Horace Tapscott

 

Anonymous, Find A Grave

This past Christmas my niece Kirsten gave me a book Songs of the Unsung by Horace Tapscott, a pianist, composer, and educator. The book is his autobiography, the story of a "powerful, highly individual, bop-tinged pianist with avant-garde leanings; a legend and something of a father figure to latter generations of L.A.-based free jazz players" (L.A. Times). At last, a famous Tapscott.

When he died on 28 Feb 1999, his obituary took up half a page in the Los Angeles Times (Tue 2 Mar 1999, p. A16).  Now I must admit that I don't really care for Horace's music. I am more a fan of Thelonious Monk, to whom Horace was sometimes compared. But you must read his autobiography. Horace was shockingly truthful about his life as a musician in what was often (always?) a racist society. An outstanding book by an outstanding man.

And how is Horace related to the Tapscott clan? He is descended from Henry the Immigrant through Henry's son Edney. He is a member of the Edney line, as I am. In fact, Horace and my dad (my niece's grandfather) were fifth cousins.

But, can this be correct? Edney was of European descent; Horace, of African descent. And therein lies a fascinating tale. In 1870 Horace's great grandparents James R. (Edney's great great grandson) and Palace Tapscott were living in Washington Co, Texas, with six children, including John Robert Tapscott, Horace's grandfather. In 1880 James and Palace were still living in Washington Co, but now the family had nine children (a tenth appears to have died). And the 1880 and 1900 censuses specify Palace as James's wife. This would not be surprising except that all three censuses show James as white and Palace and all their children as black or mixed race.

Between at least 1870 and 1900 James and Palace lived as a married couple in Texas, an exceedingly racist state where marriages between blacks and whites were banned by law between 1834 and 1969, except briefly during reconstruction. James and Palace did not have to report that they were married in the censuses. James could have declared himself single and Palace could have claimed to be the housekeeper, a common ruse used to hide relationships from census takers (and prying neighbors). But they didn't.

And equally surprising, James had enlisted in the Confederate Army on 1 Aug 1862. He and Palace were apparently living together or at least were having children while James was a Rebel! Their youngest child was born around 1860. And Palace, who was born in 1840 in Alabama, almost certainly began life as a slave.

Was it a loving union between a Johnny Reb and a former slave? It certainly appears so. They proclaimed to the world that they were married. In the 1900s, probably while visiting her daughter Amelia, Palace died in Oklahoma and was buried there. In his will, James wrote 

Fourth I further direct that should I be unable to remove the body of Palace Tapscott from Oklahoma, when it is now buried before my death, then I direct and request the above devisees and legatees, who are the children of said Palace Tapscott to remove her remains from Oklahoma and bury the same by the side of my own body on my farm whereof I now reside in Washington County Texas.