Speaking Truth is a platform created by Rea Bennett, Michael Zirulnik, and Bobby Walker that invites the descendants of enslavers to examine their lineage and begin the process of making amends. In 2024, the creators of Speaking Truth gifted fifty-two individual oral histories that tell some of these stories to the Center for Family History at the International African American Museum.
In the description underneath each oral history, information including names of the enslaved and the enslavers has been pulled and is listed.
Rights
Speaking Truth retains copyright on these records. The digitized copies of the records are in the public domain and intended solely for free, public access. Any usage of the digitized copy of these records should be cited as coming from the Center for Family History at the International African American Museum in Charleston, South Carolina, United States per Speaking Truth. See speakingtruth.org.
James Tyler Jr. discusses his long life, coming from a family of sharecroppers, and eventually becoming a musician and later working with anti-racist programs in the Lutheran Church.
Dr. Kimberly Cook discusses finding archival records of her family's involvement in slavery and reflecting on her own involvement in anti-racist activism throughout her life.
Leslie Stainton tells the story of her ancestor who became an enslaver after first coming to the United States "impoverished". His family became so prominent, they were well known to author Margaret Mitchell, whose novel romanticizes Southern plantations of this era.
Lisa Dean talks about delving into her family's history and learning about their impact on Louisiana history and their history of participating in the slave trade.
This video contains subject matter that may be triggering.
Lottie Lieb Dula shares finding the plantation records that belonged to her ancestors and how her family legacy shapes her anti-racist work.
Wallace McPherson Alston III, also known as Macky Alston, reflects on his family's legacy by looking at it through the lens of where and how he grew up.
Mimzy Tackney-Moen, descendant of Wilmer McLean, discusses learning the truth about her family's history and their active participation in the American Civil War.
Rea Bennett descends from a North Carolina enslaver and reflects on the family's slavery-era records she's read. She shared memories of growing up in Jim Crow-era Alabama and witnessing the early Civil Rights Movement firsthand.
Sarah Fleming reads a piece she submitted to her local newspaper in Petaluma, California, United States, in 2022.
[The names of her underage grandchildren have been redacted from this recording.]
Sarah Sanderson reflects on learning about her ancestors' enslaving history. She compares her life to that of the enslaved woman, Susan, whom she found listed in a will relating to her ancestor.
Tad Kelly discusses his ancestor, John Dougherty, an Indian agent who retired in the 1850s and then enslaved several people on a plantation in Missouri. Learning about his history, he now advocates for reparative action.
Tom DeWolf discusses the history of the DeWolf family, a prominent family from colonial New England that participated in the transatlantic slave trade in many facets.
