…a daughter of the Cherokee tribe, kidnapped and thrown into slavery;

…the son of a renowned grist mill engineer, who discarded his pregnant mistress;

…teachers and missionaries who communed with indigenous tribes;

…colonialists born from royalty, such as Capt. Thomas Carter;

…Revolutionary war heroes like Capt. William Sumter;

…soldiers who fled, fought, or died in the Civil War;

…men who built naval ships in Norfolk for WWII;

…self-proclaimed Baptists by day, and violent drunks by night;

…a handful of daughters who ignored social codes and Jim Crow laws;

…one whose mother could never forgive her;

…an adored woman whose hometown established a day in her honor;

…a father who sent his daughters to the workhouse;

…a sister who knew her brother’s dark secrets, and would receive shock treatment for hysteria;

…a husband who possibly murdered his wives;

…and a wife who possibly murdered her husband.

When the wild nature of these stories gathered together in one place, it was right here in my body.

These are the forgotten stories of my ancestors.