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00:00Viewers like you make this program possible. Support your local PBS station.
00:15I'm Henry Louis Gates, Jr. Welcome to Finding Your Roots.
00:20In this episode, we'll meet basketball superstars Chris Paul and Brittany Griner.
00:27Two people born to play a game.
00:31I was in volleyball practice, and they were like, hey, go dump this.
00:35And I was like, okay.
00:37So I just ran with the ball and just dunked it.
00:41Literally the next day, the coach came and was like, you, come on over here to basketball when you get
00:47done today.
00:48I'm just crazy competitive, right?
00:51I don't care what it is.
00:52So if we're playing checkers, if we're playing chess, if we're playing cards or whatnot,
00:56what if you're playing with a six-year-old child?
00:59Are you still ruthless?
01:01Absolutely.
01:03To uncover their roots, we've used every tool available.
01:08Genealogists comb through paper trails stretching back hundreds of years.
01:13That is cool.
01:14While DNA experts utilize the latest advances in genetic analysis to reveal secrets that have lain hidden for generations.
01:24My palms are sweating over here.
01:27And we've compiled it all into a book of life, a record of all of our discoveries.
01:34It's mind-blowing.
01:35And a window into the hidden past.
01:39If you was to make this into a feature film, you would look at it like, that's not true.
01:43There's no way that that happened.
01:45Whew.
01:46Did you think we'd get back this far this quickly?
01:49Nah, I didn't think it would go like this.
01:51Honestly, I'm, like, shook right now.
01:55Chris and Brittany are both phenomenal athletes.
01:59In this episode, we'll explore what lies behind their greatness.
02:04Could it be that they were molded in ways they never could have imagined by the lives of their ancestors?
02:21Let's go.
02:51Chris Paul is basketball royalty.
02:54The future Hall of Famer, a 12-time NBA All-Star, is one of the greatest point guards ever to
03:03play the game.
03:05Second all-time both in steals and assists.
03:11His secret?
03:13Practice, practice, practice.
03:17Chris is legendary for his work ethic and for the passion he brings to the court.
03:24Traits that were first nurtured in him by his father.
03:30When you're a kid, you take on the likes of your parents.
03:33My dad was a huge, huge football and basketball fan.
03:37And as a kid, my dad coached us.
03:40You know, so now having kids and going to their games and seeing the people that take the time to
03:46actually coach them and go to practices and whatnot,
03:48my dad did that for my team, my brother's team, and it's crazy to think he still found time to
03:56go to work.
03:57Yeah, that's amazing.
03:58Unbelievable.
03:59Yeah.
03:59But the biggest thing that my dad did was when I was in the fifth grade, he had a basketball
04:05court built for us at our house.
04:07Wow.
04:07Right?
04:07And when I say that, it wasn't a full court by any means, but there was this hill behind our
04:12house.
04:12And actually, our football coach had a cement company.
04:16Uh-huh.
04:16So he came and laid down like pavement, like right down on this hill, and we put two basketball goals,
04:23and it was not a full court by any means.
04:26But he basically said, if you guys love this and you really want to do it, here it is.
04:34Chris took his father's words to heart.
04:37By the time he was in high school, he was one of the best basketball players in his home state
04:43of North Carolina.
04:46And was being recruited by the top colleges in the country.
04:51An accomplishment made even more remarkable by the fact that Chris stands barely six feet tall.
04:59And back then, he was even shorter.
05:03I was always the smallest guy on the team.
05:07Uh-huh.
05:08You know, and I was the kid that used to, like, pray for height.
05:12When I went to bed at night, I was like, God, please just make me tall.
05:15Please don't, please don't.
05:17And it still hasn't happened.
05:19But you got to work with what you got.
05:21When did you first realize not only that you were good, but that you had a special talent and you
05:27could make a career out of basketball?
05:29Right.
05:30Even when I went to college, I didn't know I was going to the NBA.
05:33Uh-huh.
05:33Right?
05:34I hoped.
05:35Uh-huh.
05:36My work ethic went up just a little bit more.
05:39Uh-huh.
05:39Right?
05:39And now you start to have a little bit of inclination because people can hype you up and say that
05:45you're really, really good.
05:47But you know.
05:48Uh-huh.
05:48Right?
05:48They can't hype you up so much.
05:50Uh-huh.
05:50But as I continued to get better, I started to say, like, man, I might be able to do this
05:56for a living.
05:59Chris, of course, has done much more than just make a living at basketball.
06:03In 2005, after two years of college, he was drafted by the New Orleans Hornets and won Rookie of the
06:14Year.
06:15He's gone on to thrive in a league of much taller men through an unparalleled combination of talent and effort,
06:26becoming one of the highest paid athletes in the world.
06:31And through it all, Chris has never lost his grounding.
06:35He remains intensely grateful to the people and the game that have brought him so much.
06:45I've been in the NBA now since I was 20 years old.
