I found letters from a slave-holding great great uncle

[GoddessOfGuinness]

to my g-g-g grandfather on the internet. There are also a couple of documents that listed "plantation rules" which turned my stomach, and some papers dealing with a scandal that forced this uncle to leave Alabama and settle in Texas.

It was fascinating and horrifying at the same time, reading as my own flesh and blood discussed people as property...describing one woman as a "rascal" that needed to be sold, and apparently embarrassed that another was going to have a white baby "judging from her conduct".

Reading these things makes me want to find out what happened to the the people that my ancestors enslaved and abused. Not that I could make amends; but it seems like someone could at least apologize...

Does anyone have any idea how I could attempt to locate them?

[Fenris]

1. I doubt it.

Unfortunately. You would have to do years of research. And even then your chance of finding them are slim to none.

[seventhson]

9. I disagree

people are interested in this and more and more info is coming available. The hard part is finding curtrent genealogical info on living people which is generally confidential.

Church records (black and white churches usually had baptismal and membership and wedding records etc.) help a lot.

Also advertising by name on the intertnet and elsewhere.

I met, by coincidence, Native Americans who had an ancestral relative who worked and lived in my ancestors home curing meats, working with herbs, cooking, etc..

Now I still live near this home and so they researched back to where I live (we were introduced by an archaeologist whom they had consulted - a friend of mine who referred them to me as I have done some extensive Native genealogical research - at a seminar)

So if you search you may well find. Names, dates of birth, and willingness to search through long registries for names (often easier to search by "color" or ethnicity depending on who you are looking for).

[seventhson]

2. You might try birth death and marriage records

for that town and county. Then trace the names forwards (find the births then look for the narriages and deaths of those names a few decades later, etc.)

The Mormons have a huge database which might help, though I have never used it online. They like to keep records for judgment day, so they are pretty thorough.

[GoddessOfGuinness]

5. There's a scary thought...

Me going to the Mormons... :D

[LDS Jock]

7. about the Mormon database

I don't think it will help for finding those still living. I am Mormon, I've submitted what feels like a zillion names, and when you are making submissions you are supposed to take off the names of those still living. There are some exceptions, and not everyone follows the rules, but its not likely to be very productive. I hesitate to bring up another reason but I will. There aren't that many black Mormons. Since members are the ones doing the research for their own families, it lessens the chances you'll find the info you are looking for.

[DemBones DemBones]

13. I'll add to that: although I am white, the Mormon records have not

helped me so far in my genealogical work. Mormons are tracing their own families, as I understand it, so if there's no "Mormon connection" in your family, their extensive database does not help.

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

3. rootsweb.com

Go to the surname/county search pages. Post a query. You may also wish to check out WorldConnect there and see if anyone has a family tree there that stems from the slaves.

[GoddessOfGuinness]

8. surname/county search pages?

Where would I find those?

[shraby]

14. Go to

<http://www.usgenweb.org>
find your state and county and go from there. Some counties have tons of information on their site. Another place to go to is <http://www.cyndislist.com> She has lists upon lists of resources.

[GoddessOfGuinness]

16. Thanks!

Sounds like a promising resource!

[trof]

4. My grandfather was a member of the KKK.

Almost every white male in Birmingham was back then.
I don't obsess about it.
Do you feel guilt/responsibility for "the sins of the fathers"?
It's up to you if you'd like to contact them.
If you have a link, I'd be interested to read about it.

[JohnKleeb]

12. trof I feel that way about my German ancestors even if we were here

I sometimes deny having German blood out of shame.

[GoddessOfGuinness]

17. It's all human blood, John...

I'm not really ashamed of my ancestors...just horrified by what their ignorance spawned and perpetuated.

As to what happened in Nazi Germany, well...the situation here isn't so different from the early stages of the fascist takeover.

Check this page out: http://www.rense.com/general37/fascism.htm

[JohnKleeb]

22. Well I had family members killed in the occupied territories

on the non German side, but you know, my german grandfatehr was one of the most tolerant men and he saw what Reagan would have been before he died. Youre right but its still shameful.
I feel saddened by that, so I occasionally will lie and say I am not German, hopefully its Swiss-German after all.

[MisterP]

23. my grandpa was a stonemason who was drafted into the NSDAP

and then the Wehrmacht as a ground crew for a Messerschmitt near Stalingrad after occupation duty in France and Cracow. Captured by the Russians, then transferred to the Americans. Afterwards he went back to where he came: Bavaria near the Czech border and the Christian-Democratic Union. I miss him though I hardly knew him--died when I was around 4.

[JohnKleeb]

29. Sorry to hear that

Its just I would be totally sickened if I found out a family member of mine was in the SS. It should be nothing to be ashamed of but I suffer from guilt easily.

[HEyHEY]

24. Don't go overboard

You had nothing to do with it.

[JohnKleeb]

28. I have guilt easily

Thats true but its still guilt stricken.

[GoddessOfGuinness]

15. I'm not obsessed about it...

even though my grandparents made an annoying point of attempting to "educate" us in the finer points of bigotry. I came to understand that their ignorance was a disease handed down to them by their ancestors. I was fortunate to have parents who wanted to see an end to racism.

But reading these letters, mild as they are, still strikes a nerve. It reminds me of stories my dad told me about the shoddy treatment his Alabama relatives dished out to their black neighbors...probably descendants of the people who were enslaved by the family.

