The Scrapbook Memoirs of an African-American Artist

Aunt Flo was my Grandmother Mama Lillie’s sister and had no children of her own, so she treated my sister, two brothers and me, just as though we were her own grandchildren. I loved my aunt, and her input into my life was an important and integral part of who I am today; ~ for she delighted in me and she had an educator’s gift that focused on me and imparted knowledge. Before she died, she asked, “What do you want from my possessions?” I knew immediately and asked for her collection of vintage photos that had been collected since her youth and displayed in her old black brittle frayed family photo album. Although there was mention of a good deal of money in a savings passbook with my name on it, that never entered my mind. The photos were more valuable to me.

It was always a special event when we children gathered on Aunt Flo’s sun porch to review each ancient sepia-toned, time-weathered precious photo from her past. During those times she explained our family’s history behind each image. Somehow I felt stronger knowing that I was connected to and an extended part of an on-going living organism called the family! She held my complete interest as she passed down our family’s genealogy that gave me a valuable record of my ancestors on the maternal side, to pass on to my children, the next generation.

My Aunt Florena Christina Bell Brown was born 114 years ago, and was the third child born to William and Bessie Bell in 1903. She and moved from Evansville, Indiana to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in 1928. Florena was so humble and frugal that you would have never known that she grew up living in a mansion, a child of privilege, born into a wealthy African-American family just two generations up from being enslaved. Her father, William Henry Bell was a wealthy hotel owner and had a monopoly for decades in the Evansville heavy hauling industry. He regularly employed 30 men, black and white, and owned over 100 horses over the life of his business. Her mother, Bessie Bell taught her Latin, German and to play the piano. As a teen, she packed her trunks with books, beautiful clothes and left her family for the first time on the train heading to Wilberforce College [HBCU].

Wilberforce was founded in 1856 by the Methodist Church and named to honor the tenacious Evangelical Englishman, William Wilberforce (1759-1833). He worked his whole political life tirelessly because he had a God-given passion and conviction to do all he could to abolish the inhumane institution of the Atlantic slave trade. William was persuaded by anti-slave-trade activists and became the leader in the thrust for 20 years that overturned the political institution of English slave trade in 1807. Millions of Africans, generations before, had been stolen from their native countries in Africa and many were brought to America to work against their will. Professor Henry Louis Gates, Jr. of Harvard University published these facts in his PBS series called “The African Americans:”

“According to the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade Database during the entire history of the slave trade between the years 1525 and 1866, 12.5 million Africans were shipped to the New World. Just 10.7 million survived the dreaded middle passage, disembarking in North America, the Caribbean, and South America.”

By 1850, the enslaved that came to America had grown to 1,775.515 residing in the North and 3,950.511 were enslaved in the South.

In the 1830s America, the birth of the Underground Railroad consisted of hundreds of abolitionist’s homes that began to spring up in the North. They became conscientious activists and opposed the institution of American slavery because of the Quaker abolitionists influence, and it became totally against their better American ideals that they aspired to. Those Northerners were also enlightened by ever increasing reports of the enormous chattel of white children placed on the auction blocks, who had inherited the enslaved condition of their mothers. These white enslaved children were babies born from the indecent liberties taken against Black female slaves by their white slaveholders. The abolitionist homes of protection were stops on the secret Underground Railroad that established a way to give provisions to the runaway enslaved African Americans escaping from the southern states.

These freedom-seekers escaped the yoke of slavery in the American South by seeking direction from the North Star in the night sky. One of those major roads on the Underground Railroad led to Ohio, creating the need to establish a school to educate the many who came to find refuge. When the number of students decreased due to the beginning of the American Civil War, financial problems closed the college. In 1863 the African Methodist Episcopal Church (started by Richard Allen) purchased the institution and Wilberforce became the first college to be owned and operated by African-Americans.

In 1928, Aunt Flo became an elementary school teacher and also served in the Social Services Department for the City of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. She married Donald Brown of West Virginia, and they bought two country lots in Trevose, Bucks County, Pennsylvania. Aunt Flo shared that they built their charming house that was ordered from the Sears and Roebuck catalog. I was amazed that a house could be purchased this way!

There was such a yearning within me all through the week, desiring, ~ straining in spirit ~ to get out there to roll in the expansive fragrant green grass and feel its coolness between my toes. Then, I couldn’t verbalize, but now I know there is something very spiritual about being in an environment where almost everything is God-made. The three bedroom house had a double set of French doors that led to the music room and another set between the dining and living rooms. The sun-room ran across the full length of the front of the house with banks of windows on three sides that filled the room with warm yellow light!