Last Century/Last Week

History of Black people in the United States & Some post from my family genealogy

[1264doghouse]

Sylvia Vanderpool

[limeshade]

In 2017, American film researchers recovered “Something Good – Negro Kiss,” a short film depicting a playful kiss between a Black couple which had not seen the light of day for more than a century. A long-forgotten artifact from the earliest years of American film, the sweet, humanizing vignette, produced by the Selig Polyscope Company, makes a startling contrast to the overwhelmingly racist and blackface-ridden contempory portrayals of African Americans. Four years later in 2021, archivists in Norway, halfway across the world, identified a sister short in their collections—an extended alternate cut which reveals more of Chicago stage performers Gertie Brown and Saint Suttle’s vaudeville-like routine, a theatrical, hot-and-cold romantic dynamic between two lovers which parodies the popular and controversial short “The Kiss” (1896). Both films, which had previously been lost, were known from entries in old motion picture catalogs but had been assumed to be era-typical, anti-Black “race films” until their rediscovery in the 21st century. Together with its more famous sibling, which has since been inducted into the Library of Congress’ National Film Registry, this alternate version of “Something Good” represents the first-known instance of Black intimacy ever captured on-screen.

SOMETHING GOOD [Alternate Version] (1898) Directed by William Selig

[onceuponatown]

Unidentified couple posing for studio portrait. Ca. 1890-1900.

[onceuponatown]

Two unidentified escaped slaves wearing ragged clothes. Baton Rouge, Louisiana between 1861-65.

On the back of the photo is handwritten “Contrabands just arrived”. 

Contraband was a term commonly used in the US military during the American Civil War to describe a new status for certain escaped slaves or those who affiliated with Union forces. In August 1861, the Union Army and the US Congress determined that the US would no longer return escaped slaves who went to Union lines, but they would be classified as “contraband of war,” or captured enemy property. They used many as laborers to support Union efforts and soon began to pay wages. The former slaves set up camps near Union forces, and the army helped to support and educate both adults and children among the refugees. Thousands of men from these camps enlisted in the United States Colored Troops when recruitment started in 1863. At the end of the war, more than 100 contraband camps existed in the South, including the Freedmen’s Colony of Roanoke Island, North Carolina, where 3500 former slaves worked to develop a self-sufficient community.

[momenalostaz]

Who is this war? Her simple words sum up our pain and hopes. We are only seeking the opportunity to live in safety and peace.🙏🙏🙏🍉🍉

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[dykesbat]

this fundraiser has been vetted by el-shab-hussein here (under the name Ahmed Al Ostaz). please help out in any way you can.

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[blkglhistorian]

My uncle sent my mom a picture of my great great grandparents. He’s saying my great great grandfather was Hindu?!?!?!!! Of course all the census records just call him Mulatto.

[blkglhistorian]

Please no one tag this a Bl@ck woman / @si*n man 😭

[blkglhistorian]

My uncle sent my mom a picture of my great great grandparents. He’s saying my great great grandfather was Hindu?!?!?!!! Of course all the census records call him Mulatto.

[thechanelmuse]

How genealogy is used to track Black family histories

Our names are important to us. They tell us who we are and often, who we come from. So imagine suddenly discovering the last name you’ve always carried… might not actually be the name you should have. 

Alex Neason began looking into her family’s history after discovering her great grandfather’s name was different from what she believed for her whole life. In her search to discover the story of that last name, she enlisted genealogist Nicka Sewell-Smith.

For Black Americans, genealogy can fill in the blanks left by the legacy of slavery and racism in the U.S. Services like the Freedmen’s Bureau and Slave Voyages provide free access to records and documents to help with that search. We talk about the power of genealogy in fostering knowledge and connection for Black Americans.

Source

If you click on the word “source,” it’ll take you to the article where you’ll see a LISTEN button. It’s a 30-minute audio that discusses the info provided in the article even further. Y’all know I’m big on getting people to trace their lineage. All that “we don’t know where we come from.” Who told you that? Everything in the US is in plain sight. Everything.

Discover your fam. 

I assist others when they reach a roadblock, like getting past the “1870 wall.” But you can’t beat the feeling of you discovering them on your own. Unearthing your history, seeing photos, reading stories that were stored, and saying their names that haven’t been said for centuries. I’ve been tracing mine (scanning, logging) since my family reunion in 2005 through oral family history and obituaries (those are records), and since 2011 through databases of US archived records like ancestry.com (purchased by BlackStone) and familysearch.org (free database owned by the Latter-day Saints Church). There are others, but those are the main two I use for comparative results.  

