Inspirational Speaker, Author & Storyteller
REGINA E. MASON
The Descendants Meet
The Descendants of the Slave Narratives
Susi Ryan, fiber artist, and quilter is a descendant of Venture Smith aka Broteer, the son of a Prince. In 1798, he chronicled his capture from Africa and life in New England in A Narrative of the Life and Adventures of Venture, a Native of Africa.
Carver Clark Gayton, former executive director of Northwest African American Museum, is a descendant of Lewis Clarke of Kentucky whose 1845 book, Narrative of the Sufferings of Lewis Clarke, was the basis for Harriet Beecher Stowe's Uncle Tom's Cabin.
Peggy Trotter Dammond Preacely,
civil rights activist and poet, jailed in the 1960s' Freedom Movement Sit-ins, is the descendant of enslaved Georgia natives William and Ellen Craft whose daring escape from slavery is told in their 1860 book "Running a Thousand Miles for Freedom".
Rhonda M. Brace, family historian, and lecturer is a descendant of Jeffrey Brace aka Boyereau Brinch whose 1810 narrative, The Blind African Slave, is one of the earliest accounts of capture from Africa to Barbados to Connecticut and ultimately freedom in Vermont.
Vera Williams is a descendant of Solomon Northup and founder of the Solomon Northup Foundation. Solomon, a free man, was kidnapped and sold into slavery. After his rescue in 1853, he tells of the atrocities of slavery in his book, Twelve Years a Slave.
Regina E. Mason, founder of IBC, is a descendant of William Grimes of Virginia who, in 1825, wrote the first fugitive slave narrative in the U.S. The Life of William Grimes, the Runaway Slave predates antislavery propaganda and is a work of literary independence.
Lynne M. Jackson, founder of the Dred Scott Heritage Foundation, is the great-great-granddaughter of Harriet and Dred Scott of the famous Dred Scott Decision of 1857. Her ancestor's case was a major reason for the Civil War and the 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments.
