One is that the family storyteller or historian can die unexpectedly without having trained and nourished an understudy on his/her rich diet of oral material. Another weakness is that the student can never know as much as the teacher about the periods of history prior to the student’s birth without having the opportunity to analyze supplementary materials. Finally, the oral tradition requires that all information be filtered through the personal lens of an often untutored storyteller prone to eliminating details the storyteller considered unappealing or likely not pertinent to the listener. Too, as stories are passed down from on person to another, or one generation to he next, inherently there is a tendency for details to be distorted and take on the colorations, characteristics and importance, or lack of importance, given the material by the storyteller. So family heritage passed down from one generation to the next through storytelling takes on a sharper and more meaningful focus when the oral tradition is corroborated by primary resources, pictures and artifacts.

The publication of Roots coupled with its eventual television production fortunately served as an impetus for many Americans, especially Afro-Americans, to accent the oral tradition, which is so prominent, by anchoring family histories in primary documentation. The marriage of these rich family histories with genealogical research made available through private and public records offer a much clearer picture of the past.

It is a credit to this country, and to North Carolina, in particular, that the families in this volume have agreed to share their stories through this medium. For in these pages are part of the American story that would not be known except for these families’ diligence, persistence and unselfishness. Each story and genealogica1 search is important, for each adds a piece to the giant human quilt representing aggregate humanity. Each story is singular in that it provides the author’s perspective on his/her family, yet the stories together form a collage of fragments which entail lie movement of a people along the course of life in North Carolina. These fragments are sewn together by sets of values held uppermost in the collective Afro-American community. Collectively, authors speak about the sustaining forces in their personal and family lives such as love, the thirst for education, faith in God, hard work and respect for the elders and their teachings, And as in life, there are stories entailing trials, tribulations and triumphs. There are disappointments, heartaches, heartbreaks and the assorted emotions that give birth to faith, courage and perseverance. There are dreams that come true and nightmares that linger too long before fading in the dawn. Homage is paid to parents, grandparents and extended family members who labored tirelessly in the fields and factories to provide the bare physical essentials, yet, were not too overburdened to direct offspring down the delicate track to spiritual enlightenment and offer formulas for sustaining life.

It is hoped that this volume is but a beginning which will inspire future works of this nature. The culture of the Afro-American is unique and deserves microscopic exploration especially from an internal (family) perspective. Too often the dynamics of the Afro-American family have been viewed from the outside, resulting in misunderstandings and labelling of the institution as dysfunctional despite the overwhelming economic, social and political pressures and acts of discrimination. The driving forces and survival mechanisms which have sustained and inspired the Afro-American are evident in this volume of family stories.

It is encouraging to see this effort by Afro-Americans in North Carolina which will further the field of genealogy. Only through such individual and collective pursuits can the true history of any group be told, and this should serve as an inspiration to other statewide and community groups for generations to come. This volume’s effort is to be applauded as one more patch in the quilt that represents the human race.” ~ Alex Haley, April 18, 1990.