ponderific stuff

A couple of years ago I happened to see a documentary by Henry Louis Gates Jr. called African American Lives. Gates used DNA evidence to locate where in the world notable American blacks came from. It was fascinating to see these histories revealed and the reactions of the people as they found out information that had been lost generations ago.

Yesterday PBS aired Gates's second project, African American Lives 2. The part that I saw focused more on family histories going back into Civil War slavery times. The story he uncovered about Chris Rock's great-great-grandfather was truly remarkable. And Rock's reaction to it was really interesting too. Don Cheadle found out that his family was not emancipated at the time of the Civil War because they were owned by Chickasaw Indians. And since the Chickasaw nation was somewhat independent they did not free their slaves. When the U.S. government finally forced them to these folks became people without a nation - no longer Chickasaw and not U.S. Eventually the U.S. government came in and made them all citizens and gave them 40 acre homesteads in Oklahoma. The Cheadle's were a part of the all black town of Wiley, OK. The developmental contrast between Cheadle's and Rock's stories was an education to say the least.

The most moving part of the show for me was when Gates revealed to Morgan Freeman information about his great-great-grandparents. It turns out that a white man fathered some children with a slave and after emancipation he took care of her and arranged for his ex-slave children and wife to inherit their property when he died. At one point Gates gives Freeman his notebook and tells him to turn the page. Upon the page are photographs Gates took of crudely carved gravestones on the property his ancestors once owned. Seeing the land and the tangible mark of their existence was powerful.

The permanence or transcendence of land is something that strikes a deep chord in my psyche. Most of my richest memories of my childhood have something to do with the land. And after being in Birmingham for a while I remember feeling oppressed by the land. The red clay, the lack of variety in the vegetation, the way the ground felt under my feet, it ate at me. Even in Auburn the lack of dynamic variance in elevation made me feel trapped. I felt like I couldn't get a wider perspective on where I was. But the idea of owning land has always been something that has intrigued me as well. So much of life seems fleeting and doomed to be forgotten. Eighty years from now will anyone remember anything of me more than I remember of my great-grandfather (which is nothing)? What will I leave behind? Land will always be there. it is something that you can do something to and it will last. I guess I am rambling now. See if your library has either of Gates's documentaries and check them out if you get a chance.