, red clay hills, intermingled with small towns and hardcabble farms. Sparsely populated and mostly rural, the region, even today, provides glimpses of a vanishing way of life in the South. The text explores many facets of African American life, beginning with slavery, and continuing through to modern times. The writing emphasizes the recollections of residents through their own words, with a backdrop of supportive information about the region and events elsewhere that affected the South. Many historic photographs illustrate the text. The oral histories were collected by researchers as part of the Richard B. Russell Dam construction in the early 1980's. The volume was published by the Technical Assistance and Partnerships Division, Southeast Archeological Center, National Park Service, with funding supplied by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

Researching local oral histories	Louella Walker holds her father's fiddle
Minnie Walker's relatives circa 1875	Washing clothes at Millwood Plantation in 1875
The name of this girl, photographed around 1918, is lost	Making a split-oak basket, a fading craft

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