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from the Tribune & Georgian, November 10, 2000 by Heather Culp Through the American Civil War, apartheid, and two world wars and more than four generations, one Camden County family lived under the care of one man who found his way into their hearts and family as the world grew and changed around them. That man, London "Uncle London" Jackson did not come to America by choice, and he never chose to join the Lang family, but the former slave decided that, although he did not chose his fate, he was a part of the family and he was going to stay there. Jasper Lang, great-grandson of Isaac Lang Jr., remembers Jackson fondly. He recalls sitting many nights on his front porch listening to the old black man tell stories about how he came to be a part of the Lang family. Jackson would tell Jasper Lang of how he and his mother were captured and brought to America on one of the slave ships of running a trade in human servants from Africa to North America before the Civil War. At the age of 12, Jackson and his mother were placed on an auctioning block by slave trader Mungin Smith in the middle of a square in Savannah. While the son stood by his mother, white men bid hundreds of dollars to purchase them, Jasper Lang remembers Jackson telling him. The former slave would tell how Isaac Lang, Jr., from Langsbury Plantation in the north end of Camden County, happened to be in the city with money in his pocket that day. "He'd gone up there to buy his daughter Angie a piano," said Jasper Lang. As the story went, when Isaac Lang, Jr., worked his way through town he found himself in the middle of the heated auction and could not help but join in. That day, Isaac Lang, Jr., did not buy a piano, but for $1,500 cash, he brought home Jackson and his mother. "Uncle London used to tell me that story all the time. He always called himself 'Auntie's Piano' because of that," said Jasper Lang. From that day on, Jackson never stopped caring for the Lang family, said Jasper Lang. After the Civil War, Jackson received his freedom, two acres and a mule from the Freedmen's Bureau and established his own residence near the family home. Throughout his boyhood, Jasper Lang remembers Jackson living a few miles down the road from him. "He'd shuffle his way to our house every day though. If he didn't, I had to get on my pony and go and make sure he was alright," said Jasper Lang. Jackson's shuffling steps were one of Jackson's trademarks. "You could always track him in the sand from him shuffling along," said Jasper Lang. The Lang residence was only part of a five mile cicrle Jackson would travel every day to visit neighbors and the Lang family. During his daily journey, Jackson would solicit food and teach children life long lessons of respecting their parents and minding their manors, said Jasper Lang. To this day, Jasper Lang remebers the old man's stories and lessons. After eating dinner at the Lang family home, Jackson would sit on the family's front porch with Jasper Lang and tell him stories while chewing a plug of tobacco. "He might have been over 100, but let me tell you, he was quick," said Jasper Lang. During those warm nights on the front porch, Jasper Lang remembers how the flies would buzz around him and Jackson while they talked on the porch. "He had this old pocket knife he always carried with him, and he could take that thing and slice one of them flies' head off just like that," said Jasper Lang. One of Jasper Lang's favorite stories to tell about Jackson is the time his offering didn't suit the old man. "Whenever Uncle London would come over, my momma would send me out to fetch him something to carry back with him," Jasper Lang explained. "Well, this one time I went back to fetch him up some greens. So, I went out and got him a bundle of greens and washed them up real clean for him. As I was walking round the house to bring it to him, I saw him peeking over at the smoke house then look over at me. "When I handed him the greens he turned, looked at me and went, 'Humph! You give me greens and you don't give me no grease to cook with it? Humph!' So I had to go out to my daddy's smoke house and cut him off a piece of meat," recalled Jasper Lang. "He was like that too, if he didn't like something he let you know." Although he was never born into the Lang family, Jackson always concidered himself a part of the family, said Jasper Lang. "Whenever we would have a family reunion he would expect us to come pick him up and carry him along with us," said Jasper Lang. At the family reunions, Jackson would sit on the bench and the children would gather around him to hear his stories, said Jasper Lang. Jackson would tell the children how he was a house servant and never worked a day in the field for the Lang family, said Jasper Lang. When the Civil War came, the slave stayed at home to "take care of the family," Jasper Lang remembers Jackson saying. "He had a thousand stories to tell, and those children would all just gather around him," Jasper Lang said. One of the most important things Jackson taught the Lang children was to repect their elders, said Jasper Lang "He taught everybody his belief, that all children should know good manors and mind and respects their elders," said Jasper Lang. When Jasper Lang turned 18, he joined the U.S. Navy and served in World War II. While overseas, Jasper Lang said he received a letter from his family telling of Jackson's death. The former slave had been traveling through the woods trying to get to the Lang House, when he somehow got turned around, said Jasper Lang. "They were searching for him for three days out there in the woods. When they did find him, he was already dead," remembered Jasper Lang. Historians estimate Jackson to have been around 125 years old at the time of his death in 1941. The Langs buried Jackson in a small cemetery behind his log cabin where his sons and wife had already been buried years before, said Jasper Lang. No marker was ever put on the grave. "Now only me and two others know where he is buried,ö Jasper Lang said. When the Camden County Sheriff's Office began its cemetery clean-up project last year, Jasper Lang suggested the sheriff's office begin the project by cleaning up Jackson's cemetery because of the rich history of the man that was buried there. Although the cemetery is on the list of those to be cleaned and restored in the project, efforts to begin work have encountered delays caused by the current owner of the cemetery property, explained Jasper Lang. "I really want to just put a marker on that grave with Uncle London's name on it so people will know where he was buried,ö said Jasper Lang. And because Lang is not a blood relative of Jackson, he has no visitation rights. Until a marker is placed on the grave, Jasper will remain the living record of the slave who gained his freedom and claimed the Lang family as his own. |