CONVERSE, La. (KTAL/KMSS)—Converse, a rural village in Sabine Parish, Louisiana, has a prominent place in the education of African Americans post-Reconstruction era. But the little village may also have ties to hundreds of enslaved people who were given the chance to immigrate from Mississippi to the northwest coast of Africa before the American Civil War era.
Dr. Rolonda Teal, a professor in the Anthropology Department at Houston Community College, has spent years studying the history of the small community of Converse. Teal specializes in African American studies, and she began researching the history of Bapsoline, a small community within Converse, because her stepfather was born and raised there.
Teal said Bapsoline earned the nickname because it’s where the Baptists of Saline once lived.
Much of the research for this article, specifically information about Bapsoline/Converse, was completed by Teal.
Early formation of African American community in Converse
Records indicate that an African American community formed within the confines of Converse by 1872, only six years after the Civil War. The little community became home to as many as forty African American farming families.
Historic family surnames from the community include Belton, Loran, Canada, Jacobs, Woods, Brown, and Cotton.
Edmund Belton is considered to be the father of Bapsoline, the African American community in Converse. He arrived in Converse in the 1870s, as is stated in the History of Louisiana Negro Baptists.
In May 1872, less than a decade after the Civil War ended, members of the Babsoline community decided to build a place to worship God. Edmund Belton’s cousin George built a brush arbor, and later, the congregation upgraded to a log cabin.
Edmund’s daughter Ellen decided to name the little log cabin ‘Saline Baptist Church.’
One of Edmund Belton’s sons, Riley, raised bees and sold honey in Converse. Riley also operated a small store called “The Shack” where residents could buy things they couldn’t make themselves.
In May 1872, less than a decade after the Civil War ended, members of the Babsoline community decided to build a place to worship God. Edmund Belton’s cousin George built a brush arbor, and later, the congregation upgraded to a log cabin.
Edmund’s daughter Ellen decided to name the little log cabin Saline Baptist Church.
Meet one of Edmund Belton’s descendants
Edmund Belton died on Apr. 13, 1903 and was buried in Saline Cemetery in Converse. He was 90 years old.
Edmund’s grandson Robert attended and graduated from Coleman College in Gibsland, Louisiana. Professor Robert E. Jacobs, as he became known after graduating from Coleman, was the oldest son of Solomon and Ellen Jacobs. (Ellen was Edmund’s daughter.)
Here’s what we know about Professor Jacobs, Ellen’s eldest son.
Robert Jacobs was born at Converse near the Sabine River on May 22, 1877, a region formerly called “No Man’s Land.” He attended a public school near the family’s home, and his uncle Jack Butler encouraged him to go to college.
On Jan. 1, 1897, Jacobs began attending Coleman College in Gibsland, La., paying his tuition by working. When money was short his landlord and the President of the school, Prof. O. L. Coleman, helped him get by.
Coleman College: First African American college in North Louisiana
Robert Jacobs graduated with honors in 1892 and was the class valedictorian. In the spring of 1903 Robert became a professor at Coleman College, but he left the position at his father’s request and moved home. Robert then helped create the Sabine Normal and Industrial Institute.
But Sabine Normal and Industrial Institute wasn’t the first school in the community. The very first school was begun by W. B. Purvis, a Baptist minister.
W. B. Purvis
A ‘Macedonian Cry’ came from Saline Baptist Church in Converse around the turn of the century, and W. B. Purvis answered it.
Purvis was a young Baptist minister from Cotton Port in Avoyelles Parish. He was born on Oct. 7, 1870, and was the oldest boy in his family. His parents had been denied education while enslaved in Louisiana, and they wanted their children to become educated.
W. B. Purvis grew into adulthood and was encouraged by Professor Jonas Henderson and Sister J. P. Moore to attain a higher education. Purvis attended Alexandria Academy and Leland University, then moved to Northwest Louisiana, where he bought a farm in 1892. He became the pastor at Saline Baptist Church in Converse and married Jennie Lee.
Sometime between 1899 and 1902, Purvis started a school in Converse ‘under the auspices of the Farmers’ Union.’
