I couldn’t think of a better way to say good-bye to the Gaither family than to tell their family history, especially when it seems the family is falling apart. Like most African-Americans, the Gaithers’ African roots are entwined with European ethnicity. While it is common for some African-Americans to claim Native American ancestry with little to substantiate their claims, it is also true that African-Americans and Native Americans from the southeastern and northeastern parts of the US have a complex and shared history. Who better to tell both sides of this story than the elder Trotter sisters, both having one-quarter Creek blood and being descendants of Creek freedmen?
As described in the story from one elder’s account, some southeastern Native American nations participated in the sale and ownership of slaves. It is also true that some African-American freedmen—former slaves—lived separately as freedmen among the “Five Civilized Tribes” (the Cherokee, Chickasaw, Choctaw, Creek, and Seminole Nations), while some also married within the nations and had blood descendants. Many freedmen and native-owned slaves marched west with their host Native American tribe in the early 1830s, when Native Americans from the southeastern states were forced to remove themselves from their land in the inhumane journey known as the Trail of Tears. In the Treaty of 1866, the freedmen were granted full tribal status and rights, although their status and benefits continues to be challenged today. For more information, I recommend Black Indians: A Hidden Heritage by William Loren Katz and Africans in America: America’s Journey through Slavery by Charles Johnson, Patricia Smith, and the WGBH Series Research Team.
With so much happening in 1969, I turned to my diaries to remember what was important to me as a tween back then. On July 20 I wrote, “The astronauts landed and set foot on the moon,” and months later on October 18 I wrote “Jackson Five!” after watching them for the first time on The Hollywood Palace, a variety show that aired on ABC. To tell the story of the Gaither sisters, particularly with Vonetta’s coming to terms with her uncle, I exercised literary license by moving the date that the sisters would have known about the Jackson Five. Vonetta’s pain, however, is real. To learn more about the Apollo moon missions, I recommend Team Moon by Catherine Thimmesh and Mission Control, This Is Apollo by Andrew Chaikin and astronaut Alan Bean. I also recommend YouTube to see videos of the Apollo 11 launch and moon landing, as well as the debut of the Jackson Five on The Hollywood Palace.
If Delphine and her family seem real to you, it is because the idea of them is real. The Trotters, Charleses, Gaithers, and Johnsons tell an American story in their crossings, struggles, and strides, and in their witnessing of and taking part in history. We need not look further than our own families to find unique histories that touch upon and comprise American history. It was an honor and my pleasure to tell their family story to you.
I thank my HarperCollins family for supporting my need to tell stories that include known and little-known histories. I couldn’t have had a truer advocate for these stories and a fiercer caretaker of this family than my editor, Rosemary Brosnan. I also thank my colleague and dear friend Leda Schubert, who has great instincts. Thank you to my Facebook friends, who responded eagerly and creatively to my query for Big Ma’s name, especially to Stephen Bramucci, Janet Fox, Jim Hill, Sheryl Scarborough, and Nicole Valentine, who got it right. I thank those who’ve shared their accounts of their mixed ancestry, both documented and undocumented. Most of all, I thank my readers, who’ve come to know and love Delphine, Vonetta, and Fern—and every Gaither, Charles, Trotter, and Johnson.