Portrait of an Ex-Slave: My Great-Grandfather

[HamdenRice]

Recently, I came across about 40 negative files of photos I had taken when I was between 12 and 14, when I was an avid amateur photographer. To see these pictures, I bought a negative scanner. Since beginning to scan these pictures, I have been fascinated by this window into daily life in the early 1970s.

One of the pictures, which I never had printed, was a photo of a photo (ie copy). From the context, my grandfather had probably asked if I could copy this portrait that hung on his wall. It was him and his brothers as very young men, next to their father.

In one part of my mind, I knew the story of my great grandfather having run away from slavery in Virginia to Brooklyn, but I never connected it with the picture that hung on my grandfather's wall until today.

The old man seated, surrounded by his sons, was John Henry Sykes. He is old in this photo, which probably was taken around 1915-1920, which would indeed place his birth date before 1865:



The young man standing just to the right of the seated man is my grandfather. Here is how I remember him so many years later, seated in his Brooklyn brownstone:


He died around 1979, during a snowstorm.

Time is so very strange, isn't it? We think of slavery as the distant past, but we are really only one degree of separation from those evil times.

<repost from AAIG>

[tompayne1]

1. if the freepers had their way

we would be much less than one degree of separation from it.

[gollygee]

2. When people say affirmative action is no longer needed

or ask how long it should last because they think we've had it for a long time, that's what I always say. This is a generational issue and you have to think about how many generations have passed since slavery, and since civil rights legislation, etc. There haven't been many generations at all and it'll take certainly more generations for affirmative action to make major changes in our society.

Great photos! Thanks for sharing them :)

[patrice]

6. Actions Affirming Human and Civil Rights for All. Affirmative Action

I love old photographs; they teach much.

Thank You.

[EFerrari]

3. Thank you for sharing these. They're remarkable.

I was thinking exactly the same thing yesterday about slavery. Time expands and contracts with our ability to ward off painful truth.

[graywarrior]

Thank you.

It's important to remind ourselves how people were forced to live in fear day after day. Your grandfather was a brave guy.

[hlthe2b]

4. Your recorded ancestry is a potent reminder...

Powerful images that only underscore my sigline.... We must push back from those who would take us back to some very sorry times of inequality...

ON edit: missing sigline due to level 1:
"Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it." : George Santayana

[Stephanie]

5. Fascinating - thanks for posting.

I had the same realization during Katrina. All the talk about the Galveston hurricane of 1927 - the same year my grandparents got married. All those people killed and displaced would have been the headlines my grandparents were reading that year. It's not so long ago, really. Not at all.

Lovely family. You're lucky to have those pictures.

[Field Of Dreams]

7. How wonderful you have this photographic record!

My father grew up in a small rural area of segregated South Carolina. His mother died when my father was was very young and his father died a relatively young man. We have one photograph of his mother. No photos exist of earlier generations.

[cally]

8. Do you know much about how he ran away

and what type of life he had in Brooklyn? Your photos gave me chills. It still surprises me when I realize how recent slavery was. Thanks for the photos.

[HamdenRice]

12. I've been thinking about this question ...

and I believe that the family oral history is a simplification. Given his age in the picture, he would have been very young when slavery ended. It seems almost impossible that he could have run away before the civil war because he would have been too young.

I think that what the story refers to, is that as the war ended and northern armies marched through the south, slaves generally deserted the plantations.

My guess, and I now really want to do research on this, is that his parents deserted their masters toward the end of the war, taking him with them. But it's just a guess.

[cally]

16. Thanks...I find all this fascinating

Hearing about the individual decisions and the lives led makes me understand the times better. Thanks for answering and sharing the family history.

[qanda]

9. Thank you so much for sharing

[acmejack]

10. Thats awesome.

[jobycom]

11. Oh my god! Do you know how valuable that is?

I don't just mean money, although it probably is. I had a friend who used to do background settings for movies. She had to design a house that a black family would live in, and so she tried to collect old portraits and pictures to hang on the wall. She said that old pictures of black American families are very hard to come by.

Which means you have a rare glimpse of history, and it happens to be your family. That's cool. (I'm not really explaining this to you, since you probably have already figured that out, just to anyone else who sees this.)

[stevedeshazer]

13. Those are great photographs

It wasn't so long ago that people owned other people right here in America.

I think of that often in these times.

