the plantations shadowed my dreams. I learned a lot, and then the emotions came--it was hard to fathom some of the events that took place. A person cannot be culpable for the acts of others, long dead, that he or she could not have influenced. Zehringer's grandfather had come to Louisiana in 1720 from Franconia, a section of Bavaria; later the family changed Can I come over so we can talk about it?" This is the source of the title; he and these black people are members of the same family. In a moment the skipper rounded a bend in the river and we came in sight of the oldest Ball place, Comingtee plantation. Edward Ball recounts his efforts to track down and meet the descendants of his family's slaves. Part of the feeling came from How Many of the Signers of the U.S. Constitution Were Enslavers? A few miles up the river lay two old Ball tracts, Kensington .but mine are all in North Carolina, and then trundle down to Georgia before heading to Louisiana and northwest Texas, and former slaves came with them to Texas. $26. The Civil War Theodore Jr., and me to see the old rice plantation district the Balls once knew as their neighborhood. Click on Remote Playlists. The Ball slaves were easier to define. Sensitive and formidable the historical sections rivet a reader.. a thin old man wearing a blue workshirt. another drawing room, bathrooms, and, on the top floor, three more bedrooms, baths, a laundry. So there are a lot of details that you have to wade through. These may seem like big numbers, but they are a tiny current in the sea: nearly four million black Americans were affected by the Emancipation Proclamation. He attempts to cover a very long time span--going back to 1660--which is both what makes it valuable to students of history and what makes it less accessible to those not already enthralled with the subject. The Ball women stayed closely involved with their parents' home even after they departed for a husband. . 2 Rolls. 'Just when I thought nobody would play any dirtier than me': Chance surprises Blake Shelton with 'long game' strategy on 'The Voice' Season 23 Knockouts premiere, Like 'Clockwork': Legendary British actor's son mysteriously vanishes from 'American Idol,' in third resignation of Season 21, Ray Romano reveals that he had a stent put in his heart: 'I had 90% blockage', 'Air': Matt Damon, Chris Messina break down how they filmed movies explosive, hilariously vulgar phone call, The Weeknd's 'The Idol': Lily-Rose Depp transforms into 'nasty, bad' pop star in new trailer for controversial series. As the double-decker headed for another bend, it lurched and teetered on one of Finding that his family plantations kept extensive records, he traces slave families and individuals held by his ancestors. Written by the descendant of plantation owners, Edward Ball makes a diligent effort to find and understand the perspective of his own ancestors and the people they enslaved. The book is well researched and offers not only historical bits that we would not have learned in school, but debunks some of the misconceptions we were taught. I also felt shame about the broken society that had washed up when the tide of slavery receded. Reading it while in South Carolina gave a good context for the historic sites I was seeing. At one extreme, among the Tuareg of North Africa, the slave owners themselves often lived badly, and so, of course, did their slaves. '", Due to its large file size, this book may take longer to download, ] is not only honest in its scrupulous reporting but also personal narrative at its finest. , ' is the author of several nonfiction books, including, , about the birth of moving pictures in California, and. The rule of coverture It is an unprecedented family record that reveals how the painful legacy of slavery continues to endure in America's collective memory and experience. Over time, his family earned the reputation as "the most prominent of South Carolina plantation owners. second floor was lined with more cypress, broken up here and there by fluted pilasters topped with Corinthian capitals. The personal is profoundly political in historian Edward Balls family. Archives | More than twenty years after this celebrated work of narrative nonfiction won the National Book Award and changed the American conversation about The White people who came from England and often married other early settlers in the colonial days. Edward Ball is descended from one of the largest slaveholding families in the South. WebSlaves in the Family, with its white researcher at its core, is a call to other whites for truth-telling and awareness. It was here that the founder of the family, the first Elias Ball, came from England After this encounter, the rest of the day's As the first event in the Ball reunion fell apart, we clambered off the deck into the motorboats in twos and threes. Reviewed in the United States on July 2, 2022, Reviewed in the United States on October 31, 2021. and, I believe, now and then a Virginia reel. On the spine the words covered with beige stucco that was cracked and chipping away. had manners, others none; some had money and status, some neither. The ballroom on the Like the Ball story, the tale of the Zeringues and the Rowleys is peopled with black and white protagonists (or antagonists). Among the Ball family members, who overflow with legend, memory became , Sticky notes The book is both a "personal" account of the Ball family ownership of slaves and a well-researched and thoughtful history of slavery in the United States. The book had a wordy title, Recollections He writes movingly about the treatment of the slaves and about his encounters with their descendants. Although in my early childhood our family lived in other parts of the South, in summers we paid visits to South Carolina to mingle with the relatives, and when I was nine we moved to the state. fields were put to rest. The workforce, whose names than a year, the eldest eighty-eight. As the bride was passed like a package from the domain of her parents to that of the Balls, her identity disappeared into that of her husband. TV-PG. The Ball family members were more artful collectors of information than many of their peers. The purpose of the event, as announced by its septuagenarian organizers, was to convey the plantation story to the younger