I’m always intrigued by people for whom the past is palpably alive - not a dull collection of names, places, and dates, but a world that is almost as real to them as that in which they actually live.
As a teenager, I sometimes managed to capture that feeling by strolling into the woods across the street from our house on a warm summer day and pulling myself up onto a large boulder, where I cracked open the book I had brought along with me. If the book was at least partially set in the woodlands of a bygone era, such as The Last of the Mohicans, I felt transported to an earlier time, however briefly.
Yvonne Polley Fullen and YLonne Polley Fullen Swails obviously feel the pull of the past more strongly than most, and for very personal and powerful reasons.
The Marietta Daily Journal in Georgia reported recently that the twin sisters from Smyrna, Georgia, were filled with emotion back in April when a judge in West Virginia ruled that their ancestors, who began their lives as slaves, were free even before the Civil War, bringing closure to a legal fight that was more than a century old.
For most of their 61 years, the sisters knew that their ancestors, who grew up in what is now West Virginia, had been slaves in Kentucky. They believed those ancestors had won their freedom a decade before the Civil War, only to have it taken from them, the newspaper reported. Now a court has finally recognized that the sisters' great-great grandfather, Harrison Polley, and three of his siblings, were illegally re-enslaved.
You can read the story here. It’s a bit complicated, but the gist of it is that David Polley of Kentucky provided in his will that his slaves be freed upon his death, which occurred in 1847. His slaves, including Harrison Polley, his siblings and their father, Peyton Polley, were freed in 1849. They moved to Ohio where, in 1850, "a gang of armed kidnappers forced their way into Peyton’s home and took all eight of his children. By February 1851, the children, ages 4 to 17, had been sold through slave auctions to masters in Kentucky and Virginia."
Peyton Polley went to court to get his kids back, and some of them were returned to him. But Harrison and some of his siblings remained in slavery for over a decade in what became West Virginia, the newspaper reported.
The enslaved children eventually achieved their freedom after the Civil War, but the fact that their case was never brought to a legal conclusion before then has bothered descendants. As they saw it, their great-great grandfather and all of his siblings were freed when David Polley died, yet some of them were denied their freedom for many years, first by kidnappers and then by the courts.
This year, the descendants of David Polley’s slaves rewrote the past. For a history buff, it doesn’t get any better than that.
As a teenager, I sometimes managed to capture that feeling by strolling into the woods across the street from our house on a warm summer day and pulling myself up onto a large boulder, where I cracked open the book I had brought along with me. If the book was at least partially set in the woodlands of a bygone era, such as The Last of the Mohicans, I felt transported to an earlier time, however briefly.
Yvonne Polley Fullen and YLonne Polley Fullen Swails obviously feel the pull of the past more strongly than most, and for very personal and powerful reasons.
The Marietta Daily Journal in Georgia reported recently that the twin sisters from Smyrna, Georgia, were filled with emotion back in April when a judge in West Virginia ruled that their ancestors, who began their lives as slaves, were free even before the Civil War, bringing closure to a legal fight that was more than a century old.
For most of their 61 years, the sisters knew that their ancestors, who grew up in what is now West Virginia, had been slaves in Kentucky. They believed those ancestors had won their freedom a decade before the Civil War, only to have it taken from them, the newspaper reported. Now a court has finally recognized that the sisters' great-great grandfather, Harrison Polley, and three of his siblings, were illegally re-enslaved.
You can read the story here. It’s a bit complicated, but the gist of it is that David Polley of Kentucky provided in his will that his slaves be freed upon his death, which occurred in 1847. His slaves, including Harrison Polley, his siblings and their father, Peyton Polley, were freed in 1849. They moved to Ohio where, in 1850, "a gang of armed kidnappers forced their way into Peyton’s home and took all eight of his children. By February 1851, the children, ages 4 to 17, had been sold through slave auctions to masters in Kentucky and Virginia."
Peyton Polley went to court to get his kids back, and some of them were returned to him. But Harrison and some of his siblings remained in slavery for over a decade in what became West Virginia, the newspaper reported.
The enslaved children eventually achieved their freedom after the Civil War, but the fact that their case was never brought to a legal conclusion before then has bothered descendants. As they saw it, their great-great grandfather and all of his siblings were freed when David Polley died, yet some of them were denied their freedom for many years, first by kidnappers and then by the courts.
This year, the descendants of David Polley’s slaves rewrote the past. For a history buff, it doesn’t get any better than that.
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| Yvonne Polley Fullen and YLonne Polley Fullen Swails (Marietta Daily Journal photo) |
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