By Sam McDonald
Two Old Dominion University student interns are growing their knowledge of American history as they seek to reunite Virginia families pulled apart long ago by the institution of slavery.
Focusing on people enslaved by the Custis-Washington-Lee clan, they are combing through tax lists, wills and inventories to reveal broken family links. Plans call for the project to be aided by collaborations with historic sites including Colonial Williamsburg and Mount Vernon.
“The primary work of this internship is to look at documents and the records that the enslavers had, and make family connections that were missing,” said student intern Malana Laville. “I love African American genealogy — I have since I was a kid. So, when I heard about this opportunity, I was ecstatic,” said Laville, a junior strategic communication major from Northern Virginia with minors in history and marketing.
Her partner in the project is Roland Davis, a junior history and English double major from Richmond. “This role is fulfilling because we’re giving voice to people who have been constantly shut out by history,” said Davis, who also serves as vice president of Old Dominion’s student history club, named the League of Historical Studies.
“They’ve always been put down and left out of so many conversations,” Davis said. “I feel like what we are doing is giving them a voice.”
Searching for Jenny
Called the Gabriel Jacobs EPOCH Initiative at Old Dominion University, the project is made possible by a gift from Portsmouth native Tyrone S. Goodwyn, ODU Class of 1983. The Washington, D.C.-area resident has funded internships for two students each semester for three years, beginning this fall. The acronym EPOCH stands for Eastern People of Color History.
The interns’ work focuses on people enslaved by generations of the Custis family, who were wealthy and influential players in early Virginia. They rose to prominence on the Eastern Shore and thrived from the 1650s to the 1850s. George Washington and Robert E. Lee married into the Custis family.
Goodwyn’s own research revealed that a man named Gabriel Jacobs — who was from Angola, or his parents were from Angola — lived on Virginia’s Eastern Shore in the 1600s. He was enslaved by John Custis II, who lived 1655 to1696. Gabriel had two documented children, Daniel and Jenny.
“Daniel Jacobs is my ancestor. He died in 1733 as a middle-class free man of color on the Eastern Shore,” Goodwyn said. After Jacobs’ death, most of his relatives relocated to North Carolina. “That’s my family,” said Goodwyn, who shares his genealogy at www.freeinva.org.
Daniel’s sister Jenny stayed behind in Virginia. She was enslaved — property of the Custis family.
Passion for history
At Old Dominion University, Goodwyn majored in Marketing Management and Information Systems and went on to a successful career in information technology. His passion today, however, is history. He’s an avid genealogist who serves as first vice president of the North Carolina Genealogical Society.
Untangling his own lineage back to Daniel Jacobs was a personal triumph, but uncovering Jenny’s part of the story gave him a different kind of satisfaction. Having completed his own branch of the family tree, he was compelled to try another. “I felt Jenny come sit on my shoulder,” Goodwyn said. “I felt her say, ‘I was left in slavery. What about me?’
“I was able to track her and her husband and her children for about three generations,” Goodwyn said. “I fell in love with that.”
The EPOCH internships are intended to extend and expand the benefits of his research. Goodwyn is actively guiding the work.
Skeleton key
Ultimately, plans call for the interns to create a public, online database documenting Black people sold away from their homes in Virginia, explained Old Dominion history professor Marvin Chiles who serves as a mentor for the interns.
“He’s trying to connect families that were broken up through the domestic slave trade in the 1800s,” Chiles said. “He thought it would be a great idea to get students involved in that project — and to get ODU’s name out there in historical circles … This is going to be a skeleton key for a lot of future scholars.”
The interns, meanwhile, get real-world work experience. “They’re meeting people who they’re going to need to know if they want to survive in the industry,” Chiles said.
Due to a lack of a detailed paper trail, nailing down family histories of the enslaved is difficult. Enslaved people could be sold two or three times throughout their lives. But the Custis family’s status makes the task more manageable, Goodwyn said. “We’re lucky in a way because the Custises were so rich,” Goodwyn said. “There are all these inventories and all these lists.”
Also, Goodwyn has connections at Colonial Williamsburg, the League of the Descendants of the Enslaved at Mount Vernon, and historical organizations on the Eastern Shore. Those resources will help drive the interns toward success, Goodwyn said.
It takes two
As the fall semester began, Laville and Davis took a deep dive into the historical record. They’re still swimming in it.
“We are looking at tax lists, birth records, death records, wills, anything that will give us a little bit more information specifically on the enslaved Africans that the Custis family and the Lee family and the Washington family had as property,” Laville said. “And as we progress in our internship and we go to these sites, like Mount Vernon and Colonial Williamsburg and the Eastern Shore, I’ll be excited to see what else we can discover.”
The two interns bring complementary skills to the table. Laville has experