The five W’s: Who, What, Where, When, and Why answered in five blogs introducing Song of Jaybird.
What is debt peonage? A system used by mining, timber, turpentine, and farming entraps laborers to work for small wages, usually paid in scrip or tokens. They lived and worked in camps, forced to pay high prices in a company store because it was the only place they could shop, creating a constant debt owing the company boss, an accepted practice in the Naval Store industry lasting for decades. Pete Daniels wrote in his book, The Shadow of Slavery: Peonage in the South 1901-1969,“If there is no law to authorize peonage, there is no peonage.” (p.13)
What does TOA stand for? Naval Store owners were known as Pine Barons, Gum Bunch, and Industrialists of Timber and Turpentine. In the early, 1900’s the South Eastern United States Naval Stores formed an organization called Turpentine Owners Association… TOA. They created sub-organizations for their regions of operation which met monthly, coming together annually in Jacksonville. Articles published in The Industrial Record covered news of the TOA, as did regional newspapers.
What is a shanti? A crudely built shelter to house black laborers in phosphate mines, turpentine and logging camps made from weathered pine assembled and disassembled when transferred from one camp to another. The shanties propped above the ground on stumps, stones, or bricks had no screens, glass, or doors; at one end, there was a stick and clay chimney, and sometimes a shed porch. Shanties grouped together were known as the Quarters.
What is a catface? Axe men like Delia’s husband, Henry, cut diagonal lines every few inches above the last slash every three to four weeks to allow resin to flow down fresh cuts. Over time the trees were scarred with V-cuts up the trunk of pine trees resembling cat whiskers; it became known in the industry as a catface.
What is the difference between Resin and Rosin? Resin is pure sap produced within the channels of Longleaf Pine harvested by cutting diagonal hack marks; the pitch oozed out of slashes and dripped into box cuts (later clay cups). Collected resin is taken to the still in barrels and distillation process produces Rosin and Turpentine Spirits.
