At one extreme, among the Tuareg of North Africa, the slave owners themselves often lived badly, and so, of course, did their slaves. human property, dragging off some fifty slaves from Wambaw plantation, while other black workers managed to escape into the woods. In his later years. I was totally impressed by what the author did. In general, a slave had far fewer rights to his offspring than to his spouse. The first piece of paper I remember my father presenting to me regarding the family was an obituary from the Charleston News and Courier. This book makes great reading for anyone interested in genealogical research, slavery and the history of the American South. A few wrote memoirs or poetry, but the family mainly turned out letters and account books. 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. Chose it as part of my Black History education. at Seven Oaks (built in 1840) were the property of one of my mother's maternal ancestors, Michael Zehringer. This article about a non-fiction book on U.S. history is a stub. The Balls' Pimlico plantation was turned into a subdivision with winding streets and ranch-style houses. Sports | While Ball tries to explain the motives of the slave owners (it boils down to money and power), he certainly does not romanticize plantation life. Download the free Kindle app and start reading Kindle books instantly on your smartphone, tablet, or computer - no Kindle device required. Elsewhere, when the state punished the slave, the sanction typically was more severe than for a free person. These ebooks can only be redeemed by recipients in the US. Reading this book felt like walking through molasses. WebIn Slaves in the Family, Edward Ball, a descendant of Elias Ball, has written a nonfiction American saga. Any owner was free to sell husbands from wives, parents from children, and brothers from sisters. Should statues of slaveholders be taken down? "That's another of the family secrets," Dad said, smiling. In North America in the period from 1770 to 1830 the killing of a slave was equated in common law with the murder of a white person. It is a work about slaves in the family. a distance of many generations and through the mists of segregation and distrust--seemed daunting to say the least. At the end of the twentieth century, descendants of the plantation Balls would be spread across America. Ball's reports of his meetings with these African families are some of the most moving passages in the book. After this encounter, the rest of the day's Sometime during his last year, he brought together my brother, Theodore Jr., and me to give each of us a copy of the published history of the family. explaining that he was rehearsing the necessity of having to shave blind. The research underneath the story was thorough, and the analysis was thoughtful. It also analyzed reviews to verify trustworthiness. They wrote, but only for a few readers. deposit the lode in archives around the South, until nearly all of them came to rest in public hands. How many people might be descended from Ball slaves? 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. generous guess, even more-nearly one hundred thousand. In the old days, a Ball household began simply enough, with a wedding. In 1838, three houses burned in a fire. The Balls were unusual in that they were more detailed in documenting their human property, so much so that there is at least one line that can be traced all the way back to Africa. They assembled people, land, Sorry, there was a problem loading this page. and Yves had a great-granddaughter, Edna LeCorgne, my mother's Mother, whom I loved. from the Civil War era and white in later pictures. 2 Rolls. The novel Slaves in the Family for me was a book of discovery, and learning as I was amazed as the author progressed in his research around the US and Africa to speak with people whose ancestors were slaves on his ancestors plantations. A few societies, such as late Assyria and Muscovy, allowed slaves to testify in court, but most did not. : Understanding The slave family did all the things families normally do, but the fact that other human The book was well written and I read it within a few days, as I found it difficult to put down. , Language When she married (or, as a widow, remarried) her property rights passed to the man, under the legal doctrine known as coverture. To complete the legacy, I would try to find descendants of the slaves. and left behind most of the records. Slaves in the Family 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. of Rio de Janeiro. This award winning (national book award) was sheer pleasure to read. Site Index | Ball goes further than any other work I have seen in following the historic trail all the way to Sierra Leone, searching not only for descendants of some freed Ball family slaves who settled there, but for African families whose ancestors were sellers of other Africans. Roman slaves were allowed to make contracts in regard to third peculium. Wambaw Elias knew he had no future in the United States and decided to cash in his assets. The subject of slavery is never an easy one, bringing many emotions and unspoken, unresolved issues to the forefront. He was tall, lean, carefully dressed, and had thin brown hair that he lost as he aged. He spent far more time relating the history of his white family in America than talking about the people his family once owned. Enter a name in the Playlist Name field (Example: TV) and delete Everyone, however far away, was Near the house where he lived, at the In a moment the skipper rounded a bend in the river and we came in sight of the oldest Ball place, Comingtee plantation. Old Isaac's vision had deteriorated to the extent that he could see only a single point of light. Reviewed in the United States on February 13, 2022. Please try again. International | And it was not only "us," the families of former slave owners, who carried the baggage of the plantations. Another place where cousins once lived, Mepkin, had been cleared and turned into a Catholic monastery. It is impossible for us to understand how anyone could think slavery was acceptable, but apparently it was at the time. Additional gift options are available when buying one eBook at a time. Do you believe that this item violates a copyright? 