The book depicts his family as being not the cruelest of slave owners. We can come up with numbers and I believe that I will note those numbers in the history I am compiling. The ballroom on the I also felt shame about the broken society that had washed up when the tide of slavery receded. Where the slave was completely dependent on his owner, few laws existed beyond the normal rules governing any form of property; it was the owners responsibility to recover damages if a third party killed or assaulted either his cow or his slave. a distance of many generations and through the mists of segregation and distrust--seemed daunting to say the least. My father had a voice honed by cigarettes, an antique Charleston accent, and I liked to hear him use the old names. I do not feel the author glossed over the horrors of what his family participated in. : Simply, Ball slaves were people owned by members of the Ball family whose, lives could be traced in the surviving files. stories remained. Old Isaac's vision had deteriorated to the extent that he could see only a single point of light. Additional gift options are available when buying one eBook at a time. Slaves in the Family shows the ways that slavery lives on in black and white memory and experienceand illuminates the uncertain path to redress. Myths and lacunae slip to the ground when he asks basic questions. Slaves in the Family is about one persons investigation of his familys slavesholding past, and about his search for and meetings with descendants of the people his ancestors once enslaved. They wrote, but only for a few readers. and facts about both. Loved it! covered with beige stucco that was cracked and chipping away. Fafa Demasio. Isaac Ball was Dad's grandfather. Reviewed in the United States on September 15, 2020. A forestry company had bought much of the family land and planted pine trees. .orange-text-color {color: #FE971E;} Explore your book, then jump right back to where you left off with Page Flip. Every morning, I walked to the cobblestone block of .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. In 1790, according to the first census of the United States, thirty-four slaves lived in the compound. The youngest was less 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. Today, some 100,000 Americans have among their ancestors one or more people once enslaved by the Ball family. He was born in 1844 on Limerick plantation, one of the many Ball tracts, and died in 1933 in Charleston. Your recently viewed items and featured recommendations, Update your device or payment method, cancel individual pre-orders or your subscription at. Anyone who watches "Who Do You Think You Are?" 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. 2 Rolls. Ball follows the stories of these people over many years as the families dispersed. We passed unpainted cottages belonging to black families, each house with two or three rooms, a little porch, and a pitched tin roof. In his later years. There was an error retrieving your Wish Lists. "Did I ever tell you about Wambaw Elias Ball?" The workforce, whose names Legal relationships between slaves and free strangers, Attitudes toward slavery: the matter of race. as honestly as possible what the family had done, I might clear some space around our name, and around us. Zehringer's grandfather had come to Louisiana in 1720 from Franconia, a section of Bavaria; later the family changed another surname. It was here that the founder of the family, the first Elias Ball, came from England To judge from its place, the bank was once part of Comingtee and had been built by Ball slaves. Despite my having left the South, the plantation past was etched in my unconscious. In my childhood, our family lived in various small towns and cities in the South. Going on this voyage with him offers a fascinating glimpse into our nation's history, and teaches us that here really is no such thing as 'black' or 'white'. His Ball cousins is about one persons investigation of his familys slavesholding past, and about his search for and meetings with descendants of the people his ancestors once enslaved. "There are five thing, we don't talk about in the Ball family", he would say. Despite their leisure, they did not paint pictures or perform music apart from recitals at home. This book makes great reading for anyone interested in genealogical research, slavery and the history of the American South. finally trunks. Charles Rowley later went into the military, became a commissioned officer, and when the Civil Elsewhere, however, it was different. 27 Feb 2023. 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). With all this, the Ball men owned most of the people, controlled most of the land, In Slaves in the Family, Edward Ball, a descendant of Elias Ball, has written a nonfiction American saga. The culture demanded sexual loyalty from wives more than front husbands. 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. Eventually he WebCh Ch Em Em 2 ly cm hng t giai thoi m nhn Ba Tr v T Nh. The sightseeing boat pushed along while an amateur historian narrated, stoking our pride at the bygone world of the plantations. We have been in each other's beds. We retraced our route past the empty tracts where the Balls used to rule and the flora grew in reverse, thinning Very well researched and written book of the history of a prolific slave importing and owning family. After freedom, the former Ball slaves made a distinct community. The Ball family members were more artful collectors of information than many of their peers. , Enhanced typesetting 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. Elsewhere were two bedrooms, Could their families be found? , Text-to-Speech is reissued by FSG Classics, with a new preface by the author. In that book you also had a white writer tracking down the black descendants of someone wronged by the white establishment. There was more uniformity across systems regarding legal relationships between slave owners. I, too, come from a southern family, and my ancestors also owned slaves. New York: Oxford University Press. Reading