Return to Tinnin. Jasper S. Lee
"Yes," Private Cason stood behind her pressing his body against hers. He put his right hand around her waist and pulled her tighter to him. He reached around and put his left hand on her left breast. He stood tightly touching her body. Soldiers who noticed this ignored it; they did not step in to defend Ellen. Such troop behavior was not uncommon among both the Confederate and Union forces.
Just as he pulled her tighter and whispered in her ear, "You are a beautiful woman," she vigorously defended herself, pushing his left hand away from her breast and elbowing firmly into his gut with her right arm. This forced him back about a foot, just enough for Ellen, with all her might, to swing her clinched right fist, hitting him firmly in the belly. He bent over, gasped for air, and stumbled to the edge of the porch. None of her family noticed, as they were distracted by the goings-on and threat of burning by the other soldiers. Ellen never told anyone about this. If Pa knew, he might incite hard feelings and violence.
Just after Ellen had defended herself and Private Cason was on the edge of the porch, a big shout of "Fire!" was heard. Gunpowder had been thrown in a 4-foot long streak on the porch floor. It was to propel a fire that would quickly burn the house. That frightened Private Cason, and he jumped off the porch.
Ellen was free but concerned about her home and what might happen later. Pa pleaded not to set the gunpowder on fire. Ma pleaded the same. The children were sobbing and begging. Ellen and her just younger sister, Rachel, screamed, begging the soldiers not to burn the house.
Anyway, the persuasion by Ma and Pa and the children was sufficient. The captain ordered the soldier not to ignite the gunpowder. The house was spared. Before departing, the captain left a warning: "If this house is ever painted or made fancy, we will come back and burn it to the ground. No Confederate soldiers are to ever live here." That warning was heeded for more than the next 100 years. In fact, no member of the military ever lived in the house, nor did any member of the family serve in the military. It was always Pa's teaching that peace was better than war. He often wondered about the good of the Civil War. He had always felt that slavery wasn't right. He was more progressive than most southern white folks, considering his midwestern orientation. Pa agreed with U.S. President Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation that had been issued earlier on January 1, 1863. The Confederate states were not in the Union and slavery did not end immediately. Slaves that knew about what was going on would sometimes vanish in the darkness of the night; others would remain a while longer. It was a turbulent time! (Slavery did not officially end until December 1865 when the 13th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution was ratified by three-fourths of the 36 states that were in the Union at that time. Mississippi returned to the Union in 1870 after a time of reconstruction and martial law. Further, Mississippi did not formally submit ratification papers until the year 2013!)
The family rested a little better as the soldiers began their march toward Champion Hill for their next camping site. Some food was gone. All of Pa's Dexter Whiskey was taken (the previous night's imbibing might have helped save the house). Two pigs were prepared and eaten on-site. The horses and other animals hidden in the thick woods of Shepard Hills were still there. Maybe these would be the last troops to come through.
Ritz and Bummer had stayed hidden under the house next to the base of the big chimney. They hardly came out at all during any of the ordeal. But, when the Union soldiers left, they did and wagged their tails at the Shepard children. This helped the family get over their ordeal. As for the cats, they went about their usual work in the corn crib of controlling the rat population.
The Shepard family tried to return to a calm state. They had been spared major tragedy. The house was not burned. Ellen was safe--all family members were safe. Life would go on in the post-slave era, but it was a time of poverty and deprivation. They never knew when another group of soldiers might show up. Actions of Confederate and Union military forces during the Civil War brought great havoc to Tinnin and the Shepard family. Life was chaotic, to say the least.
Pa often shared with his family questions about war. He would begin with, "Why was war needed?" Ellen was always eager to hear his explanations; he sounded so reasoned and eloquent to her. Pa would say that humans are intelligent beings and should be able to settle differences in humane ways without war. He would say that war causes great human loss. It destroys what humans have made through their efforts. Southerners should have agreed with the policies of their Nation. Slavery was not justifiable in a moral society.
Another thing that Pa did not like was the popular notion of guns. He wanted them used discretely and with caution, not flaunted or used as threats. He felt that guns were created primarily for one purpose: to give one human an advantage over another human or over an animal by threatening and/or taking its life. Of course, he and his family had been bullied by men with guns when the Confederate and Union forces came through Tinnin. He was glad that no guns discharged by troops physically injured his family. Soldiers did use guns to harvest some of the animals on the farm. He pretty well thought that anyone who carried a gun was insecure and did so in an attempt to enhance low self-esteem. So, it is just as well that he had only an old shotgun with double barrels.
Pa's ability to lead such discussions was probably a product of his northern upbringing. How he viewed his role as the head of household to embrace fundamentals of education were also midwestern in roots. There were likely times when Pa thought that if he had stayed in Indiana he would have avoided all the turmoil he had found in Tinnin, Mississippi. However, he now thought of Tinnin as his home and the place he should live and seek wealth if any could be found.
Even with war threats and destruction, people in the Tinnin community found pride in where they lived. They felt that there was good quality of life, but that thought was primarily associated with white people who had never traveled any place. Blacks, though they did not enjoy increasing equality in most regards, were adjusting and leaving the area with their newfound emancipation. Members of the Choctaw Tribe had been chased from the area a quarter century earlier by the Federal government and treaties that led to cessation of the land. Hills with wooded areas provided habitat for important meat, such as rabbit, deer, and squirrel. Though Pa was not a hunter, he would let others hunt on his land if they shared their harvest. Creek bottoms provided good lands for row cropping (except following a heavy sustained rain, when runoff water would get the Bogue Chitto Creek out of its banks). Springs in the hills provided good-quality fresh water. The air was clean and free of the pollution found in cities where coal was burned and iron work carried out. Overall, the Tinnin community was a healthful place to live.
But, it was spring, and crops needed to be started. This required work by each individual in the family who was old enough to work in the field. Cotton, corn, sweet potatoes, and pinder (Gullah name for peanut--there were no Gullah people in Mississippi but the name of pinder prevailed) had to be planted as crops. The vegetable garden had to be readied and planted. Fortunately, a few winter vegetable crops had survived, such as collard greens and turnips; these were helpful in getting through times with troops. Before the recent troop experience, potatoes, cabbage, onions, radishes, and lettuce had been planted. Spring and summer vegetable crops should now be planted, which included okra, tomatoes, squash, field peas, and butterbeans. A lot of hard labor was required breaking the land with mule-pulled plows and using hoes to plant by hand.
Orderly life in Tinnin and surrounding area was disrupted by the actions of a few people who held hard feelings toward former slaves and those whites who might have aided them. These small groups would roam around the countryside, create conflict, and be violent. They would burn homes, destroy farm property, endanger human life, and sometimes lynch people who didn't fit right in line with what they wanted. People, particularly children, were sometimes bullied and frightened. One instance near the town of Bolton involved a small group going to a shanty in the night with blazing torches, pulling the man from the house and beating him, and setting the house on fire. Fortunately, the man's life was spared and his wife and children escaped. Their meager possessions were destroyed.
The vigilantes became known as "white-liners;" mention of these words produced fear among people. As a northerner, Pa was somewhat suspect in the South. Some people knew he voted the Union ticket before the U.S. Civil War and that he was always kind toward his slaves. This notion out in the community among the "white-liners" created some additional anxiety among