Genealogical Reckoning - The Final Reckoning

 The Final Reckoning

If you have followed the series of Genealogical Reckoning you know it has been a journey of discovery. It has held surprises both good and bad. This personal journey that I have shared is not particularly unique, though it isn't very prevalent - because it requires researching, knowing, and reflecting on things that are uncomfortable and inconvenient. 

Edward Ball is an exception as he has looked at his family's personal history as enslavers and published a book on the subject. Others like Rachel Swarns, have documented particular subsets of enslaved people and associated them with their enslavers. Some Universities, like Harvard and Princeton, have looked at their involvement and implemented scholarships or reparative efforts as part of their repentance.

Like so many moral errors of history - no one can truly make amends. Those directly affected by the original sins are no longer among the living. 

There are descendants of those who were enslaved who have overcome (often significantly) the disadvantages inflicted on their ancestors.  Likewise, others have continued to suffer multigenerational traumas that can be tied to an ancestor's experiences as a slave. 

There are also descendants of enslavers who are still benefitting from the prosperities enslaving brought them. And equally, there are descendants of enslavers whose ancestors suffered mightily from losses associated with the Civil War and have continued to suffer generationally.

So, what about me? “Certainly, the choices my ancestors made—and the situations that befell them—impacted my initial conditions. After that, like everyone else, it has been about my choices to seize or ignore opportunities that arose. My environment gave me more opportunities than some and less opportunities than others. As Solomon noted: "The race is not to the swift or the battle to the strong... but time and chance happens to them all."

Review of my Ancestors

I looked at fourteen family names representing 2nd great grandparents and their ancestors. Of those, eight families owned one or more slaves; three of those families owned slaves quite extensively; one family was abolitionists in temperament; one family became abolitionists in 1776; and one family was immigrants.

Impact

I'm an American with deep ancestral roots in the country. With such deep roots it is impossible not to be impacted by the history of the nation.  This history includes things like harsh involvement with native Americans, slavery, Revolutionary War, industrial expansion, Civil War, and Reconstruction.

As I have looked, I have found uncles and ancestors that fought on opposite sides in battles on the frontier, in battles of the Revolutionary, and in the Civil War. I have ancestors who were enslavers and abolitionist. I have ancestors who lost much after the Civil War. I have family that prospered during the industrial revolution and others were displaced.

At the end the question is not, "who were my ancestor and what did they do?" but rather "who am I and what will I do?"