"I am an invisible man. No, I am not a spook like those who haunted Edgar Allan Poe; nor am I one of your Hollywood-movie ectoplasms. I am a man of substance, of flesh and bone, fiber and liquids--and I might even be said to possess a mind. I am invisible, understand, simply because people refuse to see me."

 - Ralph Ellison's "Invisible Man"

Renty Fields Bythewood

Renty Fields Bythewood

Photo of Pastor Renty Fields Bythewood.  He was the father of Harriet Ford, wife of Major George Ford. Pastor Bythewood was the pastor of Tabernacle Baptist Church in Beaufort, South Carolina. Renty was born a slave and raised in the trade of a tailor.  When he gained his freedom, he became a minister and for 25 years was a prominent figure in his community. He died at the age of 82 and his body was buried in the churchyard north of the Tabernacle Baptist Church.   (Research via DNA Ancestry communication/Angela Allen Henry). (Photo credit Candy F. Webb).