Burial on slaveholder-owned land proves the enslaved family’s continuing presence.

Evidence

Professor Warren Perry was right: the truth is in the ground. If we seek insight, or a cultural understanding of the lived experiences of our enslaved ancestors, we have to look to dark and desolate places. The truth is in the ground; the answers lie in the neglected land we now call slave or African American cemeteries. After many years of research, I now possess indisputable proof that my family members lived, died, and are buried on land owned by the slaveholder Benjamin Franklin Taylor. This is confirmation that Papa Renty, who also lived, died, and is buried on this same land, is my ancestor. — Tamara Lanier, From These Roots, 1163

Categorization

Category: Factual Claims

Related

• Slave cemeteries hold the genealogical proof archives were meant to prevent (similarity 0.92)
• Death records can place enslaved descendants on specific slaveholder-owned land (similarity 0.87)
• Enslaved families passed down oral memory of African-born ancestors like Papa Renty. (similarity 0.84)
• Taylor family plantations spanned the South from Virginia to Louisiana. (similarity 0.83)
• A death certificate placed the Thompsons on Taylor-owned land, proving kinship. (similarity 0.83)
• Documentary records enable descendants to re-place ancestors onto the slaveholder’s land (similarity 0.83)
• A probate will proved Renty Thompson’s family lived on Taylor-owned Alabama land. (similarity 0.83)
• A death certificate’s domicile field ties freed descendants to slaveholder land (similarity 0.82)
• The 1834 Taylor probate enumeration named the enslaved ancestors including Papa Renty. (similarity 0.82)
• Southern churches and slaveholding plantations were established together by the same families (similarity 0.82)
• Taylor family plantations explain where Lanier’s family settled after slavery (similarity 0.82)
• Provenance connecting ancestors to specific land constituted proof enough for her (similarity 0.81)
• An enslaved man named Sancho was bequeathed across three generations of the Taylor family. (similarity 0.81)
• Lanier initially believed all enslaved people were of direct African descent. (similarity 0.80)
• Papa Renty was born in the Congo and enslaved by Colonel Thomas Taylor. (similarity 0.80)