My family history shows I’ve been lied to about slavery in America

Dennis Richmond, Jr. has spent over a decade researching his household's distinctive previous. What he is discovered -- that he descends from a protracted line of free blacks -- goes in opposition to conventional narratives of African-American historical past within the US.
Stefano Giovannini

In March 2008, I used to be 13 when my dad and I watched the TV miniseries “Roots,” which follows the fictional story of a person born in 18th century Gambia who's offered as a slave in America, and the numerous generations who come after him.

It impressed me to ask questions on my circle of relatives’s previous. All of a sudden I began looking out on-line, interviewing older relations, and exploring libraries and archives. Surprisingly, greater than half of Individuals can’t title all 4 of their very own grandparents, and over 20% of black Individuals have by no means seemed into their household tree. However, on account of my analysis, not solely can I title all of mine, I can hint my household tree straight again to the 1790s. 

I additionally found one thing essential that contrasts sharply with what many African Individuals are taught about our historical past. As college students, black persons are repeatedly instructed that all of us descend from slavery, and that all of us have been (and solely have been) slaves. Most individuals assume that each black American who lived within the US earlier than 1870 was a slave.

Church data of York Felmetta, Richmond’s sixth great-grandfather, who was born free within the late 18th century.

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That's merely not true. 

In 1860, three years earlier than the Emancipation Proclamation, The USA Federal Census Schedule reported 488,070 free black Individuals. True, many would possibly say quasi-free, since these African Individuals couldn't vote. However free they nonetheless have been — nearly half 1,000,000 of them — roughly 12.5% of your entire African-American inhabitants at the moment. 

Huldah Peck, my great-great-great-great-grandmother — on my father’s aspect — was born free in Greenwich, Conn., in 1836. Her dad and mom, George Peck, a stonemason and Nancy Felmetta, have been additionally free; as have been Nancy’s dad and mom, York and Tamar, the latter born in 1773, three years earlier than the US Revolution. It’s placing to assume that my father’s ancestors have been free for almost a century earlier than the Civil Struggle.

Whereas most of my mom’s household have been enslaved on South Carolina plantations at the moment, studying about this different aspect — this free aspect — made me understand that slavery doesn't totally outline my previous.

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Adele Matilda Merritt, Richmond's great-grandmother -- who grew up in Greenwich, Conn. attending appeal college and touring all over the world.

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Richmond's father, Dennis Richmond, Sr., a former soldier who helped encourage his son's seek for the total richness of their household's historical past.

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John Sherman Merritt and Lelia Bell Robinson, Richmond's nice, nice grandparents, have been home-owners in Greenwich, Conn.

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John Sherman Merritt, among the many first members of Richmond's household born after Emancipation, held down 4 jobs to help his household at a time when many blacks have been farmers or domestics.

The gravestone of Huldah Peck Merritt, Richmond’s 4th great-grandmother, who was born free.

Huldah’s kids additionally illustrate the significance of self-reliance and entrepreneurship in my household. Her son Edward B. Merritt, born in 1871, labored in actual property at a time when the majority of blacks in a lot of the nation labored as farmers or domestics. His son, John Sherman Merritt, was a house owner in Greenwich, Conn., who labored 4 jobs to help his younger household. John’s daughter, Adele Matilda Merritt, loved a privileged Greenwich childhood full with appeal college, a penchant for pictures, and later- worldwide journey. And Adele’s daughter — my grandmother, Joyce Marie Watkins — was a small enterprise proprietor who settled in Yonkers, NY.

Black kids develop up believing that their solely historical past is a historical past of slavery. Nikole Hannah-Jones and The New York Instances’s 1619 Mission, argued that America’s total historical past is based on slavery. The reality is extra sophisticated, attention-grabbing, and nuanced than that.

Researching my household’s previous has given me a way of belonging to this nation. I'm a part of the big story of striving and success that has constructed the American dream. All this has empowered me to stroll with my head held excessive, and I hope it conjures up others to look past the inventory narratives of the current and discover their very own classes from the previous.

For me, Huldah’s 100-year-old gravestone in Rye Brook, NY, will without end function a reminder of her distinctive standing and historical past — a historical past I'm proud to name my very own. 

Dennis Richmond Jr. is a journalist and the writer of “He Spoke at My Faculty: An Academic Journey.” He's the founding father of The New York-New Jersey HBCU Initiative. Observe him on social media @NewYorkStakz.