How The Words Were Passed: Reappraising

I’ve been reading, and re-reading, Clint Smith’s remarkable book, How The Word Is Passed: A Reckoning with the History of Slavery Across America. This series of posts is the outgrowth of my underlined pages and margin notes, inspired by Smith’s stories, prompted by his questions. My words will be an attempt to reckon with the history of slavery within one tree of my family forest: the Strickland-Stone family of Cypress Creek, Franklin County, North Carolina. The collection of posts is catalyzed by a question: Why did my grandfather’s grandfather, Anderson Perry Strickland, leave a pregnant wife, nine kids, and 200 acres of pasture, timber, barns, and fields to join the 24th Regiment NC Troops, with whom he fought, died, and was buried in Blandford Cemetery, Petersburg, Virginia in the fall of 1864.