I've told a number of people through the years, that I use the mornings as research time, no matter where I call home. I sit with coffee, and I read, and write, and search for things old and unknown. Discoveries. Documents, photos. I've been called a detective of sorts.
Yesterday, as I was wondering if I had been sitting too long in this apartment (I'm living in Chiang Mai Thailand right now), I came across a stash of old wills and probate papers. It always happens like this, right when I'm about to pull the plug, something comes my way. It was a kind of estate accounting from 1862. Some business, er, executors, er whatever whoever it was at the time, was trying to value an estate. And that's when I saw the short list of "negros," right above "1 Bed & Furniture," "1 Bureau," and "1 Falling leaf Table."
Now I have to say, it's nothing new to see a list like this, the dichotomy of valuing human life with that of furniture. The shock of it. The internal sadness. But this was my family. Maybe not my direct line, not my West family line, but it was close enough to cause me pause. I had gone for so many years saying, thinking to myself, that my family (as compared to yours), by whatever circumstance, had not touched upon this evil. The buying and selling, the using, the ownership of slaves. Black slaves. African slaves.
By the way, this family, the DeArmond family, comes down through my mother's line. Not to disparage my mother, as she had about as much choice as me as to whom she descends, but it was not the West clan. Though really, that has more to do with location than anything. My dad's West family from the north and my mom's family all from the south. North Carolina south. Hell, one man in that line is now "famous" for recording the "rebel yell" (the Confederate scream) when recorded audio first came about, that's how south it is. Gosh those people are proud of that. Another story another day?
Yesterday, as I was wondering if I had been sitting too long in this apartment (I'm living in Chiang Mai Thailand right now), I came across a stash of old wills and probate papers. It always happens like this, right when I'm about to pull the plug, something comes my way. It was a kind of estate accounting from 1862. Some business, er, executors, er whatever whoever it was at the time, was trying to value an estate. And that's when I saw the short list of "negros," right above "1 Bed & Furniture," "1 Bureau," and "1 Falling leaf Table."
Now I have to say, it's nothing new to see a list like this, the dichotomy of valuing human life with that of furniture. The shock of it. The internal sadness. But this was my family. Maybe not my direct line, not my West family line, but it was close enough to cause me pause. I had gone for so many years saying, thinking to myself, that my family (as compared to yours), by whatever circumstance, had not touched upon this evil. The buying and selling, the using, the ownership of slaves. Black slaves. African slaves.
By the way, this family, the DeArmond family, comes down through my mother's line. Not to disparage my mother, as she had about as much choice as me as to whom she descends, but it was not the West clan. Though really, that has more to do with location than anything. My dad's West family from the north and my mom's family all from the south. North Carolina south. Hell, one man in that line is now "famous" for recording the "rebel yell" (the Confederate scream) when recorded audio first came about, that's how south it is. Gosh those people are proud of that. Another story another day?
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