[silence] Woman 1: Now... Well, what do you call a thousand lawyers at the bottom of the ocean?

A good start.

Everyone told me law school was gonna be a challenge, law school was gonna be difficult, but I never really...

I re-- never really struggled before this and so I, I felt like, oh, law school will be more work than I’m used to but it won't be that bad.

Um, and I’m realizing that it might be-- that there really is a lot of work to be done.

I would say there's a lot of self-doubt.

I question whether or not I’ll be able to, to not, not just finish, but to, to finish well, to, to get the skills that I need in order to be a successful practitioner.

♪♪ Lise: Danielle Jones, a 25-year-old law student from Clifton, Virginia, is one year away from graduation and is feeling a bit overwhelmed by the upcoming challenges that she'll encounter as a Black female lawyer.

She senses there'll be societal barriers that she'll have to overcome in order to be successful in a world still primarily dominated by white men.

With these challenges in mind, Danielle recently learned that she has an ancestor who was an inventor at a time in history when societal standards would have made this accomplishment a formidable one, if not altogether impossible.

♪♪ Danielle: So I went online and looked around a little bit and I found this list of famous Black inventors and his name was on there.

It was Lincoln Freemont Brown, inventor of the bridle bit, and I was like, Wait, that's my ancestor right there.

That's him.

I think that Lincoln is important to me in terms of finding a source of strength because he was successful in a time period when he should not have been and I’m kind of curious as to how that was possible.

Like, I didn't know that they let Black men hold patents in the 19th century.

He must have come from a line of a people of remarkable ability and of remarkable strength.

I think Lincoln's ability to be successful a hundred years ago will help me now because both of us ha-have faced similar cultural pressures.

No one really expected anything of him and I feel like society doesn't really think that I can do very much, and so I think his ability to overcome those obstacles will give me an opportunity to overcome the obstacles in this time.

Lise: We all stand on the shoulders of our ancestors.

It's their lives and accomplishments that have paved the way for us, but as we learn about them we begin to see how our own lives and our unique contributions can pave the way for future generations.

From the studios of BYU Television in Provo, Utah, this is The Generations Project.

♪♪ Hi everyone, I’m Lise Simms, and each week on our program we bring you the story of someone who, for one reason or another, wants to connect with an ancestor, or an entire generation of their family tree and we help them do just that.

We're an ongoing project connecting people across generations and today that person is Danielle Jones.

Hi Danielle.

- Hi.

- I’m fascinated by this concept of this.

You're anticipating overcoming societal hurdles.

So what are you talking about when you say that?

- Um, well I think a lot of them have to do with me being a woman and then a lot of them have to do with me being a Black woman-- Lise: Sure.

- --and so, um, as a woman I feel like a lot of people expect you to either be, like, sweet and docile and just like, oh, I mean, we're on opposing sides but oh, sure, I’ll do whatever you want but... Lise: You mean in law specifically.

That's interesting.

- Yeah, yeah, in the legal profession.

And then there's always the people who are like, you're gonna be a barracuda because you're a woman and so you have to act like a man and, and be really aggressive and so I feel like there's always that attempt to find that balance between the two, being, you know, being true to yourself as a woman but also, um, being part of the legal profession and not losing that sense of femininity and your humanity.

- I love that.

I love that-- so, this has already come up even in your schooling process you, you see this.

Danielle: Yeah, a lot.

- Really?

Is it through other students, is it through professors, is it through working in the field somehow?

Danielle: Um, well, I think that professors definitely have a perception of their, their female students as opposed to their male students, and they-- Lise: And what would that perception be, do you think?

Danielle: I think that they expect more from their male students.

Like, not that they actually think that the male students are more intelligent but they expect them to be more outspoken in class, more participatory, whereas they expect us to be better writers and just like more kind of in the background of the law school.

Lise: Well and I think there's actually been studies done that sort of have proven that to be true in some ways.

Danielle: Yeah.

- Um, have you been able to hold on to your femininity do you think?

- I think so, yeah.

Lise: Yeah, has this come up in, um, outside of school?

Danielle: Um.

- Or is it really more directly related to law?

- I think that there's gen-general societal prejudices against women and when people-- when I tell people that I’m going to law school or, like, that I’m getting an advanced degree or that I’ve graduated from my undergrad, they're like, Really?

Lise: [gasps] - Really?

Like, you're going to law school?

And a lot of times it's like really, that's so cool but sometimes it's like are you sure you wanna do that?

Like, law?

I mean, that's, that's a lot of school and I’m like, should I... what, what do you mean by that?

Like, yes, it's three years.

- Well, you said, beautifully you said, I didn't think it would-- you always did well in school.

Danielle: Yeah.

- You didn't think it would be that hard and then so cute in this first segment where you say come to find out, [chuckles] it's a lot.

- It is a lot of work.

- Yeah, but you're up for it it looks like.

- Yeah, no, I-I, I think it's been-- it's been really good.

Lise: What drew you to law?

Was there someone in your family or in your life that inspired you?

Danielle: Well my uncle's actually a lawyer and my cousin's actually a lawyer so it was kind of like a, a little bit of family history but, um, I think I was really argumentative as a child-- Lise: Really?

- --and my parents were always like yeah, you should go to law school.

Both: [laugh] Lise: Well, then they set you on the right path.

