2 Savanah Grey Bricks with slaves hand prints on them

[itzyoboyandrew]

So bit of background for those who are interested in the history of bricks. These are a very desirable brick in the coastal South Carolina/Georgia area. They are known as Savannah Greys. In good shape, they go for around 5-6$ a brick. These bricks I believe were made on the hermitage plantation starting in the very early 1800s. in the 1830s a big fire happened in Savannah, GA, and these bricks were used all throughout the city in repairs. The plantation first started off making rice, but the ground was horrible for rice production but the location had a special and unique to that spot type of clay perfect for brick making. These bricks were made/produced by slaves, although there is speculation that there might have been some white overseers helping production. The handprints form sometimes when the clay didn't dry enough and the slaves were either flipping them over or in this case, leaning on them(?) You can find these all throughout charleston, and in savannah. Archeologists occasionally find them like this in a single brick by itself on digs.

How did I find it? Over a year ago I was probing and found a savannah grey brick-lined well (only the top 2-3feet of it were lined, however.) In which I have been slowly digging it out, it gets really hot 8 feet underground in the Georgia summers, not a lot of breathing area... digging a well is a lot of work. But anyways, the well when they filled in, I am assuming they caved in the topsides because the well has a ton of bricks in it. Most of them are just halves, but I am getting a few full bricks out of it. A couple of months ago I found the better, more obvious example of the handprint brick. probably one of the cooler finds I have found in a while, especially from the well. Today, I decided to check over the bricks I tossed out again and found the second one.

I don't really know if these are worth anything, but I do know I didn't find any for sale (maybe no demand?) but the only way to really get one is to find out buried out in the ground, or knock down a historic building and take one from the rubble. Regardless of the value, I really like having them in my collection.



Some of these pictures have a light next to them to help bring it out. Its interesting both bricks have the exact same hand position.

 

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[Digger RJ]

Nice!!! Congrats!!!

 

[CalReg]

Seeing those hand prints on there must feel a bit weird...someone made those prints almost 200 years ago! Very cool!

 

[Megalodon]

Very nice finds. And thank you for the interesting history lesson.

 

[creskol]

Both the bricks and the history are quite fascinating. Thanks for sharing them both with us. If you find any more, I hope you will show them, too!

 

[William the Conqueror]

I look for bricks all the time! I found a brick at the home of jeb Stuart and the home of William Letcher ( revolutionary soldier) killed by the British. The most awesome brick I found, a fire brick with the word (Egypt) engraved! Still can't tell what that means?

 

[Professor of Engineering]

Thank you for sharing!

 

[sandchip]

Very cool. Not as big as the Savannah greys, or as old, but here's a south central Georgia brick from an old county jail dating to the 1840s with the hand print of the maker, more than likely that of a slave.

 

[xcopperstax]

Quite a unique and out of the ordinary find! Congrats on it and thanks for sharing some interesting history.

 

[pepperj]

I really like the fact that there is a personal "touch" that one can see in the bricks. It might not be worth much to others but I think that a brick that shows providence as this is a keeper. I have taken pictures of some of the Savanna bricks-as well as collecting up brick cast offs from my own property. There was a brick yard on it 170 yrs ago, so most of the local brick came from my own clay. I was detecting a cellar hole and I came across one of the crocked black bricks in the pasture-yup I knew right off where it came from-and it came back home with me.
Congrats on the saves.

 

[sandchip]

I really like the fact that there is a personal "touch" that one can see in the bricks. It might not be worth much to others but I think that a brick that shows providence as this is a keeper. I have taken pictures of some of the Savanna bricks-as well as collecting up brick cast offs from my own property. There was a brick yard on it 170 yrs ago, so most of the local brick came from my own clay. I was detecting a cellar hole and I came across one of the crocked black bricks in the pasture-yup I knew right off where it came from-and it came back home with me.
Congrats on the saves.

I agree. It ain't got to be worth anything for me to hang onto it. Otherwise, I wouldn't have a very big collection! I just like anything old.

An old mason that I know calls the black ones "clinkers". They were the closest to the heat in the kiln and made better face brick since they were fired harder and were less porous. Some would warp and crack from the intense heat. He called the softer, pink ones "salmons" like the one I posted with the handprint, which were further away from the heat and better suited as structural brick in 12"+ walls. I've seen the salmons salvaged from old buildings used to veneer new homes that within a few years looked like something had eat'em out. They'd absorb the water from rain and even high humidity and actually expand and spall a little at the time. The old lime mortar was softer and could take up the expansion, while the newer mortars are much harder, so the brick is penned in and can only pop out toward the outside of the wall.

Here are pictures of the edges and faces of a nice clinker. You can see where other bricks were stacked on it in the kiln and where they stuck in spots. Some areas almost shine where the clay began to vitrify almost looking like it was glazed. All of these came from the same old jail.



The two-tone is one where you can see where one end was closer to the heat and actually shrunk more at that end as more moisture was driven out as it was fired.



The salmons are always fatter than the clinkers for that reason. The modern brick industry has spent decades trying to mimic the look of old brick, but none will ever match the look of the old handmade, unevenly fired ones. May sound silly, but some of these old bricks are like works of art to me. Sometimes older is way better!