Unveiling Roots: Tracing African American Ancestry and Slave Records

Unveiling Roots: Tracing African American Ancestry and Slave Records
Author: Penelope Green
Publisher: Global Publishing Solutions, LLC
Total Pages: 132
Release: 2023-12-17
Genre: Reference
ISBN:

Discover Your African American Ancestry! "Tracing Roots: Uncovering African American Ancestry through Slave Records" by Penelope Green is your indispensable guide to unveiling the rich tapestry of your heritage. This book empowers you to embark on a transformative journey through history, resilience, and identity. With Green's guidance, explore the unique challenges and rewards of tracing African American ancestry, from gathering cherished family stories to navigating the intricacies of historical slave records. Delve into the profound significance of these records, unlocking the stories of strength, courage, and survival that are etched within their pages. Discover the narratives concealed in plantation journals, letters, and diaries, providing profound insights into the lives and experiences of enslaved individuals. Navigate the complexities of genealogical research, including the power of census data and lineage, and honor the enduring spirit of families separated by the bonds of slavery. "Tracing Roots" extends beyond research, equipping you with the tools to preserve your findings and share your discoveries. Document your ancestral journey, craft a compelling family history, and contribute to the broader narrative of African American genealogy. As you close the final chapter, Penelope Green emphasizes the significance of embracing your heritage and encourages you to continue your journey, celebrating the stories of resilience and belonging that define your family's narrative. Uncover the hidden stories of your African American ancestry and embark on a transformative journey today with "Tracing Roots."

The Social Life of DNA

The Social Life of DNA
Author: Alondra Nelson
Publisher: Beacon Press
Total Pages: 218
Release: 2016
Genre: History
ISBN: 0807033014

The unexpected story of how genetic testing is affecting race in America We know DNA is a master key that unlocks medical and forensic secrets, but its genealogical life is both revelatory and endlessly fascinating. Tracing genealogy is now the second-most popular hobby amongst Americans, as well as the second-most visited online category. This billion-dollar industry has spawned popular television shows, websites, and Internet communities, and a booming heritage tourism circuit. The tsunami of interest in genetic ancestry tracing from the African American community has been especially overwhelming. In The Social Life of DNA, Alondra Nelson takes us on an unprecedented journey into how the double helix has wound its way into the heart of the most urgent contemporary social issues around race. For over a decade, Nelson has deeply studied this phenomenon. Artfully weaving together keenly observed interactions with root-seekers alongside illuminating historical details and revealing personal narrative, she shows that genetic genealogy is a new tool for addressing old and enduring issues. In The Social Life of DNA, she explains how these cutting-edge DNA-based techniques are being used in myriad ways, including grappling with the unfinished business of slavery: to foster reconciliation, to establish ties with African ancestral homelands, to rethink and sometimes alter citizenship, and to make legal claims for slavery reparations specifically based on ancestry. Nelson incisively shows that DNA is a portal to the past that yields insight for the present and future, shining a light on social traumas and historical injustices that still resonate today. Science can be a crucial ally to activism to spur social change and transform twenty-first-century racial politics. But Nelson warns her readers to be discerning: for the social repair we seek can't be found in even the most sophisticated science. Engrossing and highly original, The Social Life of DNA is a must-read for anyone interested in race, science, history and how our reckoning with the past may help us to chart a more just course for tomorrow.

The Washingtons of Wessyngton Plantation

The Washingtons of Wessyngton Plantation
Author: John Baker
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
Total Pages: 432
Release: 2009-02-03
Genre: History
ISBN: 1416570330

When John F. Baker Jr. was in the seventh grade, he saw a photograph of four former slaves in his social studies textbook—two of them were his grandmother's grandparents. He began the lifelong research project that would become The Washingtons of Wessyngton Plantation, the fruit of more than thirty years of archival and field research and DNA testing spanning 250 years. A descendant of Wessyngton slaves, Baker has written the most accessible and exciting work of African American history since Roots. He has not only written his own family's story but included the history of hundreds of slaves and their descendants now numbering in the thousands throughout the United States. More than one hundred rare photographs and portraits of African Americans who were slaves on the plantation bring this compelling American history to life. Founded in 1796 by Joseph Washington, a distant cousin of America's first president, Wessyngton Plantation covered 15,000 acres and held 274 slaves, whose labor made it the largest tobacco plantation in America. Atypically, the Washingtons sold only two slaves, so the slave families remained intact for generations. Many of their descendants still reside in the area surrounding the plantation. The Washington family owned the plantation until 1983; their family papers, housed at the Tennessee State Library and Archives, include birth registers from 1795 to 1860, letters, diaries, and more. Baker also conducted dozens of interviews—three of his subjects were more than one hundred years old—and discovered caches of historic photographs and paintings. A groundbreaking work of history and a deeply personal journey of discovery, The Washingtons of Wessyngton Plantation is an uplifting story of survival and family that gives fresh insight into the institution of slavery and its ongoing legacy today.

