familytreemagazine.com 57M
elissa Barker, archivist for Houston
County, Tenn., found unusual court
records involving her ancestors. In
1940, her great-grandfather com-
mitted his wife (Barker’s great-grandmother)
to a mental hospital and then married anoth-
er woman two weeks later. Barker’s great-
grandmother spent 15 years in the facility before
being “cured” and discharged. “They literally
dragged her out of the house,” Barker said.
Barker’s great-grandmother died 20 years lat-
er. Among her possessions were a card that she
always carried in her wallet which said she was
no longer “crazy.”
“I couldn’t believe it!” Barker said. “My grand-
mother was the youngest of 14 children, and
almost all her brothers and sisters were mar-
ried or adults. I wondered why they didn’t stepin and stop it. My grandmother said they were
powerless because her father had all the power
to do what he did.”
For the most part, Barker took the discovery
in stride. “I usually approach things like this
wanting to know why someone did what they
did instead of [feeling] anger,” Barker said. And
as a genealogist, she had heard of cases like this
and was aware of women’s general lack of rights
in those days.
While Barker said she hadn’t found a justifi -
cation for the commitment to the mental hospi-
tal, she speculated her great-grandmother had
undiagnosed postpartum depression or some
other mental ailment. “I’m not saying my great-
grandfather was right in doing what he did,”
said Barker, “But anyone would be aff ected from
[even] just having 14 children!”L
auren Peightel (see “Stories to Tell” on
page 10) learned that one of her ances-
tors, Samuel Blodgett, helped create the
canal that powered the industrial city of
Manchester, New Hampshire (including the
Amoskeag Manufacturing Company, the larg-
est cotton mill in the world). Samuel’s son, Cap-
tain Samuel Blodgett, Jr., traveled to Boston and
made money working with the East India Trad-
ing Company.
At the time, the East India Company profi ted
from the slave trade. Peightel, who coordinates
genealogy and multicultural programs for the
Indiana Historical Society, was horrifi ed at the
thought that her family made its fortune ben-
efi tting from the slave trade.
Newly tasked with developing multiculturalprogramming, Peightel had just started a proj-
ect celebrating African Americans in India-
napolis, Ind., when she learned about her fam-
ily’s connection to the slave trade. Her intern,
RaeVen Ridgell, challenged her, asking what
she would do with the information, and how
she was going to use her privilege to help the
community.
“We can’t be responsible for the history, but
we are responsible to the history,” said Peightel.
“Even if I don’t know my ancestor’s exact role
in profi ting from the slave trade, I can continue
to educate myself and make sure I’m shining
a light on the whole story. I can listen more to
communities who haven’t been treated well and
learn how the history of my people aff ected the
history of other people.”Grappling with Betrayal
On the Wrong Side of History