A Gullah Guide to Charleston by Alphonso Brown

Author:Alphonso Brown
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Arcadia Publishing
Published: 2012-09-15T00:00:00+00:00

Jenkins Orphanage Band. Courtesy of Sarah Findley Dowling.

Jenkins Orphanage Band. Courtesy of Avery Research Center.

Herman Brown, Mr. Charleston. Courtesy of Rossie Colter.

2. 15 MAGAZINE STREET

The Site of the Work House and the Old Jail

De fus Wu’k House bin buil’ yah ’roung sebbinteen sixty nine. Uh new one bin buil’ yah ’roung eighteen tirty eight. De mossa dem bring deh haad head slabe yah fuh lickin’. Dey had fuh pay twennie fy’b cent fuh a lickin’ or wu’k on de treadmill. Dey redduh de lickin’ ’dan de treadmill. ’E bin een dis same place weh Denmaak Weesey top people bin lock up ’n chain down tuh de flo’ b’fo de law fin’ em gilty for insurrectshun and den hang um. Plennie slabe ’n free man gon’ tuh Hebbun right fum dis yah place. De place got so raggy date en eighteen fifty deh had fuh mek uh new one wid runnin watuh. De ertquake shek um down een eighteen ettie six.

De ol’ jail buil’ yah een eighteen od two bin fuh white prisonnus. Aahchitek Robbot Mills, who draw up de Washin’tn Monument een Washin’tn, D.C., ’n plenny buildin een Chaa’stun, draw up uh new fo’ story wing wid one man cell een eighteen twenty two. De wing bin tek down een eighteen fity fy’b ’n een eighteen fity six de present octic’en towuh bin finish. De towuh ’n de fo’ story secshun bin tek down aftuh ’e bin damage’ een de er’tquake ob eighteen aa’ty six. Dem fo’ white man who push up Denmaak Weesey fuh ’surrect bin put een jail yah. De long lis’ ’clood, teef, murdruh, pirate ’n Cibil Waah knewnion Pridnur. De er’tquake ’skroy de wukhous’ too much ’n de coud’n fix em back up. De black ’n de white all bin put een one jail now. De ol’ jail clos’ up een nyteen tirty eight when deh buil’ uh new one furduh up on Eas’ Bay Skreet nea’ de Cuppuh Ribbuh.

The first Work House was built here around 1769. A new one was built around 1838. It was one of two municipal sites for punishing slaves. Unruly slaves were often brought here by their masters for punishment. The punishment usually consisted of a twenty-five-cent flogging or grinding corn on the treadmill, depending on the severity of the crime. It is said that prisoners preferred flogging to the treadmill. Until around 1839–40, the Work House became the exclusive place for selling slaves. It was this site where the four trusted lieutenants of Denmark Vesey’s insurrection—Peter Poyas, Nedd Bennett, Roller Bennett and Gullah Man Jack—were bound in chains before their trials and subsequent hangings. Peter Poyas, the head lieutenant, seeing that the men were about to crack under the fear and stress of the proceedings, admonished them to “tell nothing” and to “die like men.”

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