- Yeah, definitely.

- Well the whole idea of your journey is to connect with a relative that you've discovered, Lincoln, who did something amazing.

What did Lincoln do?

Danielle: He invented the bridle bit.

Lise: And you were floored when you heard this?

- Completely astonished.

My sister told me and I was just like what?

I didn't-- I really had no idea, like, what I was gonna get 'cause I just asked her for a story about my family history and this is what she told me so I was really excited.

Lise: I can imagine.

And the whole idea behind searching him out and learning about his life is to help you in what way?

Danielle: I think it's to help me give me, like, a focus in my life.

I feel like I need an example of someone who has gone through really difficult trials but has overcome them and especially like, just like we were talking about being a lawyer and being a woman lawyer and being a Black woman lawyer I feel like all of those things have different trials.

Lise: Connotations.

- Yeah, associated with them, yeah, and different perceptions by society and I feel like in order for me to overcome those perceptions I really need someone who's gone through a lot of similar things, and... Lise: And Lincoln must have.

- Yeah, exactly.

- At that time in our history.

So in order to learn more about your great-grandfather, Lincoln, and his invention, we send you to Ohio and that's where it all begins.

Let's watch.

♪♪ Danielle: Um, this is my first time in Ohio and I really didn't know anything about Ohio before I got here.

Mostly there's farmland and people.

Like, I heard of Cleveland but that's basically my extent of Ohio knowledge.

I think family history comes to life for me w-- through experiences and through talking to people 'cause my sister, she's really good at going on the computer and looking at the registries and to me I really don't identify very well with that.

But when my, my grandma would like, she would bring out the photo album and show me pictures and to me when she was talking about her family and showing me pictures that was when they actually became real people instead of just names on a piece of paper.

♪♪ [silence] Lise: In Xenia, Ohio, Danielle is meeting with historians Joan Baxter and Catherine Wilson at the Green County Historical Society to learn about the process that Lincoln would have undergone in order to patent his invention.

Joan: This is a nice little book that was put out some years ago about Black science, Black science activity book.

It's a coloring book, and it tells about different Black inventors and scientists and in this little book is a thing that tells all about your ancestor, Lincoln F. Brown.

Danielle: No.

Joan: He received a patent for a bridle bit for a horse.

Now if you're not familiar with, with, uh, horses, this is a bit that would go into the horse's mouth and he did an improvement on it and made it much, much better than what it had been.

Safer for the horse and more comfortable for the horse.

So this is his real claim to fame is having been an inventor and so here is the older version.

Catherine: And this piece would go in the horse's mouth and this is the older version about 20 years earlier than that.

And you can see from this how much less it would wear and tear on the sides of the horse's mouth.

Danielle: Definitely.

Catherine: And here is the actual patent from the patent office.

There's Lincoln Brown of Xenia.

Bridle bit.

And this is his drawing and there's his signature.

Lincoln Brown.

Then he would take this patent application to an attorney and they would put it through the patent office.

Danielle: So, how much work was it to get a patent like this during that time?

- A lot of work.

You would have to draw out what you wanted to do and how it was going to be an improvement to whatever bit you were doing.

He would give it to an attorney and they would submit it to the patent office.

Lise: During the 19th century there were over 675,000 patents registered with the U.S. Patent and Trademark office.

Of these it has been estimated that less than 350 patents were registered by Black inventors.

Clearly Lincoln was able to overcome some significant social barriers.

Now that Danielle has a better understanding of how challenging the patent process was for her great-grandfather, she's curious about Lincoln's family.

In particular, his father, Samuel Brown.

She hopes to gain some clues as to how Samuel's life may have helped Lincoln overcome the societal obstacles he faced.

Catherine: We do have some pictures.

There's Lincoln.

And there's Larian Ada Brown, went by Ada.

Danielle: Wow, I’ve never seen a picture of them before.

- Well, there's your great-grandfather and great-grandmother.

- I didn't even know her name until this very moment.

That's amazing.

- Here's a picture of the family.

Here's Lincoln.

These are his sisters and brothers.

Lincoln's father was the Reverend Samuel Brown.

Samuel was a minister at Middle Run Church for 27 years and this is the mother and she was Irish.

- I thought that was just like a rumor that we told each other in our family.

- No.

- Wouldn't that have been like taboo?

- It was not taboo.

It wasn't especially liked-- - Okay.

- --and they mos-- may have been shunned by both sides.

Since he was a minister I don't think he would have been shunned as much.

I’ve got some census information here.

This is the 1860 census.

Caesar Creek township, Green County, Samuel Brown.

Elizabeth, that's her.

Silas, William, Richard, Samuel, John Jackson.

Of course this is 1860 so Lincoln's not born yet.

- Yes.

- But these are other people living with him.

He was a farmer and a minister and there he is.

He's born in Virginia.

There's Ireland, there's Elizabeth.

♪♪ Danielle: I would say what stood out to me the most about the experience was the looking at the pictures of my family.

Like, I never-- I don't really look like either of my parents.

Everyone's like, oh, I don't know where you came from.

And maybe you're the mailman's baby and then my dad is a mailman so that's always really funny.

