Meeting Descendants of Slave Holding Families

Have many of you had the experience of meeting descendants of slave holders or slave holding families?

How was the experience? Was it a comfortable meeting?
Several years ago I had the opportunity to travel with the Reeds from Abbeyville SC back to historic Abbeyville, and the white slave holders met the descendants of the slaves and kind of turned the city out. The elders of the family were given the keys to the city and the white Reids (they spell it differently) welcomed the black Reeds to Abbeyville. You can read about it here:
http://www.reedpuryearfamily.com/abbeville/index.htm (scroll down to see pictures)

The white Reeds, own a small restaurant, and hung a large sign in the town square welcoming us to Abbeyville.

The experience had been preceded by Melvin Collier, the Reed family historian, already meeting members of the historical society, who later contacted the Reeds that met the family at the town square. You can see some of them waiting the arrival of the family in the photos. It was an amazing experience!

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Porsha A. Williams on July 15, 2009 at 7:29pm

Thanks to those that opened this group, what a great start to the fast developing connection of african american genealogy research sites! I have not had the experience of meeting the descendabts of slaveholders yet, but I am trying! If anyone has any tips on speaking to or connecting to willing family members, please let me know. As of yet, my only experience close to this subject is meeting one of the uncles of my maternal great-grandmother, who was the illegitamate daughter of a slave and a local farmer by the name of edward cauthorn. Turns out that this person is the family historian for the cauthorn family. My grandma has now joined her rightful place in history as a member of the cauthorn family, because of my poking around. The only advice I can offer is to join genealogical societies, as many as possible. You never know who you may find and who may find you!

Permalink Reply by Jennifer Campbell on July 19, 2009 at 8:57pm

I have identified one slave owner. Isaac Koonce did not have children but I have met a relative who is also interested in genealogy. He and his wife stopped on their way to a family reunion to visit me and my mother. They were extremely nice people. He even bought and gave me a book about the family history of another possible slave owner. I have also corresponded via email with other relatives. One found the bill of sale of my great-great-great grandfather and sent it to me. I have had nothing but positive experiences. I'm reading Ball's "Slaves in the Family" now and I am convinced that if both the descendants of slave owners and slaves could work together, discovering our ancestors would be a lot easier.

Permalink Reply by Renate Sanders on July 19, 2009 at 9:38pm

I have met some of the descendents of my gggrandfather's last owners. They have been very kind and welcoming to me, but disappointingly haven not (yet) shared their family papers with me. This has been very halting to my research, because tearing down of my BRICKWALL is largely dependent upon me gaining access to any estate records they may be holding, as well as diaries, letters, and/or slave papers. They have not donated any of their papers to the state archives or to any libraries as of yet. I have traced my ggrandfather through 4 different owners, but this is the family that had him at Emancipation and it would be through their papers that I could verify several theories about my ggg and gggm. I'm still in touch with the family, and those the patriarch is now suffering from dementia, I'm hoping that his son will succomb to my gentle pleas, and eventually allow me to take a peek into my own history.
Congratulations to those of you who've had better luck.

Permalink Reply by Art Thomas on September 28, 2009 at 7:18am

In 2003, a cousin, Reita Ann (Bynum) Smith and I attended the "Ruddlle's Fort/Matrin's Station Gathering" near Paris, KY. This event is a "gathering" of the descendants of the families that were captured in the Jun 1780 British and Shawnee Indian raid of those two frontier forts during the Revolutionary War.

Our ancestor's (Reita Ann & me) were slaves of the family of Rene and Agnes (Moseby) LaForce and were among the 400+ persons captured in those raids and taken to Canada as prisoners of war. My ancestors were dispersed among the British agents in Canada and the Shawnee Indians. The LaForce family was eventually returned to the United States in a prisoner of war exchange. Our direct ancestors among the slaves captured consisted of Betty/Bess, her daughter Hannah and Hannah's daughter Kandis/Candis.

Reita Ann and I met the descendants of one of the LaForce children that had been captured in that raid. It was a very warm and cordial meeting that has developed into a friendship over the intervening years and we keep in touch via email and telephone conversations. We have missed seeing each other at the more recent Ruddle's Fort/Martin's Station Gatherings. We attended again this past year (2008), but the LaForce children weren't there and the LaForce's were there this year (2009) and we weren't.

Ruddle's Fort & Martin's Station Historic Association
http://www.ramsha1780.org/

Reita Ann (Bynum) Smith with descenadants of slave owning family
http://familytreemaker.genealogy.com/users/t/h/o/Arthur-L-Thomas/PH...

Listing of LaForce slaves captured in the Ruddle's Fort/Martin's Station raid
http://artthomasfamily.tribalpages.com/tribe/browse?userid=artthoma...

Permalink Reply by Mavis Jones on October 10, 2009 at 3:20pm

I recently reconnected with a direct descendent of the slave-owning family of one of my maternal grandfather's lines. She lives one county over and we hope to meet in person soon. She reached out to me about 10 years ago when I was trying to find information and even though she lives close we had lost contact with each other, which was mainly my fault. So, far it has been amazing just reconnecting with her via e-mail. Have gained access to a page from their family bible which records the birth of my great-grandfather. When we meet in person, she is planning to bring the bible, along with some old pictures for me to look at. In addition, after telling her that my granddad had blue eyes, she even volunteered one of her cousins for a yDNA tests. Her words were, "those blue eyes had to come from somewhere." I'm looking forward to a potential face to face meeting with her.

Permalink Reply by Allum S. Williams on October 11, 2009 at 11:49am

That is so cool!!!!!

Permalink Reply by Allum S. Williams on October 11, 2009 at 11:49am

I'm still working on trying to identify the slave owners of my family. This is good inspiration!

Permalink Reply by M. Henson on January 9, 2010 at 3:42pm

Hello all!

Some of the descendants of Joshua Seale, who was the slave owner of my Seale line, contacted me on ancestry.com. They provided information from the bill of sale of my third great grandfather Richard "Dick" Seale and they also directed me to other resources pertaining to the Seale family, including some deeds of slaves owned by the family. They were extremely helpful. I admit that hearing about one of my ancestors on a bill of sale for the first time left me "stunned" for awhile, but I was able to impart this information to other family members and I now have a greater sense of the history of that particular line.

Permalink Reply by Angela Walton-Raji on January 10, 2010 at 7:44am

That must have been a amazing experience. Have you met the people who sent you the document? Did Richard "Dick" Seale survive slavery and live to experience freedom?

Permalink Reply by M. Henson on January 10, 2010 at 10:58am

I haven't met them. We just exchanged emails. Richard Seale founded the oldest church for African Americans in Texas "Dixie Baptist Church" in Jasper Texas in the 1850's. He did live to experience freedom. He died in 1875.

Permalink Reply by karl bostic on January 12, 2010 at 8:14am

My name is K Bostic. I am a journalist researching slaveownign descendants. What is the best way to contact M Henson. Thank you!

Permalink Reply by karl bostic on January 13, 2010 at 6:18am

Hi Lisa,

I dont think we have communicated but would like to communicate further. Are you able to trace to any relatives abroad? And if we can communicate in greater detail please advise.

Thanks againa for your help!
KBostic