woman of letters

masterpiece of eclecticism

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✨ The Ancestors Had Sneaky Links Too — And That’s Why Your DNA Looks ‘Wrong’.

I want to share something that might help folks who feel confused or frustrated when their DNA results don’t match the names or stories they grew up with. While researching a young man’s tree, I was reviewing a 1930 census and noticed something interesting: A man and his wife were living in one household… and the woman who would later become his next wife was living right next door. Now, I’m…

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Between Blackness and Whiteness: A Sociological Account of When Your Parents’ Politics Don’t Include You and Growing Up Unaffirmed This piece is part of a larger series where I’m unpacking the social, racial, and political conditions that shaped my adolescence — especially the years when I was unhoused, gifted, and raising myself in environments my parents’ politics never accounted for. Each installment looks at a different layer: identity formation without affirmation, navigating instability, and the cultural education I received from neighborhoods rather than family. If you’ve ever grown up between worlds — racially, politically, or economically — this series is meant to give language to the experiences we were never taught how to name.

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A free Black man was kidnapped. A town refused to let it stand. And Langston stepped up with a speech that said: “We protect us.” 1856, a vintage "BLACK LIVES MATTER" movement. #BLM #BlackLivesMatter #HistoryUnmasked

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The Ledger of the "Lost": Was Manifest Destiny Just a Filing System for Erasure?

Now, I’ve been doing some thinking lately—taking a “slight left” from the usual family history talk. When we sit down to look for our people, we’re taught to respect “the record.” We treat those digitized census pages and yellowed death certificates like they’re the gospel truth. But the more I dig into the red dirt of East Texas history, the more I’ve started to see a different story hidden in…

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✨ Reflection Post: When the World Finally Names What Our Ancestors Endured

Yesterday, the United Nations General Assembly voted to recognize the transatlantic enslavement of Africans as “the gravest crime against humanity.” Not a tragedy. Not an unfortunate chapter. A crime — the greatest one humanity has ever committed. As I read the resolution, something in me shifted. My soul moved before my mind even caught up. Because for the past several years, I have been doing…

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Passenger Lists of Ships Coming to North America 1607 - 1825

passengerlistsof00lancDownload

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How to Live a Long Life

for the first 6 months of each year, mind your own business. the remaining 6 months of each year, stay out of everyone else’s business. this will guarantee long-evity

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This Ideology Is Still Thriving Among Many, 167 years Later....

It is utterly sad that there are people living today that hold steadfastly to the ideologies presented in this vintage news article. The Texian Advocate. (February 27, 1858). What the hell. Newspapers.com. Retrieved September 15, 2025, from https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-texian-advocate-what-the-hell/121777607/ here is the transcribed text that is visible:AN ENGLISH VIEW OF THE NEGRO .-…

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Huntsville State Penitentiary September 9, 1903

Palestine Herald-PressSeptember 10, 1903 Page 1. via Newspapers.com (https://www.newspapers.com/article/palestine-herald-press-plot-to-blow-up-t/122554605/ : accessed September 13, 2025), clip page for Plot to Blow Up the Huntsville Penitentiary in Texas by user PimpSkirt PLOT TO BLOW UP THE PENITENTIARY Treacherous Plot to Blow Up the Huntsville Prison Unearthed By the Officials. Austin, Texas,…

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The Most Absurd, Ignorant Thinking To Ever Have Existed

Here, we have proof of the minds that existed during 1868 and beyond, etc. that they thought Black People would just die off due to inferiority. 🙄😒

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The Texian Advocate Sat, Feb 27, 1858

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Reward for Spanish Ne*ro

Here is a public plea from slaveholder Alex Vander Dussen of Goose Creek, Berkeley, South Carolina to return his tall elderly Spanish Ne*ro for reward, describing the last known articles of clothing he was wearing. The South-Carolina Gazette, June 28, 1735, Page 3. via Newspapers.com (https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-south-carolina-gazette-spanish-negro/122674941/ : accessed September 4,…

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Palestine, Texas 1903: Stop Funding the Education of the Black Man

PALESTINE, TEXAS, SEPTEMBER 8, 1903. THE NEGRO AND HIS EDUCATION. If the negro can acquire education by his own efforts, the use of his own money, well and good. If philanthropists see fit to supplement his efforts, helping him with their money, well and good. . But he has had the benefit of the money contributed by the white taxpayers over the South long enough. Let money paid by negro…

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A Request for Patrol of The Black Community

The Texian Advocate, July 20, 1848, Page 2. via Newspapers.comIn this issue of the Texian Advocate, we have who I can only describe to be a pasty decrepit bitter pale MF that probably smelled like sewage, complaining about the existence of people who his great great great grandaddy brought to his neighborhood against their will. a transcription is available below. the author is not named I…

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SHERIFF'S SALE - The Texian Advocate

Thursday, January 27, 1848 SHERIFF’S SALEBy virtue of an execution in my hands, I will expose to the public for sale, at the court-house door of the county, in the town of Cameron, on theFirst Tuesday in February, 1848,the following property, to-witOne negro woman and two negro Boys.The above negroes were levied upon as the property of Caleb Wellburn, to satisfy an execution in favor of C.L.…

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Duzze Peak the Yella Bone Gangsta from Navarro County

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In the November 23, 1903 edition of the Palestine Herald-Press, a small article highlighting a fight that broke out between two women of color, resulting in medical treatment. Rosie Harris slashed Julia Smith's cheeks and her throat but they said she would recover.

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