06:48Uh-huh.
06:48Right?
06:48And at 39, there's a lot of things that I did and experienced, like, when I was a child and
06:55coming up.
06:56But then when I got into the NBA, there's been a lot of things that have been taken care of
07:01for me.
07:01Uh-huh.
07:02Right?
07:02Uh-huh.
07:02And so I didn't go through the struggles that my parents went through in trying to get a house.
07:11Uh-huh.
07:12Right?
07:12And working that type of job to try to accumulate wealth.
07:17All of this happened for me at 20 years old.
07:19Uh-huh.
07:19Do you still feel joy, pleasure in the game?
07:24Absolutely.
07:24Did you ever burn out as a player?
07:27No.
07:28No.
07:28I don't think I ever burnt out as a player.
07:30But I'll tell you something wild that happened this summer.
07:33Um, I went into the house and I told my wife, I just need to go outside and shoot.
07:37Uh-huh.
07:38Right?
07:38Just go outside and shoot.
07:39Because at some point, you almost get programmed to every time you go to a gym, it's to train.
07:46Uh-huh.
07:46Right?
07:47Uh-huh.
07:47And I fell in love with the game as a kid, just in the backyard.
07:51Uh-huh.
07:51Right?
07:51Just playing around with my brother, practicing things and whatnot.
07:54So I went outside and just shot for 45 minutes.
07:58Wow.
07:58And just dribbled and started to use my imagination.
08:01And I won't say I fell out of love with the game ever, you know, but just sometimes just remind
08:08yourself why you love it so much.
08:10Right.
08:10For the pleasure of it.
08:12Yes.
08:13Just like Chris, Brittany Griner is a surefire Hall of Famer, a 10-time WNBA All-Star, and three-time
08:25Olympic gold medalist, widely recognized as one of the greatest players in history.
08:37But Brittany's story is fundamentally different from Chris's.
08:43Growing up in Houston, Brittany towered over her peers from a young age and suffered mightily for it.
08:52I hit my big growth spurt probably seventh grade until twelfth grade.
08:57It was just a constant, like, uphill climb for me.
09:02Seventh and eighth grade also was big on the bullying.
09:05The, you know, the girls pointing out how I look different than everybody else, literally physically coming up to me
09:11and touching my chest and saying, like, look, she has no chest.
09:15Like, she is a man.
09:16And just my voice wasn't as, I guess, high-pitched as everybody else's.
09:23So, yeah, got a lot of picking on, pointing at, like, just being told how different I am from everybody
09:30else.
09:30I recall when you said that, just to have someone touch you.
09:33Yeah, that was a tough time back then.
09:35Oh, I'm so sorry you had to go through that.
09:37Yeah.
09:39Ironically, Brittany's height would provide her salvation.
09:44She started playing basketball in ninth grade when a coach saw her dunking a volleyball on a dare.
09:52Within a year, she was dominating on both offense and defense and attracting attention from college coaches across the country.
10:05That's when I really felt like, okay, I got this.
10:09I started getting a lot more scholarships as well, like, flooded.
10:14And it wasn't, like, the typical, like, oh, we're just sending this out to the kids.
10:19Here's, like, you know, you could come to this school.
10:21It was more like, no, we want you to come here.
10:24Like, you could tell it was a little bit more tailored to me.
10:27And I was like, oh, I'm liking this, this feeling wanted.
10:30From going from, you know, being bullied before high school and not being the cool kid and just kind of
10:37being on the outside to now, I am the cool kid.
10:40I am the athlete.
10:42And people want you.
10:43Brittany Griner's superstar.
10:48Brittany's star has risen higher than anyone ever could have imagined.
10:53She led Baylor University to an undefeated season and a national championship before becoming an icon in the WNBA.
11:05She's also used her talents to impact the world well beyond sports.
11:11A prominent social activist, she's championed women's equality, LGBTQ rights, and after her infamous imprisonment in Russia, she's been advocating
11:28for Americans detained overseas.
11:35But Brittany told me that many of her greatest triumphs have occurred in private, stretching all the way back to
11:42when she was a teenager and she came out to her family, something her father initially found hard to accept.
11:54He didn't want another strike against me, already a woman, already black, two strikes.
12:04Now you're adding you're gay, too.
12:06Like, he just knew the battle that I would have.
12:10He wasn't homophobic.
12:11He wasn't scared of gay people or hated gay people.
12:14It was just, he just didn't want me to have to deal with that uphill battle.
12:19He wanted me to be able to get deals with brands and stuff because he saw my potential.
12:24And he knew that brands would hold that against me.
12:27Of course.
12:28Like, not saying that it was right, but, like, I can understand, you know?
12:33Because at first I was just upset.
12:35Like, why is my dad, like, he don't love me?
12:37Like, is he disappointed in me?
12:40But it was more so he just didn't want me to have to deal with that, that uphill battle.