Here are the links:
http://www.columbustexas.net/library/manuscripts/Tait%20documents.htm
http://www.columbustexas.net/library/history/part4.htm

It's an interesting read...

[merh]

6. Check the census information...

Every 50 years (I think) the US Census bureau releases the info and its on the internet.

Good luck.

[seventhson]

10. 20 and ten year census records are available by address

though you have to find where they are in your community. Federal archives have them and most states keep copies. Very interesting but a LOT of reading.

[GoddessOfGuinness]

18. Thank you...

That's good to know. :)

[DemBones DemBones]

11. Genealogy isn't easy when you're looking for people

whose names you know. However, if you really want to do this, there are websites and books that can help you look for slaves' descendants. Have you heard of the book "Slaves in the Family"? It was written by a white man who traced the descendants of his family's slaves and found he was actually biologically related to some of them.

[GoddessOfGuinness]

19. Considering what I've read,

I wouldn't be at all surprised to find that out as well. Here's a bit from the statement about the scandal I mentioned:

35. Statement of W. W. Rives, 1844

On my arrival at Capt Taits' I was accosted by Dr. Tait, who shook me by the hand in a friendly manner, & requested me to take a walk with him—whilst walking on, he inquired of me about my trip to Quebec & Canada, and after getting some distance from the house, under the hill, he remarked—We have gone far enough, Esq. I have recently ascertained that you have pursued the most libertine course at my fathers' house & that you resorted there for that purpose, & that you have said I was equally guilty with yourself, and now you are going to marry my Sister, and reduce her to a level with your own degradation,

"The most libertine course" certainly sounds like a florid euphemism for "messing around with the slaves" to me.

http://www.columbustexas.net/library/manuscripts/Tait%20documents.htm

[DemBones DemBones]

25. Sounds like Esq. was up to no good, alright! But can we trust the

word of Rives? I'm confused about what happened except that he seems to have both stabbed and shot Tait. Did Tait die as a result?

I went to the site and read a lot of the letters. It's quite a treasure to have all the details about their lives, the crops, etc., isn't it? The rules for treatment of the slaves were especially interesting -- make sure the slaves eat breakfast, make sure they rest for two hours in the middle of the day, don't swear around the "negroes," etc. Who'd have thought it? You're very fortunate to have those documents.

If you really want to try to trace the slaves' descendants, go to Cyndi's List (I saw someone gave the URL in this thread or you can google it) and look for the sites about researching African American families. It will help greatly, I'd imagine, to have a number of first names in the letters. Freed slaves often took the surname of their former master when they were freed and needed a surname.

[GoddessOfGuinness]

27. It was the other way around...

My g-g uncle Charles Tait shot Rives (who later died of his wounds)because he intended to marry Tait's sister. Tait accused Rives of pursuing "the most libertine course" at his fathers' plantation; and didn't want him marrying his sister. Tait also heard that Rives accused him of being just as much of a philanderer, and thus murdered Rives to defend his and his sister's honor.

Sounds to me like Tait wasn't all that honorable himself.

Also, I found some old census records that accounted for all the individuals living on my g-g grandfather's plantation; and it listed 2 "free people of color" living on his property in 1820. This suggests to me that they may have been children of his, as he wasn't in the habit of freeing slaves; and I never heard any stories of him feeling particularly generous toward any of them.

[VOX]

20. My great-great-grandfather from Mississippi fought with R.E. Lee...

in the Army of Northern Virginia. He was a simple farmer, not a slaveholder, who hailed from the Philadelphia, Miss. area. He was a private, Company D ("Neshoba Rifles") in the 11th Mississippi Infantry. The 11th fought in most of the major engagements of the Civil War -- Second Manassas, Antietam, Gettysburg, The Wilderness, Petersburg. He was captured at Petersburg and came down with smallpox. Fortunately, he survived the bullets and the diseases, or I would not be typing this right now.

I am torn between feeling pride for a man who did his duty, and shame for a man who fought to enable what was probably the *worst* "cause" in American history -- the slaveholding South.

My g-g-grandfather also went to Texas. Going to Texas after the war was not uncommon for the broken, defeated Southern people. Many abandoned houses had "G.T.T." (Gone To Texas) scratched on their doors. Texas offered some sort of new beginning for many.

My dad's aunts did a ton of research on this relative long before the Internet. You may find that Southern records are spotty at best -- Southerners were living under hardship, and many of the records were destroyed at the war's end.

[GoddessOfGuinness]

21. I don't think you should be ashamed of him...

I had a great-grandfather in GA who fought for his state. He never owned a slave and from what my grandfather told me, he wouldn't have even if he could've afforded it on a blacksmith's wages.

What's important is to remember the lesson...that these were human beings who believed they had the right to own other human beings. These were people like you and me, who were afflicted with a serious case of ignorance...government-sanctioned ignorance at that.

I'm grateful for the lesson my ancestors learned. Without it, their ignorance could well be my own.

[Dem2theMax]

26. If I were you, I'd want to try to find out as much as I could.

Months ago, while discussing slavery on another board, I did some searching, using the words 'slavery in America' and I found a lot of information. I'm sure I bookmarked some of it, but I'm on the wrong screen name to get at it this minute. But in doing a quick search now, I found this site:

http://www.innercity.org/holt/slavechron.html

which looks to have a huge amount of resources and links. Go check it out and good luck. Please let us know what you find out as you search.

[GoddessOfGuinness]

30. Thanks!

I'll check that out!