The fateful intersection of white master-black slave did not just affect the Melvinias of the world. That the dehumanization of one group will too eventually take its toll on those in power, is a lesson America has not yet learned.
@AndIAmTellingYou: Please check out the "cost of racism" series on the resistracism blog! I'll go hunt down links. They talk, in part, about the affect of racism on white Americans.
I know that it was very frustrating for me to study abroad and be asked where I am REALLY from. "Oh, I know your an American but where are your ancestors from in Africa?" I got so frustrated at the lack of knowledge of slave trade in America. I had friends that truly did not understand why I did not know where I came from in Africa. I had to break it down to them. And it saddened me.
@feministabroad: When I lived in Europe I got the same thing. I generally find Europeans more enlightened on the issues of slavery, colonialism and racism, but strangely detached at the same time. The constant quizzing, "But where?" frustrated me so much at one point that I responded, "You tell me." That ended that.
The poignancy of her great grandfather becoming a community leader and going through such struggles, never to know what was in his family's future- I cried reading this at the office !
A former teacher of mine was in the process of tracking his ancestry while I was in his class. He did pretty well up until about 1850, where he his a wall, because his great-great grandfather's legal name was "It."
@bowleserised: I find the term "slave blood" pretty damned unsettling myself. It has a hint of re-essentializing slavery – as if 'slavey-ness' was in the blood itself rather than the policies that bound it.
I wonder how easily and readily we would note the "slave blood" of people from other groups with enslaved ancestors on their family tree.
@bowleserised: I have slave owner blood. By great grandmother's family lost two plantations after the Civil War. It boggled my mind when I discovered this, because it is such a disconnect to who my family is and how they live.
When it comes down to it, I feel that it is wrong to judge someone by their ancestors, especially beyond a couple generations. Instead, family histories are just fantastic ways to show the American history. This is true whether it be from slave, to shopkeep, to lawyer and politician, or from plantation owner, to civil rights worker, to lawyer.
@linnyt is a walking cliché: My middle name, a family name, is from a slave-owning SC family. my heart froze as I scanned for the name of michelle's ancestors' owner's name. not related to me. but in my work as a social worker I have met many patients with my middle name for a last name. my distant cousin edward ball wrote a great book on this topic, " slaves in the family", which is referenced in the article. Its part of our national discussion, hopefull more so now.
@bowleserised: I discovered a few years ago that some of my ancestors (in 17th- and 18th-century New York) owned slaves. Even centuries later, the discovery made me deeply uncomfortable.
@linnyt is a walking cliché: A Canadian friend of mine recently discovered after reading through some old family wills that one of his ancestors from the South had willed to his descendants "a small plot of land, two wheelbarrows, and a negro girl".
He knew that there were Americans in the family, but he had no idea that they had been slave-owners. He was completely floored by the information.
I wish I could go back in time and tell Melvinia that one day one of her descendants would be in the White House. I wonder if she would care to know that; if it would have made her life any better to know she was the last generation to be enslaved and that great things were in store for her family.
I don't understand how "slave blood" could be an insult either. I remember as a kid watching the part of "Amistad" that depicts the voyage on the slave ship over. I don't remember the whole movie, just that part. Maybe I'm strange, but I found it so incredibly moving. I was so incredibly proud to have "slave blood". Do you know what "those people", some of them my ancestors, went through?! And they survived! I come from f**kin' survivors!
@janetsdaughter000: i know. if it hadn't come from the mouth of the likes of rush limbaugh, i'd consider "slave blood" a compliment. i'm from slave blood via puerto rico, and i'm like, fuck yeah, fatass. you think that they'd give you oxycontin if you were in shackles? think again. if you come from slave blood your ancestors helped to build this country and were some tough, smart, people to have survived it.
@kristinab: Not to defend Rush Limbaugh, because he is a racist asshat and most likely said other racists things about Michelle Obama, but at least in the link he was making fun of Charles Steele for suggesting the right was attacking Michelle more than Barack because she had slave blood and he didn't. In fact, I think Steele was onto the general feeling that Michelle was "an angry black woman" and Barack was "clean and articulate and actually bi-racial". But, neither one of them were in this instance saying that her having slave blood was bad.
I hope people actually read the Times article. Latoya does a great job of quoting from it, but there are still plenty of commenters asking questions that are answered in the article itself.
Many of the comments remark that Michelle O has dozens of other great-great-great-grandparents. What they don't seem to realize is that most of them probably have similar stories.
I just read this on the bus, and hoped that Jez would write about it. One note of clarification, though: Melvinia had four children total, all of whom were considered mulatto and had the last name Shields. So the implication is that she likely had children (by force or consent or some more complex combination of the two) with either her owner or one of his sons, since their last name was Shields as well.