12:46And you could tell it didn't really put that much of a hindrance in between us because he was at
12:50literally every single game.
12:53Yeah.
12:54And now, I mean, you see us now.
12:57We're great.
12:57You can't separate us.
12:59My two guests have achieved incredible success, both on and off the court.
13:04But along the way, they've had little time to learn about the ancestors who may have laid the groundwork for
13:12their accomplishments.
13:13That is about to change.
13:18I started with Chris Paul and with his paternal grandmother, a woman named Charlena Sloan.
13:27Charlena has been Chris's biggest fan for as long as he can remember.
13:32And the two share a profound bond.
13:38My grandmother, she's everything, you know?
13:41And she, man, I'm tripping.
13:46So she calls or texts me after every game.
13:53Oh, wow.
13:54And she's in North Carolina.
13:56Obviously, I play for the Clippers on the West Coast, all these teams on the West Coast.
14:02So if my game starts at 7 o'clock Pacific time, that's 10, her time.
14:08Right.
14:08My grandmother watches every game.
14:10And she texts me or calls me after every game.
14:14Every game.
14:14I could pull out my phone and show you our text thread after the games.
14:18And she has just always been a constant.
14:23Wow.
14:24That's a blessing.
14:25Oh, absolutely.
14:28Chris's grandmother was born in 1944 in Anderson County, South Carolina.
14:36And we were able to trace her roots in that county back more than a century, all the way to
14:43a man named James Clinkscales.
14:47James is Chris's fourth great-grandfather.
14:51We found him in the 1870 census for Anderson County, living with his parents, Zachariah and Sina Clinkscales.
15:03Dang.
15:04So you just read the names of your fifth great-grandparents.
15:07Great, great, great, great, great grandparents.
15:10That's crazy.
15:11So first of all, what's it like to see that?
15:13You carry DNA from all those people.
15:16Man, it's wild.
15:19We had this question at our house the other day where we was talking about, if you had the choice,
15:24would you go back and learn who your great, great, great, great grand people were?
15:29Or would you rather go in the future and learn who your kids, kids, kids, kids, kids are?
15:33Okay.
15:34What did you say?
15:35I said, I want to go back.
15:36Yeah.
15:37I said, I want to go back, and to actually be sitting here, actually going back.
15:41That's wild.
15:44Unfortunately, this story was about to take a painful turn.
15:50Zachariah and Sina were both born around 1815 in South Carolina, which means almost certainly they both were born into
16:02slavery.
16:06Searching for evidence of their lives, we focused on a white slave owner with their same surname, Mary Cligscales.
16:17In the 1860 census, Mary filed a slave schedule indicating that she owned 13 human beings.
16:28There are no names on this schedule, only the color, gender, and age of each enslaved person.
16:38But given what we knew about Chris's family, several entries stood out.
16:57We strongly believe that you are looking at your fifth great-grandparents, Zachariah and Sina, their three sons, as well
17:07as your fifth great-granduncle, Robert Bob Clinkscales.
17:31And as a mom, how are you able to take care of children?
17:42These kids.
17:43Yeah, well, precisely.
17:44How do you think it was possible for Zachariah and Sina to raise a family together in enslavement?
17:49And think about this, knowing at any moment, since you had no control...
17:55They could take you.
17:55They could be taken and sold down the river.
17:58Yeah, I think about how protective I am of my kids.
18:02Mm-hmm.
18:02And I cannot imagine them having three kids, 12, 7, and 4, and probably seeing the things that might have
18:12been done to them.
18:13Mm-hmm.
18:13You know, and powerless, and you can't do nothing about it.
18:19Regrettably, the relationship between Chris's family and the family that enslaved them did not end when freedom came.
18:29We uncovered a labor contract from the year 1866.
18:34It shows that Mary Clinkscales hired Chris's ancestors to work her plantation under what was known as a share wage
18:45agreement.
18:46These agreements were common across the Jim Crow South, and they were not favorable to the formerly enslaved men and
18:56women who signed them.
18:58These said freed persons agreed to board and clothe themselves and to obey all orders from said owner of plantation
19:07or her agent and also do hereby agree to work for the said Mary Clinkscales in the capacity of laborers
19:15and faithfully, honestly, diligently, and to the best of their skill and abilities to perform such labor in the care
19:22of said plantation.
19:24Signatures. Signatures. Zach, his mark. Cena, her mark. Bob, his mark. James, his mark. Wow.
19:32This is very likely the first labor contract that anyone on your entire clink scale, a branch of your family
19:40tree, ever signed.
19:41And it was the first time they were ever, at least theoretically, compensated for their work.
19:47What do you think that meant for them, that moment? You remember when you signed your contract.
19:51Yeah.
19:52This is their contract.
19:55That's a whole different feeling.
19:57Yeah, a whole different feeling.
19:59Yeah, I'm still processing.
