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6A NEWSATde Charlotte $os(t Thursday, February 8, 2007 Slaves’road to freedom I www.thecharlottepost.com paved with dangers Continued from page 1A Butler discovered Claiborne five years into a heart-wrenching, ultimately inspiring journey through the family tree. Light research in his Solon home mushroomed into public records requests, road trips and dramas of the imagina tion. He walked on a Virginia farm where his kin labored as slaves, struck up rela tionships with ancestors of his ancestors' owners, and pieced together a family history. Now he can say things like, "Slaves were taxable property" and "So that’s how my people got to Mississippi" and “1 tell my kids, ‘You’re living now, you’re breathing now, because he ran away and he got away.”' In an age when genealogy is high science, and Oprah Winfrey has her DNA ana lyzed to trace her African roots for television spe cials, Butler embodies old school sleuthing. He may yet turn to genet ic testing to confirm the family’s oral history, that his ancestors hail from Guinea, West Africa. But sci ence and Internet searches provide only hints at the human tale. To reveal the story between the genetic markers. Butler cracked open deed books in court houses throughout the South, met distant kin and read tombstones in forgot ten cemeteries. Often, on a hunch, he turned up an unexpected path or tangent, suspecting something amazing ahead. Eventually, he traced 238 years of a Claiborne in the family. "You can’t really appreci ate it until you get into it,” he said. '' This has taken me on a phenomenal adventure.” Butler, 47, has no training as an historian. His masters degree from Kent State University is in internation al business. But he does possess qualities of the explorer. He’s a trim, athletic-look ing man who exhibits fre quent bursts of energetic curiosity. Describing an episode from the family odyssey, he will leap from his chair to fetch a map, or a tax bill, or a diary entry that may illuminate a detail. He was a marketing man ager for Johnson & Johnson when he quit to launch Butler Transportation, a van service he first envisioned as an undergraduate at the University of Cincinnati. It made him enough money to pursue a . time-consuming hobby. On that drive across the Virginia piedmont two sum mers ago, Butler already knew a lot about the first African American in the family. Claiborne came on a slave GREATER SALEM CITVWGOD CELEBJIATES FEBRUARY 4-25, 2007 t-r.BKUARY 4, 2«0? FaHCK AtuIkw Lodiiutft FEBRUARY 8,2007 PaMiw Mietsael FEBRUARY 16, 2007 Usuen F*f« FEBRUARY 18, 2007 t, FEBRUARY 18,2007 5, 'Or. DcRsia FEBRUARY 22,2007 th. FEBRUARY 7.2007 Ri; FItBRUARY n, 2007 AfKittfe CNu FEBRUARY 15,2007 IHsywood Psrkee FEBRUARY 18,2007 n, FERRliARY21,2007 FEBRUARY 25,2007 KEZIAH’s FURNITURE BEAUTIFUL HOMES BEGIN WITH US New Yearns Sale Elegant Table & 6 Chair or China Cabinet NOW $786.” Reg, $1,099'- Beautiful Table wii )i Hand inland pattern tabii- with 6 Ele^iiiii upholstered tli.iii'N Mattress Sale Twin Set $S3 • Full Set $97 Queen Set $118 Open Seven Days A Week Financing Available 8004 Blair Rd. (Highway 51) Mint Hiii 704573.6150 ship in the late 1760s, about the time of Kunta Kinte, Alex Haley’s slave ancestor immortalized in "Roots.” He was maybe 13. He escaped from Brett Randolph’s plantation in Cumberland County on New Years Day 1771, prob ably making for Richmond, 60 miles east. For when Butler found him 11 years later, he was living north of Richmond with an Englishman and his house- servant, a slave named Violet. The slave who ran with Claiborne was caught and killed. Butler speculates that the Englishman took in his ancestor and agreed not to expose him in exchange for his servitude. He also believes there was something special about the name Claiborne, a con nection to Africa, for it never died. Claiborne and Violet named their firstborn Claiborne. He was sold as a young man to a neighbor, Thomas Tinsley. In 2004, Butler drove down to the former Tinsley plantation, now a prosper ous farm, and met the great-great-great-grand daughter of his ancestor's owner in her 1810 house. Maria Rippe, 65, was chilly at first, skeptical of his motives. But over time, she began to talk to him and to help him. "She was as curious about the history as I was,” Butler said. Relationships. All lasting relationships are built on trust- trust that is earned overtime and maintained through hard work and commitment. At First Citizens, the foundation of every relationship is trust. First Qtizens Bank We value relationships. firstcitizens.com 1.88S.FC DIRECT PRIDE IN AMERICA ]2 iiioiiilix same as cash (OAC} • Utr (Hve Our Customers The Best Price! :2006 CHARLOTTE BUSINESSWOMAN Of The Year Queens University of Charlotte and Wachovia are pleased to invite you to the 2006 CHARLOTTE BUSINESSWOMAN OF THE YEAR AWARDS LUNCHEON, Wednesday, March 14, 2007 from 1 2:30 to 2pm, at Queens University of Charlotte, Award History The Charlotte Businesswoman of the Year Award, presented annually, was established in 1986 to honor the achievements of exceptional businesswomen in the for-profit sector based on their contributions to the business, avic and cultural conmunities in the Charlotte region. A ward Recognition n celebrating and recognizing the accorrplishments of the finalists for the 2006 Charlotte Businesswoman of the Year Award and congratulate the award recipient Catherine! P. Bessant A 2006 Finalists IncMe: 1 Shetr4!LOeMao DeeDImn Alisa A. McDonald Lou M. Solomon BS!^ of Amerha SLD Unlimited ti^Sfketing/PR, Inc. Prida Communiostiona ^ Doke Eneigy Corporatbn Intersot Skil^ LLC- Innovative insights Keynote speaker will be Dr. Betty Spence, a well-known expert on women in business, who currently serves as president of the National Association for Female Executives, the largest women's professional and business-owners assoaation in the countiy. A former writer for fine LosAngdes Times and The Christian Sdence Monitor, Dr. Spence is a former professor of women's studies and holds a Ph D in English lit erature She recently created a nonprofit organization called Equal Voice to challenge the stereotypes about women leaders and move more women into elected office through nonpartisan, educational events. Make Reservations Now To make reservations, please contact Laura Miller at 704 683-2706 or email bwoy@queens.edu. Reseivations can also be made online at ^ www.queens.edu/bwoy. FYoceeds help fund the Charlotte Businesswoman of the Year Schdarship at Queens University of Charlotte '• 'VaCHOVIA. yj c^JEENS UNiyrRsrrY I OPaiARLOTTE
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