Reconciliation is possible between the descentants of American slaves and American slave owners. Edward Ball is leading the way. First he wrote Slaves in the Family, which won the National Book Award. Then he joined with others in the Ball family -- both black and white -- to form “The Committee of Descendants.” It is a non-profit organization which the European-American Mr. Ball and his African-American Ball relatives created to begin to heal their own family’s painful past.

The white Balls of South Carolina have been here since 1698. The black Balls followed almost immediately, under radically different circumstances. The white Balls were large scale slave owners for 170 years. They owned 25 rice plantations and enslaved close to 4,000 people over a period of 5 generations. The white family’s tradition was based on two pillars: that they were gentle masters and that there was no black and white sex on the Ball plantations. Both were false. In coming to terms with this past, Mr. Ball met some of the 75,000 to 100,000 people descended from people held in bondage on Ball plantations. They had a lot to talk about.

Edward Ball is not a squeamish man. As part of scraping away three hundred years of self-serving family lore, he went to Sierra Leone. He sought out and found descendants of slave traders who sold their neighbors, people the Balls bought. While not excusing the sellers, Mr. Ball’s conclusion is that the greater evil was perpetrated in the New World, by those who chose to found and perpetuate our economy on the backs of slaves.

Deafening silence in his own family triggered Mr. Ball’s search for the rest of the family history. It forced him back to South Carolina after making a successful journalistic career in New York City. Once home again, he was compelled to democratize America’s history, to tell the other half of the story -- the black slave experience -- starting at home.

Pain was part of the price Mr. Ball paid for his efforts, and so did both black and white relatives. But they got through it. The net result for Edward Ball is a committed optimism. He’s convinced that reconciliation can be ours if we chose to look squarely at our past. And to get to know each other, individually and as families.

The American family has also been too long silent, Mr. Ball believes. First, we must be accountable (not guilty). Then we must act. The Committee of Descendants has decided to fund restitution and memorial projects. (Forty percent of white Americans entered America through Ellis Island and 40% of black Americans entered through Charleston. Where Ellis Island is now a monument, not a single stone in Charleston stands to commemorate the black experience there.)

Mr. Ball challenges the sanitized version of America’s past. He calls us all to respect the horrific personal experiences of slavery in America, before and after European-Americans won their political freedom from England. Most of all, Mr. Ball wants us to tell the truth. All of it. Because the truth, Edward Ball has discovered for himself, can set us free.

Conversation 1

Edward Ball offers Paula Gordon and Bill Russell a picture of slave-trading Charleston. He describes the first ordeal surviving African slaves faced on arriving in Charleston harbor. He compares their physical condition to what voluntary immigrants experienced at Ellis Island. He describes the plantations where captives became part of huge force labor camps.

Conversation 2

Charleston’s Olde English charms disguise the other world which stood behind the big houses. Mr. Ball tells some of the secrets within the walls of both. He explains why he thinks it’s important to tell the black majority’s story, side by side with that of the white minority. Mr.Ball offers a glimpse into the essentially black culture everywhere outside of coastal cities during slave days. He recalls the Ball family’s 170 years as rice plantation owners who enslaved close to 4000 people over a period of 5 generations. He describes the two (false) pillars of his family’s tradition -- that the Balls were “gentle masters” and that there was no black and white sex on Ball plantations. He discredits half–truths that continue to be told. He draws from Ball plantation records for vivid examples of slavery.

Conversation 3

Most of America’s thirty-three million black people descended from people who were enslaved, according to Mr. Ball. He describes his attempt, as a descendent of a slave-owning family, to reach out to some of today’s families whose ancestors were enslaved by his ancestors. He recounts his journey of discovery among the white Ball family (leading lights in Charleston since 1698), among whom the silence about slaves and slavery was deafening. He recalls his family’s full range of reactions to telling the whole truth. He explains the importance he places on acknowledging the painful stories of 75,000 to 100,000 black Americans today whose ancestors were enslaved by various Balls. He describes how the white and black sides of his family gradually became part of each others' lives. He begins the story of the apartheid-style American society that survived from Freedom until about 1970.

Conversation 4

America is a country founded on forced labor, Mr. Ball says clearly. He suggests personal ways to come to terms with the uncomfortable realities that surround that economic decision. He recalls his trip to Sierra Leone (an “echo-chamber) and his conversations with descendants of those who sold their neighbors into bondage. He concludes that the majority of the exploitation took place on this side of the ocean. He distinguishes guilt -- which he deems inappropriate -- from accountability -- which he thinks is required. He portrays how disfigured our society based on slavery was and is. He addresses the great divide still apparent between black people and white people. He tells us why speaking honestly about individual experiences can mend that tear.

Conversation 5

Edward Ball is optimistic about the possibility of reconciliation between black and white people. He explains why and offers ideas about how individuals can go about that work: Start by asking “Who am I? What is my family experience? What did it make me?” He gives an example from his own family. He describes the labor system of which slavery was a crucial part. He reminds us that colonists had choices -- some declined to practice slavery while people in other parts of the colonies (including Virginia, South Carolina, New York) consciously chose slavery as part of their founding economic system.

Conversation 6

Mr. Ball remembers his experience as a person raised in the South, trying to re-invent himself into a new identity. He tells us why that was impossible. He explains The Committee of Descendants, a non-profit organization formed by a group of (black and white) Balls, created to support restitution projects. Noting that currently there are no monuments to black people’s slave experience, he suggests the kinds of projects that might memorialize it.

Acknowledgements