A Journey Story from Piedmont, WV to The Virginia Piedmont -Leontyne Clay Peck

07/21/17 • 67 min

Leontyne Clay Peck shares the story of her journey from Piedmont, WV to the Virginia Piedmont, better known as the land of the Presidents-Jefferson, Madison and Monroe. Since age 10, Leontyne has heard "whispers" from the ancestors and intrigued by family connections. Her fourteen year journey revealed her family connections to Senator Henry Clay of Kentucky, President Thomas Jefferson and most recently to President James Madison (with the enslaved community of Montpelier). In her research, she also discovered her connection her 3rd great grandfather, Job Gaiter, who served in the US Colored Troops. Leontyne is a native of Piedmont, WV. She is an author, speaker, educator, family historian and ancestor advocate. She is the author of, Our Mother's Dresses, Silver Children,and "Paxton Street. She received her formal education from The American University, the American University of Rome and West Virginia University. She is the recipient of a host of awards, among them, Ford Foundation African American History & Culture Scholar. She is the mother of two grown daughters. She and her husband reside outside of Charlottesville, VA.
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Fathers of Conscience with Bernie D. Jones, PhD, JD

Rebroadcast How the courts dealt with wills bequeathing property or freedom to mixed race children. Fathers of Conscience examines high-court decisions in the antebellum South that involved wills in which white male planters bequeathed property, freedom, or both to women of color and their mixed-race children. These men, whose wills were contested by their white relatives, had used trusts and estates law to give their slave partners and children official recognition and thus circumvent the law of slavery. The will contests that followed determined whether that elevated status would be approved or denied by courts of law. Bernie D. Jones argues that these will contests indicated a struggle within the elite over race, gender, and class issues-over questions of social mores and who was truly family. Judges thus acted as umpires after a man’s death, deciding whether to permit his attempts to provide for his slave partner and family. Her analysis of these differing judicial opinions on inheritance rights for slave partners makes an important contribution to the literature on the law of slavery in the United States.
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The African American Odyssey of John Kizell with Kevin Lowther

The African American Odyssey of John Kizell (A South Carolina Slave Returns to Fight the Slave Trade in His African Homeland) Join host Bernice Bennett and co-host Natonne Elaine Kemp for an engaging conversation with author and historian Kevin G. Lowther about the the life of a Sierra Leonean who survived slavery in Charleston, South Carolina, and served with British forces during the American Revolution. He eventually returned to his homeland, where he campaigned among his people to end slave trading. Lowther majored in history at Dartmouth College before joining the Peace Corps and teaching, in 1963-65, at the Sierra Leone Grammar School in Freetown. In 1971 he helped to found the non-governmental organization, Africare, and later managed its humanitarian programs in Southern Africa for 29 years. Theme music - Sweet Mello Spice by composer / producer Alvin K. Alexander.
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