Black Genealogy

Black Genealogy
Author: Charles L. Blockson
Publisher: Black Classic Press
Total Pages: 250
Release: 1991
Genre: Reference
ISBN: 9780933121539

Presents the obstacles and advantages of searching for Black family history, including information about places to research, and documents and techniques used to uncover genealogical history, even though considered lost or incomplete.

Body and Soul

Body and Soul
Author: Alondra Nelson
Publisher:
Total Pages: 289
Release: 2011
Genre: History
ISBN: 9780816676491

Alondra Nelson recovers a lesser-known aspect of The Black Panther Party's broader struggle for social justice: health care. Nelson argues that the Party's focus on health care was practical and ideological and that their understanding of health as a basic human right and its engagement with the social implications of genetics anticipated current debates about the politics of health and race.

Music Is History

Music Is History
Author: Questlove
Publisher: Abrams
Total Pages: 353
Release: 2021-10-19
Genre: Music
ISBN: 1647001846

New York Times bestselling Music Is History combines Questlove’s deep musical expertise with his curiosity about history, examining America over the past fifty years—now in paperback Focusing on the years 1971 to the present, Questlove finds the hidden connections in the American tapes, whether investigating how the blaxploitation era reshaped Black identity or considering the way disco took an assembly-line approach to Black genius. And these critical inquiries are complemented by his own memories as a music fan and the way his appetite for pop culture taught him about America. A history of the last half-century and an intimate conversation with one of music’s most influential and original voices, Music Is History is a singular look at contemporary America.

In Search of Our Roots

In Search of Our Roots
Author: Henry Louis Gates (Jr.)
Publisher: Crown
Total Pages: 450
Release: 2009
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 0307382400

The distinguished scholar examines the origins and history of African-American ancestry as he profiles nineteen noted African Americans and illuminates their individual family sagas throughout U.S. history.

Somerset Homecoming

Somerset Homecoming
Author: Dorothy Spruill Redford
Publisher: Univ of North Carolina Press
Total Pages: 180
Release: 2000-03-01
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 9780807848432

The story of one woman's unflagging efforts to recover the history of her ancestors, slaves who had lived and worked at Somerset Place plantation.

Native American DNA

Native American DNA
Author: Kim TallBear
Publisher: U of Minnesota Press
Total Pages: 241
Release: 2013-09-01
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 0816685797

Who is a Native American? And who gets to decide? From genealogists searching online for their ancestors to fortune hunters hoping for a slice of casino profits from wealthy tribes, the answers to these seemingly straightforward questions have profound ramifications. The rise of DNA testing has further complicated the issues and raised the stakes. In Native American DNA, Kim TallBear shows how DNA testing is a powerful—and problematic—scientific process that is useful in determining close biological relatives. But tribal membership is a legal category that has developed in dependence on certain social understandings and historical contexts, a set of concepts that entangles genetic information in a web of family relations, reservation histories, tribal rules, and government regulations. At a larger level, TallBear asserts, the “markers” that are identified and applied to specific groups such as Native American tribes bear the imprints of the cultural, racial, ethnic, national, and even tribal misinterpretations of the humans who study them. TallBear notes that ideas about racial science, which informed white definitions of tribes in the nineteenth century, are unfortunately being revived in twenty-first-century laboratories. Because today’s science seems so compelling, increasing numbers of Native Americans have begun to believe their own metaphors: “in our blood” is giving way to “in our DNA.” This rhetorical drift, she argues, has significant consequences, and ultimately she shows how Native American claims to land, resources, and sovereignty that have taken generations to ratify may be seriously—and permanently—undermined.

Mississippi to Africa

Mississippi to Africa
Author: Melvin J. Collier
Publisher: Createspace Independent Publishing Platform
Total Pages: 0
Release: 2012-05-24
Genre: Africa, West
ISBN: 9781477486016

Mississippi to Africa captures Collier's fourteen-year journey in unearthing the buried history of his maternal grandmother's family - a journey that took him back seven generations, from northern Mississippi to the Piedmont hills of South Carolina, and even back to a specific people and region in West Africa where his ancestry undoubtedly began. Trekking the paths of his ancestors and their displaced relatives before Emancipation (1863), this emotion-filled journey traversed down an intricate paper trail of federal, state, and local records, other public records, and oral histories, presented in a narrative style to inspire, entice, and propel readers into the fascinating world of genealogy and historical discoveries. Collier also uncovered the ways in which his ancestors ingeniously retained aspects of their African heritage. DNA technology confirmed his research findings and verified ancestral ties. The reader will gain many research tips and techniques along the journey.