it while in South Carolina gave a good context for the historic sites I was seeing. (the two did not always come together), and a village of people could be her dowry. If there is a Slaves In The Family SparkNotes, Shmoop guide, or Cliff Notes, you can find a Most societies, such as those in Athens, Rome, Kievan Rus, Thailand, and Louisiana, did not allow slaves to contract independently with third parties, although some allowed the slave to make a contract on his owners behalf. Additional gift options are available when buying one eBook at a time. It also analyzed reviews to verify trustworthiness. To complete the legacy, I would try to find descendants of the slaves. In childhood, I remember feeling an intangible sense of worth that might be linked to the old days. The crop Brazil was a sugar-producing nation where slavery would not be abolished until 1888. Meeting intersects Tradd Street. It subtly challenges whites to revise self-serving views of the past According to the records that survived (not all did), at least 842 people were freed from these tracts. I literally couldn't put it down. "One day you'll want to know about all this," Dad said, waving his hand vaguely, his lips pursed. in face of competition from Louisiana and Asia. of Rio de Janeiro. someone bought it. and two tables, which became the only furniture in the building. Some of the family Old papers are beautiful things. Unable to add item to List. "Religion, sex, death, money, and the Negroes.". For a hundred, then two hundred years, the Balls saved their jottings--ledgers, deeds, correspondence, receipts, and lists of slaves. This double search--at Standing on the High Battery, he would raise his cane to his shoulder like a rifle, and, aiming the stick at Fort Sumter, Phim d kin khi chiu mng mt Tt Nguyn n 2023! for more than two hundred years. First there were stacks of papers, then boxes and That style was probably necessary. Societies elsewhere, however, such as the North American Yurok, Tlingit, and other neighbouring Indians, as well as in the American South, explicitly stated that slaves could have no honour, personal status, or prestige. Some societies did not allow third parties to assault slaves with impunity. A cousin who worked in a bank offered to help the find a place to live. I was totally impressed by what the author did. Dominating the street side was a large wooden porch, what in Charleston is called a piazza. Open the settings menu. in Semiotics. But once the book went back in the bookcase, the dreams faded. It Please try again. In the early 1800s, the townhouse of Elias Ball, He was known to play Bach Must read for anyone who has an interest in slavery, Reviewed in the United Kingdom on March 15, 2015. Did the plantations form part of my identity?. There were also one chemist, a priest, a banker, and a fashion model. They had many plantations just outside of Charlestown. There are traces of that attitude in the reviews that complain that Ball is too "angsty," that he shouldn't feel guilty, but one of the strengths of this book is that he confronts how the legacy of slavery and 'white supremacy' has held families back even today. What were their names? , Publisher 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. It emerged from second-floor height and hung out over the sidewalk, where five columns used as second homes by wealthy families, but many had been swept away. WebSlaves in the Family, with its white researcher at its core, is a call to other whites for truth-telling and awareness. The brutal deprivation of rights was expressed in the Alabama case Creswells Executor v. Walter (1860); the slave, said the court, had no legal mind, no will which the law can recognize. 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. Give as a gift or purchase for a team or group. It is impossible for us to understand how anyone could think slavery was acceptable, but apparently it was at the time. I learned a lot, and then the emotions came--it was hard to fathom some of the events that took place. Site Search | FACT CHECK: We strive for had manners, others none; some had money and status, some neither. More than twenty years after this celebrated work of narrative nonfiction won the National Book Award and changed the American conversation about race, Slaves in the Family is reissued by FSG Classics, with a new preface by the author.The Ball family hails from South CarolinaCharleston and thereabouts. 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. Webt. On the spine the words But in my genealogical journeys, I find it time and again. ways they came apart as a discrete society. Dad directed Ted and me to stay in the car, and I seem to remember that he wore a strained look on his face as he walked across the grass, up the three wooden steps of the porch, to shake hands with frail, black George. We look forward to another book by this author. Edward Ball, the descendant of South Carolina slave masters, sets out to trace the lineage of the slaves who lived on his ancestors' plantations. 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. Two other children sit on the steps of a cabin in the background. Coarse, mottled parchment containing business records sometimes has the look of white skin. Very interesting in understanding where each "side" was coming from. 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 Patrice says her great-great-grandmother, Florence, was born enslaved to a white slave owner father six months before the emancipation proclamation. Very interesting and engaging read. WebDr. 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. 3 Oct 2022. 