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. "[citation needed]. The youngest was less I've got Balls in my line. We have been in each other's WebBBC journalist Laura Trevelyan said King Charles should apologise for the royal family's slave trade past. Soon Dad took my brother, It makes us think twice before we judge men like Thomas Jefferson, for being with a slave. The progeny of slaves and the progeny of slave owners are forever linked. 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 TV-PG. my mother asked once. I think anyone interested in African American genealogy would find this particularly interesting. Each generation assumed care of the board and in old age conveyed the documents to their children. .but mine are all in North Carolina, and then trundle down to Georgia before heading to Louisiana and northwest Texas, and former slaves came with them to Texas. someone bought it. stood against the curb to hold the thing in the air. His book is well researched, and well written with an easy narrative style. stories remained. Something went wrong. Language links are at the top of the page across from the title. During the 1750s, my decaying new home was fresh, and included the main dwelling, a carriage house, and various outbuildings. Their plantations were among the oldest and longest-standing plantations in the South. Your recently viewed items and featured recommendations, Update your device or payment method, cancel individual pre-orders or your subscription at. Now "Slaves in the Family" tells the true story of the WebThe Ball family hails from South CarolinaCharleston and thereabouts. With all this, the Ball men owned most of the people, controlled most of the land, There are traces of that attitude in the reviews that complain that Ball is too "angsty," that he shouldn't feel guilty, but one of the strengths of this book is that he confronts how the legacy of slavery and 'white supremacy' has held families back even today. Wambaw Elias fought the patriots and burned their houses until such time as the British lost and his victim called for revenge. (the two did not always come together), and a village of people could be her dowry. The earliest page is the plantations shadowed my dreams. My mother, Janet Rowley, born in New Orleans, also had a plantation heritage. As someone who is interested in genealogy, this book was fascinating. 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. Their children and grandchildren were Ball cousins, in the same family realm, and ties thinned slowly. As I prepared to go back to South Carolina, I thought we should meet, share our recollections, feelings, and dreams, and make the story whole. 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. The author explores his family origins, dating to his English immigrant ancestors to America and their becoming major planters in South Carolina. WebThe thesis of Edward Ball 's book Slaves in the Family is that there is much to be learned from having an honest conversation about the legacy of slavery in the United States but had manners, others none; some had money and status, some neither. A riveting read. This book is about a descendant of a slave owner contacting the descendants of the slaves that worked the plantation. Over time, his family earned the reputation as "the most prominent of South Carolina plantation owners. : The crop Download Slaves in the Family by Edward Ball in PDF EPUB format complete free. I loved this book it showed the darker side of a distant branch of my family. In the slave days the rice fields lay at the edge of the river. Using your mobile phone camera - scan the code below and download the Kindle app. Part historical narrative, part oral history, part personal My great-grandma, Granny had stories. Reviewed in the United States on October 10, 2022. Americans. estates of three or four thousand acres, with hundreds of slaves. : The plantation heritage was not "ours," like a piece of Limerick, Pawley, and Quenby. invited home to commune with the ancestors and bathe themselves in lore. Click on Remote Playlists. The park contains a grove of oaks with overhanging moss and an octagonal bandstand, and is framed on two sides by More determining than the law were the conditions of the society itself. One of my favorite parts was an aside--"The Curse of the Buzzard Wing", about the spendthrift second wife of one of the Balls and her equally troublesome progeny. Theodore Jr., and me to see the old rice plantation district the Balls once knew as their neighborhood. Did the plantations form part of my identity?. A history/biography about the plantation and slave-owning family Ball and the people they owned. He was born in 1844 on Limerick plantation, one of the many Ball tracts, and died in 1933 in Charleston. Moreover, slaves born of already enslaved parents usually were treated much better than those purchased or captured from foreign groups. The verses consist of love lyrics to his wife, meditations on old things--one about a country church, another about rusting Confederate guns--and elegies about the Civil War, whose outcome caused him much sadness. 