Stephan,
I know I am working on that (smile).

Anita 


-- "Stephan A. Schwartz" <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
Anita --

There are always people who are not in the mainstream. I am sure many  
people on this list would say they they were not fully mainstream. In  
an age of anti-intellectualism, just spending time on such an ongoing  
conversation is not mainstream, although the use of the computer is.  
People then or now are not one cohort just as, as individuals, they  
are not consistently of one mind, or response. In fact, we make note  
of the rare individuals who are — for good or ill.

You family has a wonderful heroic narrative. Under oppressive  
circumstances they persevered and won through. We need to celebrate  
these stories more in fierce joy than angry, I think.

-- Stephan

p.s. As a joyous story of triumph it would make a wonderful multi- 
generational novel.


On 9 May 2008, at 22:33, Anita Wills wrote:

> However, the genius people of color, was limited due to the  
> oppressive system they lived under. One of my ancestor, Charles  
> Lewis, was a Mulatto born free in King George County about 1750. He  
> and his brother were Seamen and soldiers during the Revolutionary  
> War. After the War, Charles Lewis settled in Richmond, where he was  
> a prominent Businessman. His business dealings were in Rocket ts  
> Landing, where he also owned land. I believe he was a genius who  
> was able, in spite of the times, to acquire vast holdings. Often  
> the genius of People of Color, was in surviving, in spite of the  
> system. I have found documents where he freed slaves, and even  
> freed a slave, who married his brother Ambrose. I also believe the  
> white Lewis family were responsible to some degree in his success.  
> They did acknowledge him as much as they could, and he is even  
> listed in the Lewis Family Pioneers book.
>
> So there were whites who did not strictly follow the racist  
> policies of the time.
>
> Anita
>
>
>
>
> -- "Stephan A. Schwartz" <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> Anita --
>
> While I am deeply empathic to the plight of those who were oppressed,
> history tells us clearly that genius appears in the most unlikely
> places, and that these individuals, regardless of their
> circumstances, arc across the human narrative like comets,
> enlightening the lives of everyone. I can't seem to find the paper —
> probably lost in the transfer from one generation of computers to
> another, and I can no longer remember the journal in which it was
> published — but about 30 years ago, prompted by a conversation I had
> with an extraordinary materials scientist, then on the faculty of
> Hampton Institute, I wrote a paper on genius that arose from the
> American slave population, and in the years immediately after wards.
> Obvious examples are Frederick Douglas, and Booker T. Washington
> (born in Hales Ford, Virginia in April 1856), but the list is much
> longer.  There are also many accounts of slaves who were considered
> brilliant technical craftsmen. I particularly remember the story of a
> slave in Louisiana, who became an early expert in optics.
>
> -- Stephan
>
>
> On 9 May 2008, at 18:38, Anita Wills wrote:
>
>> It is much easier to be considered a genius when you have the time
>> to sit and think. It would have been extremely difficult for
>> Natives and African slaves to produce geniuses during that time
>> period.
>
>
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