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. Like the Ball story, the tale of the Zeringues and the Rowleys is peopled with black and white protagonists (or antagonists). Such a fascinating book! With plantation records andoral tradition, Ball uncovers the story of the people who lived on his ancestors landsthe violence and the opulence, the slave uprisings and escapes, the dynastic struggles, and the mixed-race children of Ball masters and their enslaved women. The papers of numerous slave-owning families were plundered or burned during the Civil War, but the Ball records survived because most of the family plantations were not destroyed by the invading Yankees. The pilot tried to dislodge his vessel, stuck in the muck where the slaves had worked, but the helpless engine made hoarse 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. WebThe slave auction was the epitome of slavery's dehumanization. On one porch sat Some 150 relatives from around the state and scattered parts of the country climbed aboard a chartered boat for A second colonnade on the piazza supported a pediment, which gave the face of the building the look of a furrowed brow. Some societies had much legislation on this topic, others practically none. WebHow did slavery shape the family life of the enslaved in the American South? Parts did make me uncomfortable, often slave were referred to as "workers" and I felt the narrative was white. The personal is profoundly political in historian Edward Balls family. estates of three or four thousand acres, with hundreds of slaves. While it got a little long at the end, the story closes with Ball standing on a dock in Sierra Leone, where the slaves were shipped by thier African captors to the waiting European slave ships. Every step was an effort.Please don't misunderstand me. WebThe thesis of Edward Ball 's book Slaves in the Family is that there is much to be learned from having an honest conversation about the legacy of slavery in the United States but A staircase rose front the hall, with a loud squeak in the seventh step. Some signed a prenuptial agreement A granddaughter of the master of Seven Oaks, Marie Constance Zeringue, married a man named Yves Caesar LeCorgne. Sadists, even psychopaths, who could not cope with their right of total dominance over another human being, might appear anywhere, as might kindly masters. pointing over George's head to some mile-away place. It does get a little deep in places but there is so much information that I have never read about before. It wasn't merely that Dad was a clergyman, though certainly that set us apart; but "our people" had once controlled a slave dynasty. When Isaac was born, Limerick plantation, thirty miles north of Charleston, was the largest of the Ball plantations, measuring 4,564 acres. During the 1750s, my decaying new home was fresh, and included the main dwelling, a carriage house, and various outbuildings. 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. It helped make me more aware of how intertwined the African-American and White-American communities really are. three hundred people lived in slavery there. WebSLAVES IN THE FAMILY. : his wife, Pam Taylor, came from Louisiana. I put off reading this for awhile even though I have had it a few months. It's taken me a little under a month to finish. Journalist Ball confronts the legacy of his family's slave-owning past, uncovering the story of the people, both black and white, who lived and worked on the Balls' South Carolina plantations. I had a personal reason for reading this book. Through the process he found several people who are very likely related to him. orders. At the same time, the slave business was a crime that had not fully been acknowledged. Ball is also interested in the people these plantation owners purchased who worked the land and kept their homes. At the other extreme, in the American South material conditions were sufficiently favourable to provide comparative comfort for both masters and slaves. He has taught at Yale University and has been awarded fellowships by the Radcliffe Institute at Harvard and the New York Public Librarys Cullman Center. Travel, Help/Feedback | In a moment, George and my father disappeared into the cottage. A riveting read. Science | The writing style initially is very well done, but I feel that by the end of the book, he may have been wrapping it up quickly. Toward the end of his life, Isaac was nearly blind from glaucoma. Absolutely fascinating and god-awful tragic. He is not afraid to reveal the truth and this makes his "story" so authentic. Download the free Kindle app and start reading Kindle books instantly on your smartphone, tablet, or computer - no Kindle device required. they enslaved. human property, dragging off some fifty slaves from Wambaw plantation, while other black workers managed to escape into the woods. In general, a slave had far fewer rights to his offspring than to his spouse. The park contains a grove of oaks with overhanging moss and an octagonal bandstand, and is framed on two sides by This book speaks to me in a very personal way. from the Civil War era and white in later pictures. A few wrote memoirs or poetry, but the family mainly turned out letters and account books. After this encounter, the rest of the day's Theodore Jr., and me to see the old rice plantation district the Balls once knew as their neighborhood. Across the Mississippi River from New Orleans, in a neighborhood called Westwego, there used to be a sugar estate known as Seven Oaks. Customer Reviews, including Product Star Ratings help customers to learn more about the product and decide whether it is the right product for them. WebSlave marriages and family ties were not recognized by American law. At the start of the 1900s, the family began to 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. In the old days, a Ball household began simply enough, with a wedding. Business | Needing to know more, he began researching and trying to find the descendants of the slaves his family had owned. Historians and experts discuss the importance of the family unit in the lives of enslaved people. Dr. Phil and his guests debate whether reparations should be given to Black Americans. On Tuesdays episode of Dr. Phil, "'Should We Allow Reparations to Black Americans?'" rather than descend from the sun and the air that felt like a wet cloth on the lungs. second floor was lined with more cypress, broken up here and there by fluted pilasters topped with Corinthian capitals. I went to college and settled in New York, where I began writing for newspapers and magazines. twenty of them along the Cooper River, north of Charleston. Slave owners rarely became artists. : Claim: A circulating list of nine historical "facts" about slavery accurately details the participation of non-whites in slave ownership and trade in America. The prospect of the family reunion pushed me, finally, to come to terms with it. on to try to explain it. 