Mary Pinckney Powell is Preserving the Memories

Written by Michele Roldán-Shaw

ary Pinckney Powell recently turned 96 years old, coinciding with the release of her third book, Back Home Roots: A Missing Chapter in the Story of Pinckney Colony.  Her first book, Over Home: The Heritage of Pinckneys of Pinckney Colony, Bluffton, South Carolina, is a collection of history, genealogy, photographs, and fascinating tales culled from a variety of written sources, as well as her own memories of growing up on the Colony. A lover of storytelling and passionate about her prolific family’s history, Mary undertook the project in order to “preserve the memory of these folklike personalities and their way of life for future Pinckney generations.”
     With her latest book, Mary turns her attention to the lore and traditions of the black Pinckney’s, their rich contributions to life on Pinckney Colony, and the influence which Gullah culture has had on all Pinckneys, black and white.

How do you manage to keep track of all your relatives and remember all their stories?
     Well, we all grew up in Pinckney Colony and when you grow up with them, you get to know everyone. We always had family around and we’re real big on reunions. I have about one hundred first cousins alone. We’ve tried to count the other generations, the cousins once-removed and all that, and eventually you just give up. I bet there’s a thousand of them! But we just claim kin, it doesn’t matter.
     People love to hear about the Pinckneys. If you do research on your family, the Lord will bless you. He’ll lay down the red carpet for you. You know, it’s hard to make any money off of a book like that because you spend so much time researching and you have to pay for materials and pay all kinds of taxes. But what it does, it keeps your mind active. And it’s a lot of fun for me.
     My fourth book is going to be about my immediate family at Guerard’s Point because that’s a story in itself. That will take care of our education and our chores, recreation, parties, and interesting people that came to visit us.


How do you think the Pinckneys have remained so strong and united in a day and age when American families seem to be disintegrating?
     I think the land is one thing that draws people together. Pinckney Colony has been unique because it has held so many generations. People come back from all over—California, New York, Florida, even England—because they want to touch the land. And we send out letters, we try to keep in touch. There’s something about our family that even our relatives in England were so very receptive to me coming over for a visit. But I definitely think land is basic because you have to have somewhere to go.
     Of course, the Pinckney’s never thought that land would be sold for development. We thought it would be agricultural forever.The thing about Pinckney Colony is that it has all been developed, and why they couldn’t leave it, I don’t know.
     I know we can’t expect things to stay the same forever, but I wish the developers would try to appreciate what Bluffton is and try to keep it as friendly as we can. When you start putting in high-rises, that’s when people don’t even nod at you, they just keep on walking.

What made you decide to write Back Home Roots?
     Eloise Pinckney Green saw my first book and she confronted me on it. She said, ‘How come you write that book on the white Pinckneys and you don’t write one on the black Pinckneys? ‘Cause you know, we a part of Pinckney Colony too.’ I realized she was right, because they were right there with us. So we were talking about it and we decided to work on it together. We came to an agreement on how it should be done when Eloise said, ‘Just tell it like it was.’ I know some people would be afraid to do what I’ve done, but I never hesitate to go talk to the blacks. For me, it’s just going over to a friend’s house for a visit.

How would you describe the relationship between the blacks and the whites in Pinckney Colony?
     We were dependent on each other and we had respect for each other. My parents would never have tolerated us talking ugly to a black person. We were isolated out there and we were all friends, we saw them everyday.
     Everything on the farm was cooperative and that’s the way we got along. They helped with the dairy and then they got dairy products, like milk, butter, and clabber. When they went fishing, they’d bring us fish and we’d give them lard to fry it in. At hog-killing time, all the black women and men would come to help and they got things from the hog-killing. There was never any money exchanged; the only ones that were paid regularly were the field-hands who tended the fields.
     As children, we learned Gullah from them. They were our nurses so they taught us poems and songs and manners, and we spoke their language. I guess that was my first language.
     Another of the things we acquired were some of the foods they fixed. We especially liked their okra-soup and brown-gravy oysters and grits. They would fix sweet potatoes on the fire coals in the winter. On the outside it would be black but of course they knew just how to do it and you’d break it open and on the inside it was delicious.
     Sometimes they invited us to a Shout, and we’d go down to the Shout to watch them and their body movements keeping time to the music. We grew up with very formal dances, like the Virginia Reel, where you had to have a partner. But they didn’t have to have a partner, everyone just joined in. It looked like they were having such a good time, there wouldn’t have been room for us to join in.

How do you think that compares to the way blacks and whites relate today?
     Well, let me tell you a story. I went to see one of the blacks, Ed Pinckney from Ridgeland. He is very old and almost blind. He used to work for my brother who owned an oyster factory on the Okatie. My brother also had a dry-goods store nearby. Ed Pinckney said to me, ‘When my work was done, I’d go over to your brother’s store and your brother loved stories. Wasn’t no black and white back then, we’d just sit around, cross our legs, and tell stories.’ And those were his words.

Why do you suppose people can’t seem to get along like that nowadays?
     Because they don’t know each other. And they’re not forgiving. When we were growing up in Pinckney Colony, all the blacks and whites knew each other’s families, and we grew to love and understand one another. Families who didn’t grow up that way are the ones who have hatred and resentment in their hearts because people fear what they don’t understand.
     The Bible says, don’t judge your brother because vengeance is God’s. He’ll teach ‘em a lesson. Some people feel like they’re better than others but we were taught that you just don’t do that, you don’t ever claim to be better than anyone else. And we always had plenty of friends. At my 96th birthday party, I had Jews, Gentiles, blacks, whites, kinfolk, friends, and everybody had a good time.
Another thing is, we need to count our blessings. We live in the Garden of Eden. That’s what Bluffton is, the Garden of Eden, and we have so many blessings.