History And Ancestry Related To A Slavery Biography

By Roger Wagner


With the onset of yet another era in what appears a major issue with racial equality, it is more important than ever to understand the past when it comes to this issue. While personal experience remains limited, there are some publications which were written by actual slaves. One of these publications reflects the slavery biography of a Slave which describes the experience of the Reverend Charles Thompson as a child during slavery in the American south.

The biography was published in 1875 and is often used by professors and scholars when studying or teaching on the topic. In the book, the Reverend explains the time and experiences as a young boy in detail. In fact, the book has often been referred to as being as close to the text of a witness that one could get in what is only a few documented experiences provided directly by anyone from the period.

Born in Atala County, Mississippi, Charles lived and worked on a plantation until the time the mother died at the age of 37. At which time, the uncle, fearing separation from a wife hid from slave owners and blood hounds. After learning that an owner would allow the couple to work on a farm together, the uncle surrendered.

Left alone on the Kirkwood plantation, Charles began to work on the plantation as a young boy. Then, when Mr. Kirkwood died when boy was only 9, the slaves were separated in fear of an attempted escape and rebellion due to the number of slaves Kirkwood owned on multiple plantations. As such, once an adult Charles was hired out to a number of different plantations by different owners who would pay the highest price.

The stories of the uncle and the author are closely shadowed in a film called Django Unchained, and a mini-series which first aired in the 1970s called Roots, by historian and filmmaker Alex Hailey. Both of these stories portray slavery in a truer light than others. As such, while difficult to watch, it is an important story that needs to be told again and again throughout history.

In most cases, during the slave trade, slaves were considered personal property who could be owned, sold and traded by plantation owners and slave masters. While entire families may have been sold into the system, many were later sold separately and families destroyed. Whereas, those whom refused to do assigned chores, attempted to escape or rebelled, were often punished severely.

Most slaves had to perform chores, duties and other tasks as requested or face severe punishment. During the slave trade, this work was performed free of charge. While room and board were often included on the plantation, most quarters were in poor condition with the slaves being offered very little in the way of food, drink or nourishment.

Even now, there are ties back to the slave owners and masters of that time. For, many of those individuals participated in raping female slaves who later had children as a result of the incident. With new DNA testing such as Ancestry and others, there are now a number of individuals now discovering ties back to slavery which exist in family heritage.




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