The Legacy of Celia Adams

The preservation of history and slavery in the United States has its legacy connected to the Civil War and the 13th Amendment. This is the same legacy that created great American Literature and gave rise to Mark Twain (Samuel Clemens) as an acclaimed writer of Huckleberry Finn and his main characters, Tom Sawyer and companion, Jim. The Legacy of Celia Adams continues to reveal this deeply preserved and long tradition of contemporary discussions. The book reveals the conditions in which Celia Adams, a remarkable Freedom Dweller of her era, endured. It identifies relatives from her lineage and shares stories as told to them from the voice of Celia Adams. Celia Adams was born before the Civil War, March 12, 1856 until her death on March 21, 1943, during World War II. She had the vantage of living forty-four years in the 1800s and another forty-three years in the 1900s. The Legacy of Celia Adams provides the verisimilitude to assess the conditions of her life under the institution of slavery, the lynching of her husband, and through slavery’s generational impact on her off-springs. The majority of the eleven children of Celia Adams lived through the 1960s with the last child living in the 1980s. This book shares many of these rich stories of her legacy as told by her children and grandchildren. The author’s grandfather was one of her eleven children. The writer interviewed many of these relatives. In addition, he heard numerous porch stories from his grandfather who moved from Gough, Georgia to Fort Lauderdale, Florida to escape the unyielding conditions and the lingering effects of slavery. This book allows the audience to read and glean many of the family secrets and preserved stories from slavery to freedom. This book is historic because it reveals the generations and names of the off-springs of Celia Adams, and the story of an almost forgotten legacy of one of this nation’s freedom fighters of the 1800s. It is timely because it allows the public an opportunity to reflect on the conditions that gave rise to the 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments to the U.S. Constitution. The 13th Amendment provides the nation with cause to reflect on the 150 year jubilee. The abolition of slavery from 1865-2015 is the Sesquicentennial of the 13th Amendment Jubilee. As Celia Adams said to her children, 'It was some Jubilee!'