ABOUT THIS BOOK

Race remains a potent and divisive force in our society. Whether it is the shooting of minority people by the police, the mass incarceration of people of color, or the recent KKK rallies that have been in the news, it is clear that the scars from the United States’ histories of slavery and racial discrimination run too deep to simply be ignored. But what are the most productive ways to deal with the toxic and torturous legacies of American racism?

Slavery’s Descendants brings together contributors from a variety of racial backgrounds, all members or associates of a national racial reconciliation organization called Coming to the Table, to tell their stories of dealing with America’s racial past through their experiences and their family histories. Some are descendants of slaveholders, some are descendants of the enslaved, and many are descendants of both slaveholders and slaves. What they all have in common is a commitment toward collective introspection, and a willingness to think critically about how the nation’s histories of oppression continue to ripple into the present, affecting us all.

The stories in Slavery’s Descendants deal with harrowing topics—rape, lynching, cruelty, shame—but they also describe acts of generosity, gratitude, and love. Together, they help us confront the legacy of slavery to reclaim a more complete picture of U.S. history, one cousin at a time.

Funding for the production of this book was provided by Furthermore, a program of the J. M. Kaplan Fund (https://www.furthermore.org).

AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY

Jill Strauss teaches conflict resolution at Borough of Manhattan Community College, The City University of New York.

Dionne Ford is the author of Finding Josephine. Her work has appeared in The New York Times, More, LitHub, Rumpus, and Ebony, and has won awards from the National Association of Black Journalists and the Newswomens’ Club of New York.

REVIEWS

In its first-hand chronicles of courage, rage, forgiveness, and the solace of an embrace, Slavery’s Descendants unleashes powerful emotions. Full of hard-won wisdom, this book also captures the painful ambiguities our past fastens on us. "I want revelation," one participant says, "and yet, I dread it, too."

— Henry Wiencek, author of The Hairstons: An American Family in Black and White

“In these moving essays, we see the testaments of journeys made by both descendants of enslavers and descendants of the enslaved to reckon with pain of the past, and look beneath the skin of the present for healing. Using poetry, essay, oral history, genealogical shard, these writings bear witness to the search to find and give language to our tangled, fraught, but ultimately shared history. Puzzling through the intimate histories that link us as Americans to one another— though often violent or painful— each writer here finds a way of knowing the past that offers the present more freedom, more hope. Here are stories told at a human scale, full of longing, honesty, grief, and also hope. In a difficult time, these writers lay down these meditations in the hope of a better, freer future for all of us. Their efforts are paths we would do well to follow. They offer us a chance for greater wholeness, too.”

— Tess Taylor, author of The Forage House

Fordham Magazine mention of Slavery's Descendants edited by Jill Strauss and Dionne Ford

— Fordham Magazine

'"They were once America’s cruelest, richest slave traders. Why does no one know their names?" by Hannah Natanson
https://www.washingtonpost.com/history/2019/09/14/they-were-once-americas-cruelest-richest-slave-traders-why-does-no-one-know-their-names/?wpisrc=nl_most&wpmm=1

— Washington Post

Interview with Jill Strauss and Dionne Ford, Slavery's Descendants and Coming to the Table
https://networks.h-net.org/node/11465/pages/5424505/interview-jill-strauss-and-dionne-ford-slaverys-descendants-and-coming

— H-Net

“In these moving essays, we see the testaments of journeys made by both descendants of enslavers and descendants of the enslaved to reckon with pain of the past, and look beneath the skin of the present for healing. Using poetry, essay, oral history, genealogical shard, these writings bear witness to the search to find and give language to our tangled, fraught, but ultimately shared history. Puzzling through the intimate histories that link us as Americans to one another— though often violent or painful— each writer here finds a way of knowing the past that offers the present more freedom, more hope. Here are stories told at a human scale, full of longing, honesty, grief, and also hope. In a difficult time, these writers lay down these meditations in the hope of a better, freer future for all of us. Their efforts are paths we would do well to follow. They offer us a chance for greater wholeness, too.”

— Tess Taylor, author of The Forage House

In its first-hand chronicles of courage, rage, forgiveness, and the solace of an embrace, Slavery’s Descendants unleashes powerful emotions. Full of hard-won wisdom, this book also captures the painful ambiguities our past fastens on us. "I want revelation," one participant says, "and yet, I dread it, too."

— Henry Wiencek, author of The Hairstons: An American Family in Black and White

Fordham Magazine mention of Slavery's Descendants edited by Jill Strauss and Dionne Ford

— Fordham Magazine

'"They were once America’s cruelest, richest slave traders. Why does no one know their names?" by Hannah Natanson
https://www.washingtonpost.com/history/2019/09/14/they-were-once-americas-cruelest-richest-slave-traders-why-does-no-one-know-their-names/?wpisrc=nl_mostwpmm=1

— Washington Post

Interview with Jill Strauss and Dionne Ford, Slavery's Descendants and Coming to the Table
https://networks.h-net.org/node/11465/pages/5424505/interview-jill-strauss-and-dionne-ford-slaverys-descendants-and-coming

— H-Net

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Contents
Foreword: Coming to the Table - Lucian K. Truscott IV
Introduction - Dionne Ford and Jill Strauss
Part I   Uncovering History
1          President in the Family - Shannon Lanier
2          So Many Names - A. B. Westrick
3          The Will, the Woman, and the Archive - Catherine Sasanov
4          Overcoming Amnesia: How I Learned the Forgotten History of Two Families Linked by Slavery - Bill Sizemore
5          Oregon’s Slave History - R. Gregory Nokes
6          Seed of the Fancy Maid - Rodney Williams
Part II Making Connections
7          State Line - Antoinette Broussard
8          The Plantation Cake - Leslie Stainton
9          Am I Black? - Eileen Jackson
10        The Immeasurable Distance between Us - Thomas Norman DeWolf
11        Making Connections - Karen Branan
12        A Millennial Facing the Legacies of Slavery - Fabrice Guerrier
Part III Working toward Healing
13        Standing on the Shoulders of My Ancestors - Tammarrah Lee
14        So Close and So Far Away - Elisa D. Pearmain
15        Born Both Innocent and Accountable: A Moral Reckoning - Debian Marty
16        The Terretts of Oakland Plantation: An Essay of Atonement - David Terrett Beumée
17        Not a Wound Too Deep - Karen Stewart-Ross
18        To See/ The Blindness of Whiteness - Sara Jenkins
Part IV Taking Action
19        Digging Up the Woodpile - Sharon Leslie Morgan
20        On Being Involved- Stephanie Harp
21        Changing the Narrative- Joseph McGill
22        Tangled Vines: A Bloodline Shaped by Slavery - Grant Hayter-Menzies
23        A Dream Deferred along Holman’s Creek- Sarah Kohrs
24        The Tale of Two Sisters - Betty Kilby Baldwin and Phoebe Kilby

Afterword: What a Legacy of Slavery and Racism Has to Do with Me - Jill Strauss
Postscript: From Branches to Roots - Dionne Ford
Acknowledgments
Bibliography
Notes on Contributors