It was really emotional when I got to see my great-grandmother 'cause I saw my own face coming from the page [emotional] and it was really... it was really exciting for me 'cause I, I always just thought I was a blend of my mom and my dad and now I can see where I come from and it was, it was really exciting so, I just didn't expect that to happen so I was really, I was really pleased with, with how everything went.

♪♪ Lise: Samuel Brown, a former slave, was a minister of the Middle Run Baptist Church, widely regarded as the first Black Baptist church in the state of Ohio.

The church was originally established in 1822, seven miles southeast of Xenia on a Black settlement known as the Brown Settlement which was founded by Samuel and his father.

Danielle is on her way to the location where the Brown Settlement was once located.

Nothing remains of the former settlement except a few tombstones.

♪♪ The Brown Settlement originally encompassed 254 acres of land and is considered one of the first Black settlements in southwestern Ohio.

The land was sold to the Brown family by a Methodist pastor who was a friend of Samuel's former master.

Although Ohio was officially a free state that forbade slavery, it passed a series of anti-Black laws between 1804 and 1830 that limited the rights of its free Black population and consequently discouraged Blacks from settling in the state.

Fortunately there was an active and influential group of Quakers in Ohio who played an essential role in fighting for the fair treatment of Ohio's Black residents.

Danielle is meeting with Dr. Jill Row, an anthropologist who's giving Danielle a sense of the obstacles that Samuel would have faced while living in Ohio.

- The North was so very tolerant of Black people that, you know, slavery didn't exist, and so this was the case as far as the rhetoric was concerned that, um, they professed to be anti-slavery, but as far as their actions were concerned, it was a total different thing.

When more and more Black settlers came they began to feel threatened, uh, for the land, for labor, and so historians have said that what Ohio sp-specifically would say they wanted outwardly to say that we're so against slavery but we don't want these, these, uh, free Negroes here.

Lise: These obstacles didn't prevent Samuel and his family from flourishing and becoming both well known and respected by both Black and white communities.

Once word began to spread about the settlement which included homes, a schoolhouse, cemetery, and a church, many other Black families joined.

Census records indicate that at one point up to 100 families lived in the community.

Samuel wouldn't have become such an influential preacher and community member without the leadership and vision of his father, Godfrey Brown, the original founder of the settlement.

He was also the original founder and pastor of the Middle Run Baptist Church and it was his example that drew the families to the settlement.

Danielle: So what in your opinion would make a community strong, like this community that Godfrey founded of this community of 100 families, like, what would make a community like that strong?

- And, and, and I say again it's, um, unfortunately it's one of the positives of segregation.

When you're, um, when you're told that you can't do anything outside of the group, then it makes the group stronger.

- Yeah.

- And so, uh, you have to depend on each other and so when we talk about someone like Godfrey Brown and many of the others, they were just really heroes.

They were very he-heroic people, very, um... I-I-I just admire the strength that they, they, they had and they were able to have all of this against them but still continue on their quest to, to live where they're gonna live and, um, take care of their family and, um, support their family.

Danielle: Well, sitting here on this land that belonged to my family, it just makes me think about how much Godfrey Brown really had to do to create a settlement with, with just land and his four children and his wife.

And the fact that it went from just their own family to a settlement with 100 families is really inspiring to me.

The fact that he was able to, to bring all of these people together must have meant that he was an incredible leader.

I mean, people would come based on oral history to oral traditions.

People would-- knew about my great-great-great-grandfather and they knew that he was a good man, a good leader, a good reverend, someone who was faithful and a leader in the community.

And the fact that he was such an influential person and such a good person I believe was the reason why this went from a single family to an entire settlement.

That this became Brown Settlement.

Something that was famous, something that people wanted to come to.

Something that was part of something bigger.

And the fact that Brown Settlement was-- it became what it was was just... was a trib-- it's a tribute to my great-great- great-grandfather's legacy.

♪♪ - Danielle.

We've gone back so deep now.

We're two generations further back.

We're talking about your great-great- great-grandfather, Godfrey, and Dr. Row calls him a hero.

How would you describe him?

- Um, I would describe him as a visionary.

He had an idea and he sought it out and I, I think that he really lead the way for his-- not only for his family but for this whole community.

And that, that was really inspirational to me at the time and now.

Lise: Oh my gosh.

Well, and we have to reflect back on the time period we're talking about.

This is all, you know, prior to the Civil War.

Danielle: Yeah.

- Did you ever have any idea that Black men could accomplish such things at that time in our history?

Danielle: It didn't even occur to me.

Like, I mean I, I realized that I had sl-slave ancestors so I realized that somewhere along the way they got free but I just didn't realize that they-- I mean, he was able to emancipate himself and come and move away to Ohio, and so that's something.

Lise: I think we should talk about that-- Danielle: Yeah.

- --because in fact it was 1814 that he purchased his freedom for $400.

He-- he has worked as a shoemaker as a means to earn this money and he also purchases his children and his wife over the next few years.

Literally between 1814 and 1822 he's emancipated his self, his wife, how many children?

Danielle: 12.

Lise: 12 children.

- Yeah.

- And moved to another state and purchased land.

I’m just-- he-- I mean, visionary, forward thinking, clearly wasn't bound by societal views of a Black man at that time.

Danielle: Yeah.

I think he knew what he wanted for his family.

He knew he wanted a better life for his family and he was willing to sacrifice whatever it took, especially his time, to be able to attain that goal.

