“How do you learn about a slave — someone whose imprint on life was so restricted that even their name was excluded from most official registers, such as census records and tax rolls?” It’s a problem for nearly everybody who researches African American genealogy, and Mark Gretchen set out in the county courthouse to document as fully as possible the names of those who lived here and worked as slaves prior to emancipation, and tell bits of their stories as he learned them. Read More