| Author |
Message |
Brenda1966
Member
07-02-2002
| Monday, March 05, 2012 - 10:10 am 
I would have liked to know that too Rissa. A baby wouldn't seem like an asset as it requires so much care and can't work. Why were they sold and traded? That could have been an interesting history lesson.
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Mamabatsy
Member
08-05-2005
| Monday, March 05, 2012 - 10:27 am
From what I remember of my history classes, babies were bought because they were a cheap way of increasing the number of slaves. Babies and young children were sold so that their mothers could concentrate on their work and not on their children. Also, when the father of the child was the plantation owner, he wanted that kid off the land as soon as possible. It's hard to tell with an infant, but as the child grew it's not too hard to notice blond hair (or any distinguishing feature) on a Black child.
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Colordeagua
Member
10-24-2003
| Monday, March 05, 2012 - 10:40 am
I would have been interested in WHY you would sell babies and toddlers. And why would you buy a baby or toddler? Did the mother die? Was it a punishment to the parents?
IIRC (I think I do), the mother had died. Researcher / historian said in those times single fathers were just not able to care for / raise children, so the child was indentured (sold).
Upthread someone said they could not understand how a parent could separate from a child -- give it away or sell it. I imagine it was hard emotionally then too, but probably not so uncommon. Especially single parenthood was just too difficult. Totally different times.
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Brenda1966
Member
07-02-2002
| Monday, March 05, 2012 - 10:43 am
That's true Colordeagua regarding why her ancestor was sold as an indentured servant. But I was wondering why her ancestor in the USA sold infant slaves. Mamabatsy's answer makes sense. The child is a liability because the mother wouldn't work as much, would care for the child. Why would one buy infant slaves? To raise them and resell? It's almost even too painful to think about these items. Just horrible.
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Mamabatsy
Member
08-05-2005
| Monday, March 05, 2012 - 12:21 pm
Looked up my notes and another reason baby slaves were sold was as a "bonus" in a stock trade. "Three horses for your two oxen and as a bonus, I'll throw in a young slave who comes from good stock."*
*Taken from a letter from one plantation owner to another - class notes 1995
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Rissa
Member
03-19-2006
| Monday, March 05, 2012 - 3:31 pm
Thank you for the explanations!! Why would the show not think the audience would have questions about that?
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Doublethink
Member
08-23-2006
| Monday, March 05, 2012 - 5:50 pm
Because this show is focused on showing people interested in genealogy different sorts of records and repositories where information on your family can be found while at the same time providing an interesting story line. The producers will thrown in some historical and social research background pieces, but that's not the focus of this show - at least in my opinion.
And I guess I'm also surprised that folks weren't more aware that young children and babies were frequently sold at auctions or traded away. So I guess I'm not surprised that the producers didn't think it was necessary to do a background piece on it. They only have a limited time to cover everything.
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Rissa
Member
03-19-2006
| Monday, March 05, 2012 - 6:21 pm
As a Cdn we spent far too much time learning American history as it was.  Slavery was covered in more of a global context not the specifics as they related to the southern US.
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Doublethink
Member
08-23-2006
| Monday, March 05, 2012 - 7:16 pm
Rissa, understood, but I think it's hard for a show like this to cover everything that might interest viewers. I'd guess that they have to pick and choose what to focus on. I'm not sure how they make the decision, but I know there's lots of information on slavery auctions and selling slaves etc. on the internet. Also they covered some slavery aspects last week with Blair Underwood, so maybe they thought that was enough? Or maybe a future episode will touch base on this topic again?
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Colordeagua
Member
10-24-2003
| Monday, March 05, 2012 - 9:11 pm
As a Cdn we spent far too much time learning American history as it was.
Would I be wrong if I said opposite is true in the U.S. -- we don't learn about Canadian history? North American history stops at our north border. Or was I absent (physically or mentally) on those days throughout my school years? I feel like we learned a little about history south of the border, but not north.
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Mameblanche
Member
08-24-2002
| Monday, March 05, 2012 - 9:33 pm
Colour:
http://www3.sympatico.ca/goweezer/canada/canhist.htm
http://www.cbc.ca/history/
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Colordeagua
Member
10-24-2003
| Monday, March 05, 2012 - 10:21 pm
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Sunshyne4u
Member
06-16-2003
| Tuesday, March 06, 2012 - 12:34 am
great links Mame
There are also some very famous canadians who most americans claim as their own, completely unaware of the Canadian heritage.
Alexander Bell for instance, because he produced the telephone in USA, he is considered a great american inventor.
Because the USA has such a HUGE market for goods, Canadians flock there for productions/ inventions and of course, currently many Actors/ singers too.