Lise: Have you read the emancipation documents?

Do you remember this along the way?

Danielle: Yeah.

Lise: Because I really, I feel like I have to read this because this was his owner, John T. Bowden, who, um, wrote this in his documents.

"Godfrey, whom I emancipated, "having requested me to state the consideration "to consent that he should purchase himself.

"I have no hesitation in saying "that I was influenced by the high character "which he supported for honesty and industry.

"I considered the circumstance "of his having amassed in a few years "money enough to purchase himself "and a large family "as an incontestable proof of his unwearied industry "and the opinions of those in his immediate neighborhood "who knew him best were concurrent in his favor.

These instances of extraordinary merit," extraordinary merit, "induced me to sell him and his family "at a lower price than I should have asked from any other purchase."

So obviously the man who owned Godfrey and his family at the time saw his greatness as well.

Have you thought about that family... Danielle: Yeah.

Lise: ...at all and their, their part of your life?

- Um, you're talking about John Bowden's family?

- Yes.

- Um, I have thought about them a lot.

I think that their willingness to, to part with him and his-- I mean, when you have someone who's willing to work that hard, you can either take that labor for yourself, but they were willing to let him go and let him leave and, and start a new life for his family which I think is an incredible sacrifice and even though, I mean, usually we think of slave owners as, like, these evil people who were, like, abusing their slaves and I-- it just-- I don't think it was quite that way.

I feel like for each situation was different and I feel like in this situation he realized that my great-great-great- grandfather was a good man and a man who really wanted to do something for his family and he was willing to, to help him in that goal.

Lise: I almost think it's even bigger than that.

I mean, we're talking-- I think he saw greatness because like you talk about in your life how people look at you and define you by being a woman and a Black woman in law, imagine how people were defining your grandfather, a Black man, in this time period.

So John must have seen something beyond just a man who wanted to care for his family.

Don't you think?

Like, he saw-- I think he saw the visionary.

- Well, yeah and I think that so many times the people in that situation would just see not really even a man, a slave-- Lise: That's right.

- --but I think that John actually saw my grandfather as a man.

He saw him as a man who was honest and had integrity.

Lise: And hardworking.

- Yes, and I think that's something he valued.

Lise: This is a man who was born into slavery in Virginia on a plantation directly across from Jamestown in the year 1768.

I mean, that, that era of our history is something I actually do know about.

[laughs] - Yes.

- What did that mean to you?

I remember you looking across saying, Jamestown.

Did that make a connection somehow?

- It really did.

Like, I was like, wait, where are we going?

Oh, Colonial Williamsburg and Jamestown and I’ve been, been here, like, and it's all nearby and it's all where my family's from originally and I'm like, I have been here a dozen times 'cause I’m from Virginia originally.

I’ve been here a dozen times and it's never meant anything to me until I knew that that's where my family was from and then suddenly everything took on a new meaning.

Lise: I can see it even here, you know, for me too.

Ownership of another human being is a, a foreign idea in our times.

Of course you've studied about it, I’ve studied about it.

Talking in these terms as it's pertaining now to your family and you're seeing pictures and you're getting to know them and you're seeing where they lived, how did it make you feel when you were there?

- I think that I understood all, like, slavery intellectually but I never really internalized what it meant for me and for my family until I got to see where it actually happened.

I got to go to the places where my, my great-great-great- grandfather served.

I got to, I got to see all of that and suddenly, like, history became reality.

Lise: Well, you had said that your sister is the one that's always promoted this-- - Yeah.

- --and she'll say, I can tell you how to do it, and you're like, really?

I don't care.

[laughs] Danielle: Yeah, well I'm like-- - And you're 25.

Danielle: Yeah.

- I didn't care when I was 25, you know.

Danielle: Yeah.

- So did bri-- did being in these places, and I don't wanna get too far ahead to where you were in this moment, but did walking the footsteps of your ancestors make it real for you in Ohio?

Danielle: I think it really did.

Like, sitting in that field and, and getting to see where the settlement was and even though there's not very much of it-- the settlement left, I felt like I could f-- like, I felt a connection to the land.

I'd never seen it before and it was really, it was really beautiful and I really enjoyed it.

Lise: Um, oh, there's so much to talk about.

The fact that Godfrey kept his family together is astounding.

Danielle: Yeah.

- And do you know why that's so-- I mean, Virginia was known as a slave breeding state-- - Yes.

- --where it was common to actually breed your slaves... to sell them to make profit.

So for him to have done this in Virginia at this time, how do you, how do you think he managed that?

Danielle: Well, I think that it-- part of it was that his owners valued him and his family as people and so they weren't as willing to just part with them and sell them away 'cause I mean, 12 children, that's a lot of money.

Like, they're very valuable commodities and so I think that was part of the factor of it and then I think his willingness to work so diligently and earn all of that money to buy their freedom, I think that was just-- I think that's why he was willing to part with them.

Lise: Because he saw him as a human being-- - Yeah.

- --and a man, and a man who loved his family.

- Yeah.

- Yeah, and not just as a work animal.

- Yeah, and I think as he shared those feelings as he was a father and, like, all of these things, I think that contributed it to-- to him seeing him in a different light.

Lise: Well, and this obviously has trickled down.

