United States of America -- South Carolina -- Frogmore
Date:
1932 July
Scope and Contents:
Lorenzo Dow Turner took this image on Fripp's Point, Frogmore, St. Helena Island, Beaufort County, South Carolina while doing research in the Sea Islands off the coast of South Carolina and Georgia between 1931 and 1933.
Biographical:
Parris Capers was born on December 1, 1872, to Josiah and Susan (Susanna) Capers at William Fripp's old plantation, renamed Fripp's Point, in St. Helena Island, SC. William Fripp held 326 enslaved people on his plantation on October 24, 1860. A little over a year later, on November 7, 1861, upon the Union forces' arrival, all the owners and their families left, leaving the plantations abandoned and in the enslaved people's hands. Eventually, the plantations were sold to pay taxes, which allowed many newly freed people to acquire properties. Josiah Capers was one of those who bought land. In 1880 he owned a farm valued at $1,000 where he planted corn, peas, and sweet potatoes and tended to chickens which produced 300 eggs in 1879.
Josiah's relative prosperity allowed young Parris to attend eight years of school at the Penn Center. The school was created in 1862 by Quaker and Unitarian missionaries to teach the children in St. Helena Island. His studies allowed Parris to proudly inform Dr. Turner in 1932 that he was able to read and write.
Parris remained on his father's farm and probably inherited the parcel of 66 acres of land he owned in 1932 when his father passed away. He also worked as a trapper during the winter and at one point owned a store. In 1932 Dr. Turner described him as having "a good physique" and being very industrious and intelligent.
Parris Capers married Rose [Rosa] Mungin around 1894. Rose was the oldest daughter of Arthur and Charity Mungin and was born in St. Helena Island around 1876. They had at least seven children, one who died very early in their marriage and then Lizzie, Evans, Manley, Charity, Sarah, and Rosa Lee.
Tragedy struck the family within the year after Dr. Turner visited them. Manley (Mannie) Capers died on November 12, 1932, after being interned in a mental hospital in Columbia, SC, for eight months. Evans Capers died March 23, 1933, of accidental drowning. He worked as a fisherman.
Parris Capers lived a long life and passed away in June 1970 at 97 years of age.
Collection Restrictions:
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