ESSAY // Alternative Histories
Bus Stop by Shawn Theodore
Crossroads
I’m a descendent of a free Black American, and now a Daughter of the American Revolution. I’m still figuring out what that means
by Jocelyn Arnold
EXCERPT //
My American story begins on “Nigger Hill Road.”
In 2012, on a whim, I signed up for an Ancestry.com account with the ultimate goal of learning more about my DNA. Who were my people? Where did I come from? And who else am I related to? I believed the answers to these questions would only be found through my genetic connection to others. My expectations were low, and success, to me, would be if I could find a connection to a family or ancestor living during the Reconstruction era after the Civil War. Even that felt like a stretch. At that time, I made a few new discoveries, learned the names of some living cousins, and left it at that.
As a Black American, it can be difficult to care for, digest, or retain information about American history because the narrative we are taught is deeply rooted in the brutality of slavery and rarely reflects positively on our ancestry. Of course, we learn of exceptional figures such as Martin Luther King, Harriet Tubman, and Frederick Douglass. However, their narratives are portrayed as anomalies or exceptions to the rule, as if there were the enslaved and their descendants, and then a few pioneers whose lives and histories were born of resistance. They are praised for their resilience and persistence in overcoming the overwhelming oppression that is deeply ingrained in America. //
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