Archiving Centers, Census Records & Other Records

There are archiving centers in every state and DC that also keep records for those particular states and the federal capital. There’s a footnote on all records that tells you where they are housed. And please…Don’t just do a simple pedigree chart of your family tree. Get to know your great-aunts, great-uncles and cousins. It’s also helpful for seeing who lived around who (fam often lived next door to each other) and puts more of the pieces together of your complete family story. You can see the land and acres they owned or your fam today still owns, as well as if that land was stolen from them.

US census records go back to year 1790. Depending on when or if your ancestors were enslaved or free: you’ll find them attached to slave logs that have been made available online or kept in archiving centers (you go there), or or they’ll be listed on census records as free persons (1790-1710), free colored male/female (1820-1840), Black (1850-1920), Mulatto (1850-1890, 1910-1920) or Negro (1900, 1930-1950). “New” census documents are put on sites, like ancestry.com, every 10 years. As of 2023, you can only trace from 1950 to 1790. The 1960 census will be out in 2030. How to trace from 1950 to today, birth, death and residential records. So again, depending on the census year, you’ll notice your ancestors racial classification change throughout documents for obvious reasons. 

Keep in mind that the the largest slave trade for the United States was the domestic slave trade. In house human trafficking and selling (in addition to property insurance of enslaved people and the selling of enslaved people as the building block of Wall Street’s stock exchange) is how US capitalism was built. So just because you know a lot of your people are from Tennessee, for example, it doesn’t mean that’s where that line stayed. I’ve found my ancestors throughout 7 states (so far). Another example, people with Louisiana roots damn near always have ancestors who were trafficked from early Virginia. Going beyond year 1790, records were kept in Christian and Catholic churches and old family history books so most of those documents are scanned online and/or still kept in the churches. I’m talking books books. 

If your ancestors walked the Trail of Tears, or were caught as prisoners of war or trafficked to Indian Nations to be enslaved, you’ll find an Oklahoma Indian Territory and Oklahoma Freedmen Rolls section on ancestry.com. You can discover more info on sites, like the Oklahoma Historical Society. (Every state has its own historical society for archived genealogical records.) 

Here’s the National Archives.

Also for Oklahoma, you may also find your ancestors in Indian Census Rolls (1855-1940) as [insert tribe] Freedmen, depending if they weren’t rejected through the “blood quantum” Dawes Rolls for not being the new light to white status. You’ll see their application and the listed questions & answers with or without a big void stamp. And on the census, you’ll even see the letter I (pronounced like eye) changed to the letter B. This is also for those in Louisiana.

Freedmen’s Bureau & Bank Records 

There were Freedmen’s Bureau records and Freedman’s Savings Bank records in other states. To see if your ancestors had their records in those systems, you can search by their name. The state and age will pop up with people having that name. It’ll give you a wealth of other info, like all of the kids and other fam if they were present or mentioned to the person who logged that info in. With the Freedmen Bank records, you can see how much money your ancestors put in there (that was later stolen from them by way of the United States government), which is still there today. It’s the biggest bank heist in US history (that they try to keep hush hush) with the equivalence of more than $80 million in today’s value stored in there today. Back then, it was valued almost close to $4 million. Stolen wealth met with bootstrap lectures. 

Here’s a short video on that heist:

Today the bank is called the Freedman’s Bank Building, located right on Pennsylvania Ave. Plain sight. 

Trace your lineage. 

There’s a lot more that I can list. But this is just the basics. Like I said before, it’s a more rewarding feeling when you discover your ancestors by yourself. You may reach roadblocks. Take a break. Try going the “Card Catalog” route on ancestry.com’s search engine. Don’t skip the small details. 

SN: Slave Voyages isn’t a genealogical site, but rather a database for slave ship logs and the estimates of purchased Africans who became human cargo to be enslaved by country like USA, or by colonizers like Spain, Great Britain, etc.

[thechanelmuse]

National Archives

Below is a document from the National Archives, which you can download here. Read what I highlighted:

This is both correct and incorrect 🙃. They think they slick. This is unnecessary confusion as usual. The part about there being no distinction is accurate. However, the classifications of “free Blacks and Native Americans” are both misleading and incorrect. “Native American” and “American Indian” are not the same thing, especially in this sentiment.