[knowbody0]

14. thank you for sharing these photos

your great grandfather looks so proud with his sons.

[Sequoia]

15. Wow, that's awesome. Thank you for sharing.

Yes, it's true how close we still are to that time in history. I found out my father's family had a slave right before the emancipation proclamation. Fetched him from Charleston, SC. Afterwards, he kept the family's last name. I didn't know any of this until my mother died and my youngest sister drove us to a mission where she knew the guy (classmate) running things told us about it. I was in shock to say the least since my family seemed to be a little like hillbillies. I asked our aunt about it that very day and she said Oh yes, sure; Like it was just common knowledge. I wish I had known earlier, I hate it when adults keep things from children that they really ought to know. It must've been a source of embarassment is all I can figure.

[sinkingfeeling]

17. Thanks. That picture needs to copied and put into a museum and

every member of your family should have a copy as well. It is a part of history.

[xultar]

18. AWESOME this thread is a keeper!

[Lowell]

19. Those are powerful photos

that give us a glimpse into our not so distant past. Thanks for sharing.

[nini]

20. These are great.... puts faces on history

Our shameful history does not go back very far and much of it is still occuring. I wonder if we'll ever see the day where all humans all truly treated equally. Personally, I doubt it will occur in my lifetime :(


thanks for sharing.

[grace0418]

21. Beautiful photos.

The first as an amazing historical record. The second as a beautiful portrait of your grandfather. Wow he sure didn't change much, you can see the boy of the first photo in his face.

Thank you for this reminder.

[malaise]

22. One degree of separation is correct

All descendants of enslaved people know this. Thanks for sharing those photos.

[xxqqqzme]

23. generational thinking is fascinating.

I was lucky to know 3 of my great-grandparents. My last grandparent died this past summer - she was born in 1906 - 14 years before women won their right to vote. It is probably why I am a feminist -because she was, literally, all her life.

Your pictures are wonderful.

[bunkerbuster1]

83. My wife's grandfather was born the year the American Civil War ended.

And she's just 46.

Just to keep everything in perspective. Yeah, it's fascinating, isn't it?

[Sunkiss BlueStar]

24. We are not far removed from the 1800s

My great great grandmother lived to be 120, she died December 1989 , I was exactly 9yrs old. So we are not far removed from slavery because we lived , ate, and worshiped with the people from the 1800s. There is so much rich living history ,Folklore, and hope from our elders, they have done a good job of passing down great stories. I have the impression that we will do our jobs and keep passing on the tales of old.

[HamdenRice]

26. Your great great grandmother was one of the oldest

people ever, then. You were very lucky to know her.

[newportdadde]

75. So true.

My great great grandmother lived to be 97. We have a picture of 5 generations, myself just a 6 month old. Our family actually has a journal written by her I'm still waiting to read it but my father who finished it while recovering from surgery finds it facinating, it was just bits of stories etc she wrote about growing up recalling her life when she was in her 90s.

One story was about as a little girl she witnessed a boy who was 'slow' get abused and beaten by the teacher. The father then went looking for him with a gun but the teacher had left. Two weeks later there paths crossed again and the teacher actually pulled out a gun and shot the man and killed him. Crazy stuff.

[MojoXN]

84. 120? Wow!

Just out of curiousity, what was your great-great-grandmother's name? Less than one in 2 billion people live to be 116, let alone 120.

For me, 120 has always been best put into perspective thusly:

You're 70. You figure that you've got a few more years left in you, but you know that you're likely to die at any time. Then you live for another FIFTY years... it blows the mind.

MojoXN

[Sunkiss BlueStar]

88. We called her Virginia

but she always signed her name with an X because she never learned the alphabet. My family of course adopted last names like Jaudon and Mitchell.

[Gormy Cuss]

25. Check your PM

John H Sykes, age 57, living in Brooklyn in 1910, born Virginia
Widowed by that time and living with six sons.

The U. S. Census is a wonderful thing...

[HamdenRice]

27. Please, please re-send!

My inbox is not showing this yet. How did you get access to this data?!?

[Gormy Cuss]

29. I'll never tell...

Census records are public after about 70 years and there are paid services with internet access to indexes and images of the census. There are free access records in most state libraries and the Library of Congress, plus other places.

If my message doesn't show up, let me know :)

[HamdenRice]

30. Which service did you use?

I was thinking of purchasing one of them, but wasn't sure which is good and which may be a rip off. Can you recommend one?

