Many Black Americans still labor under an enduring myth, not of their own making, that the lives and lived experiences of their distant ancestors are unknowable, lost to the grinding void of transatlantic enslavement. It's a myth underpinned by white history-making, in a land that mandated a decennial census but deliberately chose not to name the enslaved until after the Civil War.
Jonathan Feakins
Jonathan spent most of his adult life as a vagabond nerd before a pandemic prompted him to reinvent himself as some kind of science, history, and arts journalist. You can find some of his nerdy ramblings at jonathanfeakins.journoportfolio.com