3-D Genealogy. Tools for Uncovering the Origins of Wealth and Privilege

Transcription

1 3-D Genealogy Tools for Uncovering the Origins of Wealth and Privilege Robert G. Williams, Voehringer Professor of Economics, Guilford College. Presentation January 25, UNC Center for the Study of the American South, Talk About the South, luncheon series.

2 Examples of 3-D genealogy: Katrina Browne, Traces of the Trade: A Story of the Deep North, PBS documentary, June 24, Edward Ball, Slaves in the Family, New York: Farrar, Straus & Giroux, Basic Methodology: Starting Point: 1) Traditional Genealogy 2-D Family History (vital dates + biography+ family narratives) 2) Use Primary Databases to Find the Parts Typically Left Out (where wealth came from & how passed down) 3) Put Ancestors in 3-D fact space/historical context 4) Present Evidence to Descendants for discussion Other Applications of the 3-D Methodology 3-D History of Institutions (get official history with names/dates/ narrative. Then ask, Where did the starting capital of my college, church, or home town come from?) Craig Steven Wilder, Ebony & Ivy: Race, Slavery, and the Troubled History of America s Universities, New York: Bloomsbury Press, Georgetown University- Reparations for descendants of 272 enslaved people sold into Louisiana 1838 to keep the University afloat financially Southern Baptist Convention Founding Fathers (ongoing research) UNC-CH 1793 Kenan Brick/Kenan Stadium (Professor Sturkey s work on William Rand Kenan) Douglas Blackmon, Slavery by Another Name: the Re-enslavement of Black Americans from the Civil War to World War II, (especially Birmingham, Alabama)

3 Basic Quick-Tips for do-it-yourself third dimension check-up Get 2-D names, dates (b.m.d.) & places, professional biographies/narratives For benefits from seizure of native people s lands: Bureau of Land Management, Land Patent Search state, name of individual, follow the land patent data. Download land patent list on Excel. Also has patent images, plat maps and connecting information. Do back-up context on treaty terms, how negotiated, impacts on particular groups. For participation in Enslaved Labor: Name search 1850 Federal Population Census (1 st one with names of members of household, real estate, place of birth) definitive location 1850 Federal Slave Schedules (lists under name of owner individuals by age, sex, color, plus # of slave dwellings) Do same for 1860 population census and 1860 federal slave schedules Go backsearch to 1840, 1830, 1820, 1810 population censuses by head of household (using place of birth information from 1850 to guide) these list free members of household and slaves by age, sex under head of household. Get time series of enslaved wealth and put in geographical/historical context Harder to access but richer in detail: Wills/Probate/Deed Book Records How wealth passed down to descendants (Estate Inventories (names of enslaved), Annual Executor Reports (summaries of $ s in and $ s out), Case Files (back-up receipts; detailed distributions to creditors and heirs) County will/probate/deed book records sometimes centrally archived (Alabama Department of Archives and History has extensive microfilm collection).

4 For Geographical/Historical Context of Ancestral migrations for Antebellum South East US Sam Bowers Hilliard & William J. Coopers Baton Rouge: LSU Press, 1985.

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11 Preceding slide: Using Earth Point software, Thomas H. Herndon s federal land patent acquisitions are projected onto 2013 Landsat image on Google Earth. Following slide: Alabama Black Belt federal land patent acquisitions during Thomas H. Herndon s lifetime. Earth Point Fly to Google Earth software projects onto a Google Earth Landsat image the GPS coordinates of the epicenter of the square mile section of the parcel s location. Time slider feature allows one to visualize an ancestor s acquisitions at federal auctions over time in geographical space. Can use Google Earth zoom feature to test narratives about an ancestor s accumulation strategies and to observe more recent land use details.

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