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'Emancipation Day' Features Storyteller
Sun Photo by Phil Gentry Chetter Galloway, Emancipation Day Storyteller
Source: The Greeneville Sun
by Nelson Morais
Date: 2008-08-09
The Andrew Johnson National Historic Site commemorated "Emancipation Day" on Friday, Aug. 8, with slave-era tales mixing wisdom and humor as told by professional African-American storyteller Chetter Galloway, of Atlanta.
Galloway expertly played an African djembe drum with his hands to move along his narratives at an outdoor pavilion of the Boys and Girls Club.
Aug. 8 is the date Tennessee now officially recognizes as "Emancipation Day," as the result of state legislation sponsored in 2007 by Rep. David Hawk, 5th-Greeneville.
Aug. 8, 1863, was the day when Andrew Johnson, then military governor of Tennessee, freed his own slaves. It has been a day celebrated for years in the African-American communities in East Tennessee.
About 100 Entertained
Galloway's presentation on Friday of "Free At Last: Now Let Me Fly!" entertained about 100 people gathered at the outdoor pavilion, most of them children.
He said he had been a professional storyteller for 11 years, and was the youngest of 11 children.
Storytelling Basics
When he was growing up, he told the audience, his dad would tell him and his brothers and sisters stories "to enlighten and educate them" as they traveled roads in the South in the family car -- sometimes for short distances, and sometimes for an hour or two.
Galloway said three elements are needed for storytelling to take place: someone to listen to the story, a story, and someone to tell the story.
In order to keep the attention of the children present, Galloway instructed them to respond with the words "I may" when he said "I go."
Several times throughout his 50-minute presentation, he prompted them to respond, thus refocusing the children's wandering attention spans back onto his tales.
Creative Way To Freedom
His first story was about a slave named Nehemiah who had a "mean and ugly" master named Mr. Isom.
In Galloway's account, Nehemiah convinced the slavemaster to give him two days off the farm if Nehemiah could get the heavy-handed, somber Isom to laugh.
After tricking Isom and making him laugh, Nehemiah goes a step further and successfully finds a creative, at times humorous, way to earn his permanent release from the man to whom he is enslaved.
Nehemiah convinces Isom that two "spirits" at the local graveyard are dividing up souls in the cemetery. He takes Isom to the graveyard where two unseen slaves who don't know mathematics divide up two bags of sweet potatoes.
"You take this one," says one slave to the other, who responds, "I'll take that one," as they divvy up their piles of sweet potatoes.
Nehemiah goes on to convince Isom the two "spirits" are after Nehemiah and Isom, which prompts the slavemaster to tell his slave, "I want you to stay away from me!" and grants him his freedom.
Galloway, dressed in typical 18th-century clothes that some slaves wore -- a white shirt, colorful vest and pantaloons -- moved his hands, whispered at times for dramatic effect and played the djembe to tell the story of Nehemiah and other tales.
He gave the children and a handful of adults some advice: "Not to know is bad," Galloway said, "But not to want to know is even worse."
Slave Named 'Juba'
Another tale was about "Juba," a slave who "would talk and talk and talk" until it finally got him into some serious, irreversible hot water.
Galloway said the moral of the story was in fact an admonition from slave parents to their children to "don't speak all that you see," advice that "Juba" did not take, much to his disadvantage.
Galloway added that the parents were trying their best to discipline their children so that their slavemasters would not break up the families and send them to separate farms to work and live.
In a "Simon Says" segment of his performance, Galloway got enthusiastic audience participation as half the crowd put their hands on their heads to indicate the twitching of ears on a rabbit, and the other half scratched themselves like a monkey.
"Go forth and tell your stories well," Galloway concluded to a round of applause.
Other Events
On Saturday, a "Freedom Jam Block Party" will be held at the corner of Mulberry and Prospect Avenue in Newport starting at 9 p.m. and running late into the night.
On Sunday, Aug. 10, a multi-county "Emancipation Day Worship Service" will be held at Cocke County High School Auditorium, at 6 p.m.
The weekend events are a Tanner Community Action Initiative in cooperation with the African American Task Force Coalition of East Tennessee and the National Park Service's Andrew Johnson National Historic Site in Greeneville.
The Community Action Initiative includes the counties Cocke, Jefferson, Sevier, Hamblen, Greene, Hawkins, Grainger, Hancock and Claiborne.
For more information on these events, contact LeRoy Ripley at 798-9592, Shedenna Dockery at 237-1078, Denise Carr at 317-1095 or Kate Davy at 438-1049.
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