Also, I received your PM. Thanks so much!

[Gormy Cuss]

36. I use a link through a local historical society

They grant members remote access to Heritage Quest Online. Some large public libraries do the same.

I would not recommend ancestry.com because I don't like their business practices, but check out the discussion on the DU genealogy group and decide for yourself.

If you live in NY, you can access a considerable amount of information in the libraries in that area for any New York-based records and I would recommend you start there.

[Viva_La_Revolution]

57. Where's the DU forum?

I can't find it! :(

[goclark]

74. If there is not one we should have one

How do we get started?

[REACTIVATED IN CT]

39. You can get a free trial

of ancestry.com.

[AirAmFan]

53. FREE search link to old decennial census data by family name at URL

http://www.genealogy.org .

It's recommended by an academic site that offers the same data aggregated by county at http://www.ipums.org .

[Viva_La_Revolution]

56. USGenWeb - Archive project

This is managed by volunteers all over the country - the best site in my opinion. It's hooked to RootsWeb, and there is an option to turn off the advertisements from Ancestry.com (I don't like them either, they always divert you to pay sites)

http://www.rootsweb.com/~usgenweb/ussearch.htm

On edit - if you are interested in tracking your family, get a couple of good books on African American Genealogy - Since records are so few and families so scattered, it takes more work and sometimes unusual techniques to trace them.

I've been trying to help a friend trace his family from Texas, last name of Davis. :eyes: If I didn't have a land deed from Texas to start with, I don't think I would have gotten very far!

Gather up all the birthdates/states of residence, legal papers, family letters, any of these will hold clues to help you track your history.

[REACTIVATED IN CT]

33. Check out the Ancestry/Genealogy group right

here on DU !

ancestry.com is a goodplace to start. there are books devoted to search techniques for african american ancestors.

Good luck ! It is a fascinating and addicting pasttime. I bought a house that was built around 1840 and was given some history of the original owner (whose maiden name was Bush!!!). Its been 8 years now and I've fleshed out some more of it and actually met some distant cousins-in-law of hers thru genealogy websites.

[IChing]

28. I grew up in Northern Virginia --nominated

You could still dig bullets out of trees that were alive during the Civil War and meet
people whose grandfathers were former slaves.

What a proud looking man

[GreenPartyVoter]

31. I love old pictures. They make the past more real to me

[Terran]

32. "Time is so very strange..."

You are so right. And that's one of the hardest things for people to understand, and to teach people. "History" is not a dead disconnected pile of dusty books and names, it's real people and we are ALL connected to them and affected by what they did and who they were.

I'm proud to have known my partner's grandmother, who was born around 1910. She spoke much of her father, Judge, who was a slave, and she also spoke of how he would never EVER discuss it himself. Slavery was very real to her, even if she was fortunate to have missed it. And her husband was among the first US soldiers to enter Italy during WW2, a tale he never tired of telling. A whole different tale from slavery but one just as important. Time is strange is time...

Greta post. Thank you for it.

[Gloria]

34. Wonderful, moving....A few nights ago, after watching the

show on the 60s on PBS, I was talking to a friend who was very active in the civil rights movement (I was 5 years younger, so I didn't share that part of the era on her level). On reflection, I said, that thinking of NOLA, how things really haven't come that far, have they??

I don't even think most Americans today could recognize quiet dignity if they saw it again...

Thanks for the photos...

[Joe Chi Minh]

35. It is awesome to look at a photo of someone

who had endured slavery. Like seeing someone who had lived in Hell and escaped to tell the tale.

[enough]

37. Wonderful. Thank you.

[Czolgosz]

38. Thanks for helping remind us what's important.

[jbnow]

40. What a find

The photos are stirring.
The portrait...has such poignancy and pride. I can't imagine how deeply glad your great-grandfather was to have his sons around him, all free, all looking so strong and proud.
We all want better for our children...but how much more he must have wanted that. Imagine the despair of having children born into slavery. You'd reject that future from them to the core of your being. I imagine his relief that his children would never know that life was immense.

The Fugitive Slave Law of 1850 made even being a free black dangerous. If a marshall grabbed you (and they'd get a fee) you had no right to a defense. Being black was enough, free or fugitive were the same if they grabbed you, you lost it all. (Unless you got to Canada, all free. Thanks again Canada)
So while the south had the slaves northern congressmen voted for that compromise too. And those who helped slaves or were even suspected of ot could be jailed and fined $1,000. A huge amount in that time.

