The Sweet Chariot Swings Low--A Study of Black Burial Rites

Africans who came to America in the dark holds of slave ships carried few possessions. But they brought with them traditions no captor could eradicate.

Those traditions included customs associated with proper burials--”to be put away nicely,” as it is said here.

Many of those burial practices have been continued to this day by the descendants of early black Americans who have lived for generations along the Southern Atlantic coast. Archeologist Elaine Nichols, 36, spent nearly two years collecting material for her historical portrayal of how blacks in South Carolina have mourned their loved ones and paid their last respects from the days of slavery to the present.

The result, her moving exhibit titled “The Last Miles of the Way: African-American Homegoing Traditions” opened recently in the new South Carolina State Museum in this capital city and will continue through December, before it is scheduled to begin a nationwide tour.

According to Nichols, who has lived in the Carolinas all her life, in the early days along the Atlantic Coast, black burial grounds were almost always near the water, the belief being the deceased would be carried back home to Africa, “back home to heaven,” by the ocean.

“The world of the dead was a watery world, an upside down world under the living world,” she explained, so “grave decorations would always include dishes, plates, cups, saucers, items associated with water.”

Some black graves in South Carolina continue to be decorated African-style with personal possessions of the deceased, with charms and magical writing to placate the spirit of the person buried there, said Nichols, who visited many black cemeteries in the course of her research.

Among many blacks in South Carolina, Nichols noted, proper burial is associated with protecting both the living and the dead. In that tradition, a person has a body, a soul and a spirit. At death, the soul leaves the body to go to the world of the hereafter, but the spirit remains close by. Without proper precautions, she explained, evil spirits can wander around, haunt and harm people.

A Spirit Stopper

So one old custom, said Nichols, was to make certain the dead person’s mouth was tightly sealed by tying a piece of cloth under the chin to the top of the head to keep the spirit from leaving the body.

Hats, including the flat black hats worn by women, were kept on indoors at funerals as a gesture of respect. And the black armbands and crepe hearts still worn by mourners on their sleeves in some areas is a tradition traced back to the early days.

In another custom still practiced at some South Carolina funerals--especially those held in the coastal area called the Low Country, and on the offshore Sea Islands--babies and small children are handed from one person to another over a dead grandparent’s body. The hope is that the spirit of the dead relative will not bother the child, and that the child will accept mystical powers bequeathed by the deceased.

A dramatic photograph of this tradition, shot for National Geographic magazine at a 1987 Sea Island funeral, is part of the exhibit.

To research such traditions, to authenticate what she already knew and delve deeper into the origins, philosophy and practice of burial customs, Nichols talked to hundreds of elderly black funeral directors, old black ministers and black senior citizens throughout the state to gather information, photographs and artifacts. She searched university archives, courthouse records, libraries and newspaper files.

Importance of Death

“My intention is to show how blacks have responded to death over the years, to explain the importance of death in black culture, to note how many of the old customs still persist not only in isolated rural areas but South Carolina cities as well,” Nichols said.

When someone dies, according to the old way--and occasionally still today--all clocks in the deceased’s home are stopped, all mirrors, pictures and anything with glass are covered with black cloth or turned to the wall as a protection against bad spirits.

Locks were traditionally cut from the deceased’s hair, to be made into jewelry or wreaths or placed in Bibles belonging to family and friends marking the dead person’s favorite passage.

And on the evening of the services, a time-honored practice that persists is to stay awake and “set up” all night beside the body, praying, singing spirituals, recalling pleasant memories of the deceased. Friends and relatives bring cooked hams, fried chicken, salads and homemade pies for the all-night vigil.

Among the exhibit’s photographs of famous black funerals is one from an 1895 issue of Harper’s Magazine; another, of the 1937 funeral of Daniel Jenkins, founder of the century-old Jenkins Orphanage for black children in Charleston. It was one of the largest funerals ever held in the historic city. One photo shows the Jenkins Orphanage Brass Band, which performed at the services in full uniform.

Also on display as part of the exhibit, which was funded in part by the South Carolina Humanities Council, are examples of the funeral home advertising fans presented at church services, which were printed with photographs of the departed.

No Black Undertakers

However, in many areas of South Carolina there were no black undertakers, and no embalming until the 1920s and ‘30s. In those early days, families and friends took care of the dead with two services--one at the burial that took place within hours of death, the other on a Sunday soon after, when it was possible to gather together as many relatives and friends as possible for a memorial service.

Film footage, which is part of the exhibit, shows a traditional “ring shout” at a “praise house” funeral on St. Helena Island in the late 1930s. In it, families and friends in a circle shout praises to the Lord, clap, sing spirituals and perform a special “ring shout” dance--in which no person crosses his or her feet. Not crossing the feet, Nichols said, was considered sacred--as opposed to secular--dancing.

Ring shouts were brought from West Africa, where they were part of traditional tribal burial ceremony. In the Carolinas, the practice became common during regular religious meetings at both praise houses and churches. “I have heard that ring shouts still occur on rare occasions but have not seen one myself,” Nichols added.

Praise houses were developed on plantations during slavery, she noted. These were special structures where slaves worshiped during the week. On Sundays, they would attend churches located some distance from the plantations.

A Special Note

The exhibit takes special note of the role of black burial societies, which flourished in South Carolina and elsewhere. The societies were membership organizations that provided emotional and financial support at the time of a death in the family. They were as important as churches. The earliest, the Brown Fellowship Society, was founded in Charleston in 1790. Others included the Sons and Daughters of Jerusalem, Queen Esther’s Court, Bright Morning Star Society and the African-American Order of the Owls.

Dues per family were as little as 25 cents a month in the 1920s and 1930s. When a death occurred, the family would receive a cash payment of $250 to cover funeral expenses. Members of the societies wore uniforms, attended meetings. Society funds were invested in banks, real estate, businesses, schools and used to promote social programs for members.

Another of the displays in the exhibit is a model of the Randolph Cemetery, which was founded in Columbia in 1871 by 19 black men and named for South Carolina Sen. B. F. Randolph, who was hanged by whites when he attempted to run for reelection. Buried in the cemetery are the remains of nine black Reconstruction-era representatives and senators. The real cemetery is now in ruins, said Nichols, vandalized, with tombstones overturned and overgrown with weeds. The model is an artist’s conception of what it would look like had it been properly maintained.

Her underlying hope, Nichols said, “is that through this exhibit, I will be able to show one can find meaning in life by finding meaning in death.”