Slaves and Slave Owners

This year black history month is about more than Rosa Parks.

Since I’ve started doing my genealogy on WikiTree I’ve participated in a few “challenges”. This one is about documenting more African-Americans, and for me particularly those who were enslaved by my ancestors.

Like most white Americans, I don’t think much about my family owning slaves. Most of them came from northern states, and those who were from the south moved west and that particular part of our history has been pretty much swept under the rug.

I can remember how shocked I was when, as a teenager, we uncovered a will that included a handful of slaves. And until this week, I thought that was probably the extent of it.

Like the rest of my family, I just wanted to look away.

But that changes this month as I try to make some small difference in making things better. I can at least make it a bit easier for the descendants of those slaves to find their ancestors.

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