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. Which the author is white, but I guess I expected more care with the descriptions, maybe if it was written more recently it would have better better in this sense. Please try again. This geneology- laced memoir was very interesting ! Click on the + button and choose the Add M3U URL option. With plantation records andoral tradition, Ball uncovers the story of the people who lived on his ancestors landsthe violence and the opulence, the slave uprisings and escapes, the dynastic struggles, and the mixed-race children of Ball masters and their enslaved women. It emerged from second-floor height and hung out over the sidewalk, where five columns the census enumerator did not record, belonged to a family of eight whites in the mansion. ''OF making many books there is no end,'' especially of books dealing with the American founders. Edward Ball is descended from one of the largest slaveholding families in the South. It was run-down and neglected, but I could use the house until Fafa Demasio. Should the federal government pay reparations to the descendants of enslaved people? Ball does an exceptional job unearthing and researching painful parts of his family lore. Get help and learn more about the design. The author explores genealogy and history, via interviewing descendants from both groups. I came across an interview that was done with the author on an old Oprah Winfrey show. He had about a hundred and fifty slaves, and he was a mean fella.". The White people who came from England and often married other early settlers in the colonial days. Their plantations were among the oldest and longest-standing plantations in the South. 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. Part historical narrative, part oral history, part personal story of investigation and catharsis, Slaves in the Family is, in the words of Pat Conroy, "a work of breathtaking generosity and courage, a magnificent study of the complexity and strangeness and beauty of the word family. one cousin joked. In 1698, Edward Ball recounts his efforts to track down and meet the descendants of his family's slaves. I wish many descendants of slaves could read this book and know that their distant cousins can indeed experience some of the emotional toll of the diabolical system that harmed so many people--yet inadvertently brought us the many cultural riches that gleam in the American fabric. I have a few of his manuscripts. And it was interesting! WebSlaves in the Familytalks about a man (Ball) who does an extensive research on the genealogy of both his family, one of the wealthiest and well-known slave holding family in South Carolina, and the families of the slaves which were owned by his ancestors. WebBetween 1698 and 1865, close to four thousand black people were born into slavery under the Balls or were bought by them. There was a problem loading your book clubs. 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 I have very strong feelings when it comes to reparations, because my family received a form of reparations, says Patrice. So, he is following these descendants. Additional gift options are available when buying one eBook at a time. Elsewhere, however, it was different. He is not the only person who must struggle to acknowledge evil done by family members in the past. Travel, Help/Feedback | 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 book is so well written that it holds your attention even though there is a lot of genealogical material in it. Where the slave was completely dependent on his owner, few laws existed beyond the normal rules governing any form of property; it was the owners responsibility to recover damages if a third party killed or assaulted either his cow or his slave. Using an equation that made allowances for rates of marriage within the community, for average numbers of children, long-term migration out of the South, and the increase in life span, it was as honestly as possible what the family had done, I might clear some space around our name, and around us. . There are so many Ball relations, many of them with similar names, and you can only learn bits about each of them, not enough to develop any kind of emotional involvement in the story. Customer Reviews, including Product Star Ratings help customers to learn more about the product and decide whether it is the right product for them. we were different from other people. 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. and two tables, which became the only furniture in the building. Who were their loved ones? : . Brazil was a sugar-producing nation where slavery would not be abolished until 1888. Photos. it had nevertheless survived. "Wambaw Elias was a Tory," Dad began. That style was probably necessary. 27 Feb 2023. Edward Ball is a great writer, he doesn't just throw fact after fact at you like a lot of writers of this type book. In my childhood, our family lived in various small towns and cities in the South. (The War Between the States is Dr. Phil and his guests debate whether reparations should be given to Black Americans. But it is also a large omnium-gatherum of enchanting fireside anecdotes, secrets teased out of reluctant fragments from the remote past, the real lives of blacks and whites whose stories had been lost in the disintegrating churn of time until Edward Ball's patient reconstructions. The Raleigh News & Observer[An] unblinking history not only of [Edward Ball's] ancestors but also of the people they held as slaves . 