“I am a part of all that I have met;
Yet all experience is an arch wherethro’
Gleams that untravell’d world whose margin fades
For ever and forever when I move.
How dull it is to pause, to make an end,
To rust unburnish’d, not to shine in use!”
–From “Ulysses” by Alfred, Lord Tennyson, 1833, an excerpt from one of Dr. Blaine Hudson’s favorite poems.
In 2002, Dr. J. Blaine Hudson had the foresight, while preparing his “Proceedings and Recommendations” for the Kentucky African American Heritage Commission (serving as Chair), to include in his work one of the most popular topics today, “Ancestry.”
Angela Crenshaw
With companies like AncestryDNA launching in 2012, Dr. Hudson’s work was a decade ahead of this trend. No surprise, as at the time of his death Dr. Hudson had distinguished himself as a scholar, teacher and activist and served as Dean of College of Arts and Sciences at the University of Louisville.
Like so many inquisitive people, I too jumped on the ancestry bandwagon to search out where my origin lies. Generally, with so many of us looking for answers, there can often be many blank pages in discovering these origins, especially those of us whose ancestors came to America through the Transatlantic Slave Passage. Remarkably, with my latest AncestryDNA updates, I discovered these revisions for my African ancestry reflected Dr. Hudson’s findings.
My primary African origin comes from Nigeria.
According to Dr. Hudson’s research, of Africans who were transported directly to Virginia between the years 1680 to 1730, Nigerians made up to 40% of all slave trade. By 1720, 30% of the total population of the Virginia colony were Africans.
Dr. Blaine Hudson
Reflecting the preferences of Virginia slaveholders, the majority of new Africans entering the colony were Bantu-speaking people from the Congo-Angola or West-Central Africa region, which also reflects my secondary highest percentage of African ancestry.
As we celebrate the accomplishments of great African Americans during Black History Month, let us be reminded of all those who came before us and the passage they paved for us in making America great – people like Dr. Blaine Hudson, who opened doors for so many today. To learn more about his legacy, see this website.
“We are all a part of every person we have ever met”
Alfred, Lord Tennyson
Angela Crenshaw has been a member of the Kentucky African American Heritage Commission since 2010. The Commission works to preserve Kentucky African American heritage, historic sites, and to identify and promote awareness of significant African American influences. The commission is administratively attached to the Kentucky Council/State Historic Preservation Office.
