Plog Number 96
My Uncle Tan Part Two
Hello Ploggers, Happy day after Thanksgiving. I hope you are all doing well after the BIG meal. My family gathered together at my house and we had a great time! We hadn’t gathered at my house in over 2 years due to Covid and a death in the family. As usual, after dinner my siblings and I started talking about our Mother and stories she told us. I learned even more about my Uncle Tan. I posted about Uncle Tan about a week ago, but I did something on the WIX Plog website and I lost that plog. My purpose now is to recapture the information I had in that plog and to add to it. After seeing the movie “Till”, I have a renewed interest in the South and the treatment of blacks. We all know that there was the dehumanizing treatment of slaves in the south. We also know that Jim Crow was a time of adjustment from slavery to freedom with lots of hiccups along the way. What happened to my Uncle Tan was more than a hiccup, it was a massive burp and here goes!
I recently learned that my Uncle Tan was a land owner is Mississippi. I think he was on my Maternal Grandmother's side. My grandparents owned a catfish 🍤 restaurant. It seems near impossible that they had that in the early 20th Century but they did. I guess my grandfather was a good cook. They lived in a town called Weir, Mississippi which is in Kosiesko County. My mother was one of 7 kids and they went to a pubic school which was far from their home. They had to walk a long distance over treacherous 🌉 bridges. My mother often said they would see the white kids riding in a 🚏 bus to their school while they had to walk. She said that the kids in the bus were having a good time while they bore the heat, dust and a long walk. My mother was born in 1918 so it was definitely in the Jim Crow period. My siblings and I all grew up riding school busses. I imagine that my mother had feelings about that but she never said anything. She was very strict with my older siblings because of her upbringing in Mississippi. They did not go to sleepovers or even to friends houses. Knowing some of how she was raised in Mississippi I can understand her strictness.
My Uncle Tan was a landowner in that time. I estimate it to be from 1900-1939. That period is post Reconstruction era. But Uncle Tan was caught up with some white men who probably wanted his land. He was involved with these men and things went south (pun intended). Anyways the men were chasing him and he was able to hide in a 🌊 pond. He was able to breathe through a reed in the water. It sounds like he did a snorkel type of Mc Gyver maneuver. They shot 🔫 at him multiple times. They felt sure that they had killed him when they shot a 🌳 stump in the water. I imagine that it was night time and pretty foggy making it difficult to see. But Uncle Tan survived the chase, the gunshots and the night. But he did not survive being in the water for such a long time. He later died of pneumonia from being in the cold water for such a long time hiding. So the land that Uncle Tan had, probably went back to those who were chasing him down to get it. Uncle Tan did not know how to read yet he was still ✏️ signing papers. He may have signed over his land unknowingly. He was out maneuvered by people with a clear advantage over him.
I never met my Uncle Tan. None of my siblings met him. But we all have heard the story of his chase into the pond that night. My first cousin knew the story too. He had heard it from my mother. My Uncle Tan was a hero in my eyes. Just owning land in that time was a huge deal and he did that. Being smart enough to hide in water and to breath through a reed was another stroke of genius. Stories like this will live on in my family for future generations to know but it will never be told in a history 🚪 book because it is not documented. If it weren't for oral history, we would never know of Uncle Tan. I just wanted to Plog about my family in remembrance of my Uncle Tan and his struggle. Here is to you Uncle Tan and to many others like him. RECLAIM!!
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