Forks of the Road Memorial

Unique poetry, plays, short stories, children's stories and visual poetry by an American author

The author, Deborah Young respectfully honors all of the souls sold into slavery in Natchez, Mississippi. The author recalls growing up in Natchez with an inkling of ill ease and surrounded by a constant heavy air of eeriness. The author learned years later that Natchez was indeed, built upon the commercializing of human beings. The selling of people afforded scores of individuals, lavish lifestyles, in the midst of atrocious mansions, recognized as antebellum homes.

The 1863 Emancipation Proclamation Did Nothing To Assure Equal Rights For Blacks, So, To Stamp Out Ongoing Racism And Segregation, Numerous Natchez Citizens Participated In The 1950s, 1960s Civil Rights Movement: Rev. Shead Baldwin, Wharlest Jackson, George Metcalfe, James Henry Young Sr., Mary Toles, etc...

Deborah Young is the first and only writer to honor human beings sold into slavery at the Natchez, Mississippi historical site, with visual poetry, poem, stage play and screenplay. The author's poem, etc, was written to pay tribute to the precious souls whose lives were annihilated because of greed, trolling at the Forks of the Road.

Forks of the Road Visual Poetry - Urn for Tears

Forks of the Road Visual Poetry - Historical Marker

Forks of the Road Historical Marker

...somberly, one by one

Steps dragged and unfold

Dragged and unfold

They were chained in pair

A coffle thoroughfare

Many died, others made it, barely alive

Legs, bleeding and bowed

In pens, all, forcibly flowed

Many lives were forever altered

Altered with Bought and Sold

Bought and Sold

Feel the anguish

As spirits stir and moan

And, salty tears, they, unload...

Copyright 2001 by Deborah Young

An Excerpt from Forks of the Road

The author, Deborah Young wrote the poem The Coffle Song in the Gullah dialect and translated in English. The poem recalls the awful experiences of those ripped from their families, linked in chains, coffles and sold into slavery.

...Dese lines, dey iz mean trubble tuh b'hitch 'pun

Eb'ry sun'up tuh sundown, us iz jine'up 'n ju'k along

Yuh de chains stuhr, loud 'n strong

Us freedum, us freedum, 'e jis' clean, done gon'

Tuh 'nodduh, nodduh, us soon, b'long

Dis iz sho' 'nuf, sho' 'nuf, wrong

Us ain't got nutt'n, nutt'n, tuh mek us own

Cep'm dese wu'd us moan 'n groan, een dishyuh song...

An Excerpt from The Coffle Song

These lines, they are mean trouble to be hitched upon

Every sunrise to sunset, we are joined up and jerked along

Hear the chains stirring, loud and strong

Our freedom, our freedom, it's just clean, done gone

To another, another, we soon, belong

This is sure enough, sure enough, wrong

We have nothing, nothing, to make our own

Except these words, we moan and groan, in this here song...

An Excerpt from The Coffle Song

On September 22, 1862, President Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation, it went into effect January 1, 1863:

That on the 1st day of January A.D. 1863,

all persons held as slaves within any state...

shall be then, thenceforward, and forever free...

The Emancipation Proclamation and the 13th amendment initiated the freedom of enslaved African Americans. However, it was the numerous African Americans who continuously fought to assure freedom, equal rights and racial harmony.

Even, many years after the Emancipation Proclamation, Natchez Blacks continued to suffer as a result of racism, segregation and the lack of civil rights. Therefore, countless Natchez citizens and local leaders participated in the Civil Rights Movement during the 1950s and 1960s; Rev. Shead Baldwin, Wharlest Jackson, George Metcalfe, James Henry Young, Sr., Mary Toles, and numerous other individuals. It was the diligent hard work of constant marches, boycotts, legal actions, etc., which ultimately, lead to the 1967 integration of Natchez Adams County public schools.

The Forks of the Road

The Forks of the Road was named as such, because the marketing of those enslaved actually took place where three thoroughfares actually did intersect, Liberty Road, St. Catherine Street and D'Evereaux Drive

Prior to the sale of human beings at the Forks of the Road site, souls were sold in Natchez, Mississippi on every street corner, the Adams County Courthouse, auction houses and Natchez Under-The-Hill

Many, many were enslaved in Natchez, Mississippi; Ibrahima African prince, Elizabeth Taylor Greenfield the Black Swan, first U.S. black concert singer, Wilson Brown awarded Union Congressional Medal of Honor, Jane Lindo, George Lindo founder of the Lower Woodville Road Zion Hill Baptist Church, Natchez, Mississippi, Agnes Lindo, etc

	The Forks of the Road was the second largest slave trading site in the south
	President Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation, September 22, 1862, it went into effect January 1, 1863

The marketing of souls at the Forks of the Road site ceased July, 1863, when Union troops occupied Natchez, Mississippi

	The Forks of the Road site was transformed into a refuge for hundreds of once enslaved African-Americans. The majority of the males joined the Union forces.
	The 13th amendment of the United States Constitution was ratified December 6, 1865.

Now, each year, Juneteenth, June 19th is honored as Emancipation Day, by African Americans all over the United States. In Natchez, Mississippi, The Forks of the Road site is the central part of all Juneteenth celebrations.

The U. S. Postal Service has created postage stamps to honor the African Americans right to freedom and the tireless efforts of those who addressed racism, segregation, civil rights, etc. 75th anniversary of the 13th amendment of the U. S. Constitution stamp, Harriet Tubman stamp, Carter G. Woodson stamp, Sojourner Truth stamp, Martin Luther King, Jr. stamp, A. Philip Randolph stamp, Thurgood Marshall stamp, Ida B. Wells stamp, Roy Wilkins stamp, Mary McLeod Bethune stamp, Whitney Moore Young stamp, Ralph Bunche stamp, Booker T. Washington stamp, Frederick Douglass stamp, James Weldon Johnson stamp.

U. S. Postal Service

African American Stamps