Studying slavery is depressing

Question

I am researching to identify a family of freed slaves, and I have been rummaging through the Library of Virginia collections. I stumbled across this petition to the Virginia Legislature dated 1834. Try to imagine what this was like.

To the Hon: Speakers and members of the Senate and House of Representatives of the state of Virginia, the petition of Frederick Williams respectfully represents:
That your petitioner, now a free man of color, has for the last twenty years resides in the town of Lynchburg, the property, until recently, of Joseph Edwin Royall Esqr. That he has even conducted himself with propriety and decency and fidelity to his former master and by long and patient industry was enabled to lay up a considerable sum of money, with part of which, during the last fall, he purchased his freedom from his master at the price of $450. Your petitioner believed at that time, that with the residue of money then in his possession, and such additional sum as he could raise, in twelve months, he would be enabled to purchase his wife and two children, the property of John S. Meem Esq. with whom it was his bona fide wish and intention to remove from the state of Virginia. Your petitioner has found himself disappointed in this expectation--being unable at this time to have a reasonable price for his family, and by the operation of a law of the land, he will be forced to leave the state of Virginia and of carrying his family with him if indeed he can procure them, according to his original plan & purpose and he is confident that if suffered to remain a limited time in this commonwealth, he can accomplish that object.

He's literally begging the state to allow him to stay in Virginia until he can afford to purchase his own familly and carry them to real freedom with him! It was against the law for free blacks to live in Virginia at that time.

I can't find the words to express how sad and angry this makes me feel. I'm not a fool. I know there are evil people in the world. But, when you get into the personal level of a person's life, the pain and suffering is beyond imagination.

Comments

It is depressing.  More people need to read documents like these to understand how horrible the system was.

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Paul, one take-away from this topic: Slavery has been around for thousands and thousands of years. Aren't we all extremely lucky to have lived at the time of its most probable lowest occurrance in the social history of mankind.

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Don't let the bastards get you down.

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I feel good about adding profiles of those that were enslaved.  I also usually post my info on a Facebook group that is tracking for families that were enslaved.  It is depressing, but if anyone is able to find a connection from the work that is done on wikitree then it’s a big win.

Answer 1

Yes, it is depressing and as mentioned, we all have to take breaks from it every now and then.  With that in mind, the opposite POV is also possible with this petition: this man was brave and courageous to file the lawsuit... to confront the establishment so to speak.  There is an element of profound courage contained in this document.

Comments

Also... we don't have much "evidence" for anything except in documents.  (and archeology and dna and language study.) That is why the Native American experience is so underrepresented in "history."  Given that, we must squeeze every little drop of evidence we can from the existing documents.  Sadly, that means we rely on Western, European perspectives... from which I descend myself... but it is what we have.

Answer 2

Real history is filled with hard ugly facts like this. This man was a humanist icon.  He should be applauded for having the tenacity to legally fight for his family.  I hope his descendants know of his courage.  If you haven't, please add this content to his Wiki profile.  Maybe add him to list of African American historic notables.

We must remember how wrong this whole time was to prevent any similar circumstances in the future. I cringe whenever I read census reports with slaves upon them.  We should all cringe and feel bad.  It shows we know right from wrong.

Comments

The census reports don't bother me nearly as much as the wills and inventories, where human beings are listed alongside cattle, pigs, furniture, and farm implements as the assets of their owner.

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BB, you bring up the strongest point. The best way we can honor those who were enslaved and the experiences they went through is to create their profiles, connect them to their descendants and tell their stories. This is what US Black Heritage Project does.

Paul, I agree it's very very hard. Many of us at USBH have to take breaks from the work. But knowing that we are saying the names of these incredible ancestors makes the work worth it!

Answer 3

If you haven't read Tiya Miles' All that she carried, I'd recommend it (https://tiyamiles.com/books/all-that-she-carried/). It's about an enslaved mother who gave her daughter a sack with some supplies when their slaver sold the daughter away from her. The sack survives, with the story embroidered on it by the granddaughter of the person sold. Think of a mother desperately trying to help her daughter, and the story being passed on for generations.

Comments

I’ll put that on my reading list.

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It's a sad story, but sheds light on how enslaved people tried to retain connections in the face of terrible depravity. And Miles writes it beautifully. I highly recommend it. I'd be interesting in knowing what you think of it.

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I’ll let you know.  Currently I’m reading The Weeping Time.  Also very sad.

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I did read the book “All that she carried”, it was so touching, it was a great book.

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Thanks for letting us know. I’m glad you liked it. I think it deserves to be well known.

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In November of 2022, Amazon offered this book as a freebie!!! I noticed the date of your post is the same!! I got it then, but have not read it yet! This will inspire me to read it!

Answer 4

Paul, I couldn't agree more.  This has something to do with why I don't allow myself to get sucked into working on these profiles.

When I first joined WikiTree (I can't believe it was 14 years ago), I knew nothing about genealogy and my own family was a very difficult one, with roots in Eastern Europe, so I adopted an unsourced orphan profile from the United States to use for a learning curve. While researching, I discovered family members and eventually found an entire abandoned gedcom of over 1,000 profiles here so I adopted them all.  It happened to be a Jewish family, many of whom were killed in the Holocaust and the stories I uncovered were the same kind of horribly depressing.  Unlike Kathie's comment, though, I don't know that I need to immerse myself in these people's stories to understand how horrible things like slavery and the Holocaust were ... and, in many parts of the world today, a wide variety of hatred-based mass atrocities still are.  I'm sorry to sound like I'm a deserter from responsibility, but I have enough troubles of my own to deal with and don't have the personal resources to take on any more right now.  I admire your willingness to do so and applaud your efforts.

