Sep 1, 2017 Orange County Review
Last week you were introduced to a theory about revolutions that have the potential to create “a pervasive change in society and the social structure,” quietly and without conflict and animus.
Today we will venture a bit deeper into the circumstances that drive the need for change. I stated before that there are other peoples who fell victim to an egregious flaw in our American heritage: an unfounded and frankly irrational sense of superiority based on a single set of beliefs that exclude differing religions and cultures and a dogma of dominance that is predicated on color. This presentation only addresses the African American story only due to time and area of study.
During the 240 years that the institution of slavery existed in the United States, the 4 million enslaved people were marginalized to the point of near total obscurity. It was a reality that endeavored desperately to continue well after the passing of the 13th Amendment.
People of color were deprived of any semblance of autonomy over their own lives and their basic human rights were dependent upon the whim and will of their owner.
Their identity was tied inextricably to enslavement. If they carried a surname, it was most often assigned by the slaveholder to distinguish Bob, Old Bob, or Young Mary from another with the same given name residing on the same or a neighboring plantation. Or perhaps, the assigned surname identified where the individual was born or their occupation. Regardless, they were most often decisions by the slaveholder.
Requirement to document the existence of these enslaved ancestors was negligible and rarely required more than noting gender and an estimated age. For purposes of taxation in 1853, Virginia mandated that all births—black, white, free and enslaved—be reported. However, for the enslaved, no name of the child or the mother was required and suffice it to say, never the name of the enslaved child’s father.
In states that imposed a registration of those imported for sale (speaking specifically about the years of the domestic slave trade), the information could be more extensive, offering both a given and surname, age, gender, place of origin and possibly the name of the former owner. Or, it could have been obscured by an intermediary such as a slave trader instead of the owner and the port of embarkation rather than birthplace or former residence, or the information could have provided only age and gender or simply the number of individuals imported.
This kind of legislation and/or regulation throughout the U.S. perpetuated a widely-held concurrence of thought that Black people were to be objectified as property and that their humanity was not a debatable issue.
As a result, two things occurred: generations of whites and people of color were influenced and tainted by erroneous beliefs that these ancestors possessed inadequate attributes of worth as human beings and that the knowledge of one’s family heritage that is a fundamental contributor to our sense of who we are and who we can be, was not recorded; was carelessly or purposely destroyed or, as we are now discovering, was kept under wraps and withheld from examination. Regardless of the reasons, the true character of these ancestors has heretofore been lost to future generations and to the conscience of our society.
But, all is not lost! That reality can be rectified through the implementation of the “Quiet Revolution.” Person by person, family by family, utilizing the tools of genealogical and historic investigations, one can reverse those long-held myths.
It is not an easy path, but every year new resources are surfacing and being made widely accessible through digitization.
During next week’s column in this ongoing discussion, we will touch on what can be learned through the research and offer a few resources. If you would like to hear the full presentation and several others, plan to attend the conference Sept. 15 – 16. Information is available at http://edu.lva.virginia.gov/african-american-genealogy-conference/
Until next week, be well.
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