From Slavery to the White House (about Michelle Obama's family)

[TechBear_Seattle]

This was in the Seattle Times this morning. I don't know if it's been posted before, but it is an interesting read.

From Slavery to the White House

Tiny wooden cabins line the dirt road once known as Slave Street as it winds through Friendfield Plantation.

More than 200 slaves lived in the whitewashed shacks in the early 1800s, and some of their descendants remained for more than 100 years after the Civil War. The last tenants abandoned the hovels about 30 years ago, and even they would have struggled to imagine a distant daughter of the plantation one day calling the White House home.

But a historical line can be drawn from these Low Country cabins to Michelle Obama, charting an American family's improbable journey through slavery, segregation, the civil-rights movement and a historic presidential election.

Their documented passage begins with Jim Robinson, Michelle Obama's great-great-grandfather, who was born about 1850 and lived as a slave, at least until the Civil War, on the sprawling rice plantation. Records show he remained on the estate after the war, working as a sharecropper and living in the old slave quarters with his wife, Louiser, and their children. He could neither read nor write, according to the 1880 census.

The story continues at The Seattle Times.

[Sebass1271]

1. Well, Michelle was not the one running to be President

I don't know why Slavery is always being linked to Obama. He is not a descendant of slavery.. .

[Hepburn]

3. His wife and children are and...

...speaking as a white person who has NO history of being discriminated against because of the color of my skin, I have seen my black friends treated differently than me when we are in public. So, Obama may not have a slave ancestory, but he IS a black man in a nation that has a deplorable history of bigotry towards African Americans. And, yes, he IS an African American.

JMHO

[Connie_Corleone]

4. He is married to the first black First Lady who is a descendant of slaves.

That's how he's linked. Plus, Obama may be bi-racial, but he's still treated like a black man in this country because he looks black. He identifies mostly with being black because of that.

[Beacool]

7. Hear, hear..........

Also ignoring the fact that many Kenyans sold fellow Africans from defeated tribes to the slave traders. Slavery and human trafficking is still a problem in Kenya.

http://www.gvnet.com/humantrafficking/Kenya.htm

http://allafrica.com/stories/200810060950.html

[Terran]

8. "ignoring"...?

What does the role of Kenyans in the slave trade have to do with this story? It hardly matters how her ancestors ended up as slaves in the US, and anyway we don't know where they came from originally anyway.

I just love how, when the subject of US slavery comes up, some people feel the need to rush into print a statement about how Africans were complicit in the slave trade...like that spreads around the evil and lessens it somehow.

[Beacool]

10. The slavery issue was mentioned more than once during the primaries.

My point is that Obama's ancestors were not slaves as he is African American as opposed to African-American. Michelle's ancestry is a different story.

[Terran]

12. Yeah, and the story is about Michelle's ancestors

not Barack's. I still don't see the relevancy of your comment.

[rvablue]

11. And also ignores the fact that it would have been impossible for

anyone to be "complicit" if there weren't any ships filled with men with guns showing up to buy people.

[Hepburn]

2. The day after the November election, I posted a thread about...

...those two darling Obama girls living in the WH ~~ a place that slaves had helped to build.

To me...that was such a wonderful thought that FINALLY the U.S. had come this far. Still more road to travel on this and other bigotry...but it made me smile and cry at the same time with the thought that ancestors of Malia and Sasha could have built part of the the home where these two beautiful children will spend part of their lives.

[faithfulcitizen]

5. And who knows...maybe Malia or Sasha will BE the President one day.

wouldn't THAT be somethin'. :)

[Hepburn]

9. So true!

:hi:

[MarkInCA]

14. I keep thinking about the Whitehouse workers on January 20th

Many who work in the Witehouse domestic staff are black and many have worked there for a long time and can remember when domestic work was all they could do.

I just wish I could see their faces when they greet the new residents.

[Hepburn]

16. Amen, Mark!

I just love the entire story of Obama becoming President...and I adore Michelle and the two beautiful daughters. I could not be more proud of a First Family!

:hi:

[BDW1964]

6. What an amazing

and interesting family story. What happened to our ancestors and the choices they made, directly and indirectly influences each of us.

[Boudica the Lyoness]

13. A friend of mine was the son of Alabama sharecroppers

I always thought he should write a book about his childhood so his children and others would know how they lived. But I think he was ashamed of it and kept it to himself pretty much. It took him over 25 years to tell me.

He told me they lived in a cabin with no running water. Cooked with a wood stove. The walls were just wooden boards that you could see outside through. The five children slept in the same bed to keep warm. Neither of his parents could read or write. At age five he started picking cotton and later walking behind a mule to plough. They killed and ate anything because they were hungry a lot. They ate turtles and snakes and did a lot of fishing. He played football with his brothers by a river. They kept a watermelon or two in the river to keep it cool. He told he about a murder, black on black, and the police didn't care to do anything. He told me about a bar/dance place deep in the woods where his dad would take him to eat a fish sandwich when he was a teenager.

He was the only one in his family to graduate high school and then he joined the air force and got out of there. He said it's all gone now, buried under shopping malls and the like. He was born in the early '50's. His dad was born in 1905. I wished he'd have written down all his memories but he wouldn't. So I wrote what I remembered.

[GreenPartyVoter]

15. You know, I often wonder when I walk into a building what the history is or the history of the

ground that it is built on.

I bet very few people would guess the history of the ground under those malls. :(

[MarkInCA]

17. Not too hard to find out

I have been researching the district I live in for years for a book I want to write (eventually) and I use newspaperarchive.com. Cost isn't that much.

Found out who lived in our house 70+ years ago.

[GreenPartyVoter]

19. That's a very cool project. Have you ever seen the TV show "If Walls Could Talk?"

Very cool stuff: http://www.hgtv.com/hgtv/shows_wct

[BoneDaddy]

18. Beautiful piece

We are all descended from slaves and kings.

[applegrove]

20. I hope Michelle can help to integrate America's past into itself.