After his wife Jennie Lee died, Purvis left Converse and returned to school, graduating with honors from Coleman College. He then spent the rest of his life in the ministry. But the small school Purvis started in Converse merged with Professor Robert Jacobs’ dreams and became the Sabine Industrial Institute, which was said to be one of the best schools in Louisiana.
Converse becomes home to Sabine Normal and Industrial Institute
On Jan. 28, 1904 Professor Jacobs married Miss Mary Lee, one of the students from Coleman College in Gibsland. The next year, Professor Jacobs enrolled at the University of Chicago.
He also helped raise seven buildings on Sabine Normal’s campus.
By 1912, 203 students, many from Texas, were enrolled at Sabine Normal.
By 1914, the campus was valued at $30,000. Professor Robert Jacobs was the President, S. B. Belton was the First Assistant, Miss Flora M. Goode was the Second Assistant, and Secretary. E. D. Tyler was the Third Assistant and Business Manager. W. M. Tyler was the Fourth Assistant and Field Agent. Mrs. M. L. Jacobs taught Domestic Science, Miss Lillie Mae Baddie taught music, and A. J. Jones taught agriculture.
The school was supported by funding from several sources, including the Slater Fund. John Fox Slater created the Slater Fund to uplift the emancipated population of the Southern States. The fund helped create southern industrial schools, which specialized in helping African Americans to learn trades. The fund was a part of a national movement that encouraged wealthy northern owners of wildly profitable corporations to divert money into American philanthropy.
Another source of funding for Sabine Normal and Industrial Institute in Converse was the Jeanes Fund. Anna Thomas Jeanes was a Quaker in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, who inherited her entire family’s fortune. She used the money to better society by establishing a school fund for rural African Americans in the American South.
The Sabine Parish School Board, the school farm, and private subscriptions also helped meet the Sabine Normal and Industrial Institute’s financial needs.
Sank Belton, Robert Jacobs’ first cousin, oversaw the construction of male and female two-story dormitories with outhouses.
Sabine Normal also had a dining hall, carpentry shop, laundry room, two-story school building, barn, and concrete pond for the students to use and enjoy.
The school wasn’t just a shining beacon for Black education. It was also key in the history of women’s education. Sabine Normal, a coed institution, was created just after the first colleges for women in world history were being built in the United States.
In Feb. 1917, Professor Robert Jacobs was appointed to an examining committee for the City of Shreveport. After he moved, community elders gave control of the institution to the Sabine Parish School Board so the school could continue without Robert Jacobs.
In 1918, the school board changed the name of the Sabine Normal and Industrial Institute to Sabine Industrial Institute.
A little more than a decade later, Sabine Industrial Institute held its last graduation exercise. Only five students were given diplomas during the last commencement.
But the Sabine Normal and Industrial School isn’t the only reason why Converse can be considered significant to Louisiana history. The African American community in Converse, Louisiana, is also connected to a country in West Africa.
Converse, Louisiana’s ties to Liberia
According to the Belton family, the founder of the African American community in Converse, Louisiana (Edmund Belton) is related to a plantation in Jefferson County, Mississippi. Prospect Hill Plantation was founded around 1808 and owned by Captain Isaac Ross, a Revolutionary War veteran.
But Prospect Hill Plantation was quite unusual. Captain Ross believed in education and did not abide by rules meant to prevent the enslaved from finding enlightenment. He helped fund a university campus in Mississippi that later became Alcorn State University.
And that’s not the only unusual thing Ross did.
In Reports of Cases Argued and Determined in the Supreme Court, High Court of Errors and Appeals, and the Superior Court of Chancery of Mississippi, published in 1910, we learn of a controversial case involving the executors of Captain Isaac Ross‘ estate.
When he died in August 1834, Ross’s will was specific: Those enslaved on his plantation were to be given transportation to Africa, emancipated, and given financial support as they set up their new lives on another continent. A stipulation of Ross’s will was that those enslaved on his plantation who chose not to emigrate to the old world should be sold, and the proceeds used to build a university atthe new settlement in Western Africa.
“He then instructed that Prospect Hill would be sold and the money used to pay for his slaves to go to the West African colony of Liberia, which had been set up for the purpose of “repatriation” by a group known as the American Colonization Society,” we read on the Archaeological Conservancy’s webpage.
