Guides
Confronting Slavery-In an African American Family
Every African American family has a history but not every African American family knows much about their family history. Slavery tore black families apart and thus made a continuous history linked with one particular family line very difficult to track. Stories linked to the past are most often oral passed down through generations by family members who are “keepers of the stories”. On my family history journey, I discovered the importance of listening to those old family stories as told by the “keepers”; using the stories as road maps to find my way more and connect the dots of my family’s history.
Case Studies
Researching Slaveholding and Slave Trading Ancestry
by Rev. Dave Pettee
This article offers suggestions for researching slave holding and slave trading ancestry. Edward Ball, a white descendant of the wealthy Ball family of SC and author of Slaves In the Family comments, “the heirs of slave holders are not responsible for the past; but in a better world, they would be accountable for that past. They would make an effort to deal with the slave story, talk about it, and try to come to terms with it.” Ball also suggests that there are perhaps as many fifteen million living white Americans who can trace their roots to the long-gone master class.
Confronting Slavery in Your Family History
There are probably over 30 million descendants of enslaved Africans and African Americans alive in the US today. It has been estimated that there are 15 million descendants of US slave holders alive today. If you know or suspect that one or more of your ancestors were slaves, slave holders or slave traders, we hope this part of our website is helpful to you. It is intended to offer ideas and support for researching your family’s possible connection to slavery, and for responding if or when you find a connection.