Now, we, we pushed all the way back to your great-great- great-grandfather and I-- and we'll go back there, but briefly I have to say don't-- do you see how the man he was defined his son, Samuel, and then your great-grandfather, Lincoln, who did this patent, that they came from this.

Did that have power for you?

Danielle: Well, yeah.

I think that the, the level of intelligence that it took for him to, to create this plan, to create the settlement, to go and to become a, a reverend actually, and then to carry down that legacy of, of faith and of intellectualism and of, um, industry, I think all of those things have carried down through.

And I think that Lincoln was able to be as accomplished as he was because of Godfrey, and I think that Samuel passed that same trait down to his son.

And I think that's it's all connected.

Lise: Right at this part in the journey, did you start to feel it fill you up?

Did you start to feel like well then that's in my blood?

- Yeah, I never expected it to be, like...

I mean, these people, I never expected these people to be my ancestors.

I thought they would just be like, oh, regular Joe Schmoe, like-- Lise: [laughs] - --let's look at their life, he did this.

But to see that they were so, so, like, prolific and such good people, I just-- I was really surprised.

Lise: It's thrilling, and we never know where it's going either, which is kind of interesting.

So again, all this from a man born into slavery.

Your great-great- great-grandfather, Godfrey.

Born on a Virginia plantation.

We're about to go to that plantation in Virginia.

You get to meet someone-- Danielle: Mm-hm.

- --and learn a little bit more about slavery.

Danielle: Yeah.

- Let's look.

♪♪ To gain a sense of Godfrey's life as a slave, Danielle is going to the Great Hopes Plantation located in Colonial Williamsburg, Virginia.

The Great Hopes Plantation is an interactive historical site that represents what life would have been like for slaves living on a small tobacco plantation.

Danielle's meeting with Sam Wilson, an interpreter at the plantation who's describing what life may have been like for Godfrey and his family.

Danielle: So my ancestor, Godfrey Brown.

He had 12 children.

- Yes.

- So there would have been twelve kids plus the two parents.

Would they have been living in something like this?

- Yes.

- Something this size?

- This size.

- But how-- where would they all have slept?

Like, I can't imagine having more than ten people standing in here, much less sleeping and eating and living.

- A pallet like so or if you didn't have enough material to make pallets you put straw down here and put blankets on top of the straw.

Were you looking for privacy?

- Yeah.

- No such thing.

If you're never seeing privacy, how you gonna miss it?

- I guess that's true.

- No, ain't no guess.

- [laughs] - You're born into this.

You're gonna die into this.

Yes.

This is it.

This here's your root cellar because as a slave this is your weekly ration for an adult.

This is called a peck of corn.

Danielle: And it would always be corn?

Sam: Be corn.

That's-- that-- he was supposed to give you a peck of corn and a pound of salted meat per week per adult.

A child would get half this.

This is your weekly ration.

There's no such thing as an outhouse during this time period.

You got out.

- [laughs] - You see those green things out there?

- Yeah?

- That's your Charmin, dear.

- [laughs] - I hope you know your leaves.

- Leaves of three, leave them be.

- See that, you know your leaves.

You know which one to grab.

- Yeah, I know my leaves.

- Yes.

What you think?

You know what your working hours as a slave is?

- No.

- From can't see to can't see.

- [laughs] From can't see to can't see.

- That's right.

That's your, that's your workday.

Remember most slaves during this time period don't make it past 40.

Some do.

- Really?

- Yes, some do if you're lucky and strong.

What do you think makes slavery work?

A slave works through fear.

The master's gotta instill fear in y'all 'cause there's more of y'all than him, and fear is going to be instilled with cat o' nine tails.

Anybody can be broken.

You wanting make a Negro tell the truth?

They'd take a spike, plant in the ground about so deep.

String you up.

Lower you down on that spike and turn you.

That's how you make a Negro tell the truth.

They never used the term slave.

They'd either call you a Negro or a servant.

You'd never see the word slave ever used.

No, but yes.

We talk about waterboarding today.

About what Godfrey went through and what he's seen.

He can tell you some stories if he were still here.

The old ones.

They're still with us as you walk in your daily life, old ones are right here close to you, protecting you.

Always remember that.

They're always there with you.

Guiding you because remember what they went through.

Without them, you and I wouldn't have this dialogue.

- That's very true.

♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ Lise: Next, Sam is showing Danielle tobacco plants and explaining the kind of work schedule that their harvest would have required.

Sam: And he'd be working six hours a day.

Six years old, six hours.

Seven years old, seven hours.

- So what would a six-year-old be doing for six hours in the field?

- Looking for bugs.

Can't you crush a bug at six years old?

- I think I could handle that.

- You, you think you can handle that?

That's what you're doing out here because every leaf that's destroyed by the budworm or the horned tobacco worm is money out of the master's pocket.

If the master loses too much money, he can't pay his debts, so guess how he's gonna pay his debts?

He can sell you, he can rent you out.

Danielle: So as you got older what would you do, like...?

- You could be doing this.

- Okay.

- Okay, you can be also cutting wood, helping build outbuildings as you see here or various outbuildings.

Your corn house down there.

Your smokehouse.

Gotta have a smokehouse 'cause you gotta smoke that meat.

Cook house.

The next building you're going to build is that big building right there.

That's your tobacco house.

That is where you earn your money.