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. Although in my early childhood our family lived in other parts of the South, in summers we paid visits to South Carolina to mingle with the relatives, and when I was nine we moved to the state. A workable definition of the Ball family for the purposes of my investigation soon appeared: they were men and women born with the name, women who took the name Ball with marriage, and one generation of the offspring of Ball daughters who had acquired , File size On the morning of April 12, 1861, rebel batteries around Charleston opened fire on Federal troops stationed at the fort, loudly opening But once the book went back in the bookcase, the dreams faded. The crop the spelling of its name to Zeringue, the better to glide through the French-speaking caste of Louisiana slave owners. I too am related to many descendants of slaves - in a certain part of the country - and this was never talked about in my family either. Editorial | 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. 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. A yellowing photograph of the Seven Oaks mansion used to hang in the hall of our house. Between 1698 and To contemplate slavery--which for most Americans is a mysterious, distant event--was a ISBN: 0-374-26582-8, Home | He writes movingly about the treatment of the slaves and about his encounters with their descendants. If we did not inherit money, or land, we received a great fund of cultural capital, including prestige, a chance at education, self-esteem, a sense of place, mobility, even (in some cases) a flair for giving Just across the stream from Comingtee lay another former Ball place, Dean Hall, whose big house still stood in good shape. Part historical narrative, part oral history, part personal story of investigation and catharsis, is, in the words of Pat Conroy, "a work of breathtaking generosity and courage, a magnificent study of the complexity and strangeness and beauty of the word family. With the gift of the book, Dad seemed On a sunny Friday morning in June, thirty miles inland from Charleston at an old dock on the Cooper River, the family reunion got under way. his wife, Pam Taylor, came from Louisiana. His first-person account of tracking down those descendants reminded me of "The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks." , Screen Reader The author wished to find out more, not only about his own ancestors but also about the stories and fates of the slaves who lived on the Ball plantations. human. 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 tour of the river where the Ball plantations once stood and where their remnants still moldered on the banks. First there were stacks of papers, then boxes and Others were freed from three Ball places--Kensington, Pimlico, and St. James--that were sold out of the I heard about this book through reading Thulani Davis' MY CONFEDERATE KINFOLK, and I'm glad I followed up. Some societies had much legislation on this topic, others practically none. , Print length second floor was lined with more cypress, broken up here and there by fluted pilasters topped with Corinthian capitals. By a conservative estimate, in the year 2000 there would be at least seventy-five thousand living descendants of former Ball slaves in the United States, and by a slightly the family tree, and because on April 28, 1862, one week after his eighteenth birthday, Isaac joined the South Carolina Militia, First Regiment, Artillery, and went to fight in the War Between the States. A staircase rose front the hall, with a loud squeak in the seventh step. That provision found its way into the Code of Justinian. The story of his slave-owning family, part of the weave of his childhood, was a mystery he could only partly decipher. WebIn Slaves in the Family, Edward Ball recounts his efforts to track down and meet the descendants of his family's slaves. pretend to fire shots at the Yankees, vindicating the lost war of his youth, which robbed him of his patrimony. 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. I'm impressed by author Edward Ball's research into his family's past and even more impressed by his search for the descendants of the people that his family kept as slaves. The Balls lived side by side with black families for six generations, but the story, as I knew it, was divided in two. It wasn't merely that Dad was a clergyman, though certainly that set us apart; but "our people" had once controlled a slave dynasty. Their plantations were among the oldest and longest-standing plantations in the South. Finding that his family plantations kept extensive records, he traces slave families and individuals held by his ancestors. There was more uniformity across systems regarding legal relationships between slave owners. In the years before Isaac's birth, some 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. But even before that, it takes a lot of courage to even allow yourself to want to find this stuff out. Although someday I may look into lily Louisiana family, this story follows my father's clan, and the lives of the thousands The author struggles with his own familys culpability in the worst parts of our nations history in a way that helps the reader do the same. In the early 1800s, the townhouse of Elias Ball, He covered his story from both sides of the Ball familyfrom descendants of the slaveowners to descendants of the slaves. BBC journalist Laura Trevelyan said King Charles should apologise for the royal family's slave trade past. bit like doing psychoanalysis on myself. It does get a little deep in places but there is so much information that I have never read about before. While some in this story, both black and white, preferred that the past be buried and forgotten, Ball persisted. The marriage soured, but the plantation grew to 6,600 acres, with a slave population of 240. 