Documentary records enable descendants to re-place ancestors onto the slaveholder’s land

Evidence

George Thompson’s death record was the answer I had been looking for. It undeniably linked me to the family of Benjamin Franklin Taylor. This death record points to a kinship between the Taylor slaveholder and the Thompson descendants, but even more incredibly, this record places my ancestors not only in Columbia, South Carolina, but on land owned by the slave owner Benjamin Franklin Taylor. George Thompson’s death record is proof that my ancestors lived, died, and are buried on Benjamin Franklin Taylor’s land. — Tamara Lanier, From These Roots, 549