Summer on Highland Beach

Summer on Highland Beach

By Sunny Hostin

Prologue

Bay Ridge, March 12, 1893

Dear Father,

I received the money to help us purchase the land from the Blackshears, which Laura and I are very grateful for. Our attorney has drawn the papers, and we have deeded the land to Joseph, as our attorney advised us to protect ourselves from my position at the Pension Office. Now the twenty-six and two-thirds acres are ours.

As an investor, you deserve an update. We surveyed the property and divided the remaining land into eleven blocks and 129 lots. Our surveyor, Mr. Charles P. Calvert, says this place is excellent for fishing, crabbing, and boating. I’ve also filed the land with Anne Arundel County. We are well underway to making this place a resort.

Also, I want to address a question you asked me in your last letter.

You asked: What makes this place so special?

I thank you for the question. It is not just the location by the Bay Ridge Resort and the Queen Resort of the Chesapeake. But after they refused to let us sit down and eat at that resort, I knew we needed a place where we could sit by the water and keep our heads lifted high without worry. I had enough of that in the Fifth Massachusetts Calvary. They tried to starve us with dry bread, made us sick, and threatened to harm us.

The character of a white man determined how we were treated, whether with respect or like animals. And though there are good ones out there, I think we need a place just for us. Not just for our family, but for our friends, too.

Laura, Haley, and I came for the summer, and Laura liked it so well we wanted to stay for a few weeks. We walked around and it felt like home. Then a bus driver came around, told us about property owned by other Black folks. Heirs, he said, and it used to be a slave plantation.

We never would have guessed that the place, just a few miles from where they refused us, had land owned by Negroes.

I did not want to believe it at first. Nor did I want my wife to become disappointed. But she wouldn’t hear of us not trying. So we tried, and the land is ours, for now.

Once we get our feet under us, Laura and I will build our cottage. We’ve made a list of friends and family who may want to own a place here.

We found a nice spot for you near a creek. It has the best views of the water. I hope you find you can slow down here. You and Mama did not have a chance to rest together, but I hope this is a place where you can be at peace.

This place is special—I know it is just as sure and solid as our feet on the ground we own. The white folks across the way may not like it, but we bought it proper, thanks to you. We’ll teach our children to keep our land protected, so they’ll always have a place to call home.

Your Aff. Son

Charles R. Douglass

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