News Roundup: Colorlines, Afro Confederates, 40 Acres Commemoration and Baker Family History

How 3 American families blurred the lines of race

“The Invisible Line: Three American Families and the Secret Journey from Black to White,” researches the Gibsons, Louisiana sugar planters who descended from free blacks in South Carolina and became wealthy slave holders; the Spencers, descended from two free black men who married two white sisters; and the Walls, descended from a slave owner who fathered children with three of his slaves.

Georgia marks Civil War’s ’40 acres and a mule’

The Georgia Historical Society unveiled a marker summing up the history of the “40 Acres and a Mule” policy issued by General Sherman during the Civil War. The marker was placed outside the mansion that served as Sherman’s headquarters during the civil war.

A question of blue and gray … and black lingers

This discussion of black Confederate soldiers includes whether or not they were forced to fight and if there really were an estimated 90,000 African American soldiers fighting for the south, including Civil War hero Amos Rucker, whose pallbearers at his funeral included then-Georgia Gov. Allen Chandler, Judge William Lowndes Calhoun, ex-Postmaster Amos Fox and former Confederate Army Camp Commander Frank Hilburn.

Descended from slaves, man works to salvage local family’s history

Albert Datcher Jr. studied his great-grandfather Albert Baker’s tombstone and realized that his ancestor was 50 years old when he was freed from slavery. Despite Baker’s age, he managed to purchase 100 acres of land and prosper. Datcher was approaching his 50th birthday at the time and the realization made clear to him how he had taken for granted the opportunities he had in his life when compared to the obstacles his great-grandfather had faced. Wanting to know more about Albert Baker’s life, Datcher set out to reconstruct his family’s history.