When I set out
to learn about my ancestors in 1968, I was looking for the ship that my people came
over to America on. After 30 years of research, I found that I am probably
one fifth African and four fifths Native American. But that did not stop me
from researching that 1/5 of my make up
as well as my 4/5 of my Native American Blood.
In the first
video below, you will see a part that could sound like me 300 years ago. If you
would have asked me at that time how to obtain wealth, I would have said buy
land and slaves. We all remember how are mother's and Grandmother's cooked a
ham. At the master's house, the whites would tell you that no one can bake a
ham better than a Fat Black Nanny. We still say that today.
Watch these
6 videos and see if anyone in them reminds you of people in your family or
people you know today. Times may have changed but people never do. You will
find the reason why you are like you are.
Click on the pictures or the links to see the videos.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-WiaKtc6irg
The African Americans Many Rivers to Cross Episode 1
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qdu7BigeEZ0
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JIOH8QvaLSQ
The African Americans Many Rivers to Cross Episode 4- Making a way Out of no way 1897 1940
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aN1dxdmeaTI
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t_DuogHTTU0
The African Americans Many Rivers to Cross Episode 6 A More Perfect Union 1968 -- 2013
For me, my history came from two major family lines.
My father's people walked from North Carolina to Oklahoma at gun point under President Andrew Jackson's Army. They left the reservation when the reservation was declassified. Many young people in the family was taken away from their Cherokee Family and sent to Cumberland County Pa. Since my ancestors could not talk to one another, many had to leave. One of my ancestors got a job on a fishing boat in Houston, Texas in the turn of the 20th Century. He was shot and killed by the KKK because he had a job. The family ran to the north. My Grandfather worked on the garbage truck in a town called Homestead, Pa. My father got a job in the post office and started his own Electric Company. My oldest brother was the first to go to college and receive a Masters Degree. He has always been the boss at every job that he had after he left the Army as a Caption.
My Mother's people: Eliza Thorne was half Cherokee and half Black whose ancestors were probably captured and sold to his master, Cereal Slaughter. Virginia permitted slaves to work on their own time for themselves. By the time the Union Troops came through Culpeper, she was able to leave the plantation move down Rt.29 and bought an 11 acre farm and a team of horse with a Conestoga Wagon in Stony Point, Va. She also bought a heard of cattle. Generations latter, the browns had several men and women with Master Degrees with high paying jobs.
One generation built another level of success from the past generations. Children of these people have started their own businesses or became leaders in their own fields.
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