Sam Polite

Sam Polite lived to be over 100 years old on St. Helena Island.

National Archives

Quick Facts

Significance:

Born in slavery, Sam Polite lived to be well over 100 years old on the coast of South Carolina

Place of Birth:

St. Helena Island, South Carolina

Date of Birth:

Circe 1840

Place of Death:

St. Helena Island, South Carolina

Date of Death:

May 1944

Place of Burial:

St. Helena Island, South Carolina

Cemetery Name:

Tom Fripp Cemetery

Sam Polite began his life in slavery, but died a free man - and along the way shared his story with his community.

Sam Polite was born on St. Helena Island around in the early 1840s where he was enslaved by the Fripp family. When the Civil War began, Polite’s enslavers – John and Isabella Fripp, fled to Barnwell, South Carolina – taking Sam with them. Sam spent the rest of the war toiling in bondage, while the Port Royal Experiment was underway back home on St. Helena. After the Civil War, Sam returned to St. Helena Island and purchased a bit of land at a tax auction. He spent the rest of his life farming, and fishing the waters that surrounded his home.

By the 1920s and 30s people began to take an interest in the experiences of elderly formerly enslaved people. In 1932, Lorenzo Dow Turner visited the Sea Islands to document Gullah language and culture, where he interviewed Sam Polite. The 1930s audio recording isn’t great and Polite is hard to understand through the scratches and record sounds. He’s harder to understand if the listener isn't familiar with the cadences and verbiage of the Gullah language. But that’s not the last time Sam Polite was interviewed. Five years later, he was interviewed by the Works Progress Administration as part of the Slave Narrative Project. 

For the WPA Slave Narratives, Polite was interviewed by Chlotidle R. Martin, a white woman from Beaufort who was the granddaughter of a Confederate officer, and had written on the plantation families of the Lowcountry. When she asked Same Polite questions, how much could he reveal? Is he going to tell her what she wants to hear? This may be the case, as in Polite’s WPA narrative he makes a note that he thought Black people were better off as slaves. But the interview is valuable in piecing together bits and pieces of his life. Where he had lived, who had owned him. What type of work he had done? 

A decade later, in 1942, a team of filmmakers visited Penn School to produce a short documentary entitled "To Live as Free Men." This is about a 40 minute long documentary, but at around the 6 minute mark, Sam Polite, now pushing 100 years old, speaks for about two minutes.

What questions would we ask of Sam if we could? Clearly the things he chose (or the things the film editors chose) to highlight are the Hurricane of 1893, fevers, and small pox. He talks about challenges of farming, and an insistence of faith. But he doesn’t talk about the school – did he ever attend Penn School? What are his thoughts about voting? Citizenship? The loss of those rights in the age of Jim Crow? After all this is a man who was born enslaved, became a citizen and voter. Then lost the right to vote. How did he feel about that? 

Ultimately, Sam's voice was his to share, and the story of Reconstruction is filled with thousands of people throughout Reconstruction like Sam Polite. Thankfully, he got to share his own story. 

Duration:

2 minutes, 13 seconds

Sam Polite was born in the 1840s on St. Helena Island in South Carolina. He lived through the Civil War and well into the 20th Century. In 1942, a documentary film crew visited the Penn School. As part of their finished product, a 38 minute documentary called "To Live as Free Men," Sam Polite speaks for about 2 minutes about his experiences during slavery and Reconstruction. The full documentary can be viewed at https://www.loc.gov/item/87706576/