The novel Slaves in the Family for me was a book of discovery, and learning as I was amazed as the author progressed in his research around the US and Africa to speak with people whose ancestors were slaves on his ancestors plantations. "There's George," said Dad, pulling the four-door to a stop. and facts about both. Arts | from the Civil War era and white in later pictures. While some in this story, both black and white, preferred that the past be buried and forgotten, Ball persisted. It's taken me a little under a month to finish. Their plantations were among the oldest and longest-standing plantations in the South. .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. .orange-text-color {color: #FE971E;} Discover additional details about the events, people, and places in your book, with Wikipedia integration. Because they are slaves, they are incapable of performing civil acts. On the other hand, in a few societies, as in the ancient Middle East, slaves were allowed to contract with third parties. WebDr. The ruined brick hulk of the rice mill at Comingtee stood within plain There were also one chemist, a priest, a banker, and a fashion model. a distance of many generations and through the mists of segregation and distrust--seemed daunting to say the least. and Yves had a great-granddaughter, Edna LeCorgne, my mother's Mother, whom I loved. A long strip of yellowed newsprint, the clipping carried the headline "Isaac Ball, 88, Confederate, Dies." I also felt shame about the broken society that had washed up when the tide of slavery receded. would be a mistake to say that I felt guilt for the past. Elias Ball and his American progeny eventually owned twenty rice plantations along the Cooper River north of Charleston, sold rice known as Carolina Gold, and enslaved close to 4,000 Africans and African Americans before 1865, when Union troops arrived on the lawns of their estates to force emancipation. A person cannot be culpable for the acts of others, long dead, that he or she could not have influenced. Learn more. This is the story of the author's research into his family's past as slave owners and slave traders. meant that in the eyes of the law a couple would appear as a single person, the husband, whose identity substituted for that of his wife. In that book you also had a white writer tracking down the black descendants of someone wronged by the white establishment. In the slave days the rice fields lay at the edge of the river. A cousin who worked in a bank offered to help the find a place to live. founder of the family, had been sold away and was later knocked down. From time to time in his stories, Dad mentioned the people our family used to own. of the Ball Family of South Carolina and the Comingtee Plantation. : 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. The subject of slavery is never an easy one, bringing many emotions and unspoken, unresolved issues to the forefront. 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? , Screen Reader Reviewed in the United States on May 5, 2021. The investigation, I decided, would have two parts: first, a hunt through the Balls' slave--owning past and, second, a search for the descendants of Ball slaves. Reeds brushed against the hull of the double-deck boat and greetings and laughter echoed over the water as each Ball walked the gangplank and made a little jump onto the deck. The size of the Ball lands once ranged from small three-hundred-acre tracts. Roman slaves were allowed to make contracts in regard to third peculium. Others were freed from three Ball places--Kensington, Pimlico, and St. James--that were sold out of the My mother, Janet Rowley, born in New Orleans, also had a plantation heritage. 253 pp. As Isaac was losing his sight, Dad said, he used to shave with his eyes closed, Over time, his family earned the reputation as "the most prominent of South Carolina plantation owners. I typically choose authors of color, but made an exception. 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. 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. The White people who came from England and often married other early settlers in the colonial days. In a moment the skipper rounded a bend in the river and we came in sight of the oldest Ball place, Comingtee plantation. Dominating the street side was a large wooden porch, what in Charleston is called a piazza. The prospect of the family reunion pushed me, finally, to come to terms with it. Give as a gift or purchase for a team or group. Real Estate | Historians and experts discuss the importance of the family unit in the lives of enslaved people. There also were relatively uniform laws about passing slaves from one generation to another. In the years before Isaac's birth, some Marketplace, Quick News | Part history, part journey, this is the story of black and white families who lived side-by-side for 200 years, and a tale of everyday Americans who face their vexed inheritance together. As I prepared to go back to South Carolina, I thought we should meet, share our recollections, feelings, and dreams, and make the story whole. First there were stacks of papers, then boxes and had left off his manners. They wrote, but only for a few readers. When did they leave the Webt. The personal is profoundly political in historian Edward Balls family. Near the house where he lived, at the Many large slaveholders had numerous plantations and frequently shifted Brief Summary of Book: Slaves in the Family by Edward Ball Here is a quick description and cover image of book Slaves in the Familywritten by Edward Ballwhich was published in 1998-2-1. Brazil was a sugar-producing nation where slavery would not be abolished until 1888. Slaves in the Family by Edward Ball is an impressive book, demonstrating years of research, interviews and exploration. In 1852, Church leaders serving in Utahs legislature debated what to do about black slavery in Utah Territory. BALL FAMILY were embossed. , Language Ball, a descendant of one of the largest slave-owning families in the South, discovered that his ancestors owned 25 plantations, worked by nearly 4,000 slaves. 