WASHINGTON — It’s time for us to Get Uplifted! That time of the morning where we focus on the stories that raise up the spirit, fascinate, and inspire.
Retired principal Dr. Vickie Aultmon and her daughter have a story to tell, and what a tale it is! A chronicle of one family’s history; of Africa, the middle passage and Barbados.
It began in 2006 with Dr. Aultmon researching her family’s history, where she found a great great great grandmother, Harriet Skeete, brought here in indentured servitude from Barbados.
Harriet had four sons with the owner of her indentureship, who sold her and the boys illegally to cover his debts during the Civil War.
Her eldest escaped north, becoming a valet to the Union army. He never saw his family again, but started one of his own, laying down the roots of a tree.
A tree that she and her cousin Wanda Durant, The Real MVP, and mother of Kevin Durant, flowered from. Durant joined her cousin in researching, visiting the Embassy of Barbados with her in D.C.
The story was so rich that Dr. Aultmon and her daughter, Janese Hemby, have turned it into a children’s book, "The Adventures of Little Zaria: Our Family, Our History, Our Story.”
A captivating story, it reminds us of how important family is, and how knowing where you come from can help you get to where you’re trying to go.
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