My Great+ Grandmother, Former Slave

My family history connects to my great-grandmother, Charity Philips, a formerly enslaved person, and my great-grandfather, John M. Harris, her enslaver. Most of the information below was researched and compiled by my relative, Dr. Warren Mason, former Los Angeles Unified School District Assistant Superintendent.

This is not a photo of my great grandmother. It is a photo of a sculpture titled African Women, by Dan Ulrich.

BECAUSE SHE SURVIVED, WE LIVE

Years ago, several members on the paternal side of our family set out to create our family tree. They conducted months of research, including interviews with elders, visits to courthouses, meticulous examination of various census reports, and the use of ancestry.com.

They discovered that my great-grandfather was a White man named John M. Harris. He was the plantation manager of John Pargoud’s plantation in Ouachita Parish, Louisiana. John Harris had free reign over all of the enslaved people, including the freedom to have sex with any whom he chose. John Pargoud, the plantation owner, encouraged the raping of enslaved people because it increased the number of his property, which multiplied his profits.

In 1853, plantation manager, John Harris, raped a 20-year-old enslaved person named Charity Phillips. Over nine years, between 1853 to 1862, Charity bore six of his children. Their names were Jesse, Martin, Elizabeth, Nelson, Sidney, and Wesley. Charity Phillips is my 'great' grandmother.

John M. Harris eventually wanted his land and enslaved people, but he couldn't take Charity or the children because he was the manager rather than the owner of the plantation. So he saved his money, bought land, and purchased Charity and the six children from the John Pargoud plantation for $1600. The bill of sale for this transaction is dated 8 September 1863. By that time, Charity Phillips was 30 years old.

While on his new farm, John M. Harris forced Charity Phillips to have seven more children. They were William, Richard, Thomas, Calvin, Alice, Emma, and Curtis.

In 1977, when I was just eight years old, I watched Roots, the award-winning miniseries based on Alex Haley's 1976 novel Roots. The series documented the multi-generational account of Haley's family enslavement and subsequent liberation. I was both shocked and mesmerized by the series. The depictions of chattel slavery startled, angered, and disoriented me. Nevertheless, it was one of the most critical programs I watched.

I never imagined that more than forty-four years after watching Roots, I would meticulously thumb through pages of evidence that personally linked me to my roots - a formerly enslaved person named Charity Phillips who was eventually physically emancipated. Still, I'm sure she remained emotionally hostage by the scars from her past.

Charity Phillips and most of her children were enslaved people or indentured servants in America. My earliest images of slavery come from Roots. Therefore, I imagine them living during that hellish period and wonder what they were like. Did Charity Phillips have a determined smile and beautiful brassy black skin like Belle from Roots? Was her face shaped like an ovid black pearl or an emerald-cut diamond? What were her hands, eyes, and voice like? Was one of her daughters, Alice, Elizabeth, or Emma, like the character Kizzy? I wonder if one or all of her boys had a righteous defiance like Kunta Kinte? In the midst of their darkness, did they sing through their sorrow, use laughter to break the stench of brutality and death, or dance to loosen their backs from the yoke of enslavement?

What country in Africa did her ancestors, our ancestors, come from? And what was my great-grandmother's native surname, language, and dialect?

I imagine how she coped with life as an enslaved person. I lament, knowing that she had to suffer in silence under the manipulative hand of her overseer, my great-grandfather.

John M. Harris died in 1874. Charity Harris remained in Ouachita Parish, Louisiana, until she died in 1913 she was 80 years old. According to the 1915 Census, one of Charity's daughters, Elizabeth (Eliza), moved to Kansas City, Kansas, in 1915. My lineage connects me to the Calhoun, Jackson, and Caruthers families. My great-grandmother, Charity Phillips, gave me life.

When you discover that your ‘great’ grandmother was an enslaved person and her primary role was to produce and care for children, the history of slavery becomes less historical and more personal, poignant, and painful.

These truths, tragedies, and triumphs of the survival of Africans in general, and African women in particular, are tremendous reminders of the strength and perseverance of Africans in America. Perseverance is the word that best describes African Americans, and I'm grateful that my great-grandmother, Charity Phillips, persevered.

(Ancestry.com records indicate that John M. Harris had children from two other enslaved Africans.)

From Charity Phillips to my family

I hate that White folks traded, owned, raped, beat, and killed Africans, but I don't hate White people because of this. I hate that many Whites still treat Blacks and people of other cultures and races horribly. I don't like White folks who hate Blacks, and I don't like Black folks who hate Whites. I don't hate people, but I hate what some people have done and how racial injustices continue to tear our nation and this world apart.

"Hating people because of their color is wrong. And it doesn't matter which color does the hating. It's just plain wrong." - Muhammad Ali

I'd be a reckless mess if I harbored hatred toward Whites for enslaving people. I don't have hostility toward Whites; nevertheless, I don't bite my tongue when calling out racism, speaking against racial injustice, or challenging people. Therefore, to my White readers - thank you for your desire to listen, learn, lament, and journey with us. My challenge is to go beyond reading books and watching documentaries about race. Don't merely attend well-choreographed racial reconciliation gatherings or settle on having curious conversations about race over coffee. In addition to doing some of these things, courageously enter into the exhausting work of getting face-to-face with your neighbors, family members, and the political juggernauts and call out their nonsensical jokes and overt racism, and assertively object to policies that continue to put a knee in the neck of Blacks and other People of Color. And one more thing - Don't quietly disengage when racial injustice occurs. Your voice needs to be heard, echoing what we have been shouting for centuries.

Moving Forward

After reading this family history, many might be surprised to learn that I have a diverse family. I am Black, and my wife is not. Our oldest daughter is Black, and her husband is not. Our youngest daughter is engaged to a man of a different race. We have several nieces and nephews who are in relationships with people of different nationalities, cultures, and ethnicities.

Now, here's the thing - Multiracial or multicultural families won't end racism. Neither will White families who adopt kids of a different race. And tens of thousands of mixed-race kids won't magically make prejudice, discrimination, or racial hostility disappear.

These multiracial families may or may not change the minds of those who are overtly racist or those socially conditioned to be racially biased. However, most individuals in this demographic are intrinsically anti-racist because of their unique life experiences.

When my wife and I married, our goal was not to have our union make the world believe that racism is a flawed human construct and that people should look at us and our future kids as a picture of racial harmony.

Yes, racism is a flawed human construct, but when God brought us together, we weren't thinking about how we would or wouldn't affect racism. Our desire was, and is, to love each other. Nevertheless, God has used us to stand against the idiocy of racism. And we will continue to stand, even when members of our community or mindless antagonistic racial separatists knock us down. We will always stand against racism. And we will not be bystanders when racial bigotry occurs, regardless of color or culture, instilling hatred.