♪♪ Danielle: This whole experience has been really enlightening to me 'cause I-- I don't know, I'd stu-- I've studied slavery.

Like, I was an American studies major and so I studied about what happened during slavery, but it's always been very... very detached.

Like, it wasn't really part of my consciousness or part of my experience and I thought of it as part of our history as a culture, as a people, but not really as something as personal to me.

And so being in this area where my great-great- great-grandfather was a slave just really made it more, more realistic to me.

Not something that happened to some people a long time ago, but something that happened in my family.

Something that is a source of the strength of my family.

♪♪ - Danielle is now on her way to Four Mile Tree plantation where Godfrey was likely born and worked as a slave for the majority of his life.

It's located on the south side of the James River just opposite of Jamestown.

Danielle: I’m really excited to go to the plantation because yesterday I was able to walk a little bit in Godfrey's shoes, but I think it's gonna be a little bit different to be where he actually lived and to, to stand where he actually stood and to, to see where he was born and to kind of get a, an inside look into how his life might have actually been.

[seagulls calling] ♪♪ Lise: In the mid-17th century, Four Mile Tree plantation encompassed a total of 2,000 acres and was known to be a prosperous tobacco plantation.

Godfrey's original master and owner of Four Mile Tree plantation was William Brown.

Since it was common practice for slaves to take on the last names of their masters, this explains how Godfrey acquired his last name.

When William Brown died, his daughter, Sally Brown, inherited Godfrey and his family and it wasn't until she married John T. Bowden that Godfrey was emancipated in 1814.

Virginia law dictated that freed slaves had to leave the state within a short amount of time so as not to disturb the social order.

But Godfrey successfully petitioned the state and was allowed to remain for an additional six years so that he could earn the money necessary to purchase the freedom of his wife and children.

♪♪ Dale Dupree, the current caretaker for the Four Mile Tree plantation, is giving Danielle a tour of the original Brown mansion.

♪♪ ♪♪ [insects chirping] [scraping] Danielle: Wow.

Dale: And what you're looking at there is the James.

This was called Four Mile Tree, the presumption is because there was a very prominent landmark, likely a cyprus, uh, that was recognizable by everyone and it's four miles upriver from Jamestown.

- Oh.

Dale: So what you're looking at there is James City County and just off to the right, uh, would be Jamestown Island.

[birds chirping] - Archaeologist Anthony Smith is showing Danielle an archaeological excavation of slave quarters on the plantation from the 1830s.

- What we're lookin' at here, what we've been excavating for the last two months or so, is the remains of a slave quarter building built in the 1830s.

Danielle: So Godfrey Brown, my great-great- great-grandfather, he lived here on this plantation, and so I’m wondering if this is representative of what he would have lived in or if there's anything left of, like, a house or anything he would have lived in.

- Um, this probably isn't representative of what he would have lived in.

Earlier work in, uh, the early '70s, there was archaeological surveys done of the plowed fields where a surface collection was done where you would notice a concentration of artifacts blending over into the early 19th century.

Danielle: That's when he would have been here.

Anthony: That's when he would have been here.

[birds chirping] Lise: Now Danielle is meeting with Reverend James Harrison to try to get a sense of where Godfrey may have gained the faith that seemed to propel him on in life.

Danielle: Godfrey Brown, I found out that Godfrey Brown was actually a, a reverend when he went to Ohio.

He started a church, the Middle Run Baptist Church, and so I’m wondering where that faith might have come from.

- Uh, crises, uh, will do either two things.

Either it'll grow your faith or it'll crush your faith.

And, um, I think it is up to the individual, uh, to decide how, uh, that faith is going to, uh, propel them to the next level.

And evidently Godfrey Brown had an opportunity to use his faith to propel himself beyond his predicament of slavery.

'Cause it, it, it was a predicament and, um, I'm, I’m sure that that faith paid-- played a great part in him, uh, moving beyond slavery.

You know, it left a lot of people bitter.

Uh, it just left a lot of people hurt and injured, uh, for life and that injury is what they, uh, passed on to, uh, future generations.

But, um, uh, Godfrey Brown evidently turned it around and made something great for himself, not only for himself, but all of his succeeding generations.

You know, that-- it's commendable.

You know, you, you have a lot to be proud of, uh, that he used his faith in, in that way.

But that's a personal choice.

Godfrey probably, uh, is taught faith by parents or someone who communicates this culture, uh, this faith, this religion to Godfrey, uh, and they have done such a swell job of it that Godfrey does not leave it.

It, it doesn't-- he doesn't walk away from it.

I’m not surprised that you, you say that he was a minister.

You know, the, the minister becomes a leader and he is the person who demonstrates to the rest of the community that this is-- this can be done, uh, and uh, that takes faith.

Uh, it, it-- that, that does not come from someone, uh, who has no hope and who has no faith and who has no, uh, ambition, uh, to do something and to be something, so that's not, um, that's not surprising to hear.

[birds chirping] ♪♪ Lise: Between 1814 and 1820, Godfrey worked as a free man making shoes, a skill he likely acquired as a slave.

Eventually he earned enough money to not only purchase the freedom of his entire family, but to purchase land in the newly-opening Ohio Territory.

♪♪ ♪♪ Danielle is meeting with Bret Walker, an interpreter at the shoemaker shop in Colonial Williamsburg.

