Photograph: Emma Lee Irby (1976)

Two Angels at the Door from The Help of Destin: Emma Irby

Two Angels at the Door



When Christina was born, I was 30 years old and didn't have a clue. I was as prepared as a mother-to-be, could be, with the nursery decorations. But after one "false alarm," crazy race to the hospital, the real birth came on suddenly, three nights later and I had forgotten to do enough laundry. Coming home from the hospital, there were no lingering oohs and ahhs because everyone who had attended the birth had to be somewhere else...the dock, the post office, the Gulf, the bank, the gift shop, answering the business phones, buying groceries, filling prescriptions. My mother said, will you be okay until later? So, feeling totally alone, just me and Jesus, I sat on my sofa with my precious baby in my arms and shed a tear. I needed help, and a lot of it.



I must say later that night, everyone came over, but the next day, even my dear mother could not be there for long. It was March 14th, Spring Break, and Emmanuel party boat business had to be run. Exhausted and weak from labor that was long and "precipitous," it was hard to even get out of bed.



Someone must have told Emma that I had a baby.



Just when I was desperately crying out to God, she knocked on the door. I could have kissed her. She just started "doing" everything that needed to be done, including laundry, answering the phone, bringing me things to drink, and holding the baby. She made life beautiful. Happy days were here again.



That day, I had two angels entering my life. Christina, my firstborn, and Emma. I have no doubt both were heaven-sent.

....

Out of Africa

Out of Africa

Reading all of this, sometimes you don't see the obvious. Emma's people are from South Carolina.

Possibly but not conclusively, one of the "7."

Another interesting thing was that within the Irby slaves, there was a set of twins born in 1862, both male. One was named Lum, or Lumsi (meaning "excellent" in African). And the other might have been Cal.

It was feared that fresh slaves from Africa would have re-Africanized the American bred negro slaves they came in contact with, those that had become "sweeter" in disposition over time, like wild honeybees bred with other docile honeybees. No one knew what would happen. But, they adjusted better than was thought.

408 from the Wanderer, and 106 from the Clotilde ships. They were astonished to see men with their own skin color wearing white men's garments.

After 50 years, the forgotten phrases, drumbeats and ring dances would begin again. Just like I heard on Music from Beyond the River, recorded in Gee's Bend in 1941.//
(Photo- The Wanderer, from Wikipedia. Creative Commons License.)

Kindly Mr. Irby? Free Book Excerpt

Kindly Mr. Irby?

Who was this slaveholder, turned landholder? If Mr. Irby picked a time to pick cotton in Rehoboth, he might have waited a mite too long. Yet, we know he did, because we have Emma.

Born in Marlboro in 1818 (the same year importing slaves were banned by the way), in 1850 Census he lived as a single man with 31 slaves in Lexington, Dallas County, Alabama.

One decade later in 1860 I found him at home in Rohoboth, Gee's Bend, (post office box Prairie Bluff) and his 31 slaves had grown from 31 to "47 plus 7." That "plus 7" interested me very much, since the Wanderer had landed 2 years earlier and the captives trekked through his home state. Those 54 slaves lived in 12 houses on land he purchased from Mr. and Mrs. Christian.

Enter the war.

"His people" must have earnestly waited for him to return from the Civil War, not knowing their fate. Cal, Emma's future grandfather, being too young to know.

Josiah was a foot soldier, and an older one at that. He volunteered to join the Confederate Army at age 44, went in as a 2nd Lieutenant, Alabama, Company A, 4th Infantry Regiment, muster date 1 August year 1862. The war had begun at Ft. Sumter in 61 and he saw much action. I honestly felt sorry for him. He started with the Battle of Manassas which lost all field officers, Yorkton, Seven Pines 2nd Battle of Manassas, Seven Days Battle, Chickamauga, Antitem, Fredericksburg, Gettysburg, Ft. Sanders, The Wilderness, and Spotsylvania Campaign. Miraculously he did not die, although he may have finally have been captured and surrendered with 300 others at the Battle of Mobile Bay in 84.


After 1865, he applied for a Presidential Pardon which cost him $2,000.

His slaves were now free, in theory at least.

In 1870, he lived in Rehoboth, with $10,000 worth of land, paying taxes of $1,800 to Mileax County. He was 52 years old.

He was living with a "mulatto" freed woman and her (their?) son, Duncan, also "mullato," and in his last will and testament in 1870, he gives Emeline Gee, quite a bit of property, and she is named preferentially before any of his other heirs. Her occupation on the 1870 Census is "dorm servant."

His will began with the words, "In the Name of God, Amen!"

He died the following year.//
(Photo The Battle of Mobile by Louis Prang. Library of Congress. Used by Creative Commons, Wikipedia.)