The 1836 register of the Methodist Episcopal Church (later Mount Zion Church) in Georgetown, District of Columbia, lists as a member “Pattie Brooks”, recorded just below the name of Gracie Ducket, who was enslaved by Samuel Whitall, who leased the property known as Belle Vue (later known as Rittenhouse Place, and after that, Dumbarton House).Continue reading “In Search of Pattie (Patsy or Margaret B) Brooks and Harry Brooks, Enslaved and Free in Georgetown, District of Columbia”
Category Archives: Uncategorized
Puzzling over a genealogical connection to Samarkand, Uzbekistan
I am puzzling over a connection through ancestry.com indicating that Abduvohid “Abdu” Abdurasulov, born in Samarkand, Uzbekistan, and I are share about 2 per cent DNA. This could indicate we are second or third cousins, or this might, because of the complexities of relative endogamy, mean that we are related to one another in moreContinue reading “Puzzling over a genealogical connection to Samarkand, Uzbekistan”
In Search of the Family of Joseph Anderson, c.1857-1904
My Mount Holyoke College students and I have been intrigued and moved by the story of Joseph Anderson, an African American laborer buried in Mont Zion cemetery in north Georgetown, Washington DC. Like Moses Boone, Joseph Anderson was interred without this brain, which had been extracted by a Smithsonian anthropologist in 1904 for the “racialContinue reading “In Search of the Family of Joseph Anderson, c.1857-1904”
Ancestral Imagery in Lynn Marshall-Linnemeier’s “Sweeps”
Artist Lynn Marshall-Linnemeier routinely “mines” the visual history of race in America, combing through iconography found in old stereoscopic images, postcards, photographic albums. She repositions figures from the era of enslavement and Jim Crow, who were initially framed in keeping with prevailing white nationalist racial conceptions. Her multimedia composites give in effect, new life toContinue reading “Ancestral Imagery in Lynn Marshall-Linnemeier’s “Sweeps””
In Search of Moses Boone’s Ancestors and Collateral Descendants
My Mount Holyoke College students and I have been fascinated, moved, and deeply distressed by the story of the African American child Moses Boone, 1902-1904. After his death at the age of 21 months, at Children’s National Hospital in Washington DC, his brain was extracted by physical anthropologist Aleš Hrdlička to be included in theContinue reading “In Search of Moses Boone’s Ancestors and Collateral Descendants”
In Search of Stephen and James Bennett, manumitted from Belle Vue, Georgetown
I have been puzzling over two enslaved brothers, Stephen Bennett, born around 1849 and James Bennett, born about 1852, both enslaved at Belle Vue or Bellevue House, later known as Rittenhouse Place, and now (after relocation) know as the modern Dumbarton House in Upper Georgetown, located at 27th and Q streets, Both boys were owned byContinue reading “In Search of Stephen and James Bennett, manumitted from Belle Vue, Georgetown”
Mourning Across Borders: Honoring the Voices of the Lost
This is the Martin Luther King Jr Day address I delivered at Congregation B’nai Israel in Nothampton, MA on Sunday, January 14, 2024 Delivered at the Congregation B’nai Israel (Northampton,MA)Martin Luther King, Jr. Day Observances Good morning. I am grateful to join with all of you, and would like to thank my colleague at MountContinue reading “Mourning Across Borders: Honoring the Voices of the Lost”
Manyolo Betty Estelle’s “Cattle People” (1961): Cattle, Gender, Landscape
The current traveling exhibition, African Modernism in America, 1947-67, now at the Philips Collection, Washington DC, features a first rate painting by the Ugandan artist Manyolo Betty Estelle (1938-1999) titled “Cattle People” (1961) on loan from the Fisk University Galleries. The scene is of a young couple, either courting or newly married, of the Bahima,Continue reading “Manyolo Betty Estelle’s “Cattle People” (1961): Cattle, Gender, Landscape”
In Search of the Belt Plantation Slave Burial Ground, Chevy Chase DC
Recently, Cate Atkinson, community historian with Historic Chevy Chase DC, explained that the house in which I grew up between the years 1965-1979, at 5807 Chevy Chase Parkway, NW, Washington DC, may well have been located on the site of an old burial ground, in which the remains of enslaved peop8le associated with the BeltContinue reading “In Search of the Belt Plantation Slave Burial Ground, Chevy Chase DC”
In Search of Enslaved Persons from Chevy Chase DC
I have recently been deeply moved, and rather startled, to realize that the street on which I grew up, Chevy Chase Parkway in Northwest Washington DC, was located on the grounds of a former a slavery-based plantation, evidently in operation from the 1720s, until perhaps as late as April 1862. I have been eager toContinue reading “In Search of Enslaved Persons from Chevy Chase DC”
Mark Auslander 