Daughter Dialogues
Marcia Lamar: Travel Manager. Yank, white Frank’s black nickname troubles.
Marcia talks about how the Clotilda, the last ship that transported slaves after their trade from Africa was abolished, carried the captives who bought land to create Africatown in Alabama, where her father lived; disheartened learning her ancestors did not come from the Clotilda; her pipe smoking maternal great grandmother, Deland, chopping off a white man's foot after being called a name while enslaved; the death certificate of her white maternal grandfather Moses Wilson's enslaved mulatto mother, Lillian James, listing Lillian’s father as "Yank", his black family’s nickname, instead of his real name Frances or Frank, causing three years of being denied for application to the Daughters of the American Revolution; Yank having children with another mulatto woman who lived with him, willed to him by his father with instructions to allow them to live as free and white as possible, but children not liking the way whites were treating people so marrying black, Yank listed as Frank on their death certificates, meeting their descendants; Moses having two children with her black grandmother, but also a white family with six children; Lillian, descendant of Revolutionary War patriot John James, having ten children with European James (Jimmy) Wilson who had a white wife and children who likely wrote him off as dead; connecting with present-day white families of Moses and Jimmy but Yank’s white family disconnecting once they discovered she was black. She shares oral history about growing up in Mobile, Alabama; several years during her childhood, her mother being away at college in Montgomery, unable to attend locally due to segregation; the National Guard at her high school during desegregation, clearing campus early each day after breaking up fights, her brother standing in the corner of the cafeteria eating gumbo amidst fighting; working for Eastern Airlines in Atlanta, Georgia for 17 years, now an operations manager; interested in genealogy in 1976 when pregnant with first child, born on the last day of "Roots"; Deland enslaved by Robert Moffett, sold to Mississippi, daughter Delphine marrying John Beard, descendant of 2nd great grandfather William Beard who was formerly enslaved having 200+ acres of land, a logging company, 22 kids, four wives including a Moffett, starting a church in a community called Moffettville; visiting present-day town; mother's birth certificate not listing Moses as the father, never married grandmother; white descendants of Jimmy's father, Albert Jackson, who owned over 500 acres and slaves, thinking Jimmy died in 1891 as written in their family Bible and "Your Inheritance" book by a cousin which documented family to Charlemagne and Revolutionary War patriot Joshua Wilson, under which she joined DAR, who became a Methodist minister and built a school; their family taking her to cemeteries and churches; finding a 1900 death record for Jimmy, so alive when grandfather born in 1896; white cousins affirming great aunt had stories she wouldn't share; paternal great grandfather Emp Green, U.S. Colored Troop in AL; patriots Mark Harwell and Joel Rivers of Virginia; becoming close to white state officer from AL in GA DAR also descending from patriot Joshua Wilson; reaching out to chapters in Decatur, GA; "I cannot change the past. Without it, I wouldn't be here, I am embracing the good and focused on bettering the future"; connection with black Daughters important since doing similar research; joining DAR to prevent research from being lost; being uncomfortable with some chapter programs about the Confederacy; “some individual women have more learning to do about people of color but the organization stands for all people”; "I am an American".
Read Marcia's biography at www.daughterdialogues.com/daughters
Subscribe to the newsletter at www.daughterdialogues.com
Marcia talks about how the Clotilda, the last ship that transported slaves after their trade from Africa was abolished, carried the captives who bought land to create Africatown in Alabama, where her father lived; disheartened learning her ancestors did not come from the Clotilda; her pipe smoking maternal great grandmother, Deland, chopping off a white man's foot after being called a name while enslaved; the death certificate of her white maternal grandfather Moses Wilson's enslaved mulatto mother, Lillian James, listing Lillian’s father as "Yank", his black family’s nickname, instead of his real name Frances or Frank, causing three years of being denied for application to the Daughters of the American Revolution; Yank having children with another mulatto woman who lived with him, willed to him by his father with instructions to allow them to live as free and white as possible, but children not liking the way whites were treating people so marrying black, Yank listed as Frank on their death certificates, meeting their descendants; Moses having two children with her black grandmother, but also a white family with six children; Lillian, descendant of Revolutionary War patriot John James, having ten children with European James (Jimmy) Wilson who had a white wife and children who likely wrote him off as dead; connecting with present-day white families of Moses and Jimmy but Yank’s white family disconnecting once they discovered she was black. She shares oral history about growing up in Mobile, Alabama; several years during her childhood, her mother being away at college in Montgomery, unable to attend locally due to segregation; the National Guard at her high school during desegregation, clearing campus early each day after breaking up fights, her brother standing in the corner of the cafeteria eating gumbo amidst fighting; working for Eastern Airlines in Atlanta, Georgia for 17 years, now an operations manager; interested in genealogy in 1976 when pregnant with first child, born on the last day of "Roots"; Deland enslaved by Robert Moffett, sold to Mississippi, daughter Delphine marrying John Beard, descendant of 2nd great grandfather William Beard who was formerly enslaved having 200+ acres of land, a logging company, 22 kids, four wives including a Moffett, starting a church in a community called Moffettville; visiting present-day town; mother's birth certificate not listing Moses as the father, never married grandmother; white descendants of Jimmy's father, Albert Jackson, who owned over 500 acres and slaves, thinking Jimmy died in 1891 as written in their family Bible and "Your Inheritance" book by a cousin which documented family to Charlemagne and Revolutionary War patriot Joshua Wilson, under which she joined DAR, who became a Methodist minister and built a school; their family taking her to cemeteries and churches; finding a 1900 death record for Jimmy, so alive when grandfather born in 1896; white cousins affirming great aunt had stories she wouldn't share; paternal great grandfather Emp Green, U.S. Colored Troop in AL; patriots Mark Harwell and Joel Rivers of Virginia; becoming close to white state officer from AL in GA DAR also descending from patriot Joshua Wilson; reaching out to chapters in Decatur, GA; "I cannot change the past. Without it, I wouldn't be here, I am embracing the good and focused on bettering the future"; connection with black Daughters important since doing similar research; joining DAR to prevent research from being lost; being uncomfortable with some chapter programs about the Confederacy; “some individual women have more learning to do about people of color but the organization stands for all people”; "I am an American".
Read Marcia's biography at www.daughterdialogues.com/daughters
Subscribe to the newsletter at www.daughterdialogues.com