She's hoping to learn what it was like to be a shoemaker in Godfrey's day.

Danielle: I was just reading about my, my great-great- great-grandfather, Godfrey Brown, and how he, in addition to being a slave, was also a shoemaker.

And I had no idea that slaves were even able to acquire skills like that so this is really a new experience for me and I’m really excited to... - Absolutely, in fact, uh, you may have already learned when you were out at the plantation, uh, that oftentimes a slave that had a particular skill was of more value, and that was something you might encourage somebody who had, uh, talent or showed potential to do is to learn a trade.

So we'll, we'll talk a little bit more about that as we go on.

Speaking of your, uh, your ancestor, Godfrey, this might be something like he would wear.

It's what's called a stitchdown shoe.

Double-soled, very big, coarse stitches.

Haven't bothered to take the tool marks out of the heel.

A more utilitarian shoe.

And this might be the very kind of thing that he's making on a regular basis, especially if he's making it for other slaves, which is one theory, uh, that we might be able to look at, uh, about how he was making shoes and how he learned to make shoes.

So if you're a shoemaker you're never wanting to sit idle.

You're, you're getting paid by the piece so that if you're not working on a specific order for another person, you're probably making up things for stock so that somebody can just come in and buy a pair.

So something's always going on around your bench.

Something's going on.

- So if my great-great- great-grandfather, Godfrey, had been working, 'cause he was working full-time as a shoemaker when he finally left for Ohio, so what would he have been able to earn in that period of time?

- Assuming that he, uh, was as dedicated as he had been in obtaining his freedom, I think a fair bit of money.

Um, the, the nice thing about being a shoemaker is everybody needs what you make.

So being a shoemaker has the potential of being very lucrative and especially if he knew how to invest that money.

Uh, did he go to the Ohio territory to acquire land?

- Yes, he did, he acquired it through-- - Probably what he had done is saved up a considerable amount and knew that that was gonna be the best buy, uh, for his money is in the newly-opening Ohio territory.

Would you like to learn a little bit about making the shoes?

Danielle: I would love to learn about making shoes.

- Alright, let's do that.

This is a shoemaker's bench.

And, um, like a carpenter is working on a bench that's in front of him.

Some other trades have benches in front of them but because we're working with an irregular-shaped object, there's nothing that holds that as well as the human knees so we sit here with all of our tools right here by us.

This is all the space I need to make shoes right here.

So what we're going to do for pegging is you're gonna have to drive a hole in here by hitting this down in and then we're gonna put a peg into place and you're gonna whack that in.

That's the hard part.

Danielle: Okay.

Bret: Alright, and are you right-handed?

Danielle: Yes.

Bret: Alright, kind of want it to go in at a little bit of an angle.

go ahead and whack it down.

[loud taps] Good, good.

Pull it out.

Very good.

Alright, you're gonna want to find a good peg for you.

That's a good one right there.

- Nice lucky one.

- You want to set it in there like that and now you want to tap it a little bit to set it into place.

Danielle: Tap it to set it.

Okay, I think it's set.

And then just hit it.

- And give it a really good whack.

[thump, thump] Hey look at that.

- A little better.

- That's great.

You did a great job.

- Thank you.

- That's, that's uh-- I-I usually don't see people get it in that fast on the first try.

We wanted to present you with something that would, uh, you could keep and that would remind you of him so there is a shoe last for you to take home and now you will every time you look at that you'll be able to remember your roots and, and, uh, where your, your family came from and how a very brave and courageous and diligent man, uh, purchased his freedom for he and his family.

Danielle: Thank you so much.

- You're welcome.

Danielle: I think, I don't know.

It explains a lot about my, my love of shoes but also about the kind of man that Godfrey was.

Godfrey recognized that he was a man, that he had skills, that he had talents, that he was a real individual and from that acknowledgment of his individuality and his personality I think he was able to develop dreams and visions of his own.

That he was able to escape from this idea especially-- at least mentally escape from the idea of slavery.

- A lot of that slave mentality is not knowing who you are as an individual and not having any kind of aspirations for yourself.

If you see yourself as property, you'll continue to be property.

♪♪ ♪♪ I think that today has been the culmination of a lot of different thought processes for me and a lot of different experiences.

Like, this is the apex of my experience.

Today I got to come here to the plantation where Godfrey Brown was a slave and I’m at the river right now where he would have walked and I think that that is one of the more powerful parts of my experience.

Being where my ancestor was and seeing what he saw just as it was 200 years ago and I think that this journey more than anything has taught me that I really am connected to my ancestors.

I’m a part of an entire web of interconnected people and that those people have really created who I am today is really impressive to me.

I think what surprised me the most about my journey was how pertinent everything is to my life right now.

Um, at this time of limbo and just kind of transition in my life I know that it's important for me to, to look to Godfrey and to Samuel and to Lincoln and to see their strength and to use that as a way to overcome the trials that I know are coming.

♪♪ - Where do you keep the shoe last that you were given?

Danielle: Um, I keep it at my desk at the law school as kind of a reminder of this experience but also of the legacy that I have, and... - Did that have a lot of meaning for you actually working at the trade that your great-great-great grandfather used to free himself and his family?

Danielle: I loved it.

I honestly considered a little bit of a shoemaker profession for a second there-- Lise: [laughs] - --but, um, I just really loved to get the experience and see what he actually did and to see the work that went into getting his emancipation.

