My story began when I was in the seventh grade. While flipping through my social studies textbook I spotted a photograph of four former slaves, entitled “Black Tennesseans.” For some reason I kept being drawn to the photo and would look at it each time I went to class. Soon afterwards my grandmother told me that the two people seated in the photograph were her paternal grandparents, Emanuel and Henny Washington, who were enslaved on Wessyngton Plantation. That discovery led me on a thirty year journey of researching my family and all the others connected to the plantation.
Tags: Ancestors, Emanuel Washington, George Augustine Washington, Henny Washington, John Baker, Social Studies, The Washingtons of Wessyngton Plantation, Your Tennessee