The Awakening: The Seawright-Ellison Family Saga

“The Awakening”, The Seawright-Ellison Family Saga, Vol. 1, A Narrative History is the first volume of narratives about the descendants of two families who share a common ancestor, Martha Kitchings Seawright Ellison. The family saga begins with Martha and her family, who were sharecroppers who lived and worked on the Hugh E. Phillips plantation near Williston, South Carolina during the Reconstruction Era, and the circumstances that involved her marriages to Dave Seawright, Sr. and Joseph Ellison, Sr. The book documents the saga with contextualized resurrected stories of relatives that were forgotten and fragmented over the years.

The book includes the stories of Robert L. Seawright, who lived in the historic Ward One community and was employed as a laborer at Olympia Mills during World War II; Wallace Seawright, Sr., who raised his family of sixteen children with clear moral values and supplemented his income that allowed him to survive the pitfalls of sharecropping life; Roosevelt and Henry Seawright, beloved husbands’, and fathers, who ascended to legendary status, skillfully in brick masonry and craftsmanship in the city of Aiken, South Carolina, and surrounding areas; Floster and Nora Miles Ellison, Sr., who were generational pillars of their community through service; Floster L. Ellison, Jr., during the Civil Rights Movement, became the co-founder of the Palmetto State Barbers Association, the first African American Barber Inspector In the State of South Carolina, and the first African American Chief of Social Services at the South Carolina Department of Mental Health;
and Tommy Ellison, whose experiences as a youth singing on the children choir, inspired him to pursue a legendary career in gospel music, affectionately known by many of his fans as “Mr. Superstar of Gospel”.

The book includes an appendix section which consist of individual pictures, documented history of places and events, and primary sources relative to the family saga.