The best and the worst of us. The worst is obvious, slavery itself and the politicians who voted for that "compromise". The best is slaves brave enough to plan and run, bright enough to have and know the codes, all the people risking so much to help them along the way. The underground railroad only grew after that law passed. What a horror.

That picture shows...how real the time was, how much it meant to overcome.

This is already too long but it's just amazing that it was just the 1960's where blacks had to go through so much...and I know many whites put themselves in danger too...just for damn basic rights. Those weren't the olden days. There is still discrimination but then it was LEGAL and people had to risk so much to change it.

Imagine...legal and people felt justified to treat a group of people like lesser beings.

Blacks were easy targets because we can see the difference. Gays are tougher since they aren't bright orange or some easy visual ID. But it seems...some people just feel better by having a group they can feel so superior too.

OK, I'll stop. That proud portrait just stirred something in me that had to come out. Bless him.

[HamdenRice]

41. Wonderful help from Gormy Cuss ...

This is why DU is such a wonderful place! Gormy Cuss did a census search and found more information about John Henry Sykes, some of which confirms what we knew from oral history and some of which is new to me!

As she wrote in this thread, the 1910 census has him listed as being 57. This confirms that he was born before emancipation. He was actually older than I thought, born around 1853 (which I didn't know), and makes the story of his running away more plausible. I would still guess it was during the civil war period, when he was between 8 and 12.

In several PMs, she also found that "The only John Sykes I find in Brooklyn in 1910 was a John H. Sykes, race black, and his six sons were named Elmer, Thomas, James, Reginald,Joseph and John."

"Just a little more to confirm I'm on the right path. The 1910 census shows Reginald at age 13. Still sound about right?
The family was living on Franklin Avenue and John was a truck driver for a sugar refinery. The two oldest sons, Elmer and Thomas, were porters."

"Your greatgrandmother was from the West Indies..."

Reginald -- that's my grandfather at age 13!

I knew my great grandmother was from the West Indies, and believe she was from the tiny island of St. Kitts! So this has to be the same person. But I knew very little about her; I think she died somewhat young.

Also, this info tells me that my great grandfather was somewhat old at the time he had Reginald -- 44. This coincides with the oral history, that he was married several times.

Also it explains why my grandfather went into the work he did -- he was a "teamster" when that meant a person who drives a team of horses! So, this shows he followed his father's line of work.

Thanks so much to Gormy for expanding my own family history!

<edited>

[bostonbabs]

82. I did a lot of genealogy work at

the Mormon Tabernacle Family Library in Los Angeles. They are on line with the national archives and they let anyone ( I'm not Mormon) use their family library. While there I would see a small group of African Americans who were taking a course given my the Mormons on: " How to find your slave roots"....I asked a black lady one day how hard was it to research and her answer gave me a chill. She said ".....we were property and we are listed as property in peoples wills...you have to know where to look".....
I thank you for posting your pictures they are wonderful and so important for us to see and remember.

[wryter2000]

42. What an awesome picture

I'm so glad you found that. I hope you're going to print it and put it on your own wall so your children can see it, etc., etc.

[OnionPatch]

43. Cool pics

Thanks. These are so interesting. Do you know much about his life at all?

Your point is so spot on. It really wasn't such a long time ago at all when many or most of the whites in this country thought it perfectly OK to own another human being as a slave with no rights whatsoever. Imagine...selling a woman's child like an animal. And they thought this was ok. It scares me to think about how close in the past this was. (The other thing that's scary and even closer, was the holocaust.) Slavery has left its mark on the black people in our country and those scars have not faded away yet. Anyone who says differently has their head in the sand.

[HamdenRice]

46. I know more thanks to Gormy Cuss

See post 41. She did some census research, which confirmed he was 57 in 1910, which means he was born around 1853. I knew that he married several times and that the wife who was the mother of my grandfather was from the West Indies.

I also know that when my aunt was very sick as a child, he came and nursed her back from the brink of death for several weeks.


It's amazing how little of us remains in memory after a few generations, but how seemingly little gestures are remembered and passed down.

