“As I poured through genealogical research, dusty court documents, newspaper archives, and century-old family narratives, Missouri’s story began to unfurl. Retracing the pathways of her life, from the piedmonts of North Carolina through Arkansas’s rugged backcountry, I discovered a woman who risked her life to challenge the strictures of race, gender, and family.

I have always known that I was the descendent of slaves. However, nothing prepared me for reading the earliest known record of Missouri’s grandmother. The fact that she and her children had been someone’s property, handed down from father to daughter like a set of rusty pots and pans, tore at my soul.”

Read the full article here:
http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2016/04/17/my-second-great-grandmother-was-a-southern-outlaw-and-a-slave.html