This may help some working on the slaves to SC -- the Edward Ball the writer refers to is probably the Edward Ball that wrote "Slaves in the Family". The Virginian-Pilot; :Dec 4, 2005; :Hampton Roads; :2 > Researcher recalls search for documents to connect Africa, S.C. over > centuries FAMILY JOURNEY > BY JEFF CASALE DAILY NEWS-RECORD > HARRISONBURG, Va. - It was amid stacks of thousands of documents and records > at the New-York Historical Society library that Joseph Opala found the > connection. > In his hand was a document that showed the sale of slaves from Sierra > Leone to plantation owners in South Carolina and Georgia. > The handwritten docket was dated June 30, 1756. Scrolling down the > names, Opala came across one that caught his eye. "Elias Ball II: 3 boys, 2 > girls." > "I whooped in that library," said Opala, a professor of African-American > History and Studies at James Madison University. > Opala's joyous discovery linked 249 years of history, records and family > ties from Sierra Leone in 1756 to modernday South Carolina. > The documents - ship records, plantation records and newspaper ads - > allowed Opala to trace the roots of a family that started with a 10-year-old > girl named Priscilla to a seventh-generation descendant in Charleston, S.C. > "You've got a 249-year paper trail that has been unbroken from its > African roots in Sierra Leone to South Carolina," said Opala, 55, lounging > in a cushy chair at the Daily Grind in downtown Harrisonburg several months > after his discovery. "It's like a one-in-1-million or one-in-15-million > chance that you would find something like this. This is a unique situation." > The documents that helped Opala during his research are on display in a > new exhibit at the New-York Historical Society in New York. > The exhibit, "Finding Priscilla's Children: The Roots of American > Slavery," opened this month and will run through March as part of the > society's show, "Slavery in New York." > The documents - ship records, plantation records and newspaper ads - allowed > Opala to trace the roots of a family that started with a 10-year-old girl > named Priscilla to a seventh-generation descendant in Charleston, S.C. > For 20 years, Opala has been searching for this connection, but he said > his research objective didn't always have this goal in mind. > Opala lived in Sierra Leone for 17 years, moving there after he joined > the Peace Corps. In his 20s, Opala was a student of archaeology and > anthropology, and that's what he says he planned on studying when he got to > West Africa. > Then somebody told him to check out Bance Island, a major slave-trading > outpost on the Sierra Leone River between 1750 and 1800. > "I was resistant at first," Opala recalled. "I was already working my > way around, finding stone tools, and I was all jazzed up, but then I was put > on a boat to go out there." > What Opala found was an uninhabited island complete with jungle, monkeys > and 40-foot brick walls. While the jungle and monkeys were expected, Opala > didn't know much about the fort that was built on Bance Island, now known as > Bunce Island. According to historic documents, as early as 1672 the Royal > African Company of England established a fort on the island, but then > abandoned it. > Then in 1750, a London firm rebuilt the fort and established it as a > slave market. Opala says the slaves at this market were of particular > interest to rice plantation owners in Georgia and South Carolina, because > the slaves specialized in growing rice, a staple crop of the South. > "It was skilled labor," Opala said. "Sierra Leone was the 'Rice Coast' > of West Africa, and South Carolina plantation owners realized they needed > them. Rice plantations were famously rich. It was the first prominent > American industry that was based on African American know-how." > These slaves became known as the Gullah, an African heritage that still > lives today on the coasts of Georgia and South Carolina. > Priscilla was just 10 when she was put on the "Hare," a Newport, R.I., > ship that traveled the African coast looking for slaves. Opala says he isn't > sure she boarded the boat at Bance Island, but he added that it was most > likely. Records from the ship's captain discuss the number of slaves on the > ship. > These records tie with those left from the slave sale in Charleston, > which shows that Ball bought five children off the ship, including a > 10-yearold girl. Then in Ball's own records, which Opala found, the > plantation owner notes the sale and that he named the child Priscilla. > "Slave ship records, records of the sale and plantation records - that's > five generations of documents, and you just don't have that any more," Opala > said. "Most slave ship records have not lasted over time." > After some digging, Opala and a colleague, Edward Ball, found a > seventh-generation descendant of Priscilla - Thomalind Martin Polite of > Charleston,. In May, Polite went with Opala to Sierra Leone. > It was the first time that Polite had ever visited her ancestral home, > and Opala said the homecoming was both spiritual and emotional. > "When Sierra Leoneans spoke to her, they spoke to Mrs. Polite as though > she were Priscilla," Opala said. "People spoke to the child inside her." > It was bringing together family nearly 250 years later. > <http://epilot2.hamptonroads.com/Repository/getimage.dll?path=VirginianPilot > /2005/12/04/27/Img/Pc0270400.jpg> > Joseph Opala, a professor at James Madison University, traced the > descendants of a 10-year-old African girl who was kidnapped into slavery in > 1756 to her seventh-generation descendant living in Charleston, S.C. PETE > MAROVICH/ASSOCIATED PRESS