JOIN US for the GRAND OPENING of St Isabella Island, USA, a Southern African American Community circa 1910 - 1939. An Exhibit of Artwork by Indea Vaher that Inspired St Isabella will also be featured. So join us in this celebration of history and culture.
http://slurl.com/secondlife/Shimmering%20Sands/282/196/36
6:30 - 7:00 SLT We will open with a bridge dedication from the SRM side of the island, and then tour the new site:
http://slurl.com/secondlife/Shimmering%20Sands/218/167/27
7:00 - 8:00 following the tour is the music of KelvinBlue Oh at the JUKE JOINT; Yonder Red House:
http://slurl.com/secondlife/Shimmering%20Sands/27/67/22
OVERVIEW
The fictional St. Isabella Island was inspired by its RL counterpart a barrier Sea Island, located just off the coast of the USA); because of its proximity St. Isabella Island has been preserved from assimilation for over a hundred years.
The islanders speak with a distinct Creole blend of Elizabethan English and African languages, which was born of necessity on Africa's Slave Coast, and customs preserved from the past the natives of St. Isabella carry on life as if time has stood still. The inhabitants continue with their old way of life; sewing baskets of sweet grass or pine, building flat bottomed boats for fishing and shrimping or dancing under a blue indigo moon. There you will find live oaks and gigantic angel oaks draped with Spanish moss blowing in the breeze and under its expansive branches is a community meeting place or an isolated clandestine place for lovers to meet.
These descendants of Africa, with some Barbadian and Haitian influences were freed at the onset of the Civil war, when the white land owners deserted the island in fear of the Union Army occupation and they have lived in freedom and isolation surrounded by the blue Atlantic, without bridges until recently. The Second Life recreation period is from 1910-1939, when these communities shared a rich culture.
CONFIGURATION
The makeup of the Second Life Island is that of the Gullah and Creole cultures named for the languages spoken. These languages often called patois is a combination of Elizabethan English/French and West African and is still being used along the southeastern Atlantic coast, where it is called Gullah, and in the central areas of the U.S. it is called Creole. The bayous, of the gulf areas, and the swamps and marshes of the southeast have many similarities, as those natives learned to live off the sea which became an integral part of their lives. This SIM has focused on the commonalities of these cultures.
African Americans during reconstruction made great strides towards assimilation, many sought higher political aspirations with some success until the Jim Crow laws were enacted and it then became necessary because of segregation laws to develop their own communities. (As you will read about in more detail in other notes)
Most of these communities became self contained with their own banks, schools and newspapers. Communities and townships were not always chartered as Townships but out of necessity they did exist. Communities such as Mound Bayou, in Mississippi and others were independent with schools, banks, newspapers, law enforcement etc. throughout the south. There were of course great hardships and poverty however what we wanted to highlight here is how these communities were self reliant and often quite successful. Many of these communities died out after the great migration of African Americans to the North, and Mid-west seeking industrial
jobs and a better way of life.
SUMMARY
St Isabella Island exists during the period circa 1910 – 1939 and focuses on how life would have been in a small southern island community. We will focus on historical figures of the period, major legislation, and accomplishments. Using period environments we examine the evolution of music, fashion, economics we will also look at some unpleasant aspects of our culture, stereotypes that appear in advertising and film. The Island is not separate from the existing Sunrise Mansion(SRM) complex, but it is an extension of that community.
Please read the other notes you find in displays and kiosks around the SIM that will give more detailed information on the topics mentioned in this introduction. We ask though not necessary that you dress in appropriate period attire when you are on the island.
BACKGROUND HISTORY
By 1880 a fundamental pillar of the American society was crumbling. An institution forged in generations human bondage was fractured by the blood of a civil war. As some of the architects of a democratic America predicted, a time of reckoning was at hand. This reckoning was the deliverance of unshackled descendants of Africa, abused, enslaved, stripped of cultural identity and denied the fundamentals of a humane society, into free white society. To reconstruct a slave–less America three ideas were laid, Assimilation of African freedmen, the Segregation of African Freedmen and the return to Africa of African freedmen. As history would show the path taken was not bedded with such clear distinctions.
For many this mass assimilation was unapproachable. The rationalization for racism took deep roots in white society’s religion, Science and economy, for black society, a history of humiliations and depravities both observed and endured presented a huge chasm in the fiber of America, and more specifically the Americas southern states.
Return, was one of the ideas discussed in the Lincoln white house. Favored because of the removal of African’s back to Africa removed ready retribution for the wrongs done to a people, as well as the “disagreeable “ ways of the “colored” that many whites thought aesthetically disagreeable and intellectually burdensome.
Segregation seemed the most viable answer, especially in the south. Let each society center around its on kind in communities separated by distance or barrier. Where they cohabitated a system of separation would exist in fact and eventually in law, otherwise whites and blacks would live down the road or across the tracks, and in some instances Isolated by rivers and other natural barriers from each other.
St. Isabella is one of these places. A community racially separated and striving for self sufficiency
Indea Vaher, CEO/ Founder
SRM St Isabella Island, USA
Bonafidenutts Aries
Director of Operations
SRM St Isabella Island, USA
PS. Kläder passande för perioden finns här:
http://slurl.com/secondlife/Shimmering%20Sands/182/196/36
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