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Annie H Hartnett

Annie H Hartnett

·

May 27, 2025

Fable

“Tree sitting is a last resort. When you see someone in a tree trying to protect it, you know that every level of our society has failed.”

A platform with a tarp shelter is mounted high in a tree. A person on the platform holds a large banner that reads, “Defend the Elwha Forest.”

Annie H Hartnett

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Jan 5, 2025

RELATIONS: Unearthing the White Supremacist in the Basement

I never met my great grandfather, Franklin Oliver Adams. He died long before I was born. In fact, the only physical connection I have ever…

RELATIONS: Unearthing the White Supremacist in the Basement

Annie H Hartnett

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Jan 14, 2024

RELATIONS PODCAST: Exploring Slavery’s Legacy Through the Lens of Family History

In the first episode of my new podcast, I interview activist, historian, and genealogist Antoinette Harrell.

RELATIONS PODCAST: Exploring Slavery’s Legacy Through the Lens of Family History

Annie H Hartnett

·

Jul 1, 2023

Shout Out to the Universe — and You, Dear Reader!

You know that feeling when you’re following your heart and it’s leading you into the middle of nowhere-you’ve-ever-been-before? And of…

Podcast headline image with a photo of the author, a white woman who wears a blue dress and glasses.

Annie H Hartnett

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May 21, 2023

RELATIONS: Henry and Louisa

“Henry sends his love to Louisa. Henry wants to go home but I don’t think I will send him unless we get nearer, which I think we will be…

A photograph of young Black couple. The man wears a uniform can cap and looks down. His arm is draped around the shoulders of a pretty young woman in braids, elaborate earrings, and a checked dress.

Annie H Hartnett

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May 1, 2023

RELATIONS: What’s in a Logo?

When I decided to create a podcast based on this blog, I knew I needed a logo. I tried designing one myself using a free design program…

Two trees — one white and one black. The white tree grasps the black tree in a chokehold, the two trees’ branches intertwining above. On the left the word “Relations” appears, the “o” formed by a noose that hangs from one of the white tree’s branches. Meanwhile, new growth from both trees forms green leaves and a heart.

Annie H Hartnett

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Feb 20, 2023

RELATIONS: Sacred Ground

I had always heard that there was a “slave cemetery” at Locust Ridge but had never seen it during my visits there as a child. Finding it…

RELATIONS: Sacred Ground

Annie H Hartnett

·

Jan 31, 2023

RELATIONS: Runaway!

On the Friday morning before the Tyre Nichols video was released, I had been poring over pages from a plantation ledger. The ledger had…

photograph of smiling Black man in a light pink shirt, striped tie, and charcoal suit vest

Annie H Hartnett

·

Jan 20, 2023

America Is Alive in 1860 and Aunt Alice Complains of Tight Shoes

Incredibly, I have found America alive in 1860 — not on a document in an archive or a record in a courthouse, but on a loose page from the…

a handwritten ledger page that lists the names of enslaved people and how much cotton each person picked on each day of the week; the page also contains two handwritten notes — one vertically next to the enslaved people’s names and one that fills the bottom third of the page

Annie H Hartnett

·

Jan 10, 2023

RELATIONS: America

Soon after I began research into my family history, I discovered that the LSU Special Collections library had an archive of my family’s…

Photograph that shows a family of enslaved people standing in a cotton field. The photo shows a man and woman and eight children, as well as two large baskets of cotton bolls.

Annie H Hartnett

Annie H Hartnett

My new blog, RELATIONS, documents the process of researching and writing the stories of people enslaved by my ancestors in Mississippi and Louisiana.

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