Slavery & Its Legacies

Why I Don’t Use the n-word

Marion Tango read this powerful original poem at the 2023 Coming to the Table National Gathering. Watch and listen here to Marion Why I Don’t Use the n-word It’s…

BitterSweet EditorsJune 21, 2023

Slavery & Its Legacies

Descendant: The Search for the Clotilda, the Last Slave Ship (2022 Documentary)

--By Sarah Fleming “If I could put my finger on any part of (my ancestry), I would feel more complete.” These were the words of a descendant of the Africans…

Sarah FlemingNovember 21, 2022

Slavery & Its Legacies

Southern Bells

Elizabeth Avery Thomas ponders her family legacy as a descendant of enslavers through a technique called speculative nonfiction. As she writes at the close of this piece, 'In my current…

BitterSweet EditorsJune 22, 2022

Slavery & Its Legacies

Labor Exploitation in Antebellum Louisiana: “Slaves” vs. “Coolies”

*CONTENT CAUTION: Racist, dated imagery and vocabulary -- By Yvette Rubio “Besides, all the Chinese are not opium eaters, nor are all negroes dirt eaters.” Theodore Bailly Blanchard, Jr.…

Yvette RubioMarch 24, 2022

Slavery & Its Legacies

Visiting Sully Plantation, Visiting Family Secrets

I grew up knowing I was related to Robert E. Lee. He was my first cousin, five times removed. My father spoke of how proud his father had been to…

Sarah FlemingFebruary 1, 2022

Slavery & Its Legacies

Visualizing Our Histories, Our Stories — Part 3

In this series, over the next several months, we will be sharing artwork and brief writeups of the creative process, from our Linked Descendants working group members. Some of us…

BitterSweet EditorsOctober 15, 2021

Slavery & Its Legacies

History Comes ‘Round Midnight

In the beginning, the history wanted me more than I wanted the history. It came for me as a brown grandchild kept secret from her racist great grandmother, as nightmares…

Karen BrananSeptember 3, 2021

Slavery & Its Legacies

One Woman’s Complicity

-- By Frances V. Moulder “I took this photo in 1918, when I was about your age,” my mother said to me when I was eight years old. She showed…

Frances MoulderAugust 4, 2021

Slavery & Its Legacies

By and By

A poem by Michael Nelder Michael Nelder read this poem at the All Saints Church in Pasadena, CA on Sunday, May 23, 2021, as part of a Poetry Slam…

BitterSweet EditorsJune 8, 2021

Slavery & Its Legacies

BitterSweet ReLaunch!

Dear BitterSweet Readers and Writers: We are pleased to announce the re-launch of BitterSweet: Linked Through Slavery, a blog hosted by the Linked Descendants Working Group and Coming to the…

BitterSweet EditorsDecember 22, 2020