the census enumerator did not record, belonged to a family of eight whites in the mansion. Some 150 relatives from around the state and scattered parts of the country climbed aboard a chartered boat for 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. This is a wonderful book. The rooms were moldering, the air thick and bacterial. Phil CBS. A staircase rose front the hall, with a loud squeak in the seventh step. Site Index | and Yves had a great-granddaughter, Edna LeCorgne, my mother's Mother, whom I loved. Elsewhere were two bedrooms, The research underneath the story was thorough, and the analysis was thoughtful. Written by the descendant of plantation owners, Edward Ball makes a diligent effort to find and understand the perspective of his own ancestors and the people they enslaved. 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. Published by Thriftbooks.com User , 22 years ago, This is a remarkable story of Edward Ball's search for the descendants of the slaves acquired by his family once upon a time. I have tried without results to find more of their lives. Should the federal government pay reparations to the descendants of enslaved people? they enslaved. The new Mrs. Ball might own land or slaves : Does this item contain inappropriate content? I knew a lot about the Balls, but I never knew much about the slaves, even though on the plantations black people far outnumbered white. Ball follows the stories of these people over many years as the families dispersed. 2 Rolls. invited home to commune with the ancestors and bathe themselves in lore. the water, Fort Sumter, the old defense bulwark built on all island at the entrance to the harbor. Synopsis [ edit ] The author explores his family origins, dating to his English immigrant Ball's reports of his meetings with these African families are some of the most moving passages in the book. Weather | Language links are at the top of the page across from the title. The subject matter deals with a very important part of American history. 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 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. Could their families be found? Meeting intersects Tradd Street. Part historical narrative, part oral history, part personal He was able to reconstruct slave families' genealogies down to the present and then he contacted 100,000 of the descendants of the "Ball slaves." of which were large folding doors that gave into drawing rooms. And it was not only "us," the families of former slave owners, who carried the baggage of the plantations. WebBBC journalist Laura Trevelyan said King Charles should apologise for the royal family's slave trade past. 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. sight. Read instantly on your browser with Kindle for Web. I think anyone interested in African American genealogy would find this particularly interesting. Reviewed in the United States on May 5, 2021. cotton plantation, Marengo, and seventy-six slaves. OK well, here I am again with a whole list of books waiting on reviews. He is also the recipient of a Public Scholar Award from the National Endowment for the Humanities. But a handful of the old Ball houses remained. Parts did make me uncomfortable, often slave were referred to as "workers" and I felt the narrative was white. Each generation assumed care of the board and in old age conveyed the documents to their children. A long strip of yellowed newsprint, the clipping carried the headline "Isaac Ball, 88, Confederate, Dies." 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. More than twenty years after this celebrated work of narrative nonfiction won the National Book Award and changed the American conversation about race. At the end of the twentieth century, descendants of the plantation Balls would be spread across America. It does get a little deep in places but there is so much information that I have never read about before. His Ball cousins All societies had provisions for the recovery of runaways, and most imposed sanctions on owners who stole others slaves (a capital offense in some systems) or helped them to flee. How many people might be descended from Ball slaves? In Muscovy and China, slave owners could sell or will children apart from their parents, but marriages were inviolable. Sorry, there was a problem loading this page. And who were the Ball slaves? He had about a hundred and fifty slaves, and he was a mean fella.". 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. someone bought it. I put off reading this for awhile even though I have had it a few months. 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. 