Underwater sculpture, in Grenada, in honor of
our African Ancestors who were thrown overboard the slave ships during the
Middle Passage of the African Holocaust. --Artist, Jason DeCaires Taylor
Sorry.
This makes the 1870 census brick wall scenario for African Americans researching their roots seem like a game of trivial pursuit.
You could argue that since they didn't make it to the shores of the 'New World', there are no descendants. However, they may have had kin, on their respective slave ships, that did make it to Brazil, the Caribbean, and North America.
We still need to think about them. We still need to care about them. We still need to honor them. We need to think of them as our family. We need to remember them.
Some were too sick or deceased and were tossed overboard.
Some chose to jump ship.
Can DNA help us make a connection to our Ancestors who perished during the middle passage? It can give us an approximation. Link a slave ship to an African port, then link the port to a region. Will that help us in identifying our Ancestors residing beneath the ocean?
Thank you artist, Jason DeCaires Taylor, for challenging my assumptions on what is the real brick wall in researching my Ancestors. Now, I know.
Everything else becomes trivial.
