In many ways, the overgrown cemetery on a South Carolina rice plantation where my paternal ancestors are buried is emblematic of Black history itself. On my first visit in 2013, I went in search of the Fields family graves. There I found many unmarked graves, some of them nothing more than sunken depressions, as far as the eye could see. African Americans searching for their family histories often have only small irregular pieces of an enormous puzzle. Until recently, identifying enslaved and formerly enslaved people who lived before that time was virtually impossible.

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Locations: South Carolina, West Africa, Lowcountry, Carolina