Hi Robyn:
I’m so glad I found your blog. I’ve been researching my Jewish g-g-grandfather, Phillip Barnett Isaacs and other relatives, who was born in England and lived part time in Jamaica in the early 1800s. He was a slaveowner of four slaves and received money for each when Jamaican slavery was abolished in, I believe, the 1830s. I also have Gentile slave owner ancestors who lived in Virginia fought for the Confederacy and anti-slavery Ohio relatives from the same line, who fought for the Union. It’s very evident that the Virginia relatives owned many more slaves than did those in Jamaica and had large farms. I am related to a few De Pass and Isaacs individuals who had mothers who were slaves and white slave owner fathers. I have only seen evidence of one other family tree connected to mine that has attached evidence and sources for tree members that owned slaves, and the information is not that difficult to find. Any way, thank you for sharing your information and tips – I’ll continue to visit your site.
Hi Julie,
Thank you for your very kind words. Your family history is illustrative of so many of us–its all over the place. Kind of the beauty of this research, in my eyes, is that we can’t choose any of our ancestors. We can only try to document & understand their lives. I appreciate that you are doing that so well, especially with regard to documenting their slaveownership. ITs som important that we tell the truth about our history. Part of why we are in such a bad place as a country is that we havent done that. When we tell the truth, we can grapple with it, and maybe make new & better choices going forward.
Keep doing this work and I’m glad you found my blog–I have lots of posts that will interest you.
In Kinship,
Robyn
Hi Robyn:
I’m so glad I found your blog. I’ve been researching my Jewish g-g-grandfather, Phillip Barnett Isaacs and other relatives, who was born in England and lived part time in Jamaica in the early 1800s. He was a slaveowner of four slaves and received money for each when Jamaican slavery was abolished in, I believe, the 1830s. I also have Gentile slave owner ancestors who lived in Virginia fought for the Confederacy and anti-slavery Ohio relatives from the same line, who fought for the Union. It’s very evident that the Virginia relatives owned many more slaves than did those in Jamaica and had large farms. I am related to a few De Pass and Isaacs individuals who had mothers who were slaves and white slave owner fathers. I have only seen evidence of one other family tree connected to mine that has attached evidence and sources for tree members that owned slaves, and the information is not that difficult to find. Any way, thank you for sharing your information and tips – I’ll continue to visit your site.
Hi Julie,
Thank you for your very kind words. Your family history is illustrative of so many of us–its all over the place. Kind of the beauty of this research, in my eyes, is that we can’t choose any of our ancestors. We can only try to document & understand their lives. I appreciate that you are doing that so well, especially with regard to documenting their slaveownership. ITs som important that we tell the truth about our history. Part of why we are in such a bad place as a country is that we havent done that. When we tell the truth, we can grapple with it, and maybe make new & better choices going forward.
Keep doing this work and I’m glad you found my blog–I have lots of posts that will interest you.
In Kinship,
Robyn