20:03According to this agreement, Chris's ancestors were to work Mary Clinkscale's land at her direction, much as they had under
20:13slavery.
20:15And they were to be paid, not with cash, but with a portion of the crops.
20:24That's crazy.
20:51That's crazy.
20:52During the year, while they're waiting on the harvest, right?
20:58Yeah, so they were basically just working to stay alive.
21:00You got it.
21:01You got it.
21:01It was called slavery by another name.
21:04That's crazy.
21:05Chris, what's it?
21:06Chris, what's it like to know that your ancestors had to go through that?
21:34Whether they complained or not, they figured it out.
21:39Chris is correct.
21:41Chris is correct.
21:41Zachariah and Sina did indeed figure it out.
21:46They likely worked at least 10 hours a day, six days a week, growing cotton.
21:53But they survived.
21:56And they moved their family forward.
22:01Incredibly, by 1880, their son, James, even had a small farm of his own.
22:09What do you think kept your fifth-grade grandparents going?
22:11Because after all, if they hadn't gotten up, done the 10 hours in the field, there'd be no Chris Paul.
22:17Yeah, to me, it immediately goes back to, like, how they had to be wired, you know, and the perseverance,
22:29the ability to fight through, and the ability to, I can't imagine, like, being able to, I guess, see the
22:40bigger picture.
22:41And knowing that whatever they endured at the time, that hopefully it would mean a better life for their kids.
22:50Right, a better day is coming, and for my grandkids.
22:53It puts stuff into a whole different type of perspective.
22:58Much like Chris, Brittany Griner was about to gain a new perspective on an entire branch of her family tree.
23:08Following her maternal roots, we traveled from Brittany's hometown of Houston, Texas, to New Orleans, Louisiana, and introduced Brittany to
23:20her third-great-grandmother, a woman named Catherine Neal.
23:25Oh, wow.
23:26You've never heard this name before?
23:28Mm-mm.
23:29Well, Catherine was born around May 1868, three years after the end of the Civil War in Louisiana.
23:37In 1883, when she was about 15, she married a man named Felix Balthazar.
23:42And Felix is your third-great-grandfather, your great-great-great-grandfather, Felix Balthazar.
23:49Ever hear of him?
23:50No.
23:51Did you know you had roots in New Orleans?
23:54No.
23:54You do.
23:55Yeah, I didn't know that.
23:56Did you think we'd get back this far this quickly?
24:00No, I didn't think it would go like this.
24:02Honestly, I'm, like, shook right now.
24:07Catherine and Felix had at least nine children together, including Brittany's great-great-grandmother, Laura.
24:17But sadly, five of the children died in infancy.
24:23And in the Louisiana State Archives, we saw that Catherine's health suffered as well.
24:32State of Louisiana versus Catherine Balthazar.
24:36In this case, it is ordered, judged, and decreed that the said Catherine Balthazar be declared insane and that she
24:45be incarcerated in the state insane asylum at Jackson, Louisiana.
24:51Any family stories about this?
24:53No.
24:54Yeah.
24:54None at all.
24:55That's wild.
24:56In 1898, Catherine was committed to the East Louisiana State Hospital, segregated, state-run mental hospital located in Jackson, Louisiana.
25:05And you could see photos of it from the early 1900s on your left.
25:10Wow.
25:11What's it like to see that?
25:12I mean, that makes me very upset that somebody in my family had to go through this.
25:17And the family members had to go through this, too, seeing her in there or not seeing her in there.
25:23I don't know.
25:24If they, you know, they would even visit her.
25:28The hospital's files show that Catherine was committed in 1898, released, and then readmitted two years later.
25:42The files also contain a transcript of an interview that a doctor conducted with Catherine, offering a harrowing glimpse into
25:52the kind of care that she was receiving.
25:56What kind of place are you in?
25:58Kind of a storeroom?
26:01Are you crazy?
26:03That is what they say.
26:05Did you ever see any ghosts?
26:08Yes.
26:09Sometimes.
26:11Was it a white or Negro ghost?
26:14Wow.
26:15That's crazy.
26:16Is it cold?
26:17No, it's just so old.
26:18This is wild.
26:20I'm sorry.
26:22They were white.
26:23What did they say to you?
26:25They didn't say much.
26:27Try to be good.
26:28Did you ever see God?
26:30No.
26:32Those are your ancestors' actual words.
26:34How does it feel to read that?
26:37I mean, the answers to these questions are weird.
26:40Mm-hmm.
26:42And then the questions, too, though.
26:44Honestly, like, I feel like the questions are weird, too.
26:48You mean, like, do you see Negro ghosts or white ghosts?
26:52I mean, that was a weird one.
26:54I mean, that was a weird one.
26:56And then did you ever see God?
26:59I'm just like, okay.
27:01I'm not saying someone couldn't, but it's a very hard thing to prove.
