A year of so when I first started Destination Peach, I did a blog post titled Southern Peach. In the post, I mentioned that I would talk about my family heritage. Specifically, what that experience was like when visiting Birmingham, Alabama. And now I’m finally ready to talk about it!
When my family originally visited Birmingham, it was for the funeral of my great aunt Mary on my mom’s side. However, the Birmingham visit turned into an endless road trip (shout to my uncle Keith). Alright, let me get back on track. When we were in Birmingham, I came up with the idea to track our historical roots. Tracking our historical roots, led us to the Doyle plantation. Doyle is my mother’s maiden name. While in Birmingham I started asking the elders about the Doyle plantation, and they gave specific instructions on how to get there.
Now my family was looking at me like I was bat-shit crazy. I was asked multiple times…why should we know about our history and the Doyle plantation? I had to remind my family that, we need to know where we come from and understand how our ancestors fought for us to be here. As a consensus, everyone said… “we feel you Peach, let’s go find the Doyle plantation”. With my plans in action I was excited and extremely nervous.
The day we set off to find the plantation, we started the adventure early. Starting the adventure early was key because we didn’t want to be in the backwoods of Birmingham at night. Like going to the club, we rolled out deep. Five trucks riding through the backwoods of Birmingham. On our way to the plantation we got lost several times, GPS stopped working. Everyone wanted to turn around.
In my mind…I was like, ” we came to far to turn around”. So, I started to ask people living in the area for help. I literally got out of the car, and knocked on the homes of people who had their confederate flags waving high. One home in particular, I was extremely nervous to knock on the door. I asked my family to stay in the cars, because a group of Black people knocking on doors wasn’t the scene we needed at the moment. As I knocked on the door, a man came out.
The man said: Can I help you?
Me: Yes sir.
Man: What do you want?
Me: I am looking for the Doyle plantation, its where my family is from. I’m not from here.
Man: Where are you from?
Me: Colorado.
Man: Where all the weed is?
Me: Yes!
Man: I would sure love to visit Colorado, I can smoke all the weed I want.
Me: Colorado is a lovely place.
Me: Sir do you know how to get to the Doyle plantation?
Man: Sure, let me help you…and I want you to meet my family.
Me: Absolutely!
Man: Hey y’all…she’s from Colorado.
As the man started to give me the instructions to the Doyle plantation he reiterated that we needed to be careful because we could randomly end up in swamp water. After 40 minutes, we finally found the plantation. Once we arrived at the plantation, it was the most interesting experience ever. I didn’t know how to feel. This was the land my people were slaves on. While observing the plantation, the family that now owns the property came out to speak. The family insisted that it wasn’t a plantation. In my mind, “I was like… so ma’am your just gonna act like this isn’t a plantation with all these cotton crops around…okay!”
From the original pictures and instructions this was the Doyle plantation. The new owners spruced up the plantation, to make it not seem like a plantation. Intuitively, I knew it was the Doyle plantation.
As we spent an hour at the plantation, I knew my family was forever changed. After the experience, I later found out that my grandfather was named after the slave master. And the story of what happened to my great-grand father is still to be determined. Learning that slavery was not that far removed from my family, gave me the motivation I needed to keep going. My next genealogy quest is to track the indigenous roots of my grandmother Essie Mae.
Knowing who you are and where you come from is powerful liberation!
Until next time…
-Peach
