Hush Harbor Rhetoric – V. Nunley

In Keepin’ It Hushed: The Barbershop and African American Hush Harbor Rhetoric, Vorris L. Nunley investigates the role of the hush harbor (a safe place for free expression among African American speakers) as a productive space of rhetorical tradition and knowledge generation. Nunley identifies the barbershop as an important hush harbor for black males in particular and traces the powerful cultural trope and its hidden tradition of African American knowledge through multiple texts. From Dunbar’s “We Wear the Mask” to the recent Barbershop movies and the provocative rhetoric of Reverend Jeremiah Wright, Nunley’s study touches on a range of time periods and genres.
Nunley’s introduction connects African American Hush Harbor Rhetoric (AAHHR) to everyday considerations of what may or may not be spoken in public and how African American speakers manage numerous hidden transcripts. In the first three chapters, Nunley charts different iterations of hush harbors and their function in the context of residual and emergent rhetorical traditions. He investigates public sphere theory and its application (and misapplication) to black civil society and hush harbors and connects AAHHR to nommo, the power of the word. In chapters 4 and 5, Nunley examines the ubiquity of the hush harbor trope in African American culture and considers barbershops as pedagogical sites, using literature, poetry, philosophy, and film to make his case. In chapter 6, he analyzes the Barbershop movie in detail, arguing that the movie’s commodified, neoliberal version of AAHHR did not represent a hush harbor, although that was ostensibly the aim.
Keepin’ It Hushed concludes with a presentation of a hush harbor pedagogy in chapter 7 and a distinctive analysis of hush harbor oriented speeches by then-Senator Obama and Rev. Jeremiah Wright. Rhetoricians and readers interested in African American life and culture will appreciate the cogent analysis in Nunley’s volume.
Wayne State University Press February 2011

How do the enslaved African landscapes on the plantation reflect resistance?

The Jessups plantation plat 1755

The enslaved African was the primary sculptor of the plantation landscape and therefore they had a significant influence upon it. With such an influence it should be no shock that they could and would rebel and resist within the environment they found themselves. The enslaved used hidden routes to avoid, and evade the authority of the overseer, and the master, the enslaved also created secret ‘hiding’ spaces for personal belongings under the floors of their dwellings, and they created the secret worship spaces known as Hush Harbors.

In his book ‘Back of the Big House’ John Michael Vlach explains that “Paths also led from the slave quarters across the fields to a particular corn house or to some other food store that was known to have a conveniently lose board in its gable. A shortcut through the woods or marshlands that surrounded the fields may have allowed slaves from different plantations to rendezvous more conveniently and to return to their assigned tasks with less chance of detection.” This unauthorized use of the landscape was a display of resistance and it extended into the waterways such as streams and rivers as well.

As we began to learn more about the plantation landscape we should be mindful of these pathways that the enslaved co-opted, because they show an intent to resist, and they reflect active resistance by the enslaved. They also could point the way to a Hush Harbor.

How can we find Hush Harbors in history?

Though an in-depth academic body of work is not available on Hush Harbors, there is a broad interest and conversation within the black church, the broader black community, and within the field of Archaeology.

Image of enslaved
Gullah women ‘Hulling Rice’
from Georgia Archives – Vanishing GA

The best resource I have found in searching for these elusive spaces, has been the ‘slave narratives’ given to the WPA and housed in the Library of Congress. Here the ex-enslaved African recounted their experiences and ever-so-often would speak of the ‘Hush Harbor’ , as Peter Randolph from Virginia did when he stated “[At the Hush Harbor] the slave forgets all his sufferings…Thank G-d, I shall not live here always!” – What a powerful, yet brief and eloquent testament to the majesty of these spaces. No one can speak to them as those who constructed and attended them. We have an obligation still to attempt to find them.

Another great resource are the elder members of the black church. It was through an elder member of a black church that I first learned of Hush Harbors. Some of these people are old enough to have known great grandparents who were enslaved. They are like finding time capsules. My uncle is also one of these people, and I have sat with him for hours asking about any little nugget he may remember about his great grandfather Abe English who had been a young boy when the enslaved were emancipated in America. Though my uncle has not remembered anything our relative said about Hush Harbors, there are others who may remember, and their stories will add immensely to the record.

The broader community may also have information in the form of oral histories passed down through families. It only takes one person to value the story in their family that tells of those enslaved meeting late in the night at a specific location, for us to locate one of these sacred spaces. We have to know that our oral traditions and family stories have value and that they can impact the historic record in meaningful ways.

Finally, I have found that within the field of Archaeology great strides are being made in plantation excavations and specifically the habitations of the enslaved. Using the DAACS {Digital Archaeological Archive of Comparative Slavery} research can be found on slave scholarship. Elizabeth Clites of the Jefferson Foundation published an article in the African Archaeology Diaspora March 2009 newsletter explaining that although there are no exhaustive studies of slave sites in the Atlantic World (using data from DAACS) her analysis “has hopefully demonstrated that analysis of the Fairfield quarters provides clues and insights into slave culture as it existed in the American Colonies and Caribbean. [Slave] Quarter architecture and landscape manipulation, slaves’ access to imported goods, and evidence of Africa ritualism are all aspects of the Fairfield quarter that are shared with plantations within the Chesapeake and greater Atlantic region.”

As more is done to bring the memory of the slave experiences back into the public record, and as more escavations of plantations take place a Hush Harbor will be found and revealed. We will then be able to as John Michael Vlach stated “…to describe accurately and analyze fully the southern plantations as we remember the territorial prerogatives claimed and exercised repeatedly by the slaves.”