The first Black archaeologist : a life of John Wesley Gilbert

Summary: "The boy was determined to write. It was Monday, the first of May, 1871, and he had come with his mother to open an account at the Augusta, Georgia branch of the Freedman's Savings and Trust Company. The clerk opened his account register and took down the new customer's information. Age: 7. Residence: corner Center and Telfair Streets-- just two blocks from the bank office on Broad Street. Occupation: Go to school to Miss Chesnut. Father: Tom Dasher. Mother: Sarah Dasher. Uncles: Gabriel, Simon, Jim, William, John, in that order. Then, as he usually did with young or illiterate patrons, the clerk wrote the boy's name on the signature line, added the notation "his mark," and offered the page for an X. The boy, however, insisted on signing for himself. He ran out of space on his first try but succeeded on his second. The register (Figure 1.1) still survives today in the National Archives in Washington, DC, bearing a shaky but legible signature: Wesley Gilbert"--

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