I read a great article on the
Black Snob website called
The First Lady's Slavery Roots Published In NYT
by Danielle Belton. It is reported that people have gone through Michelle Obama's family history and turned out to be the descendant of a biracial man, Dolphus T. Shields who was born just after Emancipation. The NYT states:
...for the first time [finding Mr. Shields)] fully connects the first African-American first lady to the history of slavery, tracing their five-generation journey from bondage to a front-row seat to the presidency.
Um, this is news?! I thought everyone knew that most African-Americans have both African and European ancestry, as well as Native American ancestry. I do. So does every black person I know who has been born in the United States share these things in common. I found Ms Belton's post extremely interesting, including her brief outline of her own family. I think every black family, because of slavery, has had family member who could have passed for being white and some who did pass for white. Belton is correct. I was also amazed that she desired for readers to send her information about our own families and how slavery affected us.
I don't have a complete picture because maternally I have the best information. From my mother, her mother, and on back to slavery down the female lineages, I know each of my fore mothers' names going back. By that count, I'm 6 generations removed from slavery. My parents pictures are at the top of the post. At the bottom is a picture of all of my Parent's descendants and our spouses except the oldest and youngest grandsons.
As for my father, his maternal line is much more of an open book. I know something about both his mother's parents. They were from Georgia where my dad grew up. But not much is known about my father's father before his own parents. My paternal grandmother's mother was named Nancy Alberta Coffee. She was the daughter of Isaiah Coffee and Cynthia Lucas - number 10 in a family of 18 children. She was born in 1904 and died in 1998.
Nancy's father, Isaiah, was born in 1863 and died about 1936 or 1937. My father was fortunate enough to spend enough time around him to remember him a little although my dad was really young when he died. He was a mulatto. I remember my grandmother telling me that he could have passed had he wanted to. His mother was a slave and his father was the master of the plantation she lived on. His name was J.W. Coffee Jr, son of General G.W. Coffee (yeah, I know he was on the Confederate side, but what can ya do.) Isaiah at one point owned a lot of land that he was able to buy for cheap during the Reconstruction years. To this day, there is a county in south Georgia named after the family. I've been there. So through Nancy and Isaiah, I'm only 4 generations removed from slavery.
Nancy's mother's family is really interesting. Her name was Cynthia Lucas and both her parents were slaves. I don't know if either of them were mulattoes, but what I have learned is that her mother's name was Mary . Because slaves could not be taught to read, he learned to read from his master's daughter in exchange for training his horse. They had many, many children. Some were born before the Civil War and some after. One noteworthy things that bear mentioning is that before the Civil War they were sold away from each other, but after the war they found each other again and continued their lives together. Good thing for me because Cynthia, my great-grandmother, was born after that. I'm well-aware that had God not blessed them to find each other, unlike so many other families that were not ever restored, I would not be here today. Another thing is that it is reported in our family that Mary Lucas admired Abraham Lincoln and credited God for using him to free her from her bondage. My great-great-grandparents helped to found a church that is still in operation today. It's nice to go visit. I've only been twice.Through them down through Nancy, and then through my father. I am only 5 generations removed from slavery.
I want to use this post to focus on my father's family, I'll use another post to write about my mothers sometime down the line.
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