27:10We don't know why Catherine was asked these questions or how to interpret her answers.
27:18But she would never leave the hospital.
27:24She died within its walls in 1939, more than 40 years after she was committed.
27:34How does it feel to learn this, to learn that you're, I mean, you were incarcerated.
27:39Your ancestor was incarcerated.
27:41Yeah, she was legit incarcerated is what happened to her.
27:44I mean, I hate that that happened to my ancestor.
27:47I thought I was the only one, honestly, that had been in like that.
27:54I just hate that she had no voice.
27:56No wonder I love, maybe it's just embedded in me, the fact that I want to give people voices
28:01that didn't have voices.
28:02But maybe there's a deeper reason to why I feel like that.
28:06This could be it.
28:10Digging deeper into the past, we encountered another story that resonated with Brittany's
28:17life today.
28:19It begins over 100 years earlier with her seventh great-grandparents, a couple named Marie Kwan-Kwan
28:28and Pierre Matois.
28:32Records show that Marie was born into slavery in Louisiana around 1742, while Pierre was a
28:41white man born in France around the same time.
28:48They met in Louisiana in the 1760s, when Pierre leased Marie from a neighbor so that she could
28:58work in his home.
29:00Over the next 10 years, they would conceive several children together, a fact that outraged
29:09a local priest, so much so that he filed a complaint against the couple.
29:17Reading it over, Brittany began to have serious reservations about Pierre's treatment of Marie
29:24during those 10 years.
29:29I mean, the fact that she was, what, loaned out, basically, to, uh...
29:34She's a slave!
29:36She's literally a slave.
29:38And, I mean, was it against her will at first, and then she fell for him?
29:42Or was it she felt mutual?
29:44Like, those are the questions that are going through my head.
29:47We don't know how it started, but we know how it ended.
29:50Mm-hmm.
29:50Okay?
29:51Please turn the page.
29:54I know I got a lot of questions when I get home.
29:57This is the same record we just showed you, only we've highlighted a different portion.
30:01Would you please read that transcribed section?
30:03Queen, Queen, and Matoire, in whose house and company the said unmarried negress has produced
30:12five or six mulatto children, not counting the one with whom she is now pregnant.
30:18Mm-hmm.
30:18This cannot happen in the house of an unmarried man and an unmarried woman without the public thinking
30:25and judging there to be illicit intercourse between the two partners in concubinage.
30:33You got it.
30:34From this, there has ensued a great scandal and damage to soul.
30:40Damage to soul.
30:41Damage to soul.
30:42This white man is living with his lover.
30:45They have six children, right?
30:48Mm-hmm.
30:49And this priest is going nuts.
30:50And he files a complaint against them.
30:52I mean, their priest has said, this is a sin in the sight of man and God.
30:57And they said, we got to do something about it.
30:59I know, that priest was losing his wig.
31:01Oh, my God.
31:03We have no idea how Brittany's ancestors felt about the priest's accusations.
31:10But we do know how they responded.
31:14In July of 1778, less than a year later, Pierre purchased Marie from her owner.
31:22And then he freed her.
31:26Ooh.
31:28What do you think that was like for Marie, finally, to get her freedom?
31:32I mean, I would think she would feel safe.
31:33This man has done everything for her, honestly.
31:38Like, she has a family through him.
31:39He bought her and set her free and made sure she had her freedom.
31:43There are a lot more cases of a white male fathering children with a black woman who was never freed.
31:52Yeah.
31:53Now, Brittany, did he love her or not?
31:55He loved her.
31:57Although Marie was now free, she and Pierre still faced a terrible problem.
32:03They had seven children who remained in bondage.
32:06Because the law dictated that the children of an enslaved woman followed the condition of their mother.
32:14And thus, were the property of her owner, even if the man who had fathered them was free.
32:22Fortunately, Pierre had a solution.
32:25He did what the law demanded and purchased each of his children and emancipated them.
32:33Securing his family's freedom for generations to come.
32:39Now, that's a story.
32:41That's a story.
32:42That's a story.
32:43That's a story I can be proud of, honestly.
32:46And it makes me think those 10 years were not hell for her now.
32:52Like, to someone that did all that and then to go by the seven children as well.
32:59To go above and beyond and do that as well.
33:00So, let you know, like, he actually did care.
33:03Like, at some point, his mind changed.
33:05And I can respect a family member that does that.
33:08Like, yeah, you had some bad intentions, maybe, potentially, in the beginning.
33:13But I see you made a change.
33:15I can respect somebody that makes a change.
33:19Like Brittany, Chris Paul was about to meet an ancestor who'd completely changed the trajectory of his family.
33:29The story begins in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, with Chris's fourth great-grandfather, a man named Peter Oliver.
33:41Chris had heard of Peter before.
33:45Indeed, he knew that Winston-Salem had long been planning to name a park after his ancestor.
33:52But Chris wasn't sure what Peter had done to deserve such an honor.
