Five social histories and narratives provide insight into the lives of your African-American ancestors.
1. Black Chicago's First Century, Volume 1, 1833-1900
by Christopher Robert Reed (University of Missouri Press). If you have
African-American ancestry in Chicago, you'll want to devour this book
from cover to cover. Written by a professor of history at Roosevelt
University in the Windy City, the informative and comprehensive social
history examines the lives of blacks who lived in northern Chicago.
Reed explores black demographics, religion and churches, community
organizations, emancipation, employment, education and more. The book
is meticulously researched, well-illustrated and an absorbing read. The
index lists numerous names-which might benefit a lucky researcher-and
Reed's extensive bibliography will give you ideas for further reading
and research.
2. I Cannot Tell a Lie: The True Story of George Washington's African American Descendants
by Linda Allen Bryant (iUniverse). History tells us our founding
father, George Washington, never had any children. Yet some people
believe he fathered a slave son named West Ford. Bryant spent more than
20 years researching her family's history, and claims this book is a
narrative history-yet it's written as fiction. For example, there's no
way the author could be privy to conversations she quotes from the
1780s. While the author lists some original documents in an appendix,
the work is largely undocumented, and Bryant doesn't present a
convincing argument for the “centuries-old family secret.”
Fictionalizing the oral tradition of this controversial legend serves
only to discredit the claim and the author.
3. Malindy's Freedom: The Story of a Slave Family
by Mildred Johnson and Theresa Delsoin (University of Missouri Press).
Oral histories often either fail to get passed down or aren't recorded,
causing families to lose precious parts of their heritage. Not so in
the case of Malindy's Freedom. Sisters Johnson and Delsoin, the
great-granddaughters of Malindy, skillfully researched and wrote a
compelling family history. Malindy was born a free Cherokee Indian and
later enslaved in Franklin County, Mo. Her free husband was half-Irish,
a quarter African and a quarter American Indian. This narrative
uniquely blends a multicultural dynamic. Drawing on the recollections
of their grandmother, who told them about her life in slavery and her
mother's life, the authors blend and support the oral history with
research into historical documents. You'll find this slave narrative to
be an interesting read and a model for combining oral history with
research.