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On August 7 - 9, 2009,
We Came Together
150 Years Later!
Atlanta, Georgia ~ Abbeville,
South Carolina
Get the
DVD of this Historical Event!
Click Here for mail-in order form
Order by January 31, 2010
Articles
More than 230 return to their
roots in Abbeville
Index Journal Newspaper, Greenwood, S.C.
Our African Ancestry
The Mbundu People of Angola
The Yoruba
People of Nigeria
The Fulani People
of Nigeria
Links
Beckley Family Reunion - Atlanta Beckley Club
Descendants of Sue Barr
Beckley
The Reed Family of Tate County, Mississippi
Descendants of Pleasant Barr
Rust
College
Dr. David
Beckley, President
Bethune-Cookman University
Dr. Trudie
Reed, President
Mississippi to
Africa: A Journey of Discovery
New Book by Melvin J. Collier
Justice On My Mind
New Book by
Clara Hunter King
African Ancestry
Trace Your DNA. Find Your Roots.
The "Coming Together" Committee
Melvin J. Collier
Amelia Jefferson
Dr. Leroy Frazier
Ouida Howard
Denise Harrington
Clara Hunter King
Jerilyn Beckley
Vikki D. Jenkins
Frank Turpin
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In 1859, the
children of Pleasant Barr were sold to Lemuel Reid. William Barr,
Jr.
then took Pleasant's sister Sue and her children and other
family members to Pontotoc County, Mississippi the same
year. They all never saw each other again. In 2009, 150
years later, 250 descendants reunited and are walking up to
the ole Lemuel Reid Plantation House, Abbeville, SC.
(courtesy of ZeEnna Jenkins)
Our history did not begin with slavery in America. However, our
furthest-traced ancestors on American soil were a devoted couple
named Lewis and Fanny. Research findings indicate
that Lewis was born around 1780 in South Carolina. DNA testing
has revealed that Lewis’s paternal ancestor – most probably his
paternal grandfather – was an African captive taken from the
Angola-Congo region of West-Central Africa. He was likely
transported to Charleston, South Carolina. This strong ancestor was from the
Mbundu people who resided in northern Angola. Lewis's wife Fanny was
born around 1790 in Virginia. On August 7, 2009, at the 150th
Year Commemorative Reunion of the Descendants of Lewis and Fanny
Barr, the African ancestry of Grandma Fanny Barr's lineage
was revealed
to the family – her descendants – who reunited for the
first time 150 years after our ancestors were separated.
Through her maternal lineage, we learned that we are connected
to the Fulani and Yoruba peoples of Nigeria.
Extensive genealogy research has
confirmed that our ancestors were enslaved on the farm of the
Reverend Dr.
William H. Barr and his wife Rebecca Reid Barr, located three
miles north of Abbeville, South Carolina. Dr. Barr was the
minister of the Upper Long Cane Presbyterian Church in
Abbeville. The 1820 U.S. Federal Census of Abbeville County
reported Dr. Barr with six slaves that year: an adult male, an
adult female, and four young children (one young female and
three young males). We know this enslaved family unit to be
Lewis, Fanny, and children, Glasgow, Sue,
Pleasant, and another son whose name is lost to the family.
It is not known when and from whom Dr. William and Rebecca Barr
acquired Lewis and Fanny. However, from 1820 to 1843, the
enslaved population on the Barr farm increased naturally from a
family of six to eighteen people. During those years, Lewis and
Fanny created a solid family structure of children and
grandchildren that would soon become dismantled.
Click here to read the full story.
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