34:02The answer lies in the archives of a North Carolina branch of the Moravian Church.
34:08In 1786, this church purchased Peter from a slave owner in Virginia and then baptized him, likely at his own
34:21request.
34:23And who gives the name Peter?
34:24The Moravians.
34:25The Moravians.
34:26Yeah.
34:26Now, we don't know if he said, I want to be Peter, or if they said, your name is Peter.
34:30But he got the name from the Moravians.
34:32Yeah.
34:32In that moment of baptism.
34:35Initially, he was known simply as Negro Oliver.
34:38Then when he's baptized, he takes on the Christian name Peter.
34:42And after 1786, he's known as Peter Oliver.
34:45How do you think he felt that day?
34:48He probably felt about as normal as he possibly could.
34:52I mean, as normal as you could in 1786.
34:55But to actually have a name and not be called Negro?
34:59Right.
35:01It's wild.
35:05The Moravians were unusual in that they allowed enslaved people into their congregations
35:11and treated them as religious, if not necessarily, as social equals.
35:19Providing opportunities generally unavailable to other enslaved people.
35:25For Peter, these opportunities would prove life-changing.
35:31Roughly a year after his baptism, he was purchased by a master potter named Rudolf Kreist.
35:39Pottery was a valuable craft at the time.
35:42And Peter would rapidly excel at it.
35:45Becoming one of the only documented African-American potters of his era in all of North Carolina.
35:56This is wow.
35:57What's it like to see that?
35:59And it's just so much connectivity.
36:02Right.
36:02And you realize everything happens for a reason.
36:06And the stories that we sort of all tell about ourselves were always connected to something.
36:12Something that came before us.
36:14And it's amazing to hear.
36:16Right.
36:16Like, this is a different connection with Peter Oliver than just sort of like a park being renamed in our
36:24hometown.
36:25And even though I wasn't in slavery or anything like that, like, the way he used pottery is kind of
36:32how I looked at the game of basketball.
36:34That's right.
36:35And I mean, and it's been able to take me and my family outside of our hometown and show us
36:40the world.
36:41Uh-huh.
36:41A skill.
36:43Yeah.
36:43At which he excelled.
36:44Yep.
36:44And which the society placed value on.
36:48For sure.
36:50Moravian records show that by 1799, after just 13 years in their congregation, Peter had not only mastered pottery, he'd
37:01also joined a choir and a firefighting team.
37:06And he'd done something else as well.
37:09Something that must have required extraordinary effort.
37:14Chris, he'd also learned to read and write.
37:17He was different.
37:19He's a bad brother, man.
37:20Yeah.
37:22Especially because reading and writing was sort of forbidden.
37:26So when, it makes you wonder, when was that taking place?
37:29Who was teaching him?
37:30Right.
37:30Well, his master was saying, obviously, he's so bright, let's teach him to read and write.
37:37Right.
37:37He probably said, look, I'm more valuable to you if you let me learn to read and write.
37:41For sure.
37:42You know, did the rope-a-dope on him.
37:44We didn't have time to do all this.
37:48Unfortunately, despite everything he'd accomplished, Peter remained enslaved.
37:54But that was about to change.
37:59In 1800, he was sold yet again, this time to a Moravian man who lived in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania.
38:08And we believe that Peter himself pushed for this sale.
38:14So why the Pennsylvania?
38:15Please turn the page.
38:18Chris, you're looking at an amazing document.
38:22It's an affidavit presented to a man named Frederick Kuhn, one of the associate judges in Lancaster County.
38:29Would you please read that transcribed section?
38:32Peter Oliver verily believes that he is entitled to his freedom by virtue of the laws of Pennsylvania,
38:40having been held as a slave by virtue of the said bill of sale in this commonwealth,
38:46and that deponent is not confined or restrained of his liberty for any other cause whatsoever,
38:52and further saith not, signed Peter Oliver, sworn before me, June 13, 1800.
39:00He goes to a judge and says,
39:03Your Honor, I believe that I am a free man in the commonwealth of Pennsylvania.
39:09And that was part of probably why he got sold up to Pennsylvania.
39:12That's right.
39:13Right.
39:13They were enabling his freedom.
39:15Yep.
39:16Yep.
39:16Because Pennsylvania had abolished slavery.
39:20Had abolished slavery.
39:21Right.
39:21And North Carolina didn't abolish slavery until the Civil War made it abolish slavery.
39:26They did him basically a favor in selling him up north.
39:32Isn't that amazing?
39:33Yeah.
39:34Yeah.
39:35Absolutely.
39:38There is a final beat to this story.
39:41In 1802, less than two years after winning his freedom in Pennsylvania,
39:48Peter returned to the South, got married,
39:52and settled on a four-acre farm that he leased from the Moravian Church outside of Salem, North Carolina.
40:02Wow.