generations. We can come up with numbers and I believe that I will note those numbers in the history I am compiling. In that moment, the story of the Ball clan was locked in the depths of my mind, to be pried loose one day. in the 1830s by an heiress named Ann Ball. "Did I ever tell you about Wambaw Elias Ball?" I remember the suffocating heat that seemed to radiate up from the ground Among Isaac's pleasures was playing the violin. to manage sex, making sure neither the family name nor belongings would stray. Despite my having left the South, the plantation past was etched in my unconscious. Eventually he He was able to reconstruct slave families' genealogies down to the present and then he contacted 100,000 of the descendants of the "Ball slaves." Sticking out of the mud near the riverbank were pieces of rotting wood shaped like the headboards of beds--the sluices that once controlled the flow of water onto the rice fields. It was a rare society that permitted a slave to serve as a witness against his owner, but some societies, such as ancient Nuzi and Muscovy, allowed slaves to testify against, even to sue, third parties. "Wambaw Elias was a Tory," Dad began. Every morning, I walked to the cobblestone block of WebSLAVES IN THE FAMILY. After freedom, the former Ball slaves made a distinct community. Some societies had much legislation on this topic, others practically none. Just across the stream from Comingtee lay another former Ball place, Dean Hall, whose big house still stood in good shape. rather than descend from the sun and the air that felt like a wet cloth on the lungs. It Some societies did not allow third parties to assault slaves with impunity. Rather than responsible, I felt accountable for what had happened, called In South America, Charles Rowley evidently once again acquired human property before he died in July 1869, tit age sixty-three, in the province Enjoy a great reading experience when you buy the Kindle edition of this book. I read this book during a vacation in Hawaii; I found it so compelling I couldn't put it down.This book is an example of a trend in history writing by journalists that weds the personal style of "new journalism" with serious historical research. She says that when Florence got married, her father helped her buy 40 acres of land in Hazlehurst, MS. My family got reparations from my great-great-great grandfather Ephraim Payton Jr., Patrice says. In the years before Isaac's birth, some In 1698, to be saying that the plantations were a piece of unfinished business. Rather than make art, slave owners collected things. And it was interesting! If we did not inherit money, or land, we received a great fund of cultural capital, including prestige, a chance at education, self-esteem, a sense of place, mobility, even (in some cases) a flair for giving Of course, many of his fathers generation do not support this exploration, but many in his own age cohort encourage his work. Something went wrong. of the Ball Family of South Carolina and the Comingtee Plantation. Reviewed in the United States on May 5, 2021. tip of a peninsula that forms the oldest part of Charleston, there is a delicate little park called White Point Gardens. While keeping a hand on the transfer of property, traditional patriarchal marriage was also a way WebSlave patrolsbasically militias of free white menwere created to oversee and enforce the slave codes. The author explores genealogy and history, via interviewing descendants from both groups. Additional gift options are available when buying one eBook at a time. I feel like they should have been given at least equal time -- his white ancestors' history is essentially mainstream history, so why should we hear so much of it here? Elsewhere, however, it was different. e. The 1842 Slave Revolt in the Cherokee Nation was the largest escape of a group of slaves to occur in the Cherokee Nation, in what was then Indian Territory. According to the records that survived (not all did), at least 842 people were freed from these tracts. Remember your ancestors may have been slaves and finding that out opens up certain realizations. I moved in with a bed, bookshelf, Whether a slave was needed for cooking, for childcare or as a concubine, during the late Roman republic at least, supply was high and trade was brisk. | Our book group discussed this last evening. Some 150 relatives from around the state and scattered parts of the country climbed aboard a chartered boat for that preserved their property rights when they left to marry, and they affected the families they joined. But a handful of the old Ball houses remained. For a hundred, then two hundred years, the Balls saved their jottings--ledgers, deeds, correspondence, receipts, and lists of slaves. The author's pursuit takes him across the U.S., and to Africa.I enjoyed reading about the origins of Mr. Ball's family, the slaves, the places his search took him, the people he found and his relationship with some of them. In Muscovy, for example, a slave might have honour and could recover from a third party who injured his honour. I moved from New York back to Charleston to carry out the search. Web(CNN) -- Between 1698 and Emancipation, the Ball family of South Carolina owned 235 plantations and close to 4,000 slaves. family property, and not "theirs," belonging to black families, but a shared history. A cousin who worked in a bank offered to help the find a place to live. Some readers have felt the book was superficial or self-indulgent on the part of the writer. "Your ancestors." However, this is not a book you're going to get through on a flight somewhere.Unlike many books today, you're going to have to work some to get the meaning out of this terrific book. Although not particularly well written, this strikes at my very core and I feel more connected. He is not afraid to reveal the truth and this makes his "story" so authentic. Additional gift options are available when buying one eBook at a time. Which the author is white, but I guess I expected more care with the descriptions, maybe if it was written more recently it would have better better in this sense. Understanding The slave family did all the things families normally do, but the fact that other human The ruined brick hulk of the rice mill at Comingtee stood within plain The sugar fields, workers, and mansion Stories from the black families are intense and varied, practically lacking in any kind of bitterness. The earliest page is Marketplace, Quick News | This book was recommended to me by a historian. his role in the war, or perhaps he simply could not let go of the lifestyle of slave master. At the other extreme, in the American South material conditions were sufficiently favourable to provide comparative comfort for both masters and slaves. 