Jubilee Singers' matriarch stepped into greatness
Last edited Sat Feb 8, 2014, 10:30 AM - Edit history (1)
The hallowed, historically significant grounds of Fisk University seem to generate a vague nostalgia and hold a spiritual richness that permeates the very essence of those who visit the campus. Many of my earliest and fondest memories, usually locked within the deep recesses of my mind, return with a vividness unparalleled when I stand in the presence of the overwhelming residue that the university holds. The welcoming, floating fragrance of the magnolia bloom in the summer; the impressive, Gothic-inspired architecture of Jubilee Hall; the haunting echoes of the chapel — all beckon those who are willing to surrender to a time long ago that refuses to be forgotten.
It was a time filled with contrasts — sorrow and joy, hope and doubt — that incalculably tested the faith and resolve of a troupe of nine young student singers who stepped fearfully but staunchly into their destiny on Oct. 6, 1871. The matriarch and accompanist of the troupe was my great-great-grandmother Ella Sheppard-Moore.
The great-great-granddaughter of both an Indian and African chief (her great-grandmother Rosa was the daughter of a Cherokee chief, and she married the son of an African chief), Samuella Sheppard entered this world under the suffocating hands of slavery on Feb. 4, 1851. Her parents were Simon and Sarah Hannah Sheppard. Simon, a vivacious livery owner in Nashville, hired his time and purchased himself for $1,800 from his master, who also was his half-brother. He had been deceptively promised by the mistress who owned Sarah that when he accrued $1,300 more, he would be able to buy her freedom, as well. Though unable to purchase Sarah because of the heartlessness of the mistress, Simon was allowed to procure Ella for $350 because of Sarah’s threat to the mistress that she would lose them both if she did not allow her beloved daughter to join her father in freedom.
http://www.tennessean.com/article/20140208/OPINION03/302080003
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