Slaves in the Family

by Ball, Edward

• ISBN13: 9780783886282
• ISBN10: 0783886284
• Edition: Large
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 1999-05-01
• Publisher: G K Hall & Co

Summary

In 1698, Elias Ball traveled from his home in England to take possession of his inheritance - a plantation in South Carolina and twenty slaves. He and his progeny built an American dynasty on the labor of nearly four thousand slaves. The author is a descendant of Elias. Here he chronicles the lives of the people who lived on his ancestors' lands, and most remarkable of all, he relates his travels across the U.S. to meet the descendants of Ball slaves. Their stories reveals how the effect of slavery live on in black and white life and memory, and Slaves in the Family is a story of people confronting their inescapable common history.

Table of Contents

Plantation Memories	11	(24)
Masters from England	35	(33)
The Well of Tradition	68	(32)
Bright Ma	100	(37)
A Family Business	137	(34)
Written in the Blood	171	(38)
The Making of a Dynasty	209	(34)
Sawmill	243	(33)
Bloodlines	276	(31)
``Yours, obediently''	307	(28)
A House Divided	335	(43)
The Width of the Realm	378	(110)
A Painter's Legacy	488	(37)
The Curse of Buzzard Wing	525	(42)
The Siege	567	(45)
Aftermath	612	(37)
The Preservation Society	649	(26)
A Reckoning	675	(42)
Epilogue: Bunce Island	717	(41)
Genealogies	758	(6)
Acknowledgments	764	(3)
Sources	767	(4)
Notes	771	(64)
Picture Credits	835