[wicket]

44. Beautiful.

Thank-you very much for sharing. :hug:

[wryter2000]

45. That made me think

My grandmother was a Victorian. She used to tell us about how she was taken to the hospital in an open carriage in a snow storm when she was a child. She also played the piano in the silent movie house. She remembered when the Friends brothers sold their baked beans from the back of a horse-drawn cart in Boston. She lived long enough to see humans go into space.

I wonder if they still make Friends beans. We can't get them in CA.

[DearAbby]

47. What a Treasure you had again uncovered. Your history

I just so wish that we as a people would never forget the lessons of history.

[Lisa]

48. thanks so much for posting!

You're right -- it wasn't long ago, at all. Slavery, or the decades and decades of what came after. There are plenty of people walking around today who remember seeing "colored" signs on drinking fountains or waiting rooms, or "no Japanese/Chinese or dogs" signs in restaurant windows. My dad always reminds people who go on about "the good old days" (particularly if they are too young to have experienced life prior to the civil rights movement).

A classmate of mine here in Canada confided that her elderly relatives in Nova Scotia became very nervous and evasive when asked about family history. She's black, and some of her ancestors escaped up here prior to abolition. From their parents, they had learned to keep quiet about this, just in case the bounty hunters ever crossed the border and came looking for them. They worried about this long after the end of the Civil War -- they were afraid until they died.

Memory has a very long reach.

[roguevalley]

49. what an incredible treasure. what handsome men. you are very

lucky to have this. I hope they all have in the next life what they didn't have in this one. Thank you for sharing.

[Window]

50. What a treasure!

My family has recently had a wealth of photos restored going back generations. The results are amazing. They were found in a trunk in an attic.

Thank you for sharing.

Peace

[ultraist]

51. Fascinating!

And beautiful photos, what treasures. I wish you luck in further researching your family history.

My adopted son's great, great grandmother was a slave. His great grandmother and grandmother both dropped out of school very early to work as sharecroppers, which was essentially legalized slavery here in the South. His maternal ancestors are from Africa.

He will be the first of his biological family to attend college. So, yes, we are not as far removed from slavery and the effects thereof, as some would like to believe.

Thank you for posting this.

[HamdenRice]

54. It was very generous of you ...

to adopt. Was this a transracial adoption?

[ultraist]

91. No, not generous at all

We are very fortunate to have him as part of our family. And yes, my husband and I are white.

But thank you.

[Walt Starr]

52. The child of your grandfather might have standing for slavery reparations

If you're interested, you might want to do some research. I believe the second generation removed from slavery might just have standing in a court of law.

[katinmn]

55. Your great grandfather ...six sons...widowed...former slave...

Aren't you glad you spent time talking with your grandfather? Some kids do and some don't.

As a family history enthusiast I can't help encouraging people to do oral histories with their grandparents, aunts and uncles and parents. And get your kids involved.

A few decades down the road these stories become ever more important and precious. Like yours. Thanks for sharing this.

[Catherine Vincent]

58. This is very heartfelt Hamden. Thanks so much for sharing with us.

I've always wanted to know more about my ancestors ever since Alex Haley's Roots was written.

[sybylla]

59. The past is closer than you think

It's the one thing I've learned over the 17 years since I began researching my family history. I grew up with six great-grandparents. All of them in fine health until my late teens. It was a treasure I was too young to understand the precise value of.

My last great-grandparent died when I was 25 at the age of 94. She was the granddaughter of a civil war vet who came to this country from Switzerland about 1850. Had I asked the questions I have now when she was of a mind to have an answer, I could have touched 120 years into the past. If I was lucky, even further.

You have a wonderful treasure in your photographs. Cherish them. Let them be your guide to discovering where you come from. I believe we are the sum of all the experiences of those who came before us. We are where we are solely because of their experiences and decisions, both good, bad and indifferent. We are neither seperate from our past nor our children's future.

Now that you have been bitten by the genealogy bug, I hope you'll pop in to the Ancestry/Genealogy forum on occasion.

[Fluffdaddy]

60. Powerful.......Thank you

[kentuck]

61. Preserve your memories....

they're all that's left us...