Just as the indigenous prisoners of the ongoing wars against European invaders on American soil (1609-1858) who became the first of the chattel enslaved (before the arrival of 170,597 shipped Africans during the 1790-1810 period), those who were Christianized and allowed to maintain a free status in that time, they were all American Indians from whichever of 500+ tribes were or still exist here. They were with either called free persons or slaves. That’s it. All of the treaties in America speaks about American Indians who were simply called “Indians” (of the land). The classification for American Indians (simply the letter “I” as in “eye”) doesn’t appear on the US Census until 1850 during chattel slavery.

👇🏽

Incomplete and inaccuracies 🤔. You know why. The US corporate government is always telling on themselves. They become divided into Black or Mulatto, depending on the language for those in different states.

“Native American” was first introduced in the 1960s. American Indians who were already reclassified into the classifications of Black or Mulatto before the full overhaul of Negro during Dawes Rolls era (with the likes of Walter Plecker and Naomi Drake) were never the term “Native American.” Personally, when I think of Native Americans I think about the European-Americans who purchased stolen documents, by way of the government for five dollars, allowing them to become $5 Indians on by blood Dawes Rolls. They use that term. 🤷🏽‍♀️

I’m still doing research when it comes to the classification Black that we made our distinct ethnic and cultural identity. Classifications in different states did not mean the same thing. I first learned this when it came to my lines in Virginia that were Mulatto. I was confused af when census docs didn’t align with the fleshed out background of my people in non-census docs and books. The lines were blurred. The meanings back then tend to differ with today’s meanings.

Things were based on blood (by your mama) and phenotype. If you’ve ever come across any Freedmen’s Bank records, you’d know what I mean even more. Next to the word complexion, you’ll see anything from white and swarthy to dark brown and black and anything in between to describe our freed ancestors.

Here’s an example from a Family Search article:

What is “black” skin and what is “brown” skin? 🤔🤷🏽‍♀️

What is the difference when you add “dark brown” in the mix? 🤔

Then when you throw in “white” 🤔.

Keep in mind, the bank was only for those classified as Black or Mulatto, freed by Emancipation Proclamation.

Lastly, I know what the National Archives is tryna say, but there was no such thing as a “Free African Americans” between 1790 to 1840. There was a Free African Society tho if any of y'all had free fam in specific parts of Philly during that time. African American, was a reclassification done to the ethnic identity of Black Americans in the year 2000 by Jesse Jackson. A misnomer. One of the problems we’ve always had in this country is the umpteenth reclassifications only done on us to cause confusion. We need clear, specificity and explanations for each period. But when you know, you know.

[thechanelmuse]

U.S., Black and Indigenous Soldiers in the American Revolution, 1775-1783

This is a new search category that Ancestry.com has added to the Military card catalog in Sept 2023. I don’t know how I missed this one.

Simply click “Search” then select “Card Catalog” from the drop-down menu. In the Title bar, either enter “Black and Indigenous” or “American Revolution.” If you’ve gotten back to the 1700s, plug your male ancestors names in. Save those documents.

Similar to the National Archives post above, Black and Indigenous weren’t used back then. But we know who this is being referred to. You won’t see any racial or ethnic identifiers on these military docs. These are handwritten military muster rolls, but the only things listed are names, ranks, military dates, military places, units, and regiments. There’s also enlistment records.

There are other related data collections on this same page that you will find in a section under “Browse this collection.” They include:

US, African American Civil War Sailor Index, 1861-1865 (a third-party database)

U.S., Descriptive Lists of Colored Volunteer Army Soldiers, 1864

U.S., Buffalo Soldiers, Returns From Regular Army Cavalry Regiments, 1866-1916

[thechanelmuse]

Another important tip:

The initial post of this thread has come around full circle, in terms of name discovery. My tip: If your ancestor has different spellings for their first name, search all records with each spelling (with the inclusion of that ancestor’s date of birth, place of birth, and “race” classification at the time).

It just helped me.

Ancestry sent me a hint for one of my relatives, which checked out: A 4x’s great-granduncle, who was a war vet and timber cutter passing away from “fatal syncope” at 37. I almost went down a damn rabbit hole of confusion after thinking my granduncle was my grandfather because both father and son have the same name 🙃. Things happen for a reason, right?

While reviewing the 1850 Free Inhabitants Census for that 5th great-grandpa and his wife (my grandma), I peeped they gave my grandma one name and another one with an alternative spelling. Then on another document they gave her a second alternative spelling. So I’m working with three names over here. When Ancestry gives you a green hint for a “potential ancestor” you may share with someone else, the way others have mostly listed that person on their tree will also be filled out for you in that same manner. So I got their roadblock spelling.

