56 Society Street, Charleston, SC - a photo on Flickriver

            Mary Sinkler de Saussure and her Dah. Location: rear of home of Mary's parents, Margarette McRae Whitaker and Dr. Henry William de Saussure III, 56 Society Street in the Ansonborough neighborhood of what was then mid-town Charleston. Date of photo: sometime in mid 1899 (Mary was born in January 1899). 

Though her name is not currently known, Mary's nurse (or Dah) as seen in this image was probably a member of a family who was employed "retainers" or domestic servants of either Henry's father (Dr. Henry de Saussure II) or his mother (nee Mary Broun Sinkler). Henry and Margarette were newly married in 1898. Henry's father and grandfather were also doctors with established household going back to the 1840's. Almost without interruption, his father's family had resided in the city since the 1820's, though his grandfather's house located on the site of the present Gibbes Museum of Art on Meeting Street, was totally destroyed in the Great Fire of 1861 that took out nearly a third of the city a year into the Civil War. 

Both the de Saussure and Sinkler families were slaveholders with homes located in the city of Charleston prior to 1865, so it is conceivable that his person was a child or other relative of one of those families. The Sinkler family was from St. Johns and St. Stephens parishes of Upper Berkely County, but I believe they had relocated to the city not long after the death of Mary's father in 1850. The several branches of the same Sinkler family, at the time and for many years after the Civil War, maintained notable homes in town, on their Berkeley County plantations and at their country retreat at Pineville (which still exists, in spite of being partially burned by marauders at the end of the war).

After the actual implementation of the Emancipation Proclamation here which occurred in February 1865, with the formal surrender of the city to the Union Army, several of the former slaves continued to work for the same families as employees, especially among those who had returned to Charleston. The primary difference after 1865 was the means of employment and the use of contracted wages overseen by the Reconstruction government. This was overseen initially by local Freedman's Bureau which had been established by the occupation army. 

More research is needed to identify exactly who these people were and what became of their families during Reconstruction and the years that followed. I should state that if this relationship of employment continued to exist between former slaves (and their descendants) and the former slave holding families (and their descendants), there is a potential mystery to be unraveled. 

On a related note, Mary (later Mrs. John Lynch McQueen) employed a maid (of about same age as she, b. 1899) for most of her adult life (or until the late 1960's) whose name was Louisa Brown. It's a stretch to assume that Louisa was Mary's Dah's daughter, but it was possible. Louisa, in turn, had a daughter (born c. 1930's) who eventually continued her education "up North". 

Louisa's daughter, I believe, attended Avery Institute for at least part of her education. Whether she continued it by attending college in New York or at Howard University in Washington, I don't know, but these represent facts could add depth to this picture and the history of our extended and interdependent families from Charleston.
Taken on: April 28, 2024
Tags:
children
Charleston children
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Sets appears in: • 1890's: Family, misc.
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