The Breeze Magazine of the Lowcountry, MARCH 2019

the Civil War. Sherman had arrived on the outskirts
of Savannah on Dec. 10, 1864. After realizing that
Sherman presented overwhelming odds an agreement
of surrender was achieved between Sherman’s Brigadier
Gen. John W. Geary and Dr. Richard Arnold, the mayor
of Savannah. On Dec. 20, General William Hardee,
the commanding rebel officer of Savannah, retreated
with some 10,000 rebel troops as the Union army took
possession of Savannah.
It was only after Sherman had left Savannah that a large
fire did erupt on January 27-28, 1865. Over 100 buildings
burned and several people died, but it is not certain what,
or who, caused the fire. Some Union troops helped fight
it. Since Maum Celie’s parents lived on Palmetto Bluff
at that time, perhaps they saw that Savannah fire – or
maybe they saw the burning of Bluffton by Union forces
in 1863. Either fire could have been seen from Palmetto
Bluff. Perhaps Maum Celie’s parents saw these fires
and told the story over and over again to their children.
Perhaps that was the story that Maum Celie recalled and
told years later.
During her life in Bluffton Maum Celie became well
known for her healing powers and sage guidance in all
things temporal and spiritual. Many people came to her
for help. She offered advice as well as various herbal
and medicinal concoctions of her own making. Luke
had a close relationship with her for many years, and
they would often walk the streets of Bluffton together,
talking and laughing, and telling each other stories.
Later, my father, John Samuel Graves, Jr., Luke and I also
walked the same streets of old town Bluffton on cool
summer evenings. We often walked down to the Bluffton
Oyster Factory, which my father owned and operated for
over thirty years. We would also walk to the dock at the
end of Calhoun Street, passing the Church of the Cross
where I and my two brothers had been baptized. Luke’s
first piano teacher, Mrs. DeSausser Pinckney, had been
the organist there when I was a child. Luke, my father
and Naomi McCracken were first cousins. Naomi and
my mother were lifelong friends and used to sing in the
Church of the Cross choir. Naomi sketched Maum Celie’s
cottage.
After the tumultuous world events of two world wars,
my mother and many white people became disillusioned
with organized religion and other social and political
institutions. However, while religious faith faltered for
many during those times, the spirit-filled Gullah people
sustained their own faith – and that of many whites
around them – with their close knit faith communities
and the encouragement and testimony
of their glorious spirituals. These songs
had complex harmonies and rhythms,
and were sung a cappella, often in
three and four part harmony. Luke
spent much of his life listening to these
spirituals and recording the words and
melodies in notebooks that he often
carried with him. He later transcribed
and harmonized many of them.
Maum Celie and her faith were
inseparable. She “witnessed”
continually. Maum Celie believed
that she could understand and
communicate with animals. Her
neighbor had a donkey named Atlas.
Maum Celie believed that Atlas knew
when she needed something and would
notify Luke and his mother by braying.
One cold mid-December afternoon in
the mid-1950s Luke heard the braying
and interpreted it, per Maum Celie’s
instructions, as “Sen’ some soup fuh
Celie soon!” Luke’s mother prepared
the food and he carried it over to Maum
Celie’s cabin. She lived close by.
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