Simon and Garfunkel

[welshTerrier2]

62. bookends ...

i read your post and thought of how innocent we are as youth until the harsh lessons of history are taught to us by those who lived before us ...

your picture of your grandfather made me think of this Paul Simon song:

BOOKENDS

Time it was, and what a time it was, it was
A time of innocence, a time of confidences
Long ago, it must be, I have a photograph
Preserve your memories, they're all that's left you

[wryter2000]

63. Cool!

This made the homepage. Thanks, admins! :applause:

[demigoddess]

64. you are a lucky man

I am white so no slavery in my line and I have never seen what my grandmothers and one grandfather look like, let alone great-grandparents.

[unrepuke]

65. When I was around 12, 1956, the TV show "You Asked

For It", hosted by Art Baker, showed some of the Civil War soldiers who were still alive - there were 8 of them. One of them was related to a friend of mine and he still had a Mini Ball in his back from one of the battles. I'm 60 now, and while it seems like a long time ago to me - it really isn't. The Industrial Revolution is only about 165 years old. We may have lost more than we've gained during a century and a half.

Thanks for the pics & story!:thumbsup:

[chiffon]

66. Absolutely Priceless! Thanks for sharing such a rich history.

The history of these Americans, who in earnest 'built this country' and provided the foundations of unsurpassed economic rape, need to remain at the forefront of our temporal reality. This Republic remains a testament of a powerful and resilient people who despite centuries of social, political, and physical oppression, continue to live, laugh, and love with or without the approval or acceptance of a dominant society that remains insensitive to their plight.

[Tomee450]

67. Great photographs.

We have photos of relatives born around 1870, but none of relatives born during slavery. We have oral histories of slavery passed down through the generations. Slavery was simply horrible.

[izzybeans]

68. Thank You for this humbling reminder.

To your entire family: :patriot:

[fujiyama]

69. Wow those are some amazing photos

Brings a chill to my spine...

I remember there was a special once on HBO (atleast that's what I think) and they actually had some of the last recorded conversations with ex-slaves. Unfortunately I missed it.

When Katrina happened and we saw the images of how many were left there, I wondered, how many of those senior blacks were sharecroppers themselves, the sons and daughters of slaves...

[Ezlivin]

70. Will of A Slaveholder: My Great-Great Grandfather

Sadly, for slaves to exist there must be slaveholders.

My uncle has been doing geneological research for years and uncovered this about my great-great grandfather:

Will, Letters of Administration & Returns on Estate for Dioclesian Davis, Washington Co., Georgia.

Source: Will of Dioclission Davis found in Washington Co., Georgia Will Book read on Microfilm, Washington Memorial Library, Macon, Georgia. Copy held by Gwen Brooks

I Dioclission Davis of the County of Washington & State of Georgia being weak in body but of sound and disposing mind & memory do make this my last will that is to say…

1st. I lend to my beloved wife Nancy during her natural life the following property to wit: Rose the present cook woman, Peter & Hannah his wife and their children, Mary, Peter Junior also Clary a woman, Lucy a girl, May (Mary), Mariah, York, Caroline & children and Levi a man with the plantation whereon I now live, together with all my household & kitchen furniture and sufficient farming utensils for the purpose of carrying on the farm, and ten cows & calves and ten head of young cattle to be selected by my wife one yoke of oxen & cart & sufficient fodder a plentiful supply for the first year and the expenses of the farm to be paid by my executors for the first year out of my estate, my wife is to have three head of horses to be chosen by herself & my gig if it is returned, if not one if to be purchased for her by my executors if she wishes it and the blacksmith tools is to be kept upon the plantation with the property left my wife & twenty head of sheep to be chosen by her.

2nd I give to my son, Baldwin Davis, my Negro man, Ted to be delivered to him by my Executors after my death.

3rd. I give to my executors hereinafter to be named in trust for my daughter, Nancy, now Nancy Rushon, two negroes to wit, Adam, a boy and Nancy a girl during the natural life of my said daughter Nancy and to be delivered as hereinafter to be named.

4th It is my will that at my death or soon thereafter as circumstances will admit to be judged of by my executors that all my Negroes not already willed away be equally divided by disinterested persons chosen by my executors in nine equal parts and then allotted off to my children by drawing each to have one part or lot.

5th It is my will that all the balance of my property not willed away or to be divided both real and personal be sold by my executors as they shall think best and the money equally divided among my children or their Representative share and share alike except my son Goodram and he is to receive none until of the others shall receive one hundred and fifty dollars my son Goodram having had an old negro by the name of York.

