Michelle Obama's ancestors suffered slavery, segregation and humiliation
Slave cabins still stand at the Friendfield Plantation in Georgetown, South Carolina. The whitewashed, wooden structures in Slave Street, a sandy track at the back of the plantation owner's house, were once crammed with captive African labourers. No more than sheds really, the cabins have no heating, no glass and no indoor plumbing, and are propped up on brick pillars to keep out flood water and visiting snakes.
The Withers family relied on more than 300 Africans to bring in the rice crop from their fields along the Sampit River. Among their slaves in the mid-19th century was a tall, hardworking, God-fearing man named Jim Robinson. His remains probably lie in the slave graveyard in the swampy land down by the river's edge and his fate might well have been to disappear from history, like so many other slaves, except he is the great-great-grandfather of America's new First Lady.
Michelle Obama's family embodies the tragic yet triumphant journey of African-Americans. Slavery is a bitter history that many would prefer to forget, but it continues to cast a dark shadow over a nation that was founded on the promise that "all men are created equal" and endowed with the "unalienable rights" to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. Though it may seem like a phenomenon of an impossibly distant past, slavery is only just outside living memory. The last slave cabin at Friendfield was vacated in the Sixties and one of Robinson's granddaughters, who heard stories about him from her father, still lives in a whitewashed, breeze-block bungalow on the edge of the Friendfield lands.
Carrie Nelson, 80, can barely contain her emotion when she imagines what her grandfather would think of one of his descendants moving into the White House. "I think it's beautiful. If he was still alive, I think he would – oh Lord! – be so grateful. He would be so happy."
Read entire article at Times (UK)
The Withers family relied on more than 300 Africans to bring in the rice crop from their fields along the Sampit River. Among their slaves in the mid-19th century was a tall, hardworking, God-fearing man named Jim Robinson. His remains probably lie in the slave graveyard in the swampy land down by the river's edge and his fate might well have been to disappear from history, like so many other slaves, except he is the great-great-grandfather of America's new First Lady.
Michelle Obama's family embodies the tragic yet triumphant journey of African-Americans. Slavery is a bitter history that many would prefer to forget, but it continues to cast a dark shadow over a nation that was founded on the promise that "all men are created equal" and endowed with the "unalienable rights" to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. Though it may seem like a phenomenon of an impossibly distant past, slavery is only just outside living memory. The last slave cabin at Friendfield was vacated in the Sixties and one of Robinson's granddaughters, who heard stories about him from her father, still lives in a whitewashed, breeze-block bungalow on the edge of the Friendfield lands.
Carrie Nelson, 80, can barely contain her emotion when she imagines what her grandfather would think of one of his descendants moving into the White House. "I think it's beautiful. If he was still alive, I think he would – oh Lord! – be so grateful. He would be so happy."