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Sunshyne4u
Member
06-16-2003
| Tuesday, March 06, 2012 - 12:41 am
oh and Here in BC, there are many overlaps with Historical famous characters from the GOLD RUSH time period.
its quite surprising that USA people are not taught the fascinating facts.
http://www.socialstudiesforkids.com/wwww/us/frenchandindianwardef.htm
War fought between Great Britain and its two enemies, the French and the Indians of North America. Most of the battles were in Canada. American colonists, including George Washington, fought with the British in this war, which lasted from 1754 to 1763. The British won the war and won the right to keep Canada and several other possessions in the New World.
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Colordeagua
Member
10-24-2003
| Thursday, March 08, 2012 - 11:03 pm
Susan Sarandon was on Dr. Phil (I do NOT normally watch him) today promoting her new movie "Jeff, Who Lives At Home". Subject matter of the movie otherwise tied into theme of Dr. Phil today. It was a good interview. She talked about her ancestry search on upcoming WDYTYA. If you want to know in advance
Spoiler
Click below to view spoiler | | Susan is primarily looking up her maternal grandmother. Even Susan's mother, who is still alive, knows very little of her mother's history. We learn from what was shown that Susan's grandmother was married at 13! IIRC, then had a child at 14? A little more was said. I think it will be interesting. |
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Goddessatlaw
Member
07-19-2002
| Friday, March 09, 2012 - 5:54 am
Retired NFL star Jerome Bettis (Pittsburgh Steelers) is tonight's subject.
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Brenda1966
Member
07-02-2002
| Saturday, March 10, 2012 - 8:44 am
Not the most exciting or interesting episode, but I'm sure Jerome appreciated learning that his ancestor was a legend among the railroad workers for standing up to big company and winning.
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Colordeagua
Member
10-24-2003
| Saturday, March 10, 2012 - 9:00 am
He sure sounded like he read every line from a script. Not at all easy and natural.
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Doublethink
Member
08-23-2006
| Saturday, March 10, 2012 - 9:54 am
I agree not one of my favorites. And attributing everything in the records to the fact that his ancestors were slaves was a bit annoying. I have a ton of ancestors who couldn't write and signed documents with an "X," who also didn't know their birth dates etc. They were not slaves. There were lots of folks with families to raise that couldn't afford education. Same with the various spelling of his surname. My ancestors came from Quebec, good luck finding their surname spelled the same way twice in various records. Record keepers didn't discriminate when it came to misspelling names.
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Sunshyne4u
Member
06-16-2003
| Monday, March 12, 2012 - 2:30 am
yes and because so many names were misspelled and so many farm people registered babies months later, it is close to impossible to guarantee most information is accurate.
it seems so much is just plain hope. Like i said last season, just in my little town are three people with my same name.
our birthdays are dec 11, dec 12 and dec 14th. all three of us are either 1962 or 63
so if this was 1880, a relative doing a search would be GUESSING as to whom was who. Yes parent names can sometimes help but remember, most ancestry searching is going backwards from a name.
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Doublethink
Member
08-23-2006
| Monday, March 12, 2012 - 4:53 am
Sunshyne, I get the feeling that you really haven't done much genealogy searching. It really isn't just plain hope, you do a lot of researching, and build up evidence to prove that this is your family and these are the members of your family. And yes, misspellings are common, but that doesn't mean you can't "prove" that this is your ancestor. I have ancestors who changed their names and then changed them back again, but I know for a certainty that these are my ancestors. It's called research, not "just plain hope."
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Colordeagua
Member
10-24-2003
| Monday, March 12, 2012 - 9:30 am
I'm sure there is more research done for the show than is what is shown on screen. They can't simply show the tedium (?) of it all. That would not be interesting for the viewers to watch. And too time consuming.
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Brenda1966
Member
07-02-2002
| Monday, March 12, 2012 - 10:57 am
The research is painstaking. We don't get to see even a fraction of it. Hours and hours are spent behind the scenes. I have so much appreciation for people who have worked on this and let their family trees be viewed on Ancestry and other sites so we can learn from what they've uncovered. It's like a big puzzle with lots of missing pieces, but you can still put together some of the pieces.
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Ophiliasgrandma
Member
09-04-2001
| Monday, March 12, 2012 - 11:01 am
Like my DD said when she was researching some of our family...'somebody else has done all the work'.
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Sunshyne4u
Member
06-16-2003
| Monday, March 12, 2012 - 9:29 pm
my post clearly says Farm people. and i doubt if you can 'research' the foreign communes my ancestors came from.
and yes it IS just plain hope if you hit a wall and Four people all have the same name and almost same birthday in the same town LOL
a person can make a rational choice and decide that its in their best interest to accept an ancestor but I've not gone past mid 1880s because of the ambiguous info.
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