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. I loved this book it showed the darker side of a distant branch of my family. 2 Rolls. The Balls' Pimlico plantation was turned into a subdivision with winding streets and ranch-style houses. generous guess, even more-nearly one hundred thousand. Please try again. It makes us think twice before we judge men like Thomas Jefferson, for being with a slave. According to the 1860 U.S. Census returns, those same fifty-nine counties and three cities had contained 65,720 male slaves in a comparable age range. The Balls were unusual in that they were more detailed in documenting their human property, so much so that there is at least one line that can be traced all the way back to Africa. It is an unprecedented family record that reveals how the painful legacy of slavery continues to endure in America's collective memory and experience. (Why has no one written a novel about them yet?). National/N.Y. Although someday I may look into lily Louisiana family, this story follows my father's clan, and the lives of the thousands I have a few of his manuscripts. Understanding The slave family did all the things families normally do, but the fact that other human my mother asked once. Former Village Voice columnist Edward Ball takes readers on an unprecedented journey into his family's slave-owning past, telling the story of black and white families who lived side by side for five generations--and a tale of everyday Americans confronting their vexed inheritance together. . I decided I would make an effort, however inadequate and personal, to face the plantations, to reckon with them rather than ignore their realities or make excuses for them. as honestly as possible what the family had done, I might clear some space around our name, and around us. "Did I ever tell you about Wambaw Elias Ball?" 27 Feb 2023. If you are a history buff, especially the Civil War era, then this book is for you. Essential Source to Understand Americas Fractured Identity, Reviewed in the United States on July 15, 2021. The last letters date from three hundred years later in America, after the rice Soon Dad took my brother, WebHow did slavery shape the family life of the enslaved in the American South? .orange-text-color {font-weight:bold; color: #FE971E;}Enjoy features only possible in digital start reading right away, carry your library with you, adjust the font, create shareable notes and highlights, and more. bit like doing psychoanalysis on myself. the water, Fort Sumter, the old defense bulwark built on all island at the entrance to the harbor. stories remained. invited home to commune with the ancestors and bathe themselves in lore. Between 1698 and 1865, close to four thousand black people were born into slavery under the Balls or were bought by them. 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. Edward Ball smashed down the barrier between the history that is spoken of, and the history that is real. From this place it is possible to see, far out in 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. He often put on a three-piece suit and ribbon tie, except in summer, when he pared down to starched shirts. Moreover, slaves born of already enslaved parents usually were treated much better than those purchased or captured from foreign groups. My father had a little joke that made light of our legacy as a family that had once owned slaves. During slavery, the family had more than a dozen city residences in addition to the plantations out of town. WebIn general, a slave had far fewer rights to his offspring than to his spouse. Now "Slaves in the Family" tells the true story of the Op-Ed | There was a wooden one near the northwest corner of Ashley and Bull streets that belonged to a family member in the 1850s, as well as a three-story brick house on the northwest corner of East Bay Street and Stoll's Alley, occupied Additional gift options are available when buying one eBook at a time. The book is so well written that it holds your attention even though there is a lot of genealogical material in it. This book by Edward Ball took me a week or so to read. Between 1698 and 1865, the 167 years the family was in the slave business, close to four thousand black people were born into slavery to the Balls or bought by them. Enter a name in the Playlist Name field (Example: TV) and delete Very well researched and written book of the history of a prolific slave importing and owning family. WebSlaves in the Family, with its white researcher at its core, is a call to other whites for truth-telling and awareness. A few wrote memoirs or poetry, but the family mainly turned out letters and account books. Of course, many of his fathers generation do not support this exploration, but many in his own age cohort encourage his work. "We're spending more time in the rice fields than our ancestors ever did!" WebSlaves in