A Woman Comes To Terms With Her Family's Slave-Owning Past : NPR

A Woman Comes To Terms With Her Family's Slave-Owning Past : NPR: NPR continues a series of conversations about , where thousands of people have submitted their thoughts on race and cultural identity in six words. Every so often, NPR Host/Special Correspondent Michele Norris will dip into those six-word stories to explore issues surrounding race and cultural identity for Morning Edition.

Kate Byroade lives in Connecticut, but she has a family history that reaches far back to the American South. She always knew her ancestors had once owned slaves, but had been told again and again, particularly by her Southern grandmother, that the family's slaves had been treated well.

"She was matter-of-fact that the family had owned slaves in the past," Byroade says. "And emphasized that we did not come from 'plantation-type' families — that our slaves had been trusted house servants."

"At first this seemed OK to me because it was OK to her," Byroade continues. "But eventually I understood that the domination of another person's free will was unacceptable."