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Saturday, February 2, 2008
History boxed away
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Aunt Ruby kept the box stashed away.
Everybody knew what was in it. Photos, military records and keepsakes. History.
Several years ago, someone riffling through the container came across information about Peter Boggs. He’s the great-great-great grandfather of Robert Sample of Lilburn. It was a notarized deposition given by Grace, Boggs’ wife, in 1909. She was applying for his military pension.
The hand-written affidavit gave details of Boggs’ life and military career. It outlined how he’d served with Company C, 2nd Regiment, of the 14th U.S. Colored Cavalry. How his horse was shot out from under him in battle, then fell on top of him. Boggs’ right knee, right shoulder and hip were severely wounded.
“He was pretty messed up,” muses Sample, 62. We’re sitting at the kitchen table of his Lilburn home. It’s pouring rain as we pore over a copy of the deposition. We come to a section that Sample had told me about on the phone.
It’s one sentence. Twelve words:
“[Boggs] belonged to John Boggs and Leah Boggs in Accomac County, Va.,” it states. Sample, a former paratrooper and Philly native, knew - or assumed - he had ancestors who had been slaves. To see evidence of that enslavement, in print, gave it context. Made it real.
“Now I have proof,” Sample says.
It’s that time of the year. Black History Month. Some folk “celebrate” it year-round. Sample does. He’s a military black history buff who thinks stories should be told and celebrated. Sometimes, he says, the emphasis can be skin color, but only in unique and distinct circumstances. Historic “firsts,” perhaps.
It was Sample, for example, who introduced me to the Triple Nickles. It stands for the 555th Parachute Infantry Division. A group of black men became the nation’s first black paratroopers. I wrote about them in November.
Sample thought their story should be shared with everyone. He feels the same way about his great-great-great grandfather.
“I have xeroxed copies of the deposition and given it to all my kids,” he tells me. “They’ve started to look into things. When you start, it tends to snowball and it keeps growing, getting bigger and bigger. A lot of us have lost history. A lot of us just don’t know.”
The answers, though, could be boxed up in the attic, collecting dust.
Pull them down.
Information could be in those long-forgotten family Bibles, scrapbooks and photo albums.
Take a look.
“You never know what you’re going to find,” says Sample, before I leave his home and head out into the rainy night.
“You never know who you may be related to.”
Rick Badie’s column appears on Sundays, Tuesdays and Thursdays. Contact him at 770-263-3875 or e-mail: rbadie@ajc.com.
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