Enslavement-era records preserve enslaved persons’ own voices and family bonds

Evidence

Connecting these dots was electrifying. This was proof that he arrived in the United States prior to the slave embargo of 1808, and that he traveled here with his family. This document also described my Papa Renty as a child who demanded a checkered shirt, and Rose, his mother, as insisting he come home for lunch between running errands. It may seem insignificant to most, but for me it was describing a defiant, confident child, even in times of enslavement—which correlated with my oral history. This statement is in Renty’s voice. This was a documented incident when Renty stubbornly insisted on that shirt. — Tamara Lanier, From These Roots, 812

Categorization

• SEED: Angle: reading enemy archives against themselves — the slave index entries that name Rose insisting her son come home for lunch are documents of care and defiance embedded in the records of enslavement.