Ambrose E. Gonzales

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Ambrose Elliott Gonzales (May 27, 1857 – July 11, 1926) was a newspaper founder with his brother and wrote stories about African Americans. He was born on a plantation in

white supremacist governor Benjamin Tillman whose nephew James H. Tillman murdered Narcsico Gonzalez. Ambrose Elliott Gonzales is remembered as a pioneering journalist in South Carolina and the writer of black dialect sketches on the Gullah
people of the South Carolina and Georgia Lowcountry.

Family

Gonzales was the son of Colonel

Confederate Army who played an instrumental role in defending South Carolina during the American Civil War after he had been a Cuban revolutionary leader who opposed the oppressive Spanish rule. His mother was the daughter of the wealthy South Carolina rice planter, state senator and writer, William Elliott
.

Early career

Although he had no formal education after 17, Ambrose Gonzales became the

Samuel Tilden, and gubernatorial race in which Wade Hampton III ran on a platform of ending Reconstruction. Gonzales became a Bourbon Democrat.[2]

In 1879, Gonzales left the telegraph office in Grahamville to manage the family plantation, Oak Lawn, on the

News and Courier.[3]

Founding of The State

Ambrose and Narciso Gonzales founded

child labor laws, and women's suffrage. It was also frequently critical of the policies of Benjamin Tillman, who had been elected governor of South Carolina in 1890.[4]

In 1903, James H. Tillman, Benjamin's nephew, killed Narciso in broad daylight but was acquitted for self-defense in a trial that was widely considered to be rigged. The real reason seems to be the paper's opposition to the Tillmans.[citation needed]

Gullah

Gonzales grew up speaking Gullah with the slaves (and later freedmen) who worked on his family's rice plantations, and his knowledge of the language was to be considered extraordinary by other members of the Low Country planter class. After he published a few sketches in Gullah in his newspaper, public interest in his stories prompted him to author several books of Gullah writings, including The Black Border (1922) and With Aesop Along the Black Border (1924). Gonzales won accolades as a publisher and journalist during his lifetime, but he was especially proud of his literary works based on Gullah.

Modern scholars have questioned the accuracy of Gonzales's representation of Gullah speech, but his books remain a valuable source of information on how Gullah was spoken in the 19th century.

Honors

Gonzales has been inducted into the South Carolina Business Hall of Fame.[5]

Bibliography

  • (1922) The Black Border: Gullah Stories of the Carolina Coast, Columbia, S.C.: The State Company. Available online
  • (1924) The Captain: Stories of the Black Border, Columbia, S.C.: The State Company.
  • (1924) With Aesop Along the Black Border, Columbia, S.C.: The State Company.
  • (1924) Laguerre: A Gascon of the Black Border, Columbia, S.C.: The State Company.

References

  1. ^ "Biography from Richland County Public Library". Archived from the original on 23 February 2013. Retrieved 29 September 2016.
  2. ^ Jepsen, Thomas C., "Two 'Lightning Slingers' from South Carolina: The Telegraphic Careers of Ambrose and Narciso Gonzales." South Carolina Historical Magazine, October 1993, 265-271.
  3. ^ Jepsen, "Two 'Lightning Slingers'", 275-282.
  4. ISBN 0-87249-253-2
    .
  5. ^ South Carolina Business Hall of Fame Archived 2011-07-26 at the Wayback Machine

External links

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