Michelle Obama is one of the lucky few African-Americans who she can trace her roots back to 1850. Her great-great-great-grandmother, it turns out, was a six year old slave girl named Melvinia in
Most African-Americans are not so lucky. An ordinary person searching for African-American family origins runs into obstacles born out of racism and neglect.
My search for the African-American Slaydens is a case in point. I’m looking for the black Slaydens who are the direct descendents of slaves owned by my great-great-great-grandfather William Everett Slayden. William Everett was a white slave holder who lived in
Our last posting tracked – as best as we can with limited records – the story of Julia Slayden. Census records prior to 1850 list only the name of each slaveholder and the number and gender of his slaves. Julia shows up on the census records of 1840 as a tick by William Everett’s name under the column for “female slaves over 10 and under 24.”
The census records for 1850 and 1860 tell us a bit more, including both the gender and birth date of each slave. So we know that in 1850 William Everett owned a “female mulatto” age 30 – probably Julia. In 1860, William Everett’s son owned a “black female” age 40 – again, probably Julia.
We first see Julia Slayden by name in the 1870 census. After freedom, Julia lives in a nearby county with her children. If you’ve been following this blog, you know that William Everett most likely fathered Julia’s son, William Slayden.
A few African-Americans – like Michelle Obama –find the name of their ancestor recorded in a will. The slave master who owned six-year old Mevinia named her in his will, along with his household goods and cattle.
Unfortunately for the black Slaydens, William Everett left a will but failed to identify any of his eight slaves by name. In fact, he didn’t mention them at all. Presumably they passed to his heirs along with his land, his furniture and his other personal property.
The professional genealogist who tracked the First Lady’s maternal line discovered that Melvinia – the little slave girl who was Michelle Obama’s great-great-great grandmother – was taken from her family and sent to work at the farm in Georgia owned by Henry Shields.
When she was a teenager, Mevinia became pregnant by an unidentified white man at the Shields farm. Michelle Obama’s family on her mother’s side still goes by the name of Shields, and she can now trace her maternal roots back through this family.
But what about the black Slaydens and the thousands of other African-American families who have only the vaguest idea of their family history?
Unlike Michelle Obama's family, my African-American Slayden ancestors show up in only a small handful of public records. I’m not a professional genealogist, but I can piece together their stories through a handful of public records and the census reports from 1820 up through 1920. But there the trail goes cold.
There are websites like Common Roots devoted to African-American genealogy. Ancestor.com, a commercial data base, has a special African-American portal. With their help, I may be able to find the living descendents of the African-American Slaydens.
I hope the story of the black Slaydens – like that of Michelle Obama – has a happy ending.
On the television show, Henry Louis Gates helps famous African-Americans like Chris Rock and ordinary people like David Wilson trace their family history back through slavery to their African roots. At the end, they meet the descendents of the former slave owners.
Everyone gathers, uneasy at first –on the grounds of the old plantation – to drink lemonade and eat barbequed chicken. In the end, the African-American and the white family members shake hands and hug one other. There is general forgiveness all around.
Life is not so simple. The African-American branch of the Slayden family, after all, did not choose this lineage. But the African-American and the white Slaydens bear the same surname, we share a common history, and – in some important way – we make up one “family.” Some day – like Michelle Obama – I too hope to find my cousins.
Find “Common Roots” at http://blackgenealogy.blogspot.com/
The Michelle Obama story is at http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/08/us/politics/08genealogy.html?_r=1&scp=2&sq=michelle%20obama&st=cseMichelle
For a collection of slave narratives, see “North American Slave Narratives” at http://docsouth.unc.edu/neh/
