In the beginning… God created man in his own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female he created them.  Then God blessed them and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it.  (Genesis 1:27-28) The man and woman God created were fruitful and multiplied and as time passed, there were “many” and… “the whole world had one language and a common speech.”  (Genesis 11:1)   However, “the LORD confused the language of the whole world. From there the LORD scattered them over the face of the whole earth.”  (Genesis 11:9).  Our family line eventually settled in what is known today as the continent of Africa.   

 

 Time passed and then…

 

Who are we looking for, who are we looking for?

Has he gone to the stream? Let him come back. 

Has he gone to the farm? Let him return.

It's Equiano we're looking for.

It's Equiano we're looking for.

- Kwa chant about the disappearance of an 11-year-old African boy,

Olaudah Equiano, who was kidnapped in 1755 from his home in what is 

now Nigeria.  He was sold into slavery.

 

Our Family also had its “Equiano” experience.  This cry for a missing loved one would be heard throughout Central Africa, as  10 to 12 million Africans were snatched from their families to be sold and traded into slavery.  Our African ancestors also experienced the pain and sorrow of having loved ones kidnapped, sold and traded for rum, cloth, guns and other goods.  Our people, who were ripped from their homeland, traded and sold, got their first taste of what lay ahead in the New World:  as  human cargo,  they were forced to suffer deplorable and barbaric conditions as they crossed the Atlantic Ocean in cramped, disease-ridden slave ships.  Amazingly they survived the journey – many did not – only to be sold to live as chattel slaves and to work the crops of the New World slave owners.

 

Our family’s “Equiano” landed in the United States shackled, half-starved, sick and weak.  Yet, “despite” the hardships and the “storms of life” that lay ahead in this new land…with meager beginnings…our people not only survived, they thrived – they grew vigorously and healthily and, in time, they prospered.  And they did this clothed in honor and dignity.  How?  Why?  Because throughout our history in America, despite being “tossed by the waves and the currents that seem so fierce,” the soul of our family has been “anchored in the Lord.”

 

 

The billows may roll, the breakers may dash

I will not stray because He holds me fast

So dark the day, clouds in the sky

I know it's all right 'cause my Jesus is nigh

 

And my soul -

My soul, my soul, my soul

My soul's been anchored…

 

You push me down but Jesus picks me up

He sticks right by me when the going gets tough

 

And My soul's been anchored

My soul's been anchored…

My, my, my, my,

My soul has been anchored in the Lord.

Excerpt from the Song Lyrics:

“My Soul Is Anchored in the Lord” – Douglas Miller

 

Our family’s strong spirit to survive and faith in God has been passed down from 

generation to generation. We come from a long line of “survivors” – a strong, determined people who remained alive “despite” being exposed to life-threatening danger…a people who showed a great will to live and  a great determination to overcome difficulties and carry on…”despite.”  In the face of adversity, they “girded their loins” – prepared themselves to do what was difficult and challenging – and today WE ARE HERE!  We come from a long line of people who dared greatly and because of them, WE ARE HERE! Slavery stripped us of much of our history – we don’t know our ancestral name, our country, our tribe, nor our traditions.  We lost the stories of our history that was traditionally passed from generation to generation by our family’s “griot” – our West African historian, storyteller, praise singer, poet and/or musician.

 

Once In America, slavery continued to have devastating effects on our “Equianos”

and on our family.  A large gap is missing in our family’s history – not only names but people.  Much of who we were has been lost to us forever.  All except… the blood.  The blood of our African ancestors and those “survivors” who endured and got us here…runs through each of our veins.  And in honor of this legacy and in their spirit to survive, that will to SURVIVE, THRIVE AND PROSPER with dignity and honor has been passed on from generation to generation.

 

 

"Weeping may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the morning."

Psalm 30:5

 

Which takes us to Tillatoba - a small town (1.0 square mile) in Yalobusha County,

Mississippi.  After Emancipation, the names, Henry and Celia Garner emerged, marking the beginning of our family line.  Henry Garner was born in January,1848 and Celia was born in March,1847.  The 1900 Census listed Henry’s mother and father’s birthplace as “Alabama.”  Celia’s parents’ birthplace was listed as “Mississippi”  – their names are unknown.  At the time of this writing, no other history could be found for Henry and Celia.  Henry and Celia were both born in Mississippi.  Although born into slavery, they lived to experience “freedom.” Passed by Congress on January 31, 1865, and ratified on December 6, 1865, the 13th amendment abolished slavery in the United States and Henry and Celia were declared “free.”

 

“Free at last!  Free at last! Thank God Almighty, we are free at last!”

- (Martin Luther King)

 

Henry and Celia were united in marriage in 1871.   Rooted in Tillatoba, Mississippi, 

that’s where they remained.  Henry, a farmer, and Celia, a housekeeper, lived in a rented home.  They could neither read or write.  However, they were fruitful and multiplied.  The 1900 Census listed Celia as being the mother of 16 children – 12 of which were living at the time of the Census.   At the time of this writing, the names of only 11 children are known. “Born Free” were Sallie, John, Della, William, George, Tom, Gus, Eugene, Irene, Lee, and Lamar.  They too were fruitful and today, their descendants are “scattered over the face of the earth.”  They have been traced to over 20 states and Japan.

 

Henry and Celia would be proud to know, their descendants became farmers,  

landowners, homeowners, business owners, community leaders, skilled laborers, 

preachers, educators, nurses, high school and college graduates, military personnel, accountants, executives, businessmen and women, artists, writers, builders, craftsmen, technicians, social workers, world travelers, and much more.  And, at this writing, the sixth generation of Garners has entered this world.