Georgia Historical Society

Patriarchy and Paternalism in Liberty County: John Lambert and Charles Colcock Jones

The First Great Awakening took place during the middle third of the eighteenth century, and it created an emotional, inward looking spirituality in individuals who considered themselves to be simply going through the motions of established religious worship without a sense of true salvation.  Charismatic, evangelist preachers such as George Whitefield led this awakening of the spirit and touched the souls of plantation owners and slaves alike.

In Liberty County, slaves in the tidewater planting region maintained communication and relationships with each other as they paddled along rivers and creeks and traveled over land on a network of pathways and trails, sometimes on official plantation business, other times in secret.  In this way, the local Gullah culture grew and enriched the slaves’ lives to the extent that a person’s life in bondage could be.  To further enhance his slaves’ lives and to cultivate their souls, John Lambert, spiritually awakened as so many others had been, brought religion to his plantation every week.

Map #159 GCCL, Liberty County – Lambert Plantation by William Hughes, no date.  This map shows the “Old Lambert Tract” after it was sold to the Maxwell family, ca. 1846.

Lambert moved from South Carolina and established his Liberty County plantation in 1784 for which he hired a free black named Mingo to come weekly and preach to the slaves.  More important, however, was what Lambert did upon his death.  In his will, he requested that his estate “be kept together and the yearly income applied to any good purpose at the discretion of my executors and trustees, for the relief of the poor and distressed.”  It was Lambert’s last duty as a Liberty County patriarch, a respected authority figure who, like a father caring for his children,  left the community something with which to carry on.

The original thirty-one slaves and their descendants worked for the next fifty years until the Lambert trustees determined that the plantation became too much to manage and decided to sell the land and slaves.  During that period, the slaves of Lambert worked free of white oversight except for the infrequent visits of the trustees’ overseer.  Because of this, Lambert Plantation became a center of Gullah life where old traditions, immersed in magic and superstition, thrived and mixed with Christian practice.  It was precisely this secret world that another “awakened” slave owner sought to influence with the word of God.

Teaching Tip
1. Using the Lambert Tract map, have students examine and conduct further research on the ways in which waterways were manipulated to either drain or irrigate the land.  How did the tide play a part in rice growing along the coast?
2. Manipulating the environment to such an extent and maintaining the water systems led to a heavy dependence on slavery.  Keeping that in mind, ask students to consider the following questions: What special skills might slaves be developing working in this environment?  Will these skills be of use upon emancipation?
 

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