Renty’s whole family was kidnapped together on the middle passage

Evidence

I now believed that I had insight as to how Papa Renty arrived here in the US. He didn’t travel the middle passage alone—his entire family was kidnapped along with him. I was overcome by the inhumanity that my ancestors had endured, that they were not seen as people—and were so powerless over this institution of slavery that they could do nothing to change their circumstances. The hopeless despair they must have felt was all-consuming. It certainly was for me. — Tamara Lanier, From These Roots, 367