The moment I performed a search on the first alternative spelling the damn floodgates opened 🙌🏽.

As always, before you’re shown a slew of documents for a potential ancestor, Ancestry provides you with the trees of other people who may share an ancestor with you. It popped up. Cross reference it. This person shares the same grandma, born on the same day in the same small county with the same “race” classification as mine, but with double the documents 👀. I now know her parents and the person who owned her mother.

Tell me why this fifth great-grandma, Jincy, has the SAME name as HER mama. Come on, Grandma Jincys 🙌🏽💃🏽. I’m now deep into the early 1700s for that line.

Your 1st greats to your 10th greats alone are 8,184 ancestors in total. I’m in the 2000s. A lot of people to discover and get to know.

[thechanelmuse]

Updated records:

I got an email today from Ancestry. They’ve updated the records for the “U.S. Freedmen’s Bureau Records,” totaling to 3.2 million now. They use the word “updated” to mean that it contains new information or new records altogether (including records that were previously private with restrictions lifted 👀🤔).

So see if your people saved any money in the Freedmen’s Heist Bank. Print and save those documents.

[pipouch]

Agostino Brunius : "Free Women of Color with Their Children and Servants in a Landscape", ca. 1770-1796. (Brooklyn Museum)

[yearningforunity]

Kidnappers

[randomphotojournal]

Krokobite, Ghana. © Arinzechukwu Patrick

[through-a-historic-lens]

Mississippi’s first interracial marriage, August 1970.

[brazenbells]

Adding @bethanyactually 's informative tags!

[3rdeyeblaque-deactivated2025050]

On April 6th in Hoodoo History: The New York City Slave Revolt of 1712 🔥✊🏾

23 enslaved Afrikans set fire to NYC one year after the slave trade markets officially opened by the East River on Wall Street.

• On the night of April 6th, 1712, 23 Afrikans armed themselves with swords, knives, guns - laced with prayer & faith - and fire against White Slavers in the streets of NYC. They set an outhouse ablaze at the home of Peter Van Tilborough on Maiden Lane, at what was then the northern edge of Manhattan. They then picked off any White Slavers nearby who tried to stop it, from the cover of darkness. 9 Slavers were killed and 6 others were injured by nights end.

• On the following morning, the Governor of NY ordered two militias to "drive the island" aka capture & kill the rebels. 6 Afrikans took their lives in protest. The rest were burned alive or "broken" at the wheel. This unprecedented event hitting the streets of NYC quickly spurred the NY State Assembly to pass an act that would permit Slavers to punish Afrikans to the extreme measures by "not extending to life or member", thus cementing a new precedent for their cruelty in the North. In addition, Slavers would now be required to pay $200 dollars in security fees to the State & annuity for any freed Afrikans. Despite these stringent laws, NYC would see more slave rebellions in the next two decades; the next being in 1741.

To be of Hoodoo is, and has always been, to fight back. Let this be a reminder, forever to be drilled into our psyches: We been fighting. We been sacrificing. We been spiriting. We been victorious.

Today, 83 Maiden Lane sits in the infamous Financial District of Manhattan & now serves as the headquarters of the AHRC (Association of Help for Retarded Children). But beneath the cloak of modern amenities & reconstructive efforts, the once-scorched Earth still remembers the night of April 6th. This is where we made our stand. This, & the streets along the northern edge of Manhattan, is a place of power.

It is important to remember the when & WHERE of this event (and those that followed) as many to this day falsely believe that the North was somehow the righteous exception to the Eurocentric cruelties of Maafa. The North was not the exception then & is not the exception now. May we:

• Meditate on the cost of true freedom that these Ancestors paid in blood so we wouldn't have to.

• Pour libations for them, especially those of us residing on or near the Financial District, as this is where our Ancestors were bought & sold from the docks on the East River to Wall Street.

• Remember our plight & presence in the Northern states that have lightened their reputation with the mask of progressive thinking.

[divineblkqueen]

I'm screaming 🤣🤣🤣

[anneemay]

Check this playlist out. A friend made this. It's very cool. Please share it around.

[blkglhistorian]

How the autobiography of a Muslim slave is challenging an American narrative -PBS Newshour on YouTube

I’m not sure why this is news. The enslaved person Zora Neale Hurston interviewed in Barraoon talked about praying facing the east. It’s very clear there were a lot of West Africans who were trafficked to America were Muslim. They estimate 20% but I wouldn’t be surprised if it was more.

[blackfolksintime]