- Well and to think that he had to learn that skill while he was a slave and he had to save money from that skill while he was a slave.

So he was a slave all day.

We know, what did he say from, from can't see to can't see.

Danielle: Yeah, from can't see to can't see, yeah.

- And then he had to work his skill and sell shoes to gain money.

I mean it's just astounding.

- Yeah.

Like, I think that my schedule is harried as a law student but then I think about him working in the fields all day and then coming home to a dark corner and like working on shoes at night to be able to provide for his family and to be able to get their freedom and so I think that's astounding.

- Yeah, I do too.

You had this really, what I thought was a really interesting conversation with Reverend James Harrison.

To me it was a real crux in the whole story.

Um, he was referring to Godfrey's faith and what did you get from that?

His faith in himself, in God, in what?

Danielle: I think, I think it was both.

I think that he, he had a real faith that drove him to build a church and to create this community but he also I think that all of that faith started with a belief in himself, a belief and an understanding of who he was and his humanity.

Like, he-- I don't think really ever thought of himself as a slave and I think that was the difference between him and every other slave who remained in captivity for-- until the end of the Civil War.

Lise: And where does that come from?

I mean, I love that you said he thought of himself as a man first.

Where does that come from?

Is that in your cells, is that just the man as he was born to be?

Did someone teach him that?

What's your theory on that?

- Well, I-I-I don't know.

Like, I think in myself, I think my faith and my belief in myself does come from him but I wonder like, how far back does that go?

Where does that originally come from?

And he might be the beginning of it all.

He might be the one who decided that this wasn't enough.

Lise: [sighs] - That whatever he was given wasn't enough and he was gonna do whatever it took to get the more that he needed for himself and his family.

- Well here you are saying and referring it to yourself and you started this whole journey saying I have some insecurities.

I feel like there's a different woman in front of me.

Is there?

Danielle: Yeah.

Lise: Tell me about her.

How are you different?

Do you see it in your daily life?

Do you see it in your law work?

Do you see it in relationships?

What's happening?

- Well I think I see that not only do I have a lot to live up to but, um, that I am capable of doing whatever I set my mind to.

If he was capable of freeing himself and his family, I am certainly capable of finishing law school and becoming a really successful attorney.

Lise: It's funny, you started also the show saying you didn't want to just finish.

- No.

- You wanted to... - Finish well.

- Is that a Danielle trait?

Is that something that was taught to you by your parents?

Is that Godfrey in you?

That's drive.

- Yeah, I think, I think my determination does come from my parents a little bit.

Like, they have always pushed me and are like, well I mean, we want you to do what you wanna do but we want you to do it to the best of your ability.

Like, you can pick whatever you want to do but you need to be excellent.

And so I think that idea of excellence not only has been pushed at me by my parents but also I think it's something that's just kind of an intrinsic character trait.

Like, I don't enjoy failure and I don't like to do something halfway, like... - Apparently neither did any of your relatives.

- Exactly.

- [laughs] So how are you different today than when this all began?

Give me examples in your daily life of how you feel like this is different.

Danielle: I think it just gives me a little bit more incentive to push myself.

Like, I feel like at the end of the day when I’ve already done like five assignments and I just am really tired and I don't want to read another thing, I don't want to write another thing and I don't want to edit another thing I feel like in that moment I think I look down at my desk, I see the shoe last, and I think he would have been working at this exact moment and so I need to keep working and so it just gives me a little bit more incentive to go that extra mile to not put my pen down until I’m finished and have done the very best that I can do.

Lise: There's a confidence about you.

Is this new?

- Um, I think I’ve always been, I’ve always liked myself I think but I think that my confidence in my abilities and my skills that I’m acquiring, I think those have grown exponentially since the beginning of this experience.

Lise: Have you shared this with your ancestor-- this knowledge of your ancestors with, with your family?

How is this going to like go forward in your family for future generations?

How does this impact you?

Danielle: Yeah, I think my family was really sad that we didn't all get to go on the journey together but I think that they loved hearing about the stories and my sister and I actually went back to the plantation and we went back to the county to do more research and find out more.

- Fantastic.

- So, yeah.

- So you did get to really share it with her.

- Yeah, she was really excited.

- Has it changed them in some way?

Do you see it in your family, having an effect?

- I think my sister, all my family was kind of in love with family history a little bit, like they're falling in love with it and I think that knowing all of this information about my family has just inspired us to, to go further back and to, to learn more and to, to go beyond what we were given and just kind of make it something that we do.

Lise: So searching through your ancestry for strength and guidance can pay off.

Danielle: Yeah, definitely.

- Hugely.

It's gonna change who you are as a lawyer?

- I think it's changed who I am as a law student so it'll certainly affect who I am as a lawyer.

Lise: And did you ever go back and find that coloring book?

Because how spectacular was that?

- No, I need to go online and look for that.

- Yes, you do.

I’m sure you can.

Will you let us know where you land as lawyer?

Because I hope I never need one, but if I do-- Danielle: I'm your girl.

- --I’m calling Danielle Jones.

And I’m not kidding.

- Okay.

- Thank you so much for sharing your story.

- Thank you.

- Thank you.

Please join us next time for The Generations Project.

♪♪