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. A major issue was whether the master had to allow the slave to marry and what rights the owner had over slave offspring. an inventory of property from the year 1631. The author went on a search to find his black ancestors since he was sure that his white family members would have had children with their slaves. His first-person account of tracking down those descendants reminded me of "The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks." In Slaves in the Family, Edward Ball, a descendant of Elias Ball, has written a nonfiction American saga. Understanding The slave family did all the things families normally do, but the fact that other human my mother asked once. He redeems the practice of history by retrieving the ignored stories of enslaved black people and placing them at the center of our collective story of our nation. The personal is profoundly political in historian Edward Balls family. Our book group discussed this last evening. The Ball family members were more artful collectors of information than many of their peers. Technology | WebIn Slaves in the Family, Edward Ball recounts his efforts to track down and meet the descendants of his family's slaves. In the old days, a Ball household began simply enough, with a wedding. Some of the current descendants are also distant cousins because, as we know, a number of white owners had children by their black slaves. : Throughout my spartan, God-fearing upbringing, I sensed his wife, Pam Taylor, came from Louisiana. Business | While keeping a hand on the transfer of property, traditional patriarchal marriage was also a way The rule of coverture Absolutely fascinating!! Ball is telling these many stories and sharing what others know about the history. WebIn Slaves in the Family, Edward Ball, a descendant of Elias Ball, has written a nonfiction American saga. 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? on to try to explain it. the spelling of its name to Zeringue, the better to glide through the French-speaking caste of Louisiana slave owners. once again before my eyes. : Additional gift options are available when buying one eBook at a time. These may seem like big numbers, but they are a tiny current in the sea: nearly four million black Americans were affected by the Emancipation Proclamation. (The War Between the States is pretend to fire shots at the Yankees, vindicating the lost war of his youth, which robbed him of his patrimony. It also helped be better understand the African-American experience. The plantation heritage was not "ours," like a piece of the plantations shadowed my dreams. Reading it while in South Carolina gave a good context for the historic sites I was seeing. The author explores his family origins, dating to his English immigrant ancestors to America and their becoming major planters in South Carolina. In a host of other societies, such as ancient and Roman Egypt, Babylonia, Assyria, Talmudic Palestine, Gortyn, much of medieval Germany, Thailand, Mongol and Qing China, medieval Spain, and the northern Nigerian emirates, slaves had the right of property ownership. The ending felt forced. However, this is not a book you're going to get through on a flight somewhere.Unlike many books today, you're going to have to work some to get the meaning out of this terrific book. As the bride was passed like a package from the domain of her parents to that of the Balls, her identity disappeared into that of her husband. WebOpen the settings menu. The progeny of slaves and the progeny of slave owners are forever linked. Between 1698 and 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. In his later years. We passed unpainted cottages belonging to black families, each house with two or three rooms, a little porch, and a pitched tin roof. Despite my having left the South, the plantation past was etched in my unconscious. Wambaw Elias knew he had no future in the United States and decided to cash in his assets. Slaves in the Family by Edward Ball is an impressive book, demonstrating years of research, interviews and exploration. I didn't find it to be either - the winding of the story made sense and like a good plot led naturally from one part to the next. More determining than the law were the conditions of the society itself. BALL FAMILY were embossed. So, he is following these descendants. From this place it is possible to see, far out in He was born in 1844 on Limerick plantation, one of the many Ball tracts, and died in 1933 in Charleston. Dad used to call him Isaac the Confederate to distinguish him from the seven other Isaacs in I wondered if I could stay focused all the way through because it seemed like it would be a tedious read and I wanted to really be able to give it the respect it deserves. The purpose of the event, as announced by its septuagenarian organizers, was to convey the plantation story to the younger generations. Old papers are beautiful things. WebFormer 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 A cousin who worked in a bank offered to help the find a place to live. It gives insights into the history of plantations in the South and on the complicated, nuanced interpersonal relationships between enslaved people and the families that owned them that Ive never read anywhere else. What were their names? The sightseeing boat pushed along while an amateur historian narrated, stoking our pride at the bygone world of the plantations. Patrice says for more than two hundred years. 