An Ohio town where races have mixed freely for more than 200 years

[brer cat]

12. I agree.

I get so excited when I stumble upon a nugget like this one, but it is also sad. This is the history we should be learning and teaching our children. How much richer our lives would be if the stories and culture of Longtown and Goudtown replaced who-shot-who at Pickett's Charge and the Battle of Gettysburg in our studies!

I am sure for individual families it is very hard to reconstruct ties that go back to slavery when relationships weren't formalized and written records don't exist, plus all of the hidden relationships between slaves and their white owners. Look at how long it took to establish the Thomas Jefferson-Sally Hemings family. And as JAG mentioned in another post, she had a part of her family history that was "lost" for 50 years because an uncle didn't want it known he had been a "rebel." Essie Mae Washington-Williams was denied her birthright for over 70 years, and there are countless numbers of others in her situation who were never able to come forward. History denied is history lost, and that is truly sad.