SATURDAY, MAY 22
BREAKOUT SESSIONS (A)
10:30AM – 11:30AM
REWRITING THE STORY: RECORDS AND RESOURCES TO IDENTIFY YOUR ENSLAVED ANCESTORS
Public records are a vital piece to researching your enslaved ancestors. Often readily available, these documents are rich with information about your ancestors’ lives and help add context to names and dates. In this session, learn which vital records can prove most helpful, where to find them, and how you can analyze these documents to enrich your research. Ms. Nance will explain the strategies and tactics she used to identify more than a dozen of her enslaved ancestors in Georgia, Alabama, and Tennessee. No experience necessary.
APPLYING FOR SONS AND DAUGHTERS OF THE UNITED STATES MIDDLE PASSAGE
Sons & Daughters of the United States Middle Passage (SDUSMP) is a heritage society for individuals who can trace their lineage to a direct ancestor enslaved in early colonial America and/or the United States of America. In this session, we will detail how to trace your lineage to an enslaved person and how to complete a successful application. There is nothing more powerful than learning the truth of the people who came before you and survived so that you can be here today. No experience necessary.
LIMINAL SPACE: MILES LASSITER, STRADDLING THE LINES BETWEEN SLAVERY AND FREEDOM
M
iles Lassiter was born around 1777 in Randolph County, North Carolina. Between 1807 and 1850, he was found buying and selling land; being assigned to community road maintenance; listed as a free head of household in the census; and requesting to be and later being received into union with the local Meeting of Friends (Quakers). Only 1840, when being sold from the estate of his white owner to his own wife, a free woman of color he was identified as enslaved. Was he enslaved all along? Was he free and subsequently enslaved? This session examines the types of records that can be researched in order to confirm information about an enslaved ancestor. Intermediate experience necessary.
BREAKOUT SESSIONS (B)
1:30PM – 2:30PM
FROM GEORGIA TO FLORIDA: FOLLOWING THE LIVES OF THREE GULLAH MEN
One enslaved ancestor, named Boston Baggs, appears to have arrived in Liberty County, Georgia, from Savannah, Georgia, and Beaufort, South Carolina on the sloop Isabella in 1824 as a child. His family was enslaved on the Sugar and Rice Plantations in Liberty County, Georgia, and lived and worked in Savannah. DNA shows that his earliest African ancestors are from Cameroon and Nigeria. This session unveils research, lineage, and connections to Gullah ancestors on Georgia’s coast through various records and visits to historic sites. Attendees will discover research techniques to find enslaved ancestors in Florida and Georgia through various primary sources. Lessons are taken from the research of the Baggs family from 1785 to 1978. No experience necessary.
NOT A WOUND TOO DEEP: A JOURNEY TO AFRICAN EMPOWERMENT
This session will include the sharing of historical documents, such as probate papers, census records, and excerpts from a diary kept by the Cathey family that enslaved Ms. Stewart-Ross’ family. Participants will learn about the journey to discovering her enslaved ancestors and their journey to freedom. Historical documents will illustrate the journey of discovering her fourth great-grandparents, Jonas and Delse Barry Cathey, who were enslaved in Rome, Georgia and Lincolnton, North Carolina. Participants will also get a glimpse into Jonas and Delse Barry Cathey’s turbulent lives during General Sherman’s burning of Rome during the Civil War. No experience necessary.
SEARCHING FOR MY ENSLAVED ANCESTORS
Participants will hear a case study of research strategies used to search and find Ms. Bennett’s enslaved ancestors on her paternal line in South Carolina. The learner will be able to trace the timeline of discovery for the potential enslaved ancestors’ surname using the following research strategies: family oral history; identifying hints in a delayed birth certificate and the testimony of witnesses; US Census Records; Freedom Bank and Trust Records, DNA and an Inventory of Slave Transactions, including finding evidence that the enslaved ancestor was given as a wedding gift to a family member.
HIDING IN PLAIN SIGHT: TRILOGY OF MY FAMILY’S RESISTANCE
Ms. Griggs’ ancestors were enslaved and free. She will share the environments they lived in before slavery, during and after the Civil War, Emancipation, and the reign of Jim Crow laws. One family chose to exclude themselves from the boundaries of enslavement before the Civil War and forge a society of mixed-race individuals to live the way they wanted and not as society demanded. Through this presentation, you will recognize and understand the influence of these mothers regarding their children and their descendants. It was because of their resilience, fortitude, although limited freedom in the face of slavery and oppression, that they dared to hope and believe for a better future. Against all odds, our formerly enslaved ancestors dared to be their own Advocates even under physical, emotional, and societal constraints.
BREAKOUT SESSIONS (C)
2:50PM – 3:50PM
ENSLAVED AT THE GEORGETOWN HOTEL: THREE GENERATIONS
Mary Hopkins and Mary Ann Lingon were both purchased at 14 years old in 1825 and enslaved by the owner of the Georgetown Hotel, aka Lang’s Tavern. They became matriarchs to at least 10 offspring over three generations, who were also enslaved until their emancipation in 1862. The story explains how the slave owner leveraged the people she enslaved to create more wealth by using them as collateral on loans, hiring them out, insuring them, and finally receiving compensation for them from the U.S. government following their emancipation through the 1862 DC Compensated Emancipation Act. In this session, Ms. LaGonterie will demonstrate how the abundance of records about enslaved people, retrievable through various sources in the District of Colombia, gives a great deal of detail about enslaved people and the behaviors of their enslavers, including evidence of how enslavers leveraged the enslaved to increase their wealth in the urban environment of Washington, D.C. Intermediate experience necessary. This session will be live.
WALTER TAKES HIS FREEDOM: SLAVERY & FREEDOM IN THE SEWARD FAMILY
Walker Leonard was a young boy appraised at a value of 25 pounds in 1797 when he appeared in the list of “goods and chattel” upon the death of his enslaver, John Seward. In 1815, Walter escaped enslavement in northern New Jersey with the help of two other teenagers: white servant girl Sarah Card and Israel Seward, a member of the family who had enslaved him. In this session, attendees will gain greater knowledge about slavery and freedom in the North in the early 1800s through this story of the escape of a young enslaved man with the help of one of his enslaver’s family members. No experience necessary.
SOCIETY OF THE FIRST AFRICAN FAMILIES IN ENGLISH AMERICA: SUBMITTING A SUCCESSFUL APPLICATION
The Society of the First African Families of English America is a lineage organization that provides education and understanding of why the First African Families of English America were important, how they shaped American history, and what their Middle Passage voyage and its impact on the world means today. As one of two premier African American lineage societies, in this session we will use a variety of techniques on how to submit a successful application to the SOFAFEA, and, perhaps more importantly, how to preserve your many years of genealogical research and family history for the many generations to come. More information on the society can be found at www.sofafea.org. Intermediate experience recommended. Click here to download the course outline.
They Had Names: African Americans in Early Liberty County, Georgia, Records
References to enslaved African Americans abound in many antebellum county records, but in the absence of intensive indexing efforts, searching these handwritten records page by page for ancestors’ names is a daunting task. For Liberty County, Georgia, two researchers have created a model project that demonstrates the effectiveness of abstracting and putting online all the records naming African Americans for a particular county. With over 30,000 names documented thus far, TheyHadNames.net allows genealogists and researchers to focus on making the family connections and restoring their ancestors’ stories to the historical record. Stacy Ashmore Cole, the project’s creator, will explain the project and tell some of the stories found in these records.