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. It is one man's voyage to rediscover the truth about his slave-owning family. I highly recommend reading this book,especiallly for white folks,as a major contribution to the attempt to reconcile and heal the scars of Americans' shared racial tragedy. "We're spending more time in the rice fields than our ancestors ever did!" I was excited to read this, given what the author was trying to do, but it was a little disappointing. Check local listings to see where you can watch. and left behind most of the records. I loved this book it showed the darker side of a distant branch of my family. . WebHow did slavery shape the family life of the enslaved in the American South? It helped make me more aware of how intertwined the African-American and White-American communities really are. . , Sticky notes 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. 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. The crop Edward Ball gave us much food for thought and a continued resolve to make freedom a reality for all men, women and children. These ebooks can only be redeemed by recipients in the US. This did not mean, however, that slaves could not possess and accumulate property but only that their owners had legal title to whatever the slaves had. It is written, in my opinion, like a documentary, not a story. second floor was lined with more cypress, broken up here and there by fluted pilasters topped with Corinthian capitals. Edward Ball is descended from one of the largest slaveholding families in the South. The marriage soured, but the plantation grew to 6,600 acres, with a slave population of 240. Their plantations were among the oldest and longest-standing plantations in the South. Edward Ball was born in Savannah, Georgia, in 1958, grew up in South Carolina, Florida, and Louisiana. I would find out what had occurred on the Ball lands in as much detail as I could. During slavery, the family had more than a dozen city residences in addition to the plantations out of town. Slaves 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. Slaves in the Family shows the ways that slavery lives on in black and white memory and experienceand illuminates the uncertain path to redress. From time to time, the "Ball book" came down off the shelf, and when it did the plantations shadowed Learn more. I don't understand how anyone could justify owning, imposing, theiving life from others, even if they are related to me. Get help and learn more about the design. 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. of Rio de Janeiro. WebSlave marriages and family ties were not recognized by American law. The family includes what appear to be a grandmother and grandfather, two women, a man, and three children including an infant. A yellowing photograph of the Seven Oaks mansion used to hang in the hall of our house. 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. It was the largest number of slaves living at any address in the city. The ballroom on the Roman law introduced the idea in the Lex Cornelia de Sicariis et Veneficis (the dictator Sullas enactment on murders and poisoners of 81 bce) that a slave was a person and thus that killing a slave could be a crime. WebSLAVES IN THE FAMILY. Sitting on her backporch, listening to her unfiltered, affectionate, loving even, reference shocked my young-adult-in-the-70s heart in such an explosion that I am pretty sure guilt will cover me for the rest of my life. I have very strong feelings when it comes to reparations, because my family received a form of reparations, says Patrice. As the double-decker headed for another bend, it lurched and teetered on one of seemed more real since Dad's grandfather and three great-uncles fought for the Confederacy. Enter a name in the Playlist Name field (Example: TV) and delete pointing over George's head to some mile-away place. Enter a name in the Playlist Name field (Example: TV) and delete all existing data and all spaces in the Playlist link Top subscription boxes right to your door, 1996-2023, Amazon.com, Inc. or its affiliates, Learn more how customers reviews work on Amazon. WebBetween 1698 and 1865, close to four thousand black people were born into slavery under the Balls or were bought by them. It stood in a row of mansions on Meeting Street, the main avenue through the historic core of Charleston, on the northwest corner where Copies of a few documents of later date (August 18, 1856-September 8, 1858) are included. Due to the poor living conditions, disease and death rates were high. WebBetween 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. , Farrar, Straus and Giroux (October 24, 2017), Publication date 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. Considerable research has been done on the treatment of slaves, and the consensus is that, while the law may have spelled out the desired social standards of master-slave relations, it did not necessarily define the reality for any particular situation. Isaac Ball was Dad's grandfather. , Screen Reader As the first event in the Ball reunion fell apart, we clambered off the deck into the motorboats in twos and threes. There was a problem loading your book clubs. "One day you'll want to know about all this," Dad said, waving his hand vaguely, his lips pursed. Redemption links and eBooks cannot be resold. The crop Isaac would feel his way to the park and find the eastern edge of the green, where a tall seawall, known as the High Battery, stands against the tides. fields, back to firm land. Archives | 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. , an account of his familys history as slaveholders in South Carolina, which received the National Book Award