THE CAPTIVES

AFTER THE Wanderer's landing there were reports of Africans from South Carolina to Alabama.  It is unknown where all of the Wanderer's captives settled.  It was reported that 20 of them were found on a plantation in Texas.  Six were supposedly sold on the auction block in Memphis, and many, perhaps up to 100, were sold to work on a plantation north of Savannah near Edgefield, South Carolina.  It is suspected Wanderer captives helped develop a unique style of pottery, known as the "face jug," which Edgefield is now famous for.

 

One of the Wanderer's captives from the Edgefield area was a young boy named Cilucangy, later to be known as Ward Lee.  In 1904, Lee circulated this announcement:

 

"Please help me.  In 1859 I was brought to this country when I was a child. . . One year ago it was revealed to me to go back to Africa. . . And now I beg every one who will, please help me. . . I am bound for my old home if God be with me.  White or black, yellow or red.  I am an old African"

 

Lee never returned to Africa.  He died 10 years later.

 

 

(Image: "Survivors of the slave yacht Wanderer", 1904, Ward Lee - left)