REVERSE: Gees Bend is a small rural community nestled into a curve in the Alabama River southwest of Selma, Alabama. Founded in antebellum times, it was the site of cotton plantations, primarily the lands of Joseph Gee and his relative Mark Pettway, who bought the Gee estate in 1850. After the Civil War, the freed slaves took the name Pettway, became tenant farmers for the Pettway family, and founded an all-black community nearly isolated from the surrounding world. During the Great Depression, the federal government stepped in to purchase land and homes for the community, bringing strange renown as an "Alabama Africa" to this sleepy hamlet.
Cachet Technical Details: Production: single-pass Paper Stock: 24# acid-free Linen blend Printer (model): Minolta magicolor 2300DL
four-color laser Artist-serviced
Population: 20 covers total (all ten stamps) Blanks: 25 total blanks Cancellation: monochrome (black) pictorial, rubber FDOI: August 24, 2006 City: Des Plaines IL 60018
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