@ronniedobbs: Not necessarily. Wouldn't her last name have been Sheilds since she was owned by them? It would follow that any children born out of wedlock would take that same name.
@Elizabooth: That's why I said "implication" and "likely." The article talks about the scenario I outlined and the other possibility you point out, but I figured people could read it themselves.
I just wanted to point out that she had four children total, and consider what that might tell us about her relationship to the family that owned her. Personally I think her kids were fathered by one of the Shields men, since all of them were biracial and she spends time after gaining her freedom working on a plot of land adjacent to one of the Shield son's farms.
@ronniedobbs: didnt it say 3 of 4, not all, her children were bi-racial? correct me if im wrong, i read the article very early in the morning.
also, from a historians point of view, if, in fact, her children were fathered by one of the shields men she would likely (i say likely with reference to existing records/stats) not have been allowed to give them their fathers (and owners) names. of course i could be wrong, im just commenting with reference to what i have studied of slave/master relations etc
@rd2uk: "In 1870, three of Melvinia’s four children, including Dolphus, were listed on the census as mulatto. One was born four years after emancipation, suggesting that the liaison that produced those children endured after slavery. She gave her children the Shields name, which may have hinted at their paternity or simply been the custom of former slaves taking their master’s surnames. "
I stand corrected that all four children were listed as mulattoes. But I'm confused by your last point -- her last name was Shields and the children have the Shields last name as well. They share her last name and (in the case of her first three children) perhaps that of their father as well. Of course we can't know for certain, since the details are so murky, but the rest of the story suggests to me that one of the Shields men fathered most of her kids.
Let me guess there's white ancestry in there somewhere isn't it? Proving that we are all biracial. Thank you Black in America for proving that white people couldn't resist fucking those slaves they so despised and considered less than human. I am so sick of these tracing the heritage profiles.
Why would the commentors even think that Michelle Obama or anyone in her bloodline would want their sympathy? This is a story about a bloodline that overcame the horror of slavery -- being considered non-persons -- to producing the first lady of the United States over the course of 150 years. That doesn't beg for sympathy. That demands admiration and respect.
I love how the term "slave blood" was hurled as an insult. Because a country being able to progress from a time when it had legalized slavery to having a First Lady with slave ancestors is such a terrible thing. Ugh... these people.
On a sidenote: I can name very few websites where I can actually go to the comments section and not be enraged by what I read. Especially when the topic is race or even if the website just puts up the photo of a black person. I don't know if people are trying to be intentionally provocative and troll or if the anonymity of the internet allows them to express their true feelings that they otherwise would not have the guts to say in public. I hope it's the former because if not we're doomed.
@heywhat: I feel you. It's as though the topic of race brings out all of the nastiest people online. I think it's just that the poor, repressed bigots (sarcasm) have nowhere else to go with their little nuggets of bile. Which is progress of a sort, I suppose.
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I wonder how easily and readily we would note the "slave blood" of people from other groups with enslaved ancestors on their family tree.
10/08/09
When it comes down to it, I feel that it is wrong to judge someone by their ancestors, especially beyond a couple generations. Instead, family histories are just fantastic ways to show the American history. This is true whether it be from slave, to shopkeep, to lawyer and politician, or from plantation owner, to civil rights worker, to lawyer.
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He knew that there were Americans in the family, but he had no idea that they had been slave-owners. He was completely floored by the information.
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I just wanted to point out that she had four children total, and consider what that might tell us about her relationship to the family that owned her. Personally I think her kids were fathered by one of the Shields men, since all of them were biracial and she spends time after gaining her freedom working on a plot of land adjacent to one of the Shield son's farms.
10/07/09
also, from a historians point of view, if, in fact, her children were fathered by one of the shields men she would likely (i say likely with reference to existing records/stats) not have been allowed to give them their fathers (and owners) names. of course i could be wrong, im just commenting with reference to what i have studied of slave/master relations etc
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I stand corrected that all four children were listed as mulattoes. But I'm confused by your last point -- her last name was Shields and the children have the Shields last name as well. They share her last name and (in the case of her first three children) perhaps that of their father as well. Of course we can't know for certain, since the details are so murky, but the rest of the story suggests to me that one of the Shields men fathered most of her kids.
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i dont know where this vitriol is coming from, but im not sure this is the place for it to be spewed.
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On a sidenote: I can name very few websites where I can actually go to the comments section and not be enraged by what I read. Especially when the topic is race or even if the website just puts up the photo of a black person. I don't know if people are trying to be intentionally provocative and troll or if the anonymity of the internet allows them to express their true feelings that they otherwise would not have the guts to say in public. I hope it's the former because if not we're doomed.
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