910_20_29
8/14/06
5:51 PM
Page 21
the design for shotgun houses originated among plantation slaves in the Caribbean and was carried to New Orleans and then disseminated throughout the South by slaves and free African-Americans. It is believed the name “shotgun” is a corruption of several African words for “house.” So it seems fitting the African American Alliance and Museum be housed in a shotgun dwelling. The museum has several different collections and is always looking for more donations from the community. Chief among the collected works is a midwife exhibit. This collection is of special significance since it contains many records of Louise Wilcoxson, an African-American woman born in 1868 who was certified by the Board of Midwifery in 1930 by the State Board of Health. She kept detailed records of each birth she attended and recorded the birthing information on little pieces of paper – any paper she could find handy, such as receipts, grocery lists, any scrap. The required information was the father’s name, mother’s name, father’s occupation, place of birth, live birth or not, and the date. Recently, The Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C. accepted four of Wilcoxson’s birthing records into its permanent collection on midwifery. It was a very exciting achievement for this fledgling museum from Coweta County. Other exhibits tell the story of slavery, the story of Powell Chapel School House, the stories of black Cowetans of distinction and much more. Wood and Teagle said the museum always needs more donations from the African-American community to enhance its collections. “Family and church histories are great so we don’t have to recreate them. Old school yearbooks, particularly from Central High, are needed. Old
Dianne Wood and Toni Teagle, at right, are seeking volunteers for the African American Heritage Museum. The pile of wood above is part of a former slave cabin and awaits reconstruction by volunteers.
photographs, with ID’s, obituaries, furniture, prescriptions and equipment from old AfricanAmerican medical offices; they can all be used. Bring us anything you may think is significant and we’ll take a look, but we’re not a garage sale! Just items that have a history!” said Wood. One of the alliance’s more enormous projects, both in scope and importance, is the reconstruction of a
slave cabin that was donated from its original home on the grounds of Buena Vista, the antebellum home of Leah and Mike Sumner in Newnan. Each plank and log was painstakingly numbered so it can be reconstructed exactly in the same manner. It’s hard to imagine humans living in these little shacks, but it seems the imagery of slave quarters really brings the issue home for people. Meanwhile the SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER
2006
|
21