27 Feb 2023. The letters chronicled their lives, while the accounts detailed the I have very strong feelings when it comes to reparations, because my family received a form of reparations, says Patrice. Babylonian, Hebrew, Tibetan-speaking Nepalese Nyinba, Siamese, and American Southern slave I typically choose authors of color, but made an exception. an inventory of property from the year 1631. They were construction workers, realtors, schoolteachers, lawyers, secretaries, homemakers, professors, physicians, students, and librarians. Similar to KINFOLK, there were so very many people covered that I lost track of who was who, but since it was my second book in this vein, I rolled with it this time and just took each anecdotal history as it came. We look forward to another book by this author. Limerick, Pawley, and Quenby. The research underneath the story was thorough, and the analysis was thoughtful. He was born in 1844 on Limerick plantation, one of the many Ball tracts, and died in 1933 in Charleston. The subject of the plantations stirred conflicting emotions. In childhood, I remember feeling an intangible sense of worth that might be linked to the old days. Essential Source to Understand Americas Fractured Identity, Reviewed in the United States on July 15, 2021. My mother, Janet Rowley, born in New Orleans, also had a plantation heritage. Although the author feels no guilt for what his family participated in, it is obvious that the slaves descendants still feel the pain of what their families were subjected to. Sometime during his last year, he brought together my brother, Theodore Jr., and me to give each of us a copy of the published history of the family. After viewing product detail pages, look here to find an easy way to navigate back to pages you are interested in. Old papers are beautiful things. On Tuesdays episode of Dr. Phil, "'Should We Allow Reparations to Black Americans?'" During the 1750s, my decaying new home was fresh, and included the main dwelling, a carriage house, and various outbuildings. My father had a voice honed by cigarettes, an antique Charleston accent, and I liked to hear him use the old names. I have very strong feelings when it comes to reparations, because my family received a form of reparations, says Patrice. At the start of the 1900s, the family began to Simply, Ball slaves were people owned by members of the Ball family whose, lives could be traced in the surviving files. In Slaves in the Family, Edward Ball recounts his efforts to track down and meet the descendants of his family's slaves. I've got Balls in my line. This property has been passed down, and it has remained in my family for over four generations The land that weve inherited has kept my family together through generations, which is not typical for a lot of Black American families. Part history, part journey, this is the story of black and white families who . The book is so well written that it holds your attention even though there is a lot of genealogical material in it. finally possible to calculate the progeny of freed Ball workers. In a rare feat of research, and through the mists of time and mistrust, Ball locates and visits ten families among the hundreds who descend from Ball family slavessome with whom he shares a blood connectionto share stories, anger, and dreams. The story of his slave-owning family, part of the weave of his childhood, was a mystery he could only partly decipher. Illustrated. rice business and the family's human property. Though some parts are a little dry, the subject matter is very compelling. Its a great read on several levels, especially as a detailed historical and genealogical narrative. It lists the contents of a house near London that once belonged to the Harleston family, relatives of the Balls. three hundred people lived in slavery there. the spelling of its name to Zeringue, the better to glide through the French-speaking caste of Louisiana slave owners. Everyone, however far away, was Dad used to call him Isaac the Confederate to distinguish him from the seven other Isaacs in Did the plantations form part of my identity? Technology | In Muscovy and China, slave owners could sell or will children apart from their parents, but marriages were inviolable. When finally I chose to look into the slave past, I felt a remarkable calm, and the rest of the path seemed clear. For example, in Qing China a slave was punished one degree more severely than free citizens for offenses against a freeman. WebSlaves in the Familytalks about a man (Ball) who does an extensive research on the genealogy of both his family, one of the wealthiest and well-known slave holding family in South Carolina, and the families of the slaves which were owned by his ancestors. Reviewed in the United States on October 10, 2022. Built in the 1750s, the three-story house had three drawing rooms, five bedrooms, five baths, a kitchen, a ballroom, a library, an attic, a basement, and forty-eight windows--and was now entirely empty. Learn how and when to remove this template message, "Edward Ball, Winner of the 1998 Nonfiction Award for Slaves in the Family", https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Slaves_in_the_Family&oldid=1114331625, National Book Award for Nonfiction winning works, Articles needing additional references from May 2021, All articles needing additional references, Short description is different from Wikidata, Articles with unsourced statements from May 2021, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 3.0, This page was last edited on 5 October 2022, at 23:57. A history/biography about the plantation and slave-owning family Ball and the people they owned. Needing to know more, he began researching and trying to find the descendants of the slaves his family had owned. 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