40:03He goes back to North Carolina, which is why your family is from North Carolina.
40:07My family is from North Carolina.
40:08Yeah.
40:10So he went up to Pennsylvania.
40:12Got his freedom.
40:12Got his freedom.
40:13And said, I'm going back home.
40:14Came back down.
40:15So he must have loved North Carolina, because me, I would have stayed in Pennsylvania.
40:19Right, right.
40:21What do you make of this?
40:22It's even more meaningful now, because, of course, you know of your immediate family.
40:29I always knew that I was born and raised there, but knowing that it traces back all the way to...
40:351802.
40:35It's amazing.
40:36Yeah, and to move away and to come back, what he demonstrated is exactly why they put in a park
40:48and all of that in Winston.
40:50Yes, yes.
40:50You know, and the importance of this is, I mean, I remember my mom getting on Zooms with the family
40:56members or whatnot, talking about Peter Oliver and me.
40:59I'd be like, okay, okay.
41:00You know, but you don't know what you don't know.
41:03No, of course.
41:03Right?
41:04So, to hear all of the information that I heard today, it makes me understand why.
41:10Yeah, he was a go-getter.
41:14We'd already traced Brittany Griner's mother's roots in Louisiana, a place she'd never associated with her own family.
41:24Now, turning to her father's ancestors, we found ourselves on more familiar terrain, Brittany's home state of Texas.
41:34The story begins with Brittany's great-great-grandfather, a man named Henry Adams.
41:42Brittany knew that she has relatives who still carry the Adams surname, but she had no idea where it came
41:49from.
41:53We tried to learn, and ended up back in the slave era, pouring over the estate records of a white
42:02Texan named Thomas Adams Sr.
42:07They list 36 enslaved human beings.
42:12Among them is a boy named Henry, worth $125.
42:19A sight that caused Brittany to recoil.
42:26I mean, seeing a value placed on any person is just sight.
42:32I can't even really imagine it.
42:33I can because I know the history, the sick history.
42:37But to see that, it's just, I mean, it's just a boy.
42:41It's just a kid.
42:42Henry was around two months old.
42:46And I got a seven-month-old at home.
42:48I couldn't imagine him being born into this, like.
42:56And Adams Sr.
42:58Yeah.
42:59So, got the name from slave owner.
43:02Yep.
43:03There's your great-great-grandfather, Henry, listed as the property of a white man named Thomas Adams Sr., given a
43:10value in an estate record.
43:12Just like you would do a sofa, or a cow, or a horse.
43:16I was literally going to say a cow, a pig, an animal.
43:19Yeah.
43:21Like, that's just sad.
43:23I mean, two months old.
43:24I mean, like, ain't even started life yet.
43:29No.
43:30Already belonging to somebody else.
43:34Thomas Adams Sr. was one of the wealthiest men in his county.
43:39When he died in 1859, he was worth around $40,000, or roughly $1.5 million in today's money.
43:52A big part of that wealth was human property.
43:59And as we combed through his estate records, we came upon Henry's parents, Sam and Pallas Adams, as well as
44:09a curious detail.
44:11According to this record, Sam was 32 years old and Pallas was 12.
44:16And they already had a child, your great-great-grandfather, Henry.
44:19But we puzzled over this.
44:22We don't know if Pallas' age is correct there.
44:25Her age on census records suggests that she was about 25, not 12.
44:30So we can't be sure.
44:31Okay.
44:32But it's possible that Pallas had Henry before her 13th birthday.
44:35I mean, it's possible.
44:37I mean, it wouldn't be uncommon back then.
44:39It wasn't like they'd care.
44:40I mean, people had kids way earlier.
44:43But that's crazy to think that she had already lived that much life at 12, 13.
44:51This story was about to take an even more troubling turn.
44:56Thomas' estate records were filed in January of 1859, meaning that his slaves were divided up amongst his heirs more
45:07than six years before the abolition of slavery, which raised a chilling question.
45:15So what do you think happened to your family?
45:17Were they able to stay together or were they split up?
45:20Oh, they all got split up.
45:21I mean, they probably took joy.
45:23And I know some people took joy in splitting up families because they didn't want them to be together, have
45:29a sense of all you're supposed to do is work.
45:31I don't need to worry about your wife, your kid, or any of that work.
45:34So I wouldn't be surprised if they didn't split up every single person on here.
45:38Please turn the page.
45:40Let's see.
45:42This is the same estate inventory we just showed you, only we've highlighted a different portion.
45:47Would you please read that transcribed section?
45:51To Abel Adams, Pallas, age 12 years.
45:56To Harmon Adams, Henry, age 2 months.
46:01To Thomas Adams, Jr., Sam, age 32.
46:06You were right.
46:07Your family, even the two-month-old baby, separated from his parents.
46:11Your ancestors were split up among three different sons of their enslaver.
46:16Pallas goes to Abel, Henry, to Harmon, and Sam to Thomas Adams, Jr.
