The Weeping Time Property is Sacred Ground

by: Natalie Legette

One day when I picked my son up from school, he told me what he learned in class that day. On this day, he shared that they learned about Ellis island. He shared that around forty percent of the American population can trace their family line back to Ellis island.

Ellis island is a historical site located at the mouth of the Hudson river between New York and new jersey. Ellis island provides some American families with important details of their own family history. This opportunity to trace and reverence family lineage is a privilege available to certain Americans. It is also believed that over a million black Americans can trace their family line to the largest sale of enslaved Africans in united states history. The tragic event is known as the weeping time.

The rain poured down on march 2nd and march 3rd until the final slave was sold. 429 Enslaved Africans were sold in two days. The sadness and despair of this day way documented by northern newspapers and its size fueled the fire of discourse between those for and against slavery. A reporter for the New York tribune, who published under his pen name, Q. K. Philander Doesticks, traveled to savannah to cover the event. He infiltrated the buyers and posed as a buyer himself. He recorded what he witnessed and described the emotional toll upon the enslaved people. Of the 429 enslaved Africans sold, thirty were babies. The sale garnered $303,850.16. Impacting the lives of over 900 enslaved Africans, the weeping time sale cut the butler plantation slave population in half. The cost of the sale continues to impact generations of black families to this very day. It is believed that over a million black Americans can trace their history to the weeping time event.

In 2008, the city of savannah and the Georgia historical society placed a marker near the site of the sale. Over the years parcels of the ten broeck race course were sold as well as divided by highway 516. A small portion of land remains and has sparked a battle between concerned citizens and the savannah city government. In 2020, the salvation army submitted a request for a special use permit to purchase and build a homeless shelter and transitional housing on the remaining parcel of land.

Protests ensued and demands for the city of Savannah to submit the property for review by the Georgia Historical Society before selling the land were formally submitted in writing. The Mayor stated that a study was conducted and approved however, a deeper investigation revealed that the report was not submitted for review by the Georgia Historically society. The debate of whether this property was in fact the location of The Weeping Time sale and holds enough historical significance to be preserved and dedicated as a historical landmark continues in litigation today. As this debate rages on, the city of Darien, Georgia formally announced in 2021, the preservation of the Butler Plantation. The descendants of the Butler Plantation and the descendants of former slaves came together to recognize the historic importance of their history with a vow to learn from its hard truths and heal together.

Today the question of preserving the sacred ground, where 429 enslaved people were ripped apart from their families remains unanswered. Many organizations seek to preserve this history. The weeping time coalition has brought the issue to the courts with support from people around the world. Numerous events remembering the weeping time are scheduled to take place throughout the coastal empire during the first week of march. It is difficult to explain to our children, how a location that serves as a point of connection, where generations of black Americans can trace their family lineage, is not revered and preserved with a similar honor as that of Ellis island.

Discounting the historical significance of this sacred ground devalues and discounts the importance of black Americans tracing their family lineage. Exacerbating a void in ancestral connections. Equity is still possible. The weeping time property is sacred ground.