If you saw the message I posted at p.o-t. you'll know what this is, thought
I'd go ahead and show everyone what I am doing.  Summed up, it's a rendition
of where my Dad was born, Fairview, AL in a slave cabin on a old plantation
in 1933 which is gone now.  He asked if I could draw it out in map form
after he sketched the place out and had shown the area to me last week, all
a neighborhood now with the Black's cemetary in someones yard and street
now.  The White's cemetary at the corner of a schoolyard.  The cabin had tin
roof and vertical overlapping planks, central fireplace with no interior
walls, that he could remember anyway, but more or less two rooms.  Doors on
two sides, windows on the other sides.  The attached image isn't too great
but it's a start.

I'm always a bit foggy on the whole story of how his family ended up there
at the time (house burned down I guess) so i won't try to go into detail
here.  At least until I'm clearer on it anyway  :-)

I looked for pictures on the Internet of slave houses, slave quarters and
slave cabins to see if I could find something similar.  I didn't.  Most of
them were much better places, like motels or dorms, obviously on the better
plantations too.  One photo I saw was similar, except the walls were stucco
or something, in Florida.

bob h

Post a reply to this message

Attachments:
Download 'Slave Cabin.jpg' (37 KB)

Preview of image 'Slave Cabin.jpg'

bob h wrote:
> 
> If you saw the message I posted at p.o-t. you'll know what this is, thought
> I'd go ahead and show everyone what I am doing.  Summed up, it's a rendition
> of where my Dad was born, Fairview, AL in a slave cabin on a old plantation
> in 1933 which is gone now.  He asked if I could draw it out in map form
> after he sketched the place out and had shown the area to me last week, all
> a neighborhood now with the Black's cemetary in someones yard and street
> now.  The White's cemetary at the corner of a schoolyard.  The cabin had tin
> roof and vertical overlapping planks, central fireplace with no interior
> walls, that he could remember anyway, but more or less two rooms.  Doors on
> two sides, windows on the other sides.  The attached image isn't too great
> but it's a start.
> 
> I'm always a bit foggy on the whole story of how his family ended up there
> at the time (house burned down I guess) so i won't try to go into detail
> here.  At least until I'm clearer on it anyway  :-)
> 
> I looked for pictures on the Internet of slave houses, slave quarters and
> slave cabins to see if I could find something similar.  I didn't.  Most of
> them were much better places, like motels or dorms, obviously on the better
> plantations too.  One photo I saw was similar, except the walls were stucco
> or something, in Florida.

Bob, this cabin reminds me of the ones
in the film 'The Cider House Rules'.


Tor Olav

Post a reply to this message

"Tor Olav Kristensen" <tor### [at] hotmailcom> wrote in message
news:3C3### [at] hotmailcom...
>
> Bob, this cabin reminds me of the ones
> in the film 'The Cider House Rules'.

I found there is a website showing clips from that movie but I couldn't tell
much from what I saw.
The building was much like any old shed you'd see on a farm except with a
fireplace in the center, open to both sides.  There was probably a wood
shingle roof originally since a metal roof might not have been as likely in
the mid-1800's.

Finally found a close match at:
http://www.crt.state.la.us/crt/ocd/arch/greathou/quar1.htm
I'll be sending that to the parents to see if it resembles the place at all,
the doors are just one each on opposite walls, likewise the windows.  Most I
found on the 'net had only openings for windows, no glass.

I wasn't told about any sort of porch but from all the other photos I found
that was a common thing.  There was some kind of addition to the three slave
cabins (or quarters) which my father's father had built onto them.  I never
knew him since he died while my Dad was still a kid.

Post a reply to this message

"bob h" <omn### [at] charternet> wrote in message
news:3c305edc@news.povray.org...
---snip---
> where my Dad was born, Fairview, AL in a slave cabin on a old plantation
> in 1933 which is gone now.
---snip---

This is a map of the area I've put together in POV-Ray.  Rudimentary but at
least shows the layout of the place.  Could be difficult to see with high
resolution monitors.

The slave cabin my Dad was born in is that tiny rectangle below Hughes',
which happens to be in a line between two large oak trees; the only two oaks
I was told about and one still exists while the other is only remnants now.
Some pine trees are now there between the larger gap of the cabins where the
water well was, my Dad planted them and they are full grown trees now.
Speaking of things good ol' Dad did :-) he built a retaining wall behind
Harmon's grocery store (now gone due to a concrete waterway) and also built
a house further up on that street off this map a short ways.

It's a little odd maybe but that Blackwell plantation is now a country club
with golf course and the cemeteries are still there amid that.  The other
slave cemetery is gone, only trees remain in the lawn of a house, street
goes through there too.  The Smith cemetery is at the corner of a school,
the other school replaced by a fire department.  The cave and rock quarry*
were built over too, my Dad swam in a pond formed there; those used to be
behind my Dad's oldest brother's house along the highway.  I had been there
on a visit when I was a little kid and remember going into the cave and
seeing the pond.  The roads were gravel and dirt back in the 1930's and in
the 1960's there still wasn't anything out there yet but the highway was
paved.

Not a thing of beauty raytrace-wise, just thought some of you might be
interested anyway.  Probably more than anyone would care to know about.  ;-)
Guess this would be better placed at my web space instead of here.

* possibly the quarry (outcropping of rock still there) used for making
columns for the Old State Bank building, a survivor of the Civil War
complete with bullet marks and is now a museum.  We aren't sure because they
say a James Fennel lived on the other side of Decatur from the Fennel
plantation in my map.  Only info concerning that is from
http://www.ohwy.com/al/o/olstbade.htm
Doesn't help any that fennel is a celery-like plant too.  :-)  Guess I could
always go find out at the Old State Bank.

bob h

Post a reply to this message

Attachments:
Download 'fairview_oldmap.jpg' (182 KB)

Preview of image 'fairview_oldmap.jpg'

On Fri, 4 Jan 2002 08:31:15 -0600, bob h wrote:

>This is a map of the area I've put together in POV-Ray.  Rudimentary but at
>least shows the layout of the place.  Could be difficult to see with high
>resolution monitors.

Thanks for showing us this Bob, and your comentary was interesting too. 

If you do put it up in your web space then include the explanation aswell
I'm sure other people will find it of interest. 

--
Cheers
Steve              email mailto:ste### [at] zeroppsuklinuxnet

%HAV-A-NICEDAY Error not enough coffee  0 pps. 

web http://www.zeropps.uklinux.net/

or  http://start.at/zero-pps

  7:26pm  up 88 days, 11:14,  2 users,  load average: 1.00, 1.02, 1.00

Post a reply to this message