Comments

Not everyone has the bandwidth to work on these profiles, and that's okay. It can be very emotionally draining.  It's one reason we have a system at US Black Heritage where people can send us documents they come across so we can process them in their stead. That step alone helps our project out a great deal. (and adding the project sticker to profiles).

Answer 5

Yes Paul, it is depressing and disgusting.  We would worry if you didn't feel that way.

Congratulations on working thru some of this and sharing the courage of a man to support his family.

As Leigh Anne writes, it was the case in all prior human history to subjugate others.  We are on the verge of breaking that pattern (but it still persists today.)  The more we are exposed to our history, the more likely we are to not repeat it.

Please, please continue to work thru the bad parts and celebrate the good parts- this man was one of the ones who should be celebrated, as BB pointed out!

Thanks for sharing!

Comments

Apparently, I touched a nerve as my post was flagged!!!! I guess not everyone is interested in knowing the truth!!

Answer 6

It is indeed depressing, but the stories must be told so that those who spread misinformation about the realities of slavery will not be the only voice. Work on the truth of it and back it up with sources. You're doing good work, Paul.

Answer 7

Agreed. If you haven't already, I highly recommend that you watch the "Finding Your Roots" series with Dr. Henry Louis Gates Jr. (on PBS). https://www.pbs.org/weta/finding-your-roots

There are so many good episodes. It brings so much of genealogy, and history, to life. Everyone has a story, with setbacks and triumphs. Yes, he digs into issues like slavery in the United States. It's always interesting to see his guest's shocked faces when faced with the hard truths and reality of history. But the redemption is that we are here despite everything has happened. It's eye-opening and a great education. I can't recommend it more.

Answer 8

Hi Paul,

I agree that documents describing the suffering of enslavement are extremely disheartening and make us unimaginatively sad and angry. I am concerned that posting the contents of documents like this without a spoiler alert may possibly trigger re-trauma for descendents of the enslaved today. Our entire US system of capitalism and much of early US wealth that was transferred was produced by the system of transatlantic enslavement, genocide and the stealing of land inhabited by Native Americans. WikiTree allows and welcomes the access and visibility of pursuing categories of social identity and justice by such categories and groups such as through Black Heritage, Abolitionist and (geographic) Slave Holders by county and state, which enable descendents to unearth their history, be included in the storytelling and one family tree. As a white person, I have much privilege in being able to search genealogical records and find ancestors that brethren of color may not be able to at this time, due to the treatment of records for the enslaved.   By labeling my family ancestor records who were slave owners or abolitionists, I can help tell a fuller story and hopefully assist other WikiTree members of color being able to access their history. I wonder however, whether and how postings on these topics need to be considered regarding maintaining safe (and brave) spaces.

Comments

Jonathan, this particular post doesn’t need a trigger warning. Paul, you’re fine, keep on trucking. Sorry I can’t reply more fully now, I’m doing childcare/homeschool for 3 kids.

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Jonathan, there is zero need to put a trigger alert on these kinds of documents. These are genealogy documents. Descendants who are doing their family research are 100% aware they exist and the atrocities they contain. Their families have been living with those atrocities and others like them for generations. The only way we can make things better for them is to bring them to light and turn them into family profiles for their ancestors which is what US Black Heritage Project does.

Answer 9

I also find these stories depressing due to their lack of simple humanity. However, I also believe that the best way for us to rectify the wrongs is to work our tails off to tell the stories and document the truth. The facts have been ignored for too long (and we genealogical nuts are really good at searching to the ends of the earth to uncover the facts our ancestors knew but never acknowledged or spoke about and tried like the devil to cover up)!

If you need even more sad stories, try reading the notices in southern newspapers during the years after the end of the Civil War. They are filled with pleas and “trying to locate” ads. As are the Freedmen’s Bureau communications.

Bless you, Paul, for caring and digging.

Answer 10

Yes, it's depressing. I appreciate hearing this from other Wikitreers. It means that we are addressing the horrors of this money making event known as slavery. 

I was afraid to address this issue on both of my maternal and paternal sides of my family. However, I look at my ancestors and see what they had struggle with during those crazy times. 

I concur with Eric on watching Finding Your Roots. I decided to do a discovery of my DNA because of Dr. Gates' curiosity of his ancestry. Some of the guests who have a substantial amount of African ancestry. The guests emphasize with Dr. Gates. It's very moving. 

My 4th great grandmother Charlotte Bellamy was born into slavery...yet she survived that plight and was able to see her grandchildren after the Civil War ended. 

Answer 11

Yes, it is depressing and horrifying to know that some could treat "others" as animals.  Bought and sold at will.  

As more African Americans do DNA, we also have to embrace and acknowledge the extent of the rape and impregnation of our ancestors.  So very many of us carry European ethnicity and have to recognize it wasn't accidental. The DNA doesn't lie!