From my book, Echoes and Whispers: The Chronicles of an African American Family in the South

Having seen with my very own eyes some of my family documented in the Federal Census, my longing for more connections began to scream within my veins.  At times, the hours scouring the Internet seemed to drag and drag.  Glimpses of records holding tantalizing possibilities scrolled down and across the screen, only to end in disappointment after disappointment, as I could not connect with any further documentation, any other record, that would bring the puzzle pieces of my family into a complete and focused view.  It was those tantalizing, tidbits of information, and the voices of my ancestors that kept me going.  They kept me chipping away at the bricks and mortar that threatened to imprison me on this 21^st Century side of history, with only my father’s and his family’s stories as my links to a past, my family’s rich history; a history that lay just beyond a wall constructed with bigotry, hate, and racism. 

Driven by the passions of the voices of my ancestors from the Alabama Blackbelt, I continued my journey back through time to 1850.  Tensions over slavery in the United States began to mount in the mid 18^th Century.  There was an increasing demand from abolitionist to end slavery.  The government of the United States attempted to avoid confrontation between northern and southern states by drafting the Compromise of 1850, a set of laws to address the spread of slavery into new states and territories, that had no middle, moral, or any other ground on which to stand when an entire race of people were dehumanized for economic purposes.  It is in the census records of this year, the year in which the heinous Fugitive Slave Act became law, that at  last I came across what I consider, what I pray, what I hope, is the closest tie with the origins of my father’s family. 

 

In the 1850 Slave Records of the Eutaw Beat in Greene Co. Alabama on page 134, I found reference to one Andrew J. Underwood, a white blacksmith; the owner of nine slaves recorded as:

Male Age 35

Male Age 30

Female Age 21

Male Age 20/21?

Female Age 1

Female Age 19

Male Age 3

Female Age 6/12

Female Age 18

The first listing, like Las Vegas neon flashing lights, jumped from the computer, screaming into my eyes.  With my pen shaking with a slight tremor, I did the calculations with the date I knew for my ancestor and thought maybe, just maybe, this was my John Underwood who would have been about 33 in 1850.