Everyone wants to know where they come from. But for most African Americans, it’s an origin story riddled with violence and oppression.

Nkrumah Steward is the descendant of slaves, and Robert Adams is the descendant of slave owners. Both men are also cousins. Steward recently visited the South Carolina plantation where his ancestors were kept 181 years ago.

He recounted his experience and shared it on Facebook.

Tonight my family and I were dinner guests at Wavering Place, an old plantation founded in 1768 near Hopkins, South Carolina where four generations of my grandmothers lived and worked as slaves when they were emancipated in 1865.
The reason I was there tonight was because 181 years ago, in 1835, Joel Robert Adams and my 4th great grandmother, one of his slaves, Sarah Jones Adams had a daughter, Louisa.
Louisa had Octavia. Octavia had James. James had my grandfather JD.
JD had my mother Linda.
And now 181 years later, after almost two centuries, my mother and father, my two sons, my wife and myself sat down in that very house and broke bread with the descendant of those who owned members of my family.
We are cousins by blood.
And tonight we took the first steps together towards also becoming friends.
‪#‎WaveringPlace‬ ‪#‎Family‬ ‪#‎Friends‬

Slave_Plantation — Photo: Nkrumah Steward

Steward approached the meeting with an open heart. He wanted to build a bridge and heal the wounds of the past. Here he is standing on the property his ancestors built, but it’s not his. Instead, Adams and his wife have maintained Wavering Place as it’s still a source of their family’s income.

Adams explained, “Our history is a shared one, and we celebrate our family connection. There’s a dark part of that history that was an unfortunate part of our nation’s past, but we don’t let that keep us from moving forward and getting to know family members.”

Since the story broke, it’s become a hot topic on social media, especially in ABC’s mentions on Twitter.

@ABC baby please. The root cause of a segment of racial wealth inequality in a nutshell #Reparations

— Ms. Wright (@msonemic) July 5, 2016

@ABC Proof that whites still benefit from slavery today.

— jaiye. (@Jaiye_Elle) July 5, 2016

Not everybody’s down for a kumbaya moment.

@ABC Bad optics to stand there smiling on a plantation where your family members were held as slaves with the descendants of their owners

— Jason Jones (@ColoredSpaces) July 5, 2016

@ABC pic.twitter.com/ZHJlZ5cKjc

— ☕️Tea Lizard (@lawren_notloren) July 6, 2016

Questions that need answers…

@ABC Did they offer them reparations?

— Carmen Goodman (@carmen_goodman) July 5, 2016

@ABC Only reason for me to go to the plantation my ancestors worked on is to pick up a check. 😒

— Ashley (@adubs80) July 5, 2016

@zachery_awesome Those people really need to slide them some change. It’d be different if the plantation’s ownership had changed hands…

— Ashley (@adubs80) July 5, 2016

And some people just aren’t interested.

@ABC nope. Not today satan. pic.twitter.com/96kRQSdpde

— Schae (@SchaeItAintSo_) July 5, 2016

@ABC pic.twitter.com/owtmxdcnRM

— Dominique (@pyt2019) July 6, 2016

@MC_Brooks they are catching generations worth of hands. I don’t want to meet those people. At. All.

— miss purdy. (@vivrantxsoul) July 5, 2016

What would you do? Could you leave the past in the past?

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