Enslaved family movements follow slaveholder relocations rather than sale

Evidence

Still, both Chris and I were baffled as to why Charleston was listed as his place of birth, since Benjamin lived in Columbia. I was on a mission to figure this out. Through all my Taylor family research, I saw that they moved between Virginia and South Carolina, Mississippi, Louisiana, and Alabama and my premise was that my own family members, while never officially accounted for, would go back and forth with their slaveholders. This meant that wherever the slaveholders landed at the end of slavery was where my ancestors laid their roots. I also deduced that those who were newly emancipated knew where their family members lived—and would travel long distances to reunite with them. That meant that Renty moved to Mount Meigs, Alabama, from Charleston, South Carolina, not because he was sold, but because he had family there. — Tamara Lanier, From These Roots, 399

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to the reader’s genealogical-reconstruction theme: archives designed to prevent tracing forced a deductive method based on slaveholder movement patterns.