Georgia farmer Stacie Marshall was cleaning out her family's house when she found an 1860 Census document that confirmed an unwanted discovery: Her ancestor owned seven slaves.
'It took on a different meaning because I was going through their jewelry and their clothes,' Marshall, 41, told The New York Times. 'I was like, this is mine now. The family story is mine. Am I going to stick this in a drawer and forget about it?'
Marshall is now grappling with a complicated and difficult question: Is there anything she can do to rectify the fact that her family once owned slaves?
'I don't have a lot of money, but I have property,' the former Miss Chattooga County told the publication. 'How am I going to use that for the greater good, and not in like a paying-penance sort of way but in an it's-just-the-right-thing-to-do kind of way?'
Marshall's dilemma mirrors a national debate that has brewed for decades over reparations for African Americans who are the descendants of slaves. A longtime bill that 'would create a commission to study slavery and discrimination' and restitution proposals may be given a vote in the U.S. House of Representatives, NBC News reported in May.
'She is deep in Confederate country trying to do this work,' Matthew Raiford, a chef and organic farmer who has visited Marshall's land, told the Times.
While Marshall's great-great-great grandfather owned slaves, Raiford's great-great-great grandfather was a former slave. His ancestor bought the land that is Raiford's operation, Gilliard Farms, according to the chef's website.
Raiford told the Times that if Marshall did work out an answer, Chattooga County could be a template for small communities all over the South.
Stacie Marshall, center, with her husband, Jeremy, and their three daughters from left, Selah, 10, Grace, 7, and Addison, 13, on their property in Chattooga County, Georgia. Marshall's great-great-great grandfather, W.D. Scoggins, owned seven slaves. The former beauty queen is grappling with a complicated and difficult question: Is there anything she can do to rectify the fact that her family once owned slaves?
According to the article, Marshall, above, had an idea that her family once owned slaves, but 'the history hit her in a visceral way' after the birth of her first daughter 12 years ago and nursing struggles. Her grandfather, Fred Scoggins told her 'your great-great-great grandmother couldn't produce milk, either. So they had to buy a slave', she recalled to the Times
'Mountain Mama Farms is located on the property of the Scoggins' Family Farm in Gore, Ga, 10 miles north of the Berry College campus. The Scoggins family has farmed the Dirt Town Valley for close to 200 hundred years and the farm is partly stewarded by the fifth-generation granddaughter of the Scoggins family,' according to the operation's website. Above, Angus cattle on Marshall's farm
Matthew Raiford , left, is an organic farmer and well-respected chef who has been a James Beard semi-finalist in the Best Chef in the Southeast category, according to his website. 'His great-great-great grandfather, a former South Carolina slave, purchased and assembled the lands that became Gilliard Farms, just west of Brunswick, Georgia, more than 150 years ago,' according to the site. Above, Raiford and Marshall cooking together after he visited her farm
During her childhood, Marshall had an idea that her family once owned slaves. According to the article, this 'hit her in a visceral way' after the birth of her first daughter 12 years ago and nursing struggles. Her grandfather, Fred Scoggins told her 'your great-great-great grandmother couldn't produce milk, either. So they had to buy a slave', she recalled to The Times.
Then, her mother-in-law showed her documents about five years ago that confirmed her family owned slaves.
'I felt like I needed a shot of whiskey,' she told the publication.
Later, Marshall found one of those records: a county slave schedule. 'Seven people were listed under the name W.D. Scoggins, her great-great-great-grandfather, identified only by their ages, genders and race. Her family had owned two men and one woman, all in their 30s, and four children. The youngest was 5 ½ months old,' according to the article.
Nancy and Gene Kirby, above, live across from Marshall's farm. Their family histories are tied together and
