Island Richards

Of my multiple lines of ancestry, the earliest to arrive in the United States was my Great Great Grandpa Dixon, who came in the early 1890’s. When he came here to seek his fame and fortune, he left his wife and son back in Scotland, intending to return for them when he was settled. Before he did, though, he was murdered, leaving his wife a widow, and his son an orphan. Times were different then. Orphans like my Great Grandpa Dixon were taken from their mothers by the Church, and in his case, put to indentured service in the church owned mines untill he was an adult.

In another ancestral line, my Great Grandpa Zorko, came from Czechlslavakia. At age five, along with other brothers and sisters, he was kicked out of his fathers home by his new stepmother. He spent his childhood working for a farmer tending fields and livestock in exchange for him and his brother being allowed to sleep in the farmers barn and eat the farmers leftovers. At age twelve, he was forced to sneak across the German border every day to work in the coal mines. When wars came, at least two of his brothers were taken from their homes and forced into service of the Russian army. Neither ever returned. At 19, with nothing but the clothes on his back, he came to America, via Ellis Island. After bringing his wife-to-be over from the old country two years later, he crossed the United States by wagon, and then spent the rest of his life working in dangerous coal mines for next to nothing wages. There are very few pictures of him and his wife, but in every photo I can see the harshness of their lives. There is never a smile.

These people kept no slaves. They were never, in their lives, responsible for any kind of slavery. In fact, they, in their own way, were slaves at some points in their lives. The only difference is, the color of my Great Grandfathers skin didn’t betray his history of indentured servitude.

Should the descendents of Great Grandpa Zorko and Great Great Grandpa Dixon have to apologize for slavery? I don’t think so. The past is about lessons, not retribution. It should be learned from, not dwelled upon. Seventy-five or even fifty years ago, when former slaves and former slave owners were still living, an apology from the latter would have been fitting, but that is no longer the case. The sinners have all died.

It is now time for us to use the lessons of the past to assure our children that they have a wonderful future. However, we cannot give them that future if we forever hold them accountable for the sins of their ancestors.

-Wisdom