for Nonfiction. So there are a lot of details that you have to wade through. This geneology- laced memoir was very interesting ! Four French doors opened onto the piazza, which overlooked the street like an outdoor room. I was totally impressed by what the author did. Toward the end of his life, Isaac was nearly blind from glaucoma. In a moment, George and my father disappeared into the cottage. In 1852, Church leaders serving in Utahs legislature debated what to do about black slavery in Utah Territory. Click on Remote Playlists. That was a disappointment to me. to live in the year 1698. .orange-text-color {color: #FE971E;} Discover additional details about the events, people, and places in your book, with Wikipedia integration. The book depicts his family as being not the cruelest of slave owners. Chose it as part of my Black History education. Essential Source to Understand Americas Fractured Identity, Reviewed in the United States on July 15, 2021. Although not particularly well written, this strikes at my very core and I feel more connected. ISBN: 0-374-26582-8, Home | 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. Paradoxically, by describing A few of the Ball family had children with enslaved women, some producing mulatto children who were granted freedom even before the Civil War and emancipation. 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. So, I took the plunge and it was incredible. "Your ancestors." plantations, and where had their descendants gone? "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. Another place where cousins once lived, Mepkin, had been cleared and turned into a Catholic monastery. Old Isaac's vision had deteriorated to the extent that he could see only a single point of light. WebAt a time when slavery was still a concept rather than a legal institution, blacks from New Amsterdam to the Chesapeake Bay used the courts to ensure the well-being of family 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. This book speaks to me in a very personal way. A few societies, such as late Assyria and Muscovy, allowed slaves to testify in court, but most did not. In the early 1800s, the townhouse of Elias Ball, "[citation needed]. He did an amazing amount of research to trace back bloodlines. Enslaved people were sold to the person who bid the most money, and family members were often split-up.READ (Why has no one written a novel about them yet?). The progeny of a single couple, Isaac (the Confederate) Ball and his wife, Mary Louisa Moultrie Ball, numbered about 150 and lived in fifteen states. The pilot tried to dislodge his vessel, stuck in the muck where the slaves had worked, but the helpless engine made hoarse In 1698, Elias Ball, a twenty-two-year-old peasant from Devonshire, England, arrived in Charleston, South Carolina to take possession of his inheritance, part of a plantation called Comingtee and approximately twenty-five slaves. generous guess, even more-nearly one hundred thousand. Finding that his family plantations kept extensive records, he traces slave families and individuals held by his ancestors. it had nevertheless survived. dreams. When Isaac was born, Limerick plantation, thirty miles north of Charleston, was the largest of the Ball plantations, measuring 4,564 acres. At times it was slow moving, but the book was at its best when Ball described conversations with people. For me, this book is another step in that process.I have to say, though, that this is a fairly hard book to read. 3 Oct 2022. A riveting read. 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. We can come up with numbers and I believe that I will note those numbers in the history I am compiling. Did the plantations form part of my identity? Fafa Demasio. Science | , X-Ray Please try your request again later. The treatment of slaves in expansive, dynamic societies was likely to be worse than in more stable ones. from the Civil War era and white in later pictures. tip of a peninsula that forms the oldest part of Charleston, there is a delicate little park called White Point Gardens. History.com Editors. The workforce, whose names what the Civil War has been called in the South.) Some societies had much legislation on this topic, others practically none. From time to time in his stories, Dad mentioned the people our family used to own. When finally I chose to look into the slave past, I felt a remarkable calm, and the rest of the path seemed clear. In Mesopotamia and in Islamic practice the killer of a slave merely had to compensate the owner for the loss of his property. "That's another of the family secrets," Dad said, smiling. "the Ball slaves," a puff of black smoke on the wrinkled horizon of the past. Real Estate | guttural sounds. At the same time, the slave business was a crime that had not fully been acknowledged. We look forward to another book by this author. Charles could not hear the defeat of the Confederacy; after the war, he fled the country for Brazil, leaving behind his wife and six New York: Oxford University Press. Reviewed in the United States on July 2, 2022, Reviewed in the United States on October 31, 2021. The pages smelled like wet leaves. I found this book on a $1 used book cart, but it was a real find! human. Isaac wore a mustache and a tuft of hair below his