It IS heartbreaking. I am still hoping to find out more about America's life--still hoping that his story has a happy ending like the story of Samuel Drake, another young man enslaved by my ancestors who actually managed to escape: https://anniehnet.medium.com/white-supremacists-in-the-family-4a13c212b7c1

And I agree that many in the south are nostalgic for the antebellum period. I still hear people refer to the Civil War as "the war between the states" and "the war of Northern aggression." I used to feel this myself--nostalgia for the Romantic vision of the south portrayed in films like Gone with the Wind. , That feeling evaporated completely once I started my research and learned more about what was actually going on. Enslaved people were literally worked to death to pay for all those big houses, bonnets, and hoop skirts. There is an even darker side to it all, but that's for another blog post.

Thanks again for reading and commenting. It's so lovely to have readers that engage with one's work!