Beach Reading - Slaves in the Family

For those of you heading to the NGS annual conference in Charleston, South Carolina, an amazing experience awaits. Not only is Charleston one of the most beautiful cities on the East Coast, but the history that permeates your surroundings is a venerable feast of delights. With this year being the sesquicentennial of the Civil War, Charleston serves as the perfect place to reflect on the atmosphere and historic conditions that lead to the "Civil War", "War between the States", or "War of Northern Aggression" - whatever your preference. However you choose to romanticize or dissect this chapter in our history, it is always important to take all viewpoints into consideration in order to gain a complete understanding of our culture during that time. Since we will be in the city where the first shots rang out, I suggest reading Slaves in the Family by Edward Ball. An older book published in 1998, this is still a wonderful, and highly enjoyable read when looking to experience this unique culture. Also, for those of you conducting African American research in the area, chapter 16 has a couple of paragraphs devoted solely to the surnames adopted by the former slaves from the Ball plantations.

As a direct descendant of the Ball family, Edward Ball explores how his family made its fortune along the Cooper River, just outside Charleston, beginning as early as 1698. Their story is not exactly a typical one. They did not make their fortune through cotton, but relied on rice as their crop of choice. However, their reliance upon slave labor was very high, and quite prolific as some of the family dealt directly in the international slave trade. His thorough account runs chronologically, from the 17th to the 20th centuries, with some flash fowards to the present day descendant branches.

The unique depth of this book cannot be overlooked. The story told here is not just family legend and oral history. The documentation that survives from this family is very extensive and provided the foundation for Ball's chronological accounts. To supplement the family history he inherited, and the documentation already on record, Ball then explored the African families that were entwined with the Balls. He found that the heritage he inherited was also ingrained in the lives of current African American families whose ancestors had been enslaved by the Balls. In several cases, the relationships transcended the former slave/owner connection. Not only did the former slaves sometimes remain socially connected via business, etc, but in some cases, the families were related by blood, which was the impetus for the title. By talking to the modern day descendants, Ball uncovered a rich tapestry that serves to increase any complex view we may have had about how slavery affected families and communities.

My only caveat with this account is the lack of slavery era African viewpoints. This is the story of slavery written by the white descendant of a white slave owning family. He does an amazing job of not withholding the good or the bad. You will encounter moments that seemingly display affectionate ties between the slaves and their owners, but in the next chapter, you might encounter the cruelty and apparent lack of any human sympathy. It is truly fascinating to read about the early years of the slave owning dynasty, and how it developed into this affluent, yet self absorbed group of people that lived in luxury while enslaving and abusing their fellow humans. Despite this book's valuable insight from a particular historical standpoint, for a more complete view of this period of Charleston's history, you might want to add a couple of slave narratives to your beach bag.

P.S. I picked up my copy at Maia's Books' booth while in Knoxville at the FGS Conference. They are slated to have a large booth at the NGS - along with slave narratives - so head there first for a great selection of beach reading material!

Knotes from Knoxville!

So we're back! What a wonderful conference the FGS 2010 turned out to be! We met so many wonderfully sweet and helpful people! The sessions and booths were amazing, and the food was off the charts....well, more on that later. I do have a small announcement to make with this blog post. I did not travel down to the conference as solely an attendee. I also went as a vendor, which means sitting with a booth for four of the five days, unless I could sneak away - which I did quite frequently, according to my business partner. As any of my regulars might have noticed, my main Journeys Past web site link is gone and below my little bio is a Facebook link for Pastology. This new venture was the biggest reason behind my FGS adventure!

My business partner from Massachusetts and I have begun a new genealogy/history company called Pastology. At the FGS conference, we only gave sneak peaks of the online web resource as we haven't officially launched to the public just yet. Now that we are back home, we are working frantically to move that launch date up as quickly as possible. I will fill you in later on some of the features and announce a launch date when that gets closer, but I mention it here to allow for a little explanation. This is the main reason my Journeys Past web site has went the way of the dodo. After 9 years of a fairly stagnant website that only offered snippets of my own family history, I had the opportunity to move my content to Pastology, and have done so. It isn't quite ready for viewing, but will be very soon. However, this blog is NOT changing. It will remain my playground of the past, and will rarely mention Pastology as anything I write for them will probably be relegated to the official web site blog.

Anyway, long story short, stay tuned as I will announce the launch here in case anyone is interested, and one of our serendipitous meetings at the conference was with the Family Search people who are interested in affiliating with us already. So, the future looks bright, but I wanted everyone to be aware of what happened to my old site. Now for some general conference reporting.

The networking and truly useful information gleaned from this year's conference was invaluable. Talking with the seasoned experts and giving support to the fledglings were priceless experiences, and I was reminded again and again what a warm and helpful atmosphere the genealogical set strive to achieve and easily accomplish. I had years of experience within Kentucky and Ohio, but seeing the warmth and support exhibited by representatives of every state, reminded me of why I've been so passionate about this field for so many years! Any question you had, someone was lightning quick to answer it and help you develop your areas of weakness or inexperience. The sessions, as I mentioned, were fantastic! The shopping in the vendor area was also amazing - and I have to give a shout out to Maia's Books of Columbus Ohio. Their booth was across from ours and those ladies were a wealth of information, wisecracks and overall helpful fun! I spent WAY too much money in their booth!BTW, if you see them listed as an exhibitor at a future conference, plan on spending a lot of time and money shopping there. They had the most complete collection of family research books I have ever seen. Unique titles that you usually have to order online as the standard bookstore would never carry them. However, according to their bookmark, they now have a physical store in Columbus, so if you are in the area, you must give them a try!

Despite multiple trips to the general Knoxville area over the years, I had always traveled that direction for the mountains and intentionally ALWAYS by-passed the city thinking they had nothing worthwhile to offer - sorry Knoxville. As a Kentucky Wildcat, both by multiple degrees and ten years as staff, perhaps my blue blood would just not allow me anyways near that orange campus! However, this trip to the FGS Conference changed my mind completely. Granted, Knoxville isn't a huge city, or known nationally as a unique destination, but before I left, I became enchanted and thought the city planners of Lexington should take a closer look at Knoxville's downtown life!

I fell in love with their Market Square. About 20 unique restaurants, with AMAZING food and live music! An authentic Spanish tapas restaurant called Sangrias.....the couch booths and three nationalities of cuisine at Cocoa Moon....the Lobster Macaroni and Cheese (and bakery) at Cafe 4.....my mouth is still watering! Plus, the entrance to the Market Square is made complete with the addition of a sculpture/water garden. The atmosphere here is priceless as everyone just wanders around mingling - families and college groups - beautiful! Oh - and about another street or two over is a wonderful cultural/art district, that we missed, but was hopping and appeared to be very hip! I would have loved to try all of the restaurants, and had time to explore the museums and theatres, but we had to head home and dissect all the lovely treasures we brought home....books, freebies, instructional material.....definitely a trip worth taking! Our next conference should be in Charleston for the NGS, but we will most certainly be back to the FGS when they arrive in Springfield Illinois next year.

So on to the next conference! Lots of work to do before next May, and if you wanted to see some of the highlights of the conference, check out the Facebook page of Afrigeneas. They did a remarkable job of documenting the proceedings - 4 albums worth!

Ciao for now!

C

8/28/10