Henry Shannon is a researcher living in Kansas City, Missouri who is a member of the Choctaw Chickasaw Freedman Project©. He is a descendant of Chickasaw slaves, and has a strong interest in the preservation of the history of the Chickasaw Freedmen communities of southern Oklahoma. Mr. Shannon is a native Oklahoman, and grew up in the small community in Milo Oklahoma, near Ardmore.
His grandparents were born in Indian Territory as slaves, and he grew up hearing stories of their lives in the territorial days, and of their struggles in the Chickasaw Nation as freedmen. He knew much of the life and culture of the years before and after World War II in Oklahoma and he saw the freedmen towns and settlements evolve as the elders who had been Indian slaves, passed away. He agreed to share some of his insights for the readers of VOICES.
Can you tell our readers where you were born and raised?
I was born in Milo, Oklahoma in 1933. Milo is a small farm community located in Carter County about 20 miles Northwest of Ardmore, Oklahoma. I was the sixth child born to Henry and Memory (Stevenson) Shannon in a family of eight six boys and two girls.
What was the community like?
There were about seven to ten black communities in the area where I lived. Most of the families in these communities were
related in one way or another. Those in my immediate area are listed on the Dawes Freedmen Rolls as being owned primarily by two slave owners, Tennessee Bynum (a female), and Joseph Colbert. These slave owners were probably related and their farms were near by within walking distance. When freedom was granted to the slaves, the people left together, probably walking, and settled in these communities in and around
Milo, Oklahoma. Our communities were a reflection of the kinds of race relations that exist today...
To read the entire article; order the Winter 2007 edition of Voices of Indian Territory©