"I wish she could have looked down through the years and generations to see the family that exists today because of her." This an additional post in our series that…
Patricia LowtherOctober 8, 2023
-- By Lucy McCauley I learned only a few years ago, while watching a documentary, that my great-grandfather, William Berry McKoy, played a significant part in the violence of the…
Lucy McCauleyApril 16, 2023
-- By Beverly Bevel This essay explores the difficulties encountered when descendants of slavery broach the elephant in the room. "My ancestors owned your ancestors." I don’t believe there is…
Beverly BevelFebruary 2, 2023
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
Maria S. Montgomery & Allison Thomas Maria Montgomery found me on Ancestry.com in 2016. Our family trees overlap because my ancestors enslaved hers. We are “linked descendants”—cousins regardless of whether…
Allison ThomasJanuary 19, 2021
Sharon Leslie Morgan moved to Noxubee County, Mississippi to research her ancestors’ history. Morgan’s great-great-grandmother, Betty Warfe Gavin, was enslaved there, and gave birth to 17 children. The father of…
Sharon Leslie MorganJanuary 4, 2021
-- By Trina Michelle Robinson I’ve always been fascinated by migration stories. Hearing the details about why a person left the place of their birth to settle somewhere new always…
BitterSweet EditorsDecember 22, 2020
While drafting the post Half-white Slaves of Aristocratic Masters at my blog, I acknowledged that Edward Ball, in his text, The Sweet Hell Inside: The Rise of an Elite Black Family in…
Roger David HardestyJune 19, 2016
Today is Giving Tuesday, the day when we turn our focus away from purchasing and toward giving to work that we care about. We hope you will consider a donation…
Andi Cumbo-FloydDecember 1, 2015