Finding my roots

January 29, 2024

My youngest granddaughter is named Haley. Her mother was in Tennessee’s MBA program and went with me to visit Alex Haley – a fellow University of Tennessee faculty member – at his farm in Norris, Tennessee. She had read Roots and meeting Alex had such an impression on her that she named her daughter “Haley”.  Roots was a sensation and spawned a TV mini series in 1977. To recap, Roots told the story of Kunta Kinte an African youth sold into slavery and his descendants leading to Haley himself. The actor Levar Burton played Kinte. I loved Alex but found it hard to believe that he had found his African roots.

For several years I served on the board of the East Tennessee Historical Society. I enjoyed my being on the board despite being the only one not from Tennessee or East Tennessee in particular. I love the rich history of the region learning about the contributions of blacks to country music, the mystery of the Melungeons and in particular the strong alliance to the Union during the Civil War. One of my dearest friends is kin to the famous Carter family and told me how Lesley Riddle traveled with A.P. Carter around the region composing songs and teaching Maybelle his fingerpicking guitar style. There were other influential but soon to be forgotten blacks such as Gus Cannon and Rufus Payne. In more modern times, singers like the Carolina Chocolate Drops have carried on the tradition of black country music.

However, I still felt like an outsider especially when the Society launched its First Families of Tennessee initiative which records the descendants of the first white families that came across the mountains from North Carolina to settle in the region. Still it is a fascinating history of strength and perseverance. I recommend highly Drury and Clavin’s Blood and Treasure, a wonderful book about Daniel Boone. Members of the Society’s board of directors then traced back to their immigrant ancestor, the first in their family to step foot in America. I am not envious of other people except in this one instance. One of my best friend’s ancestors immigrated from Sweden. He and his family every so often would visit his Swedish relatives and showed me a picture of the family cemetery where is buried the great great grandfather with the same name. I knew that the likelihood of my finding my ancestral African forebearers was almost zero. Slaves did not have last names. There was no records of births and parentage. So despite my love for Alex Haley, I looked upon Roots and entertainment rather than historical fact.

In the television series “Finding Your Roots” hosted by the esteemed historian Henry Louis Gates, Jr., LeVar Burton (Haley’s Kunte Kinte) is shocked when Gates reveals that Burton’s great great grandfather was a Confederate soldier. Personally, I was surprised that he was surprised. We black folk did not get this color by accident. I would guess that the majority of black Americans have white ancestors and many of them are descendants of Confederates.

The Society also has the Civil War Families of Tennessee which includes the descendants of Civil War soldiers, both north and south. Obviously, being from Georgia, I am excluded from this group but I am, like LeVar Burton, a direct descendant of a Civil War soldier – no not one of the 200,000 blacks who wore blue, but a confederate sergeant who served in the 6^th Georgia.

My maternal great grandfather Seth Towles was a sergeant in the 6th Georgia. Ironically, he never owned slaves but his sister was married to a Jarrell and lived on the Jarrell Plantation in Jones County, GA where Seth had a son Milous Towles with one of the cooks. My mother told me that Seth never disowned his black son and visited him every other Sunday for dinner at (Pop) Milous’ home. Mom said that he would load his black grandchildren in a wagon and take them to town in Macon to buy them things. All this while having a white family (he married after Milous was born). Because of this I don’t harbor any ill will toward my great great grandfather Seth. 

Seth is buried in a Confederate cemetery in Atlanta, less than a mile from my parents’ house at the site of the Battle of Ezra Church. Seth fought in that battle and wanted to be buried with his buddies who were killed and interred there. My son and nephew paid Seth a visit to update him on the progress made by his black descendants.

Because of Seth I was able to trace back to my immigrant ancestor Henry Towles born in Liverpool, England in 1651 who died in Accomack County VA in 1721. I discovered that I also have a Towles who fought in the Revolutionary War and one who served in the War of 1812. I guess I qualify to be a member of the National Sons of the American Revolution. I also qualify to join the Sons of the Confederate Veterans – but I’ll pass.