2,500

Female 35

Male 34

Male 17

Male 15

Female 13

Female 11

Female  9

Male  7

Above is the list from the 1850 Slave Schedule of members of one of the many families enslaved by my ancestral family.

Following the tentacles of slavery that reach down through the generations, I wonder how many descendants from this ONE family might be walking the same earth as me – today, now, in this moment.

I consult AI and get an estimate of 2,500. 

Now I have a real number. 

I and those 2,500 people have a shared link to a single person, my 4th great-grandmother, and a piece of land near Leesburg, Loudon County, Virginia. I wonder where they are, today.

Because there are no names on Slave Schedules or family records (that I've found), locating any of these descendants is nigh impossible. So I am left to wonder.

Are some in Loudon County -- still living near the home of their enslaved ancestors?

Do some live in the "North" -- a result of their parents or grandparents moving during the Great Migration in the 1900s?

Did some travel west in search of work or adventure? 

Perhaps some live in Denver, like me. Perhaps I have passed them on the street, or spoken to them at the grocery store.

Perhaps our lives are intertwined even more than I know.

I wonder.