Self-Liberation of Parson Sykes: Return to Southampton County by David J. Mason
With a victorious end to the Civil War, Parson Sykes fulfilled the goal of self-liberation, but he grew frustrated with the Reconstruction programs. At the suspension of open hostility, he recognized the need for complete emancipation. Following the defeat of the Confederacy, he must advance civil and human rights to gain real freedom. As post-war planning emerged, new challenges arose. Parson grew frustrated with the connivance practices in racial superiority and inferiority that hindered everyday freedom.
Parson experienced the chaotic end of the Civil War while serving in the Union Army. Grappling with military-civil affairs duty, political uncertainty, and the unfulfilled promises of emancipation, Parson realized the Emancipation Proclamation did not go far enough. Following the defeat of the Confederacy, vicious racial violence characterized the resistance to integrating Black people.
Parson joyously learned that Federal government created the Freedmen’s Bureau to help formerly enslaved people transition to freedom with humanitarian aid. Parson relentlessly advocated and pursued education, political participation, and full citizenship. With the creation of the Bureau, he felt less pressure.
Parson witnesses the final year of the Civil War and the chaotic dawn of Reconstruction, learning about the complex political fight for civil rights from mentors and personal observation. Parson’s insights taught him that in war, the victory is just the blossom, and nothing is more frustrating than a bloom that refuses to morph into some fruit.
Parson returns to Virginia, where he confronts the defeated confederates, including the rise of hate groups and violent insurgents. In Southampton County, the Bureau mediated sharecropping agreements between white landowners and Black families after the constitutional end of enslavement. Despite granting freedom, the federal government took little action to help Black families acquire the promised land.
Through his interactions with mentors, Parson becomes a fierce advocate for the human and civil rights of Black Americans, focusing on education, land ownership, and political participation. He navigated the legal and social struggles surrounding the passage of the 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments, revealing both the hope they inspired and the violent backlash they provoked.
With the passage of these amendments, they guaranteed equal rights for all citizens and prohibited states from denying the right to vote based on race or color. Simply put, Parson’s efforts to gain freedom, citizenship, and equality required long-term commitment, resilience, and perseverance.
Having secured his right to vote and purchase land, Parson married, started a family, and established himself as an independent community leader in Southampton County, achieving a hard-won personal liberation despite the systemic failures of the Reconstruction era.
As revealed by Parson’s genealogy, Reconstruction has ongoing effects, especially in the importance of addressing root causes and the need for ongoing human and civil rights enhancements. Racism is an inescapable reality in the American society. Still, the complexities of social problems, with their cultural subtleties and interconnectedness, demand a deeper understanding and more nuanced approaches than those used in managing a political solution.
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Author Bio:
COL (Ret.) David J. Mason, U.S. Army, is Owner and Founder of HMG ePublishing, LLC, and the great-grandson of Parson Sykes.
He is an online entrepreneur, author, digital publisher, and veteran senior executive who has been on the Internet since 1997. He has executive experience leading, administering, and directing scientific, technological, and military operations for a wide range of organizations, including government, academic, private industry, trade associations, and the public.
Mr. Mason became interested in the history of the Sykes family early in life while attending family reunions and hearing stories of his mother’s ancestors from Southampton County, Virginia. The family descended from Louisa Williams Sykes, an enslaved African American matriarch who had lived on Jacob Williams’ farm located on Barrow Road in the Cross Keys neighborhood. During the 1831 Southampton Insurrection, the farm came under attack by Nat Turner and his insurgents.
For over 150 years, Parson Sykes’ descendants passed down stories and adventures of Parson’s early life at family reunions and holiday meals, weddings, and other gatherings where the ancestors met. During the Civil War, Parson and his brothers, Joseph and Henry, made a challenging escape from bondage to reach Fort Monroe in early December 1864. After enlistment, they performed successful combat military duty with the XXV Army Corps, United States Colored Troops (USCT).
Intrigued by what he heard at family gatherings, David researched Parson, Joseph, and Henry’s military service. He published The Self-Liberation of Parson Sykes, a trilogy based on the true self-liberation ordeal and actual events drawn from a variety of sources, including published materials and family chronicles. In the story, Parson and Jacob Williams are faced at opposite ends of the disputed points over the moral issue of slavery and secession, a political decision that led directly to war. The initial installment profiles Parson’s evolution from enslavement and emancipation by running away from Jacob Williams’ farm.
The pre-sequel to this documentary novel narrates Parson’s military service with Company I, First Cavalry Regimental USCT of the Union Army XXV Corps. On April 3, 1865, units of the Army XXV Corps were among the first to enter the city that for the past four years had been the capital of the Confederacy, where Parson arrived at his destination. At the conclusion of the Civil War, the army ordered the XXV Corps to Texas for border duty.
Mason’s meticulous research shines as he describes Parson’s heroic self-liberation, enlistment in the Union Army, and return to Southampton County, where he struggles to navigate a world steeped in systemic racism and political betrayal. Mason enriches the saga with detailed accounts of key milestones and encapsulates the tension of the era with the line: “In war, the victory is just the blossom, and nothing is more frustrating than a bloom that refuses to morph into some fruit.”
Mr. Mason holds a Master of Science degree from Hampton University in Virginia and a Bachelor of Science degree from Norfolk State University. He is a graduate of the Army War College.