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MUSTAPHA SHAW


Shaw is the epitome of a leader – one who fights for their rights, for their people’s rights and when denied finds another way to accomplish their goal. For Shaw freedom meant owning his own land and freeing his mother. In 1862 Shaw, whose grandmother was captured in Sierra Leone, escapes slavery in Harris Neck, GA, to join the Union Army. He leaves behind his mother who was the plantation owner’s forced concubine and thus the plantation owner was Mustapha’s biological father. Upon reaching the Union Army he reports his name is Mustapha (the name his mother called him) instead of Stafford (the name the plantation owner gave him). He fought with TK REGIMENT (he eventually changes his last name to Shaw after his commanding officer Robert Gould Shaw) and after the Civil War goes to Ossabaw where he is among the freedmen to receive their”40 acres.” There and for six to eight months, Shaw and other freedmen worked their land until President Andrew Johnson rescinds the 40 acres rule and gives the lands back to former plantation owners. He and others, at first refuse to give back their land, but then facing federal troops do so and Shaw moves home to Harris Neck. There he purchases 10 acres for $1 from his half-white brother and eventually follows that purchase with an additional 20 acres on Nephew’s Hammock, a small island off Harris Neck. Mustapha then frees his mother from being enslaved to his biological father and rears his family on Nephew’s Hammock.


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