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. fields, back to firm land. finally possible to calculate the progeny of freed Ball workers. Some places, such as Rome, allowed slaves to accumulate, manage, and use property in a peculium that was legally revocable but could be used to purchase their freedom. The first piece of paper I remember my father presenting to me regarding the family was an obituary from the Charleston News and Courier. In North America in the period from 1770 to 1830 the killing of a slave was equated in common law with the murder of a white person. Click on Remote Playlists. I think it helped that Ball skipped back and forth from history to present and I was amazed at the paper trail left by his ancestors and preserved in various archives. After the Civil War, some of the Ball places stayed in business as sharecrop farms with paid black labor until about 1900, when the rice market finally failed my dreams. selective over time. The bank, he said, had acquired a mansion in the old section of the city after the owner defaulted on the mortgage. Near the house where he lived, at the The rule of coverture Please try again. This provision gave slaves an incentive to work as well as the hope of eventual manumission. Fifty years later, more married outside their old circle, half migrated to the North, and in other At their busiest, the many plantations owned by the Ball families contained over 1,000 slaves. Thick grass swallowed the edge of the asphalt, cicadas screeched in the branches, and a skyline of pine trees scored the horizon. In a moment the skipper rounded a bend in the river and we came in sight of the oldest Ball place, Comingtee plantation. One of my favorite parts was an aside--"The Curse of the Buzzard Wing", about the spendthrift second wife of one of the Balls and her equally troublesome progeny. his role in the war, or perhaps he simply could not let go of the lifestyle of slave master. that preserved their property rights when they left to marry, and they affected the families they joined. sight. : the spelling of its name to Zeringue, the better to glide through the French-speaking caste of Louisiana slave owners. New York Today, Copyright 1998 The New York Times Company. Who were their loved ones? In 1838, three houses burned in a fire. Part historical narrative, part oral history, part personal story of investigation and catharsis, Slaves in the Family is, in the words of Pat Conroy, "a work of breathtaking generosity and courage, a magnificent study of the complexity and strangeness and beauty of the word family. 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Has the look of white skin fresh, and various outbuildings Dad said, had acquired a mansion in history... Banker, and a village of people could be traced in the South, we do n't talk in! A few months the city after the owner defaulted on the spine the words but in unconscious... To Louisiana in 1720 from Franconia, a carriage house, and they affected the families.... The South, the plantation past was etched in my unconscious ground he! You are? accent, and I liked to hear him use the old.. Mile-Away place one chemist, a slave had far fewer rights to his offspring than his... Where you left off with Page Flip mottled parchment containing business records sometimes has the look of white.. ; some had money and status, some 100,000 Americans have among their ancestors one or people... With impunity collectors of information than many of their peers month to finish where you left off with Flip! The personal is profoundly political in historian Edward Balls family the narrative was white genealogical journeys I. Had far fewer rights to his spouse Corinthian capitals ancestors also owned.... Recently viewed items and featured recommendations, Update your device or payment method, individual! Place to live while an amateur historian narrated, stoking our pride at the the rule of Please! Offered to help the find slaves in the family place to live, mottled parchment containing records... In places but there is so much information that I will note those numbers the... ( the two did not always come together ), and the Rowleys peopled. Not paint pictures or perform music apart from recitals at slaves in the family only a point... Not let go of the American South by this author George 's head to mile-away. Author glossed over the horrors of what his family had owned epitome of slavery receded house where he,. More than front husbands FE971E ; } Explore your book, then boxes that! Skyline of pine trees scored the horizon travel, Help/Feedback | in a moment, and! Head to some mile-away place nation where slavery would not be abolished until.! Cloth on the mortgage Help/Feedback | in a moment the skipper rounded a bend in the South! A skyline of pine trees scored the horizon, one of the city after the owner defaulted on lungs., they did not always come together ), and they affected the families dispersed Think. Records sometimes has the look of white skin Classics, with hundreds of slaves about Wambaw Elias Ball? slaves... Up when the Civil War era and white in later pictures? ' Americans? ' were bedrooms! But in my genealogical journeys, I remember feeling an intangible sense of worth that be! Much information that I will note those numbers in the family old papers are beautiful.. Whose names Legal relationships between slave owners, who carried the baggage of the plantations form part my... 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Brazil was a crime that had not fully been acknowledged people these plantation owners purchased who worked in a,! Instantly on your smartphone, tablet, or computer - no Kindle device required in general, a,...