The Untold Story: Slavery in the 20th Century
Genealogist Antoinette Harrell possesses an exceptional psyche. Antoinette has led a meticulously-research on 20th Century Slavery (Peonage) for the past 10 years. Some folks believe she is fulfilling a prophetic blueprint to unearth the untold stories of hundreds of thousands of people held in a perverted from of bondage called "peonage." No doubt Antoinette is gifted and endowed with a God-given capacity and sensitivity to give voice to their voice to their stories. So far, she has discovered the voices of those victimized in at last least sixteens states and sixteen counties in Mississippi, and channeled the stories of those held in bondage well into the 20th century. Here quest is not over. All of the stories are not yet told.
The research conducted by Antoinette Harrell has exposed thousands of documents located in the the National Archives in Washington, D.C. This collection is rich in FBI reports, NAACP reports, newspaper articles, letters written to five U.S. Presidents and complaints filed by American citizens to the United States government concerning African Americans being held in slavery. Antoinette not only uncovered United States Court cases, she found six Supreme Court cases and many other important sources that clearly outline that slavery didn't end for hundred of thousands of African American in Louisiana and Mississippi..
Her intellectual mind power and enduring determination has revealed many original documents, records and cases not only from the National Archives, but from local courthouses and dusty libraries in tiny, unforgotten towns in the South. She painstakingly, and sometimes at risk of her own life, explored a myriad of isolated, rural areas where a majority of these complaints originated, always channeling the voices of the victimized and telling their stories. During the research, Antoinette understood the hopelessness of the enslaved, who existed under horrible conditions, often unschooled and malnourished. As she traveled the back roads and bottoms in Mississippi, she understood their daily reality: " Where could they go? How could they escape? Everywhere was cotton....hundreds of miles to the north, south, east and west were cotton fields. If they ran, where could they run too? Who could they run to? There were no towns. And oftentimes the law enforcement officials, the sheriffs and the judges, were the very same prominent people who owned the plantations and kept those people enslaved year after year....."
Antoinette's peonage investigation revealed that people were held in " Involuntary servitude" a term coined after slavery---in the childhood hometown of Oprah Winfrey, Kosciusko, Mississippi. On February 9, 1927, the NAACP wrote a letter to the Department of Justice reporting that were in receipt of a letter charging that peonage practices were taking place in Attala County, Mississippi. Black people, as well as some white people were held in slavery and forced to work as free labor. They were forced to work as a sawmill and logging camp in Zama, Mississippi. In the letter it was stated that the same practices were taking place in Clarksdale, Mississippi. the hometown of Oscar-winning actor Morgan Freeman:
A wealth plantation owner by the name of J.W. Cutrer and Sheriff Glass at Clarksdale, Mississippi, are hold people enslaved on their plantations, " reads the letter. From the lonely, dusty roads of Money, Mississippi, where Emmett Till was murdered in 1955, to the hometown of B.B. King, legendary Blue artist, many were held in slavery until the 20th century.
The research conducted by Antoinette Harrell has exposed thousands of documents located in the the National Archives in Washington, D.C. This collection is rich in FBI reports, NAACP reports, newspaper articles, letters written to five U.S. Presidents and complaints filed by American citizens to the United States government concerning African Americans being held in slavery. Antoinette not only uncovered United States Court cases, she found six Supreme Court cases and many other important sources that clearly outline that slavery didn't end for hundred of thousands of African American in Louisiana and Mississippi..
Her intellectual mind power and enduring determination has revealed many original documents, records and cases not only from the National Archives, but from local courthouses and dusty libraries in tiny, unforgotten towns in the South. She painstakingly, and sometimes at risk of her own life, explored a myriad of isolated, rural areas where a majority of these complaints originated, always channeling the voices of the victimized and telling their stories. During the research, Antoinette understood the hopelessness of the enslaved, who existed under horrible conditions, often unschooled and malnourished. As she traveled the back roads and bottoms in Mississippi, she understood their daily reality: " Where could they go? How could they escape? Everywhere was cotton....hundreds of miles to the north, south, east and west were cotton fields. If they ran, where could they run too? Who could they run to? There were no towns. And oftentimes the law enforcement officials, the sheriffs and the judges, were the very same prominent people who owned the plantations and kept those people enslaved year after year....."
Antoinette's peonage investigation revealed that people were held in " Involuntary servitude" a term coined after slavery---in the childhood hometown of Oprah Winfrey, Kosciusko, Mississippi. On February 9, 1927, the NAACP wrote a letter to the Department of Justice reporting that were in receipt of a letter charging that peonage practices were taking place in Attala County, Mississippi. Black people, as well as some white people were held in slavery and forced to work as free labor. They were forced to work as a sawmill and logging camp in Zama, Mississippi. In the letter it was stated that the same practices were taking place in Clarksdale, Mississippi. the hometown of Oscar-winning actor Morgan Freeman:
A wealth plantation owner by the name of J.W. Cutrer and Sheriff Glass at Clarksdale, Mississippi, are hold people enslaved on their plantations, " reads the letter. From the lonely, dusty roads of Money, Mississippi, where Emmett Till was murdered in 1955, to the hometown of B.B. King, legendary Blue artist, many were held in slavery until the 20th century.