Legacies of Slavery Shared History and Family Conversations with Myra DavisBranic, Frye Gaillard, and Kern Jackson

<P><I><B>Documents conversations between two southern writers and friends whose families were intertwined in slavery</B></I></P><P><I>Legacies of Slavery</I> commemorates a story of racial reconciliation in the South. Writers, educators, and friends Frye Gaillard and Myra Davis-Branic discovered a shared family history of slavery in Eutawville, South Carolina, where Davis-Branic's family was enslaved by Gaillard's family.</P><P>In 2024, the University of South Alabama's Kern Jackson moderated three conversations with Davis-Branic and Gaillard in Mobile. These conversations are presented here in an edited format. Davis-Branic and Gaillard discussed their intertwined family history and what they each learned from research into their ancestors. They relay origin stories and the role of a key grandparent who greatly impacted their lives. They also talk about their own trajectories in a historical context, the issue of slavery in their families, and the legacy of slavery for their children and families. </P><P>The book concludes with short excerpts, one from Davis-Branic's book <I>Cornbread My Soul: The Davis Family of Eutawville, South Carolina</I>, and one from Gaillard's family history, <I>Lessons from the Big House: One Family's Passage through the History of the South, a Memoir</I>. <I>Legacies of Slavery</I> stands as a powerful and unique documentation for all who are interested in how two southern families, bound by slavery in the past and now by friendship and a degree of understanding, have found some measure of redemption.<br> </P>