What a great week!!! The bloggers have come out to share their own thoughts and opinions after the first episode of The African Americans: Many Rivers to Cross."
Last week, seven genealogy bloggers decided as a group to join a circle and to blog about their own family stories, after watching the first episode of the PBS documentary. They jumped right into the process and some amazing family stories have been told, many using the same theme from the first espisode---the African side of the family.
While most of the African American genealogists in the African American blogging circle have not identified their first African ancestor who may have arrived in America, most did choose still to address the history of their personal family lines, and to make the connection between their American based family to the African side of the family.
Terry Ligon, was the first of the bloggers to address the series, and he began by a simple expression of hope. His hope is that the series will include his ancestors-not specifically, but in a geographic sense. His ancestors (like mine) have ties to Indian Territory. And this is an arena that Dr. Gates has admittedly little information--the story of those who were enslaved by the Five Civilized Tribes, the five Slaveholding tribes that took black people with them on the trail of tears. These Black people were not taken as friends or associated, but as slaves as human chattel. The Indians were southerners and like many of their white southerners, they took the culture of the South with them--including southern Black slavery. Ligon's post is African Americans, Many Rivers to Cross. A few days later, Terry decided to follow up, with a second blog post: Crossing Rivers in Indian Territory.
Terry Ligon, was the first of the bloggers to address the series, and he began by a simple expression of hope. His hope is that the series will include his ancestors-not specifically, but in a geographic sense. His ancestors (like mine) have ties to Indian Territory. And this is an arena that Dr. Gates has admittedly little information--the story of those who were enslaved by the Five Civilized Tribes, the five Slaveholding tribes that took black people with them on the trail of tears. These Black people were not taken as friends or associated, but as slaves as human chattel. The Indians were southerners and like many of their white southerners, they took the culture of the South with them--including southern Black slavery. Ligon's post is African Americans, Many Rivers to Cross. A few days later, Terry decided to follow up, with a second blog post: Crossing Rivers in Indian Territory.
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On my blog, (My Ancestor's Name) I decided to address the story of Priscilla, the young girl brought to America from Sierra Leone. For genealogist Thomalind Polite, Pricsilla's story is the story of many children and adolescents brought to America. One of the lines I have documented to the late 1700s is my maternal line, and I decided to present this portion of the story, through that of my maternal line, and my oldest identified maternal ancestor, Martha. For me, Martha, a great great great grandmother, is my "Priscilla." The article that I wrote is "Who is My Priscilla?" All families that descend from enslaved people, have one or more "Priscilla's in our lines. The task is to find them.
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Nicka Sewell Smith also addressed the need to find the "Priscilla's" in our line. But she took the role as teacher. Embracing the style of writer bell hooks, Nicka Smith becomes the teacher and shows her readers different methods and strategies to find their own "Priscillas." Smith is a genealogist who like today's descendants of Priscilla from the Ball Plantation, she too has made that pilgrimage to Africa, to Cameroun specifically where one of her lines is known to have come from. Her blog, "Who is Nicka Smith" was full of advice for researchers to tell that part of their story.
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Vicky Daviss-Mitchell took the name of the documentary, "Many Rivers to Cross" and incorporated it into a sentimental exploration of the actual "rivers" in the east Texas communities where her ancestors lived. Her piece was called "River of Life, Rolling on the River". Told from the perspective of her Texas Ancestors, she addressed the road blocks, and takes the reader to the shores of those real rivers that at some times, may have seemed uncrossable. Her blog is called "Mariah's Zepher".
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Blogger and author Melvin J. Collier decided to follow his ancestor's route from Africa to Virginia. He looks at the journey from a number of possible scenarios and takes the readers there. His strong sense of logic and his natural ability to explain, made his post a wonderful read. He goes into detail exploring the various regions of Virginia and asks if there was even the possibility that a Virginia line, could have emerged in the northern Virginia community where he now lives. His blog is Roots Revealed.