the Family is the story of one mans exploration of his familys slave-owning past and his search for the descendants of the people his ancestors kept as slaves. WebOpen the settings menu. The invitation to the family reunion sat on my desk, beckoning. In South America, Charles Rowley evidently once again acquired human property before he died in July 1869, tit age sixty-three, in the province Edward Ball is descended from one of the largest slaveholding families in the South. That was a disappointment to me. On the way back to Charleston, Dad stayed quiet about George. Dad used to call him Isaac the Confederate to distinguish him from the seven other Isaacs in We have been in each other's I've got Balls in my line. Oddly I first heard of this book while cruising around YouTube one sleepless night. But once the book went back in the bookcase, the dreams faded. shows the ways that slavery lives on in black and white memory and experienceand illuminates the uncertain path to redress. Top subscription boxes right to your door, 1996-2023, Amazon.com, Inc. or its affiliates, Learn more how customers reviews work on Amazon. another drawing room, bathrooms, and, on the top floor, three more bedrooms, baths, a laundry. my dreams. 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. They had many plantations just outside of Charlestown. Some of the South's plantations were now No one among the Balls talked about how slavery had helped us, but whether we acknowledged it or not, the powers of our ancestors were still in hand. It helped make me more aware of how intertwined the African-American and White-American communities really are. covered with beige stucco that was cracked and chipping away. 3 Oct 2022. three hundred people lived in slavery there. Check local listings to see where you can watch. another surname. deposit the lode in archives around the South, until nearly all of them came to rest in public hands. The new Mrs. Ball might own land or slaves Did the plantations form part of my identity? The bank, he said, had acquired a mansion in the old section of the city after the owner defaulted on the mortgage. Sadists, even psychopaths, who could not cope with their right of total dominance over another human being, might appear anywhere, as might kindly masters. Any owner was free to sell husbands from wives, parents from children, and brothers from sisters. Cousins: Connected through slavery, a Black woman and a White woman discover their pastand each other. He was tall, lean, carefully dressed, and had thin brown hair that he lost as he aged. Coarse, mottled parchment containing business records sometimes has the look of white skin. A yellowing photograph of the Seven Oaks mansion used to hang in the hall of our house. 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. Id never heard of this until last year, but then immediately put it on my TBR after reading a review of it from someone I follow, as it sounded really interesting. Though some parts are a little dry, the subject matter is very compelling. Redemption links and eBooks cannot be resold. Rather than responsible, I felt accountable for what had happened, called around. Limerick, Pawley, and Quenby. and Hyde Park, whose buildings were mostly gone. Old Isaac's vision had deteriorated to the extent that he could see only a single point of light. Ball goes further than any other work I have seen in following the historic trail all the way to Sierra Leone, searching not only for descendants of some freed Ball family slaves who settled there, but for African families whose ancestors were sellers of other Africans. Follow authors to get new release updates, plus improved recommendations. The book had a wordy title, Recollections selective over time. We have been in each other's beds. Elsewhere were two bedrooms, Slave owners rarely became artists. finally possible to calculate the progeny of freed Ball workers. A forestry company had bought much of the family land and planted pine trees. History.com Editors. We peered they enslaved. Patrice says This is an important book. It seems like families that can trace their ancestry back to a specific plantation or person are more stable and generally more church-y and so more likely to be forgiving or at least moving past it. I was able to follow all of the complex genealogy and most of the historical information; it was kind of like a college course for me in the beginning. Thick grass swallowed the edge of the asphalt, cicadas screeched in the branches, and a skyline of pine trees scored the horizon. My new Charleston home had no resemblance to my former New York apartment. twenty of them along the Cooper River, north of Charleston. family some years before fighting with the North began. in the 1830s by an heiress named Ann Ball. Using your mobile phone camera - scan the code below and download the Kindle app. From time to time, the "Ball book" came down off the shelf, and when it did the plantations shadowed During the 1750s, my decaying new home was fresh, and included the main dwelling, a carriage house, and various outbuildings. America was beginning to work through the tragic parts of its history, and the Ball name, once admired in a small corner of the country, seemed likely to become a casualty of that process, painted with infamy. Editorial | We have been in each other's lives. Published by Thriftbooks.com User , 23 years ago. Legal relationships between slaves and free strangers, Attitudes toward slavery: the matter of race. A staircase rose front the hall, with a loud squeak in the seventh step. It takes a lot of courage to cold call black people and be like, "Hi, my great-grandfather owned your great-grandmother. Like the Ball story, the tale of the Zeringues and the Rowleys is peopled with black and white protagonists (or antagonists). 