In that moment, the story of the Ball clan was locked in the depths of my mind, to be pried loose one day. To judge from its place, the bank was once part of Comingtee and had been built by Ball slaves. explaining that he was rehearsing the necessity of having to shave blind. Every step was an effort.Please don't misunderstand me. Sensitive and formidable the historical sections rivet a reader.. Sticking out of the mud near the riverbank were pieces of rotting wood shaped like the headboards of beds--the sluices that once controlled the flow of water onto the rice fields. The prospect of the family reunion pushed me, finally, to come to terms with it. once again before my eyes. It emerged from second-floor height and hung out over the sidewalk, where five columns Its worth reading. The crop 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. Copies of a few documents of later date (August 18, 1856-September 8, 1858) are included. "We're spending more time in the rice fields than our ancestors ever did!" Let's just get on with it. the plantations shadowed my dreams. and, I believe, now and then a Virginia reel. In Slaves in the Family, Edward Ball recounts his efforts to track down and meet the descendants of his family's slaves. three hundred people lived in slavery there. his role in the war, or perhaps he simply could not let go of the lifestyle of slave master. Site Index | Brief content visible, double tap to read full content. This is the story of the author's research into his family's past as slave owners and slave traders. I also felt shame about the broken society that had washed up when the tide of slavery receded. 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. Ball is telling these many stories and sharing what others know about the history. than a year, the eldest eighty-eight. 3 Oct 2022. 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. The sightseeing boat pushed along while an amateur historian narrated, stoking our pride at the bygone world of the plantations. Please try your request again later. (The name Elias Ball would be used for many future sons, including Wambaw Elias, the Tory who moved back to England two generations later.) This is a wonderful book. There was more uniformity across systems regarding legal relationships between slave owners. BALL FAMILY were embossed. the normal encouragements of parents who wanted their children to rise. I knew a lot about the Balls, but I never knew much about the slaves, even though on the plantations black people far outnumbered white. Chose it as part of my Black History education. The earliest page is Something went wrong. They were usually just "the slaves," sometimes The pages are veiny, with age spots, the black ink coursing down them like hair. Reeds brushed against the hull of the double-deck boat and greetings and laughter echoed over the water as each Ball walked the gangplank and made a little jump onto the deck. We have been in each other's beds. 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 . Edward Ball was born in Savannah, Georgia, in 1958, grew up in South Carolina, Florida, and Louisiana. Though the paper record had gaps, it answered the need for detail better than hearsay could. children to join a faction of exiled Confederates. As the double-decker headed for another bend, it lurched and teetered on one of The first piece of paper I remember my father presenting to me regarding the family was an obituary from the Charleston News and Courier. He is not afraid to reveal the truth and this makes his "story" so authentic. it had nevertheless survived. The book was well written and I read it within a few days, as I found it difficult to put down. It also helped be better understand the African-American experience. At the other extreme, in the American South material conditions were sufficiently favourable to provide comparative comfort for both masters and slaves. Edward Ball, the descendant of South Carolina slave masters, sets out to trace the lineage of the slaves who lived on his ancestors' plantations. Instead, our system considers things like how recent a review is and if the reviewer bought the item on Amazon. 'Just when I thought nobody would play any dirtier than me': Chance surprises Blake Shelton with 'long game' strategy on 'The Voice' Season 23 Knockouts premiere, Like 'Clockwork': Legendary British actor's son mysteriously vanishes from 'American Idol,' in third resignation of Season 21, Ray Romano reveals that he had a stent put in his heart: 'I had 90% blockage', 'Air': Matt Damon, Chris Messina break down how they filmed movies explosive, hilariously vulgar phone call, The Weeknd's 'The Idol': Lily-Rose Depp transforms into 'nasty, bad' pop star in new trailer for controversial series. 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. In his later years. they raised was rice, whose color and standard gave it the name Carolina Gold. On one porch sat When the Civil War ended in 1865, the family held many plantations, all of them on the Cooper River: The Blessing, Buck Hall, Cedar Hill, Cherry Hill, Comingtee, Dean Hall, Halidon Hill, Hyde Park, So, I took the plunge and it was incredible. In Slaves in the Family, Edward Ball recounts his efforts Its not a quick read, but its worth it. 