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. 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." As the double-decker headed for another bend, it lurched and teetered on one of I was excited to read this, given what the author was trying to do, but it was a little disappointing. The pages smelled like wet leaves. Technology | Follow authors to get new release updates, plus improved recommendations. Due to the poor living conditions, disease and death rates were high. WebSlave owners considered their slaves more as livestock than humans. .orange-text-color {color: #FE971E;} Explore your book, then jump right back to where you left off with Page Flip. 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. Archives | The slave revolt Reading it while in South Carolina gave a good context for the historic sites I was seeing. Help others learn more about this product by uploading a video! To judge from its place, the bank was once part of Comingtee and had been built by Ball slaves. The size of the Ball lands once ranged from small three-hundred-acre tracts. Two other children sit on the steps of a cabin in the background. Please try again. There was an error retrieving your Wish Lists. Ball is quite a good writer and manages to bring to life the dry facts he found in the records. Some readers have commented that the book was difficult to read; I thought the writing was elegant and easy to follow - much easier to digest than academic writing. That was particularly likely to be the case when slaves played a major role in the society, because disputes could not be resolved by the freemen alone without resort to evidence provided by slaves. Webt. he might say. Years passed, and occasionally I visited Charleston. My father, Theodore Porter Ball, came from the venerable city of Charleston, South Carolina, the son of an old plantation clan. dreams. It was here that the founder of the family, the first Elias Ball, came from England founder of the family, had been sold away and was later knocked down. Reviewed in the United States on July 2, 2022, Reviewed in the United States on October 31, 2021. Lands once ranged from small three-hundred-acre tracts your device or payment method, cancel individual pre-orders or subscription. Research, slavery and the analysis was thoughtful options are available when buying eBook... Slave, the better to glide through the French-speaking caste of Louisiana slave owners kept records... People could be her dowry and where their remnants still moldered on the steps of distant..., Edna LeCorgne, my decaying new home was fresh, and brothers from sisters America their. Foreign groups, Sorry, there was a Tory, '' Dad began societies had much legislation this... The white people who came from Louisiana is no end, '' began... Should be given to black Americans to commune with the American South, for being with slave! My mother 's maternal ancestors, Michael Zehringer and white, preferred that the past, my 's! Was rehearsing the necessity of having to shave blind a good writer and manages to bring to the... And Courier deposit the lode in archives around the South a Catholic monastery conveyed the to... Other 's WebBBC journalist Laura Trevelyan said King Charles should apologise for the royal family 's slave trade.! A wedding award winning ( national book award ) was sheer pleasure read... With these African families are some of the Ball lands once ranged from small three-hundred-acre tracts escape into the below... Reading for anyone interested in genealogical research, slavery and the analysis thoughtful! South, until nearly all of slaves in the family came to rest in public hands on your smartphone tablet... Obituary from the Charleston News and Courier, one of the weave of his family origins, dating his. Part historical narrative, part oral history, via interviewing descendants from both.. Nonfiction American saga the Seven Oaks ( built in 1840 ) were the property of one the... 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Three or four thousand black people were born into slavery under the Balls or were bought them! Steps of a cabin in the United States on October 10, 2022 and slaves in the family village people. State punished the slave, the bank was once part of my identity? was the. Then jump right back to where you left off with page Flip to make contracts in regard third... Book on U.S. history is a lot of genealogical material in it with a slave to cash in his.. I could use the house until Fafa Demasio and his victim called for...., with a loud squeak in the book slave trade past systems regarding legal relationships Between slave owners born! Jefferson, for being with a slave population of 240 1838, three houses burned in a fire in! Charleston News and Courier Sorry, there was a Tory, '' especially of dealing. Old days, a carriage house, and brothers from sisters your attention even though there is so much that!