27 Feb 2023. .orange-text-color {color: #FE971E;} Explore your book, then jump right back to where you left off with Page Flip. On one side stood the ancestors, vivid, serene, proud; on the other their slaves, anonymous, taboo, half humanTo contemplate slaverywhich for most Americans is a mysterious, distant event---was a bit like doing psychoanalysis on myself. The letters chronicled their lives, while the accounts detailed the A journalist's exhaustively researched, intensely personal quest confronts the legacy of slavery connecting his South Carolina family and the people they the census enumerator did not record, belonged to a family of eight whites in the mansion. The owner, moreover, was held equally or even more responsible for the slaves actions, ranging from homicide to theft, than was the slave himself, for the society desired that the former control his property and there was no assurance that sanctions, especially money fines, could be enforced against slaves. Absolutely fascinating!! in Semiotics. How Many of the Signers of the U.S. Constitution Were Enslavers? Diversions | Elsewhere, when the state punished the slave, the sanction typically was more severe than for a free person. WebSlaves in the Family (1998) is a biographical historical account written by Edward Ball, whose family historically owned large plantations and numerous slaves in South Carolina. Perhaps the most interesting were the interviews with the current and just immediately past generations both black and white and their stories and reactions to his wanting to find out how it really was. it had nevertheless survived. You won't regret reading this book. and then actually show up and talk about all the consequences of slavery. Click on Remote Playlists. Its a great read on several levels, especially as a detailed historical and genealogical narrative. Some of the family I have traced my family history back a long way and found the link to those in this book. By skewing things so violently in the past, we had made sure that our cultural riches would benefit all white His book is well researched, and well written with an easy narrative style. Lord Cornwallis, who gave him a company of men and the rank of colonel. War began rose to the rank of brigadier general, commanding the Sixth Brigade of the Louisiana Militia. The author pulls the reader right into his life and his experiences uncovering the facts about his ancestors in the deep south. I would find out what had occurred on the Ball lands in as much detail as I could. Throughout my spartan, God-fearing upbringing, I sensed The ending felt forced. Half an hour passed, then an hour. "the Ball slaves," a puff of black smoke on the wrinkled horizon of the past. Growing up, Ball knew his family had at one time owned slaves, but the family did not encourage conversation on this topic. The mistress of each plantation did not have full command over the slave farm but became a co-master with her husband, using power as she was able. 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. , Word Wise he might say. the library to read the family records, housed in climate-controlled rooms like specimens of an extinct bird. I read through the Ball papers, beginning with the story of the first Elias Ball, who died in 1751, at, (C) 1998 Edward Ball All rights reserved. In a moment, George and my father disappeared into the cottage. When she married (or, as a widow, remarried) her property rights passed to the man, under the legal doctrine known as coverture. a tour of the river where the Ball plantations once stood and where their remnants still moldered on the banks. There was more uniformity across systems regarding legal relationships between slave owners. The book discusses slavery on the rice plantations of South Carolina and larger issues of the slave trade, changing political climates, etc, but the focus is on this man's family and the families they owned. We look forward to another book by this author. Four French doors opened onto the piazza, which overlooked the street like an outdoor room. Eventually Dad emerged from the house and made his good-byes. Some voices surprised me, like one ex-slave's loyal, self-abasing yet sincere letters to his former masters (of which his descendant was embarrassed). is reissued by FSG Classics, with a new preface by the author. "Slaves in the Family" recounts Edward Ball's painstaking research into the history of his family, the first of whom settled near Charlestion at the end of the 17th century. In general, a slave had far fewer rights to his offspring than to his spouse. Every step was an effort.Please don't misunderstand me. This award winning (national book award) was sheer pleasure to read. I want to feel and know my great,great grandmother and her heritage and reading this book is a good first step in that pursuit. Through a combination of meticulous research, general understanding of the history of the times, and imagination, Ball tells the other story of slavery, the untold story from the perspective of the enslaved. When I was a child, Dad used to tell stories about our ancestors, the rice planters. 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