CHAPTER I — ROBERTVILLE: HOMELAND

Soldiers and Men of God of South Carolina

“When a people perish,” said Carl Sandburg, it is because, “they forgot where they came from. They lost sight of what brought them along” (based on Hosea 4:6). This fault was never Henry Martyn Robert‘s—he had too much to remember.

Basket Fires in the Twilight

Drumbeats and hymns to the glory of God mingled in Robert’s mind as he lay in his cradle, lulled by the soft South Carolina sunshine that first bright day of his life, May 2, 1837. For generations the family had proudly given their sons to the army and to the church. The nearby village of Robertville had been named for Revolutionary War hero John Robert, Henry Martyn Robert’s great-grandfather. Henry’s own father was the pastor of the Baptist church there.

But it would be some time before young Henry took much interest in his famous ancestors. Even the Revolutionary War adventures of John Robert under Swamp Fox General Francis Marion could hardly capture his attention. And as for Pasteur Pierre Robert, founder of the line —well, after all, Henry’s interests were those of other boys. What profit is ancestor worship compared to a romp in the woods?

“Basket fires” flaming in the night, now that was something! Lighted by the enslaved servants as night fell in the piney woods clearing where the Robert summer home stood, the baskets were of iron and supported by fifty-foot poles located at some distance from each of the four comers of the house. They held the pinecones, dried grass, and brush that turned into fiery torches when set on fire. Henry, his brother Joseph, and sister Mattie thought it was great fun! For quite a while the youngsters thought the sole purpose of the basket fires was for their own sport. Only later did they learn that the giant torches kept away mosquitoes.1

This summer home in the woods was Henry’s earliest and happiest memory. The whole family moved to the pine-scented sanctuary every summer. It was much cooler there than at the manor house located in a clearing near the center of the plantation which caught the full blast of the hot sun.2

Life was good for Henry at the summer place. There was plenty of room. The living part of the house was one huge floor. The windows had slatted shades, but no glass. That was all the better —the open windows let in more air.3

If there were a breeze at all, it blew in a cooling draft under the house itself. The wind had a free channel under the structure, for it stood on stilts ten or twelve feet off the ground. This elevation, which gave a sort of tree-house effect, was needed for health in the swampy forests of South Carolina’s lowlands. Such practical considerations were of little concern to the Robert children, but they took great satisfaction in their tree house, and they liked to lie under it for the shade and pleasant breeze on sultry days. The house-on-stilts to them was just another arrangement for their pleasure, like the basket fires.

Life was comfortable at the summer place for the Roberts family. The house slaves were taken along when the family migrated. Of these, the cooks were expert, and the Robert children ate with zest. There were also housemaids to keep the place neat and others to keep the young Robert children safe from snakes.

Life on the plantation itself was filled with interest for a growing boy. Henry liked to go on hunting trips with the neighbor young people. There was something about these trips his mother and father didn’t quite like. The young boys among the enslaved population were taken along as gunbearers, but Joseph and Adeline Robert didn’t like the idea of slavery and so insisted that their son carry his own gun.4

Young Henry rode horseback. On his rides and hunts he took in the colorful sights, sounds, and pleasant odors of the South Carolina lowlands. Whenever Uncle William was along, Henry was always reminded of how history had been made in the region. Uncle William also told him how much of it had been made by their own Robert ancestors. Henry listened respectfully and as time went on even with some attention.

The coastal country where the Robert plantation lay was a bountiful land. Balmy winds that crossed the Gulf Stream just a few miles offshore blew across the countryside. Forests of pine, oak, and giant cypress draped with Spanish moss were everywhere. The vegetation was lush. In the spring brightly blooming azaleas, magnolias, and jessamine filled the eyes with beauty and the nostrils with perfume.

Historic sites were everywhere. Black Swamp was used as a hideout for the enslaved servants and horses of General Francis Marion during the Revolution. John Robert moved to Black Swamp and founded Robertville as a result of General Marion’s use of the region as a refuge. A fellow soldier named Samuel Maner scouted Black Swamp for Marion and told John Robert what good country it was.

At Pocataligo, the Yemassee struck the first blow in the Native American Uprising of 1771. This was the savage war in which Landgrave Smith II, another Robert ancestor, had fought.

Both earlier and later history mingled in the region. DeSoto passed through the country and got the consent of Queen Cofitachequi to open the burial ground at Silver Bluff in a search for treasure. And for this he was richly rewarded by his find of 350 pounds of pearls.5 At Eutaw Springs the Revolutionary War battle of that name had taken place in 1781.

If landscape and history were not enough, there were always other sights to be seen. The long lines of enslaved people hoeing or picking cotton in the sun was an everyday site. Unlike some who were enslaved, these lowland dwellers wore shirts, pantaloons, skirts, and head kerchiefs of many colors, dyed by themselves from their own secret vegetable juice formulas. They used the same dyes to ward off evil spirits by dyeing the doors of their quarters a unique “hant blue.”6

Young Henry also saw those enslaved plying the swamps, bayous, rivers, and inlets in their bateaux. The Black Swamp, Beaver Dam River, and Coleman’s Creek were close at hand. The larger Great Swamp New River and Coosawhatchie were not far away. Those enslaved called their little boats “Trust-God”,7 reflecting the faith it took to row these frail craft across wide open stretches of water. Henry quite probably made trips in these bateaux himself. The “Trust-Gods” were a common means of water transportation on the plantations for whites as well as African Americans.

Henry’s father, Joseph T. Robert, was a fine scholar and saw to it that the children studied as well as roamed the plantation. Henry said that he and other planters’ children went to a common school on the plantation.8 This is probably the Robertville school mentioned by Uncle William at a later time. It is more than probable, however, that Joseph T. Robert himself took much of the responsibility for educating his children. He was well equipped for the task and would have enjoyed doing it. Henry would delight in the education of his own children at home in later years.

Robertville, where the church and school were located, also had a general store located on an important highway intersection where the north and south roads met. The main highway went north along the Savannah River about sixty miles to Augusta, Georgia. To the south it led to Savannah, some forty miles away. The branch road leading west was also important. After a few miles it brought the traveler to Sisters Ferry on the Savannah. The remaining road swung off from Robertville to the northeast, crossed Coosawhatchie Swamp, and then passed on beyond the Hickory Hill Post Office.9

Black Swamp Church was an important influence in the life of young Henry. He and his family were faithful in attendance. His grandfather, Reverend James Jehu Robert, had served the congregation for fifty years as pastor, and was still very much alive. Henry’s own father had been ordained as the minister in this church in 1834.

The church was the most attractive building for miles around. It was a substantial structure and accommodated 300-400 members. All the chief families of the area, the Roberts, the Lawtons, the Mosses, the Bosticks, and the Maners,10 supported it.

The church was 60 x 45 feet. It was a wooden structure and rested on a brick foundation, with an impressive front porch upheld by four three-foot-wide brick columns. The steeple was topped by a lightning rod and bore a painted clock face on each of the four sides.11

The inside of the church was pleasingly painted and decorated and had “the very finest of Venetian blinds.” The pulpit was raised, and below it was storage for the communion service and hymn books. About three-fourths of the members were enslaved people. A gallery on three sides accommodated them sitting separately from the...