Discovering Grief And Freedom In A Family's History Of Slavery : 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.
The wrenching film 12 Years a Slave, based on true events, re-creates the story of a free black man who was kidnapped and sold into slavery in the 1840s. The Golden Globe-winning film has prompted an uptick in six-word entries concerning slavery sent to the Race Card Project, particularly from people who have tried to uncover their own family connections to slavery.
For many of those people, like Robert Goins of San Francisco, the search can be difficult — and the discoveries painful.
Goins was researching his ancestors in North Carolina a decade ago when he stumbled upon grief while going through a ledger on microfiche — hence, his six-word submission: "."
"I found my great-grandfather's family and some notes held at the North Carolina archives," Goins tells Norris. "The family lived in Belews Creek — and Sauratown." Sauratown, Goins notes, sounds like "sorrow."
