Digging into family trees is alays an enlightening experience. I spent about 5 years involved in tracing mine and learned more than I ever thought would be available. I found that my my 23rd great grandfather led his men in the invasion of England by William the Conquerer. As award, he was granted control of Wexford in Ireland and ruled there for generations. When the Cromwell rebellion occured, his descendent was removed (to be reinstated a few years later). His next in line bother (another great grandfather) decide there was no future for him there under any circumstance, and immigrated to Virginia in the latter 1600's, acquiring a plantation of several thousand acres. He died soon, leaving his estate to a young son. He owned it for only a few years and mismanaged it, only to die earlyand left it to a 15 year old son with no trustee.
This is where the story gets interesting and why I think we view the whole issue of early slavery with too simplistic a view. The comlete dynamic of the history can hardly be fathomed by modern people. Not that it is in any way morally acceptable, but the situations that existed at the time were so different than today that they are hard to understand.
My great grandfather quickly lost almost everything he owned. He gradually sold off his land and still kept a number of slaves he had purchased. He had 12-14 children that were both his wife's and some of the slaves. He apparently did not consider any of the children slaves, as opposed to the general trend of the time. Court records and legal papers never refer to them as such. One of his children was legally named Gibby the Mullato. Due to his total business failure, he indentured two of his daughters to a German miller at the ages of 12 and 13. One of these was my great grandmother. She was also a mullato, since future court proceedings listed her as a "Notorious mullato woman". When she completed her indenture, she was a freewoman (not freedwoman). She ended up having 18 children, none apparently by the same husband. During her life, 12 of here 18 children were taken by the court and indentured. (Read: government ordered slavery). Her son James was released at the age of 18 and quickly managed to acquire a 250 acre farm. He married a woman who was not a person of color and had several children. Even with his family history he began purchasing slaves (he owned 16 at the time of his death). He fought in the American Revolution and recieved a pension. Two of his sons, one of whom was another great grandfather, felt so strongly about slavery that they moved to Kentucky at the start of theCivil war and enlisted in the 1ST Kentucky Cavalty, serving throughout the war.
This woman in early Virginia was an indentured mullato woman who was born to a slave but free, became a notorious woman of ill repute and mothered descendents who would become slaveowners, Kentucky anti-slavery soldiers, Hall of Fame NFL players and governors of New England states. Her forebears invaded England, were Irish fuedal Lords and, due to two unique marriages, were related to every modern King or Queen of England.
The history of this time period is well outlined in a unique book titled "People of Color of Mecklenburg County". It was at one time available on-line via Amazon, but was taken down at some point and I have never been able to find a hard copy.
I often wish I had time to document the whole tree, but sadly I don't. This is a story, as they say, that you just couldn't make up. It just points out the diversity our culture and how compex our history is compared to the 60 second talking point blurbs that is all we ever hear or see.
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