46:24Inhumane.
46:25It makes me look at the people that we got this name from.
46:29Like, we literally took a name from these inhumane people.
46:32It makes me look at the name Adams so different.
46:36And I know there are some really good Adams out there on my side of the family, but it
46:39makes me look at that name differently of where we got it from.
46:46Happily, Brittany's ancestors were able to reunite when freedom came.
46:53In the 1870 census, they were all living together in the same household.
47:01But this census also tells us something far less joyful.
47:06Just a few doors down from Brittany's family lived a man named Fabian Adams, one of the
47:15sons of Thomas Adams, Sr., the very same man who had enslaved them.
47:22How about that?
47:23While Fabian didn't inherit any of your ancestors from his father's will, the fact that the
47:28families were living so close five years after the end of the Civil War suggests that your
47:33ancestors, even though they were free, still had to work for the people who had held them
47:38in bondage.
47:39Oh, 100%.
47:40And I saw that occupation, farmer, white, and then I see farm labor, farm labor.
47:45Oh, yeah, they was definitely still working there.
47:47Can you imagine living next to the people who used to own you?
47:50And not getting paid properly either, probably.
47:53Sharecropper.
47:53Yeah.
47:54Here, boy, put that X there.
47:56You know?
47:56That's all.
47:57They just, the new age slavery, that's all it was for them.
48:02That's crazy to still live there.
48:04Just the trauma of that, knowing, because they, I mean, they lived it.
48:07They were separated, brought back, spread out through the siblings, brought back together.
48:12Fabian didn't own any, but he's definitely benefiting from y'all working there now.
48:16And, you know, like it or not, and it shouldn't surprise us, but most formerly enslaved people
48:21stayed where they had been enslaved because they didn't have a choice.
48:25They couldn't read, they couldn't write.
48:26That was illegal.
48:27The system was rigged against them.
48:29Yeah.
48:30Where were they supposed to go?
48:31With what money?
48:33Brittany's questions are good ones.
48:35And the answers would prove sobering.
48:39Her ancestors would not leave the county where they'd been enslaved for almost a century.
48:46But that doesn't mean that they wouldn't make progress.
48:51By 1910, less than 50 years after the end of the Civil War, her great-great-grandfather, Henry,
49:00had not only managed to become a landowner, but his children had too.
49:05And seeing the journey of her family laid out from slavery to freedom would prove deeply
49:12moving to Brittany.
49:15Your people are survivors.
49:17Do you feel a connection?
49:18I feel a deep connection.
49:21It just makes me understand myself a little bit more, like knowing my background, my history.
49:29You think you're blazing your own path in life, but you're really kind of like reliving some
49:34of the things and some of the choices, even places where you're living, that your ancestors went down.
49:41Yeah.
49:41And it's kind of cool to walk the same road that they walked in the same sense.
49:45It was a hard road they walked.
49:46But, I mean, I wouldn't be here today if they wouldn't have walked this road.
49:51If any of these little small things would have changed, a husband not been somebody's husband,
49:57they would have fought, they would have ran, you know, tried to escape.
50:01That could have altered everything and I could not be here.
50:05That's right.
50:05Poof.
50:05Yeah, you know, as much as I want all this to change and just be all happy-go-lucky,
50:11without this happening, I might not be here right now.
50:14That's right.
50:15So, I'm super appreciative of this information, that's for sure.
50:21I know my family is going to be very appreciative of this.
50:24What's your father going to say?
50:26He's going to be blown away.
50:27I already know.
50:28He's going to be, he's going to be shocked.
50:29He's going to be like, what?
50:30He's going to try to figure out how y'all figured all this out.
50:37The paper trail had now run out for each of my guests.
50:42It was time to show them their full family trees.
50:46Oh, my goodness.
50:48Now filled with names they'd never heard before.
50:53This is awesome.
50:55Yeah, I'm going to put this up in my house.
51:00For each, it was a moment of joy,
51:02offering the chance to connect with the women and men
51:07who laid the groundwork for their success.
51:11To see this is the wildest thing ever.
51:15I think it just makes me appreciate things a lot more, right?
51:22Even though I know I should already,
51:24but just understanding what many generations have went through
51:30before me in order for me to be sitting right here with you.
51:34My ancestors had some fight in them
51:39to make it through, to push through,
51:42living next door to the people that had them enslaved,
51:44to being put in an insane asylum
51:49and having to deal with that and cope.
51:52It definitely helps me understand me a little bit more.
51:55Yeah.
51:56My fight, it all comes from my family.
52:00Everything that I've been through,
52:01everything I've gotten through,
52:02how I've gotten through it, it makes sense.
52:04That's the end of our journey
52:06with Brittany Griner and Chris Paul.
52:09Join me next time
52:11when we unlock the secrets of the past for new guests
52:15on another episode of Finding Your Roots.
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