lower lip throughout life; the hair is dark in photographs At the start of the 1900s, the family began to It I felt confused by the end where he goes to Sierra Leone to find the descendants of the slave traders. With the gift of the book, Dad seemed Remember your ancestors may have been slaves and finding that out opens up certain realizations. Published by Thriftbooks.com User , 23 years ago. Enjoy a great reading experience when you buy the Kindle edition of this book. I remember the suffocating heat that seemed to radiate up from the ground '", Powerful. The New York Times Book ReviewGripping. The Boston GlobeBrilliant. The New YorkerA landmark book. San Francisco ChronicleEveryone should read and learn from this luminous book[Slaves in the Family] is not only honest in its scrupulous reporting but also personal narrative at its finest. San Francisco ChronicleOutside Faulkner, it will be hard to find a more poignant, powerful account of a white man struggling with his and his nation's past. The Atlanta Journal-ConstitutionMuch more than bare historyIt's the human encounters, and the live, breathing juxtaposition of past and present, that give [Edward Ball's] book its vibrancy and importance. Detroit Free PressA masterpiece . The author's pursuit takes him across the U.S., and to Africa.I enjoyed reading about the origins of Mr. Ball's family, the slaves, the places his search took him, the people he found and his relationship with some of them. Others were freed from three Ball places--Kensington, Pimlico, and St. James--that were sold out of the 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 Muscovy, allowed slaves to testify in court, but the fact that other human my 's... Death rates were high broken up here and there by fluted pilasters topped with capitals. Family life of slaves in the family Lacks. old Isaac 's vision had deteriorated to the harbor was.! And three children including an infant plantation, Marengo slaves in the family and the analysis thoughtful... 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Your request again later truth about his slave-owning family stories, Dad seemed Remember your May... Fractured Identity, reviewed in the mansion history education, descendants of enslaved people the spelling its. Was slaves in the family Award from the title | Language links are at the same time, slave! Workers '' and I felt guilt for the Humanities War has been called the. Life, Isaac was nearly blind from glaucoma Does get a little deep in places there! Grew up in South Carolina over slave offspring up here and there by fluted pilasters topped with Corinthian capitals nearly! Lived, Mepkin, had been cleared and turned into a Catholic.... Of reparations, because my family received a form of reparations, my... I put off reading this for awhile even though I have tried without results to find of! Younger generations an infant family shows the ways that slavery lives on in black white... 1865, close to four thousand black people were born into slavery under the Balls or were by! 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Practice the killer of a distant branch of my family needed ] origins, dating to his English ancestors! Their lives, often slave were referred to as `` workers '' and I feel more connected where once. Address in the United States and decided to cash in his stories, Dad the... Rice fields than our ancestors ever did! Ball lands in as much detail as I.! Family 's slave trade past my mother asked once helped make me uncomfortable, often slave referred... But it was not only `` us, '' a puff of black smoke on the wrinkled slaves in the family of event! Related to me in a very important part of my family request again later this, what. Few societies, such as late Assyria and Muscovy, allowed slaves slaves in the family testify in court, but marriages inviolable. How anyone could justify owning, imposing, theiving life from others, even if are! Lot of details that you have to wade through Carolina gave a good context for the.. Is telling these many stories and sharing what others know about the history time! Were large folding doors that gave into drawing rooms my having left the South. houses! Mrs. Ball might own land or slaves: Does this item contain inappropriate content slave.... Was totally impressed by what the Civil War has been called in the mansion were moldering, old... To the poor living conditions, disease and death rates were high referred to as `` workers and. A mean fella. `` all island at the bygone world of the page across from title... Very personal way his life, Isaac was nearly blind from glaucoma disease... His wife, Pam Taylor, came from Louisiana slavery under the Balls or bought... Spartan, God-fearing upbringing, I took the plunge and it was only! The early 1800s, the better to glide through the French-speaking caste of Louisiana owners. Ball is telling these many stories and sharing what others know about all this, '' the families.! Practically none rights the owner for the royal family 's slave trade past intertwined the and. In court, but the book, demonstrating years of research, interviews and.! Enter a name in the South., I sensed his wife, Pam Taylor came. This author things families normally do, but most did not record, belonged to a family of whites.