The Archaeological Conservancy now owns Prospect Hill Plantation because of the location’s historical significance.
Members of the Ross family, who wanted the property for themselves, contested the will. The court system took more than a decade to decide on the contested will, and during that time animosity grew between some people involved in the case.
According to A record of the descendants of Isaac Ross and Jean Brown by Annie Julia Mims “Mrs. W. R. Wright,” printed by Press of Consumers Stationary and Printing Company, Jackson, Mississippi, 1911, Captain Isaac Ross’ old home, Prospect Hill, was burned by his former slaves before the court ruled on the case.
“At 1 a.m. April 15, 1825, this house was set on fire by some of the Prospect Hill Slaves, and completely destroyed in a very short time. My father, mother, and three small children, Isaac, Dunbar, and Catherine…. were asleep in the house at the time. The coffee for supper on the night of the fire had been drugged by the cook, and the older members of the family drank of it except Dr. Wade and Miss. Girault. The house was a large, two-story house, and Dr. Wade, Mr. Bailey, Mrs. Richardson and children and Miss Girault occupied the rooms in the second story. Dr. Wade was the first occupant to discover the fire, and immediately set to work to arouse the family. This he found a difficult task, and probably would not have succeeded, owing to the size of the house, had it not been for the assistance of one of my father’s own slaves and body servant Major, who was faithful, and rendered every assistance in his power. They all succeeded in escaping save Marth Richardson. Miss Girault, who occupied the room with Mrs. Richardson, did not drink the drugged coffee, so was active and alert, and discoverd that Mrs. Richardson was dazed and stupefied. She took charge of the two youngest children, Cabell and Addie, and requested Mrs. Richardson to bring down Martha, the oldest.”
Martha died in the fire.
“When the family were aroused, my father went to the outer doors to open them that all might escape,” wrote Thomas Magruder Wade. “The front door was hard to open, but after some efforts he succeeded in throwing it open, but did not go out. Mrs. Ross immediately ran through the door, and to her horror there stood Esau, one of the estate’s slaves, with a drawn ax, evidently with the purpose of killing my father, whom he expected to pass out that door, as it was nearest his room.
“Esau, with six or seven other leaders, were burnt or hung. This was all done by the neighbors, without my father’s knowledge, as he was then with his mother, Mrs. Ross, at Oak Hill, two miles away. He did not know of the vengeance taken upon these guilty slaves until it was reported to him by his overseers, Peter Stampley…”
Thomas continued his statement in Annie’s book by explaining why he believed the uprising had occured.
“It was not expected that the heirs of Captain Ross would quietly permit this valuable estate to pass out of their possession. So the will was contested to the bitter end, and after twelve years of litigation the highest court of the state sustained the validity of the will. During this long litigation and strife the slaves became restless; as they knew their old master had given them their freedom and his estate. They could not understand the delays of the law, and became insanely imbued that my father, the acting executor, was responsible for the delay, and if they could get rid of him their longing to be delivered from bondage and transported to their native shores would be quickly consummated. This alone was the cause of the burning of the house and the attempted murder of my father and family.”
Thomas also wrote that the enslaved were sent to Liberia in 1849. He believed there were 210 in all, though other sources claim there were more than 300 people who left for Africa. He said his father received letters from them until the beginning of the Civil War in the United States.
The decision in the controversial Ross case was that a testator (person who made the will to distribute their possessions) could use his will to direct slaves to be sent out of the state for the explicit purpose of emancipation.
However, those arguing the case found there were still rules about ownership that had to be addressed. That’s why the ruling further stated, “In this case, however, it matters not whether the slaves to be freed can take (possession of the Ross’ estate) or not. From the peculiar character of the trusts in the will the complainants (American Colonization Society) can take (the possessions) for them. The complainants are a charitable association. Their chief object is to transport free negroes, among whom are those entitled to freedom when removed to Africa. The right of directing and superintending this removal is conferred in the will. It is a right consonant with the purpose of the corporate creation, and a right which they can enforce.”