6th It is my will that the property left my wife after her death be divided as the property in the foregoing section that is Negroes to be divided and the balance of the property both real & personal to be sold and the money divided as before stated and after the rest of my children shall have received the sum of one hundred and fifty dollars from the sale then my son Goodram to come in for an equal share of the balance.

7th It is my will that all the property which shall fall to the use of my daughter Nancy of any description to be and the same if hereby given to my executors hereinafter to be named in trust for my same daughter during her natural life and to be equally divided among her children of my said daughter or their representatives share & share alike and it is my will that my executors have complete control of said property and that they have the power to provide an equal part of the profits of said property to and for the support of the child of my said daughter by her first husband John Guyton to wit, Tabitha Ann Guyton always having due regard to the members of the family.

8th I nominate and appoint my son, John Davis and my son in law James Kendrick and John Juliet my executors to this my last will & testament with full power to arrange my personal as they may think proper and to carry this will into effect hereby revoking all other wills by me made and I do hereby proclaim and publish this to be my last will & testament. In witness whereof I have hereunto set my hand and in the presence of Isham H. Saffold, James B. Smith, May (her X) Husky James Willis Baldwin M. Fluker James Jainer

While the Davis "clan" has come forward, it's still rife with rednecks and bigots.

Unfortunately for them the best man and bridesmaid at my wedding were black. What can I say? They were my best friends. :)

It is possible to leave the bullshit teachings of bigots and racists behind.

[goclark]

73. Such powerful and beautiful words you speak!

After doing my research, it amazes me how anyone would not want to find out, Black or White, how their family lived during Slavery.

You have certainly proved that you can rest peacefully every night knowing that how your family members lived in the 1800's is not the path that you want to take. If all were like you what a better world this would be!

Thank you for posting, so that we can see in Black and White how it must feel to be an ancestor of a slave. My great great grandparents were slaves and still, it pains me every time that I see that we were just "given" to someone.

The reminder is painful but it should serve as yet another wake up call to our country.

Everyday I feel that we are all slaves to the Master Bush. It is a feeling that makes me feel like " A Raisin In The Sun."

[Tomee450]

77. Very interesting,

although reading the will made me feel a bid sad. Thanks for posting.

[Straight Shooter]

71. My paternal great grandparents are from Virginia. Never had slaves.

But I'm willing to bet they condoned the practice by looking the other way. They were very poor, themselves, so I'm hoping maybe they had some feeling of identification, but I doubt it.

My paternal grandmother was racist, due to an unfortunate incident in her life. I could never convince her that she wouldn't hate whites if it had been a white man who tried to break into her house. It was fixed in her mind, probably with earlier social conditioning, that blacks were not to be trusted.

By the time my father grew up, he was intelligent, but most of all he was observant and compassionate (toward those outside the family) and he deliberately discarded the chains of racism which are not so cruel as the chains of slavery but they bind the soul nonetheless. However, he could not bring himself to accept his daughter dating a black man because he was concerned about the criticism she would endure in the rural country of Virginia.

Then there's his daughter, who doesn't care if someone is black, brown, white, red or yellow, as the saying goes. Skin color has no bearing on how one should be treated socially or economically, although perhaps favoritism should be granted economically because the chasm that people of color must cross is much wider than that of whites. You can't make up for lost time, but you can at least try to make up for lost opportunities.

I once had a dream, myself, that peoples of all skin colors would never have had racist tendencies or delusions of superiority. It was my dream that we had all mated and married without regard to skin color, starting many many generations ago. I think we would now look upon a world where people would actually have more protection from the sun, for one thing, and I am convinced humans would have a beautiful darkness of skin that we would all share in common. One less thing to separate us from another.

Thank you for letting us look into your heart, HamdenRice.

[goclark]

72. Bravo HamdenRice! When you discover your ancestors

you discover who YOU are!

I did not know that we had a genealogy forum here! I will check it out immediately.

I love your pictures!

Being African American, I am well aware how precious those pictures are to you! I treasure the picture I have of my great,great grandfather who was a slave and lived to be 86 years old.

I look at that photograph every day and say to it," If you could endure, I can certainly endure my journey!"

One of the best sites on the internet is Afrigeneas.com., it is simply amazing. There are skilled researchers, of all races, that are able to understand how remarkable it is to read a post that says, " I found my grandfather in the 1800 census, living as a Free Man in Virginia!"

