Page 96 - 1619 Project Curriculum

The 1619 Project

Ky’Eisha Penn, 28
(With her mother, Teresa, right)

Miami and
Hometown:
Augusta, Ga.
-school plans: To be a
Post -law

civil rights lawyer; she begins

a fellowship at the A.C.L.U. in
New Jersey in September.
Ky ’Eisha Penn s ancestors on her
’
mother’s side include Phillip
Officer, who was born into slavery

on Oct. 18, 1837, in Tennessee.
His unusual surname apparently

connects him to a nearby

landowner: The 1850 U.S. Census

Agricultural Schedule indicates

that James C. Officer had 19

slaves, one of them a boy whose
age matched Phillip ’s.

By the time of the 1870 census,
Phillip Officer was working

as a farm laborer, probably a
sharecropper, which would explain
why census records indicate

he was living in the household of

a woman named Sarah Turney.

Within a decade, Officer was

married to a woman named
Emeline (her maiden name and

origins are unknown) with two

sons and had become a landowner
himself. According to
the 1880
Agricultural Schedule, he owned

66 acres, and his farm was worth

’
$400 ($10,045 in today s dollars);
his livestock and machinery were
valued at $200 ($5,022). By 1900,

Officer owned his farm outright.
‘‘My mom and I were dissecting

this history, and we were wowed
by it, ’’ Penn said. ‘‘He was a slave,

but when he died he owned land. ’’
Her ancestor ’s story resonated
with her, she said, as a person who

was raised by a single mother with

limited resources and who has just
graduated with a dual degree in
’
law from Howard and a master s

in African -American history from

Florida A.& M. ‘ ‘I wanted to be

challenged by the history, molded
by the history and then become

a part of it,’’ she said. ‘‘ I wanted so

much more for my life and for my

children in the future, to work hard

and set a legacy. My ancestors

were doing that, they were not

born in the right circumstances but
made something by the time

they died. ’’
redit by Name Surname
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