History and faith: Tracing the first black family in America
HAMPTON, Va. -- For 30 years Thelma Williams has spent more time with Anthony and Isabella and their child, William, than she has with many of her living relatives.
She sneaks out to libraries to be with them. She searches for them in court records. She smiles at their ghosts as she drives past the old forts and plantations that shaped their lives: Fort Monroe, where they were sold to an English sea captain; Jamestown where William was baptized, Blue Bird Gap Farm where their slave descendants may have lived.
"Girl, you are living in the past," her husband chides as his 54-year-old wife, a retired nurse, sets off on yet another genealogical journey.
Her children roll their eyes. "Let it go," they say ever so gently because they know she can't.
The shortage of documents doesn't deter her. With stubborn faith in the stories that have been handed down through the generations, Thelma weaves the tale of her family's past.
It's a 375-year-old epic of love and adventure, hardship and endurance, slavery and freedom and redemption.
It's the story of Anthony and Isabella and their son, William Tucker, the first black child born in America.( Read more...Collapse )
**A land and slave owner Anthony Johnson's family was disinherited when he died because they were ruled 'aliens' to the Crown.**