I use Heritage Quest (great for beginners and can be accessed for Free at your Local Library) as well as Ancestry.com.

I am just overjoyed to celebrate your family with you.

I am equally thrilled and touched to see the response from the DU members on this thread.

Slavery and Reparations are sensitive subjects,especially to African Americans and it is heartwarming to see that the replies are so compassionate.



:loveya:

[NNN0LHI]

76. Thanks a million for posting this. Recommended n/t

[Sugar Smack]

78. Thank you for those beautiful pictures.

My father is probably the official family archivist. I know that keeping your ties to your family is very important, and I'm really enjoying this thread.

[Nothing Without Hope]

79. Thanks you for sharing this. We must NEVER NEVER forget.

The neocons want to take us back to that dark time, where one group of people could do anything they wanted to a legally helpless underclass and claim it was God's obvious will.

We must NEVER forget. That time was not so long ago, as you've shown us so powerfully, and it can easily come again. The evens of the past month underscore that.

[Kali]

80. Fascinating

I have a good selection of old family photos, including two prints of two people who were slaves. The picture seems to have been taken in Texas and is labled "Gleason Slaves (Grandma Adams' Mammy) about 1805" Grandma Adams would have been my Great Grandmother, I am pretty sure.

I wish I knew more about them. The family lore is they stayed with the family after they were freed, moving to Texas from ? maybe Alabama - don't know anything else - whether they had children or where they are buried or even their names.

[Historic NY]

81. Precious memories good & bad..............

a man proud of his sons, you can feel how connected he is to them. You should try to run down the whereabouts of the original, its a gem.

[Carebear12144]

85. pictures

I cannot see the pictures. It keeps giving me an error message. I should not have a problem viewing these pictures. They sound like great pictures and I wish I could see them. I have always been a softy when it comes to slavery. You are correct it does feel like only one degree of separation from those evil times. What is sad is that it still goes on in America and everywhere else. There will always be ignorant people and hopefully those are the minds and people we can change to make this world a better place. Let me know how I can view these pictures another way. My email is [e-mail]. If you could send them that way that would be great I would love to see them. Thanks

[noiretextatique]

86. we know more about the slaveowners in our family than the slaves

because one of the slaveowners was a well-known colonel in the confederate army, my materal great-grandmother's grandfather. before my maternal granmother died, she told us some white members of the colonel's family had contacted her once. unfortunately (or not, perhaps), she didn't want anything to do with them.
beautiful photos...and priceless too. and you are right: it wasn't that long ago. as i am fond of reminding people, my generation was the first generation with the FULL rights of citizenship AND access to anything remotely approaching equal opportunity, and i am only 46. my parents grew up in the segregated south and fled to segregation in los angeles.
my cousins integrated schools in texas...we watched white flight happen when my parents and other black families moved out of the designated black areas in south cental. no, it was not that long ago.

[chieftain]

87. I have often been struck by the dignity that is clearly etched on

the faces of older black folks and your great grandfather possesses the same impressive bearing.
My great grandfather emigrated from Ireland in 1847 during the Great Hunger.
From our ancestors' experiences and from what we can see with our own eyes today, we can discern that there are at least two universal truths:
1)the greedy view the rest of us solely as a means to satisfy their
aims and 2) the deprived endure their suffering with a grace and forbearance that the exploiters do not deserve.
Those of us that belong to neither group have to make the cause of the latter the driving force of our politics.

[Paradise]

89. wonderful photos. thanks for sharing... n/t

[Carebear12144]

90. wonderful pictures

I almost want to cry. These are fantastic pictures. Please if you have kids or have siblings, pass them on to them. Keep them in your will if you have to. This is something great of your past that you must always take with you.
Love always...

[ultraist]

92. Welcome to DU Carebear!

:hi:

[cynatnite]

93. On my mother's side, we still have wills from ancestors leaving slaves...

to their heirs. It's usually 1-3 people. It was strange reading for me. One was a teenage girl and my ancestor said in his will that any children she might bear would go to the heir as well.

[Dastard Stepchild]

94. The second photo is powerful...

The first is as well, but there is something amazingly intimate and wonderful about photos of family members in their home.

I suppose that I don't forget how close slavery is to our modern life, though it does have the tendency to sometimes recede from my conscious mind. The first picture serves as a stark reminder of an old world, and even our current world, all at once.

Thank you for sharing these.