The case allowed the American Colonization Society to assist the formerly enslaved with the acquisition of land, one-way tickets to West Africa, and other details related to their freedom from bondage. The American Colonization Society funds were able to bypass societal rules and implement Captain Ross’ will, which included providing financial means to the colonizers after they arrived in what would later become Liberia.
Truth is sometimes stranger than fiction, so for time purposes this article will not discuss the complex subject of the Mississippi Colonization Society’s intended purpose(s), or those of other related societies that developed in the United States before the Civil War. But further research is recommended for those who wish to know about history that connects several places in the American South with the West African country of Liberia.
The Converse connection?
The story of what happened to those enslaved on Captain Isaac Ross’ plantation is undoubtedly a complex subject. But the possible connection between Edmund Belton, the father of the African American community in Converse, Louisiana, and Captain Ross is just as captivating.
According to Alan Huffman in his book Mississippi In Africa: The Saga of the Slaves of Prospect Hill Plantation and Their Legacy in Liberia Today, University Press of Mississippi, Edmond Belton and his brother Wade Belton were part of the uprising at Prospect Hill. Huffman claims that Edmund Belton was possibly the leader of the uprising, and that after Edmund escaped he was last seen crossing the Mississippi into Louisiana after the fire in 1845.
Huffman writes, in Mississippi in Africa, that no one knew what became of Edmond or Wade Belton until the 1990s when James Belton traveled to Converse, Louisiana, and met with Edmond Belton’s descendants.
The Archaeological Conservancy’s website states that the sale of Captain Ross’s plantation helped the formerly enslaved gain control of their destiny. Hundreds of enslaved people left Prospect Hill Plantation in 1845 and traveled to New Orleans and then on to West Africa.
“When you have to resort to–I guess you could call it violence, to burning the house that the slaves themselves had built, when the little girl lost her life, that’s sad. I don’t like that page of the story. Everything else, though, I’m proud of it,” said James Belton, a relative of Edmund (Edmond) Belton, on pp. 277 of Huffman’s book.
If James Belton’s claims are true, then the African American community founded by Edmund Belton in Converse, Louisiana, is connected to another colony founded after Ross’ will was enforced— a colony that was created through the American Colonization Society.
Converse, Louisiana history
The Edmund (Edmond) Belton who founded Converse might or might not be the same Edmond Belton who was connected to the Ross family in Mississippi. Further research is required to prove or disprove James Belton‘s claims.
Either way, a man named Edmund Belton was still the founder of the African American community in Converse, Louisiana, in post-Civil War NWLA. And as generations passed, Edmund Belton’s family made quite a difference for African Americans in Converse and throughout the ArkLaTex.
“Them being mulattoes, they might have just blended in,” James Belton hypothesized in Mississippi in Africa.
Today, few people remember the village of Babsoline as it once existed in Converse. Only four African American families are still left in the community known as Babsoline.
The story of Edmund Belton’s escape to Louisiana can be found in Alan Huffman’s book Mississippi in Africa. Huffman writes that Edmund’s mother, Mariah Belton (born in Virginia in 1775), chose to stay in the United States and face being sold instead of going to West Africa with other relatives. She stayed behind because her sons Edmund (1812) and Wade (1815) escaped after the fire at Prospect Hill Plantation and could not go with her.
Captain Isaac Ross’ focus on education at Prospect Hill Plantation in Mississippi may have influenced the development of a pro-education culture in Converse, Louisiana that resulted in the creation of Sabine Normal and Industrial Institute, one of the first educational institutions for African Americans in Northern Louisiana. The history of Converse also shows us what life may have been like for those who chose not to immigrate from Mississippi to West Africa. opting to stay in the pre-Civil War American South instead.
Those are just a few of the reasons why the connection between Edmund Belton, Captain Isaac Ross, and Converse, Louisiana is important in Louisiana history, Mississippi history, the history of the American South, and Liberian history.
For more information about the Mississippi Colony that formed in West Africa, consider learning about the known history of Liberia.
To visit Edmund Belton’s grave, make your way to Sale Cemetery in Converse.
If you would like to know more about Captain Ross’s Prospect Hill Plantation home, the Archeological Conservancy now owns the property. The existing 19th-century home, which was built to replace the burned plantation home, still stands today.
Source :Yahoo