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George Geder is well known to many in the genealogy community. He chose to focus on the "Door of No Return", shown in Episode 1. He quickly moved beyond the issue that historians debate whether the Maison d'Esclaves was the right point of departure. He knows that the site is the symbolic point of departure from the western shores of Africa. He also takes the reader in a fast forward point in the 1960s when a teacher told him that he had no place of origin, and that Negro must be written with a small "n" for there is no place for a "negro" and that no place of origin for a "negro" had ever been defined. What an impression to make upon a child by a teacher! His post is "Wanders, Wonders, Signs and Other Writings.
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Drusilla Pair well known for her Find Your Folks blog and her efforts to teach and to take genealogy "outside of the box", introduced herself to the blogging circle. Her first reaction to the series is simple--some survived the middle passage and some did not--but the family made it, and the proof of that survival is as she says, "the proof is me"! Her blog is Find Your Folks, and we all look forward to her thoughts as the series unfolds.
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One useful tool was shared with the community beyond the team of bloggers. Lowcountry Africana shared the documents from the Ball Plantations that were mentioned in Episode 1. Those with ties to So. Carolinas and Ball family plantations, may find their researched enhanced by examining the documents on Lowcountry Africana Ball Plantation Documents.
* * * * *
Tonight Episode 2 of The African Americans, Many Rivers to Cross, will air.
The team of bloggers of the African American Genealogy & History Bloggers will be watching and writing, so stay tuned.
* * * * *
Nicka Sewell Smith also addressed the need to find the "Priscilla's" in our line. But she took the role as teacher. Embracing the style of writer bell hooks, Nicka Smith becomes the teacher and shows her readers different methods and strategies to find their own "Priscillas." Smith is a genealogist who like today's descendants of Priscilla from the Ball Plantation, she too has made that pilgrimage to Africa, to Cameroun specifically where one of her lines is known to have come from. Her blog, "Who is Nicka Smith" was full of advice for researchers to tell that part of their story.
* * * * *
Vicky Daviss-Mitchell took the name of the documentary, "Many Rivers to Cross" and incorporated it into a sentimental exploration of the actual "rivers" in the east Texas communities where her ancestors lived. Her piece was called "River of Life, Rolling on the River". Told from the perspective of her Texas Ancestors, she addressed the road blocks, and takes the reader to the shores of those real rivers that at some times, may have seemed uncrossable. Her blog is called "Mariah's Zepher".
* * * * *
Blogger and author Melvin J. Collier decided to follow his ancestor's route from Africa to Virginia. He looks at the journey from a number of possible scenarios and takes the readers there. His strong sense of logic and his natural ability to explain, made his post a wonderful read. He goes into detail exploring the various regions of Virginia and asks if there was even the possibility that a Virginia line, could have emerged in the northern Virginia community where he now lives. His blog is Roots Revealed.
* * * * *
George Geder is well known to many in the genealogy community. He chose to focus on the "Door of No Return", shown in Episode 1. He quickly moved beyond the issue that historians debate whether the Maison d'Esclaves was the right point of departure. He knows that the site is the symbolic point of departure from the western shores of Africa. He also takes the reader in a fast forward point in the 1960s when a teacher told him that he had no place of origin, and that Negro must be written with a small "n" for there is no place for a "negro" and that no place of origin for a "negro" had ever been defined. What an impression to make upon a child by a teacher! His post is "Wanders, Wonders, Signs and Other Writings.
* * * * *
Drusilla Pair well known for her Find Your Folks blog and her efforts to teach and to take genealogy "outside of the box", introduced herself to the blogging circle. Her first reaction to the series is simple--some survived the middle passage and some did not--but the family made it, and the proof of that survival is as she says, "the proof is me"! Her blog is Find Your Folks, and we all look forward to her thoughts as the series unfolds.
* * * * *
One useful tool was shared with the community beyond the team of bloggers. Lowcountry Africana shared the documents from the Ball Plantations that were mentioned in Episode 1. Those with ties to So. Carolinas and Ball family plantations, may find their researched enhanced by examining the documents on Lowcountry Africana Ball Plantation Documents.
* * * * *
Tonight Episode 2 of The African Americans, Many Rivers to Cross, will air.
The team of bloggers of the African American Genealogy & History Bloggers will be watching and writing, so stay tuned.
* * * * *
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