Two framed documents arrested our attention immediately upon entering Glencairn antebellum home. The first was a proclamation personally signed by President Andrew Johnson in 1865 offering amnesty to John Ervin if he agreed not to trade slaves or contest any of his federalized property in Hale County. The second was a pen and ink drawing of five Confederate flags with a carefully calligraphed script next to the illustration: “Lord God of Hosts, Be With Us Yet. Lest we forget. Lest we forget.” Stacks of leather and clothbound books, the prized possessions of classically educated Ervin ancestors, gather dust in large bookcases in practically every room. These are not insignificant novels. Histories, biographies and the classics loom invitingly out of every bookshelf. Camden in Wilcox County is perhaps the most intriguing town of all in this short weekend visit to the Black Belt. Just like Greensboro and Uniontown, its streets are lined with old-growth oak, elm and pecan trees. Overall, it still appears relatively prosperous. Becky Tait Axon and her husband, Jim, escort us to several lovely antebellum homes including Countryside, Liberty Hall and the Marsh Tait Home. We spotted a framed land grant certificate personally signed by Thomas Jefferson yellowing in direct sunlight. We looked for the mark on an intricate hand-carved oaken dining table signifying where Revolutionary War hero Lafayette supposedly sat when he dined here with Tait ancestors. Slowly, the story came out how the Taits were one of only two families in the entire South to own more than 1,000 slaves at one time. (Right here in Wilcox County.) As Becky relates the sad, familiar story of the current demise of public education and race relations, something biblical about the sins of one generation being visited upon the next comes to mind. As we drove back to Birmingham, we talked about the home we visited with the remarkably pronounceable and romantic name of Japonica Path. A home so named because of a long pathway leading from the town to its front door. For many years, we learned that the path was densely lined on either side with mature plantings of Japonica, a large camellia. The japonicas were so large and so beautiful that, in some ways, perhaps the occupants were shielded from the changing world as they came and went. Now almost all the japonica have died. George Bernard Shaw’s quote comes to mind: “Progress is impossible without change, and those who cannot change their minds cannot change anything.” Our two-lane county road soon gives way to a larger state road, then the interstate. Quickly, we are jockeying for position on the busy highway. A scant two hours later, back in the hustle and bustle of the modern city of Birmingham, the Black Belt seems but a dream. And a world away.
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