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 Remember your ancestors may have been slaves and finding that out opens up certain realizations. .orange-text-color {font-weight:bold; color: #FE971E;}View high quality images that let you zoom in to take a closer look. Some readers have felt the book was superficial or self-indulgent on the part of the writer. Between 1698 and 1865, close to four thousand black people were born into slavery under the Balls or were bought by them.In Slaves in the Family, Edward Ball recounts his efforts to track down and meet the descendants of his family's slaves. Through painstaking research and wonderful storytelling Ball tracks down his ancestors, both white and black, and tells the story of slavery in this country from the point of view of one prominent family. human property, dragging off some fifty slaves from Wambaw plantation, while other black workers managed to escape into the woods. This book by Edward Ball took me a week or so to read. At times it was slow moving, but the book was at its best when Ball described conversations with people. Others were freed from three Ball places--Kensington, Pimlico, and St. James--that were sold out of the Losses in some areas exceeded even that 61 percent. WebThe Ball family hails from South CarolinaCharleston and thereabouts. It is an unprecedented family record that reveals how the painful legacy of slavery continues to endure in America's collective memory and experience. Full content visible, double tap to read brief content. Two blocks from the empty Branford-Horry House stands a pink stucco building, the South Carolina Historical Society, repository for records of former rice planters, including some of the Ball papers. As someone who is interested in genealogy, this book was fascinating. 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 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. 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. In Charleston, I looked for a place to live, hoping to find a room in one of the old Ball houses. another surname. The wealth created by the slave system was destroyed, and the latter-day Balls had no inheritance from it. WebFamilies in Slavery. Down the main hall lay the best-kept room, the library. seemed more real since Dad's grandfather and three great-uncles fought for the Confederacy. Edward Ball is descended from one of the largest slaveholding families in the South. Simply, Ball slaves were people owned by members of the Ball family whose, lives could be traced in the surviving files. The three of us drove north out of Charleston on a two-lane blacktop toward the upper streams of the Cooper River, where rice grew Zehringer's grandfather had come to Louisiana in 1720 from Franconia, a section of Bavaria; later the family changed War began rose to the rank of brigadier general, commanding the Sixth Brigade of the Louisiana Militia. Weather | Puffs of ancient dirt breathed front crevices between the floorboards, and everywhere was peeling paint and water-stained It makes us think twice before we judge men like Thomas Jefferson, for being with a slave. Whether a slave was needed for cooking, for childcare or as a concubine, during the late Roman republic at least, supply was high and trade was brisk. Technology | I want to feel and know my great,great grandmother and her heritage and reading this book is a good first step in that pursuit. (Georgia Archives Microfilm #231/16-17) This microfilm publication reproduces six volumes of correspondence of the Secretary of the Navy relating to African colonization, January 5, 1819-May 29, 1844. Click on the + button and choose the Add M3U URL option. 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 generous guess, even more-nearly one hundred thousand. The youngest was less Elsewhere were two bedrooms, In Muscovy and China, slave owners could sell or will children apart from their parents, but marriages were inviolable. Another place where cousins once lived, Mepkin, had been cleared and turned into a Catholic monastery. used as second homes by wealthy families, but many had been swept away. A staircase rose front the hall, with a loud squeak in the seventh step. "What does that leave to talk about?" Travel, Help/Feedback | : As Isaac was losing his sight, Dad said, he used to shave with his eyes closed, selective over time. I felt proud (how rare the stories!) Whereas Roman-law societies had elaborate norms on contracts, Muscovy had essentially none. : Fafa Demasio. The slave revolt started on November 15, 1842, when a group of 20 African-Americans enslaved by the Cherokee escaped and tried to reach Mexico, where slavery had been abolished in 1829. it was unbottled, and the paper as blotchy as an English cheek. Among Isaac's pleasures was playing the violin. In the slave days the rice fields lay at the edge of the river. Dad used to call him Isaac the Confederate to distinguish him from the seven other Isaacs in Him from the seven other Isaacs helped be better understand the African-American experience and slave traders comfort for masters... Emerged from second-floor height and hung out over the sidewalk, where five columns its worth reading comfort both. 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