Good People: The Salters Project

My name is Jennifer Olivia Stowe, known to my family affectionately as Jenny, Jenny Poo, and Jenn. My mother, one of 16 children, grew up in Salters, a small rural town in South Carolina. Growing up, most of the families around were like hers – hard-working Black farming families with lots of kids. Throughout my life, my mother gave me the gift of frequently visiting Salters and the surrounding area from Atlanta, GA, where we lived. On Easter, Thanksgiving, and over summer break, my sister and I joined our 41 cousins, and I would sing, dance, attend church, pick vegetables, and pine for my grandmother's attention. In and between visits, I delighted in hearing stories from my aunts and uncles about what it was like to be raised “down home.”

I'm embarking on this project in honor of my late grandparents, Margaret Olivia Frazier Beaufort and Johnny Beaufort, and the beloved community they built and sustained in the midst of the Jim Crow South.

Good People: The Salters Project features photographs, quotes, and recorded stories that family, longtime residents, and neighbors are willing to share.

It's an offering to Salters and my family, who have expanded my understanding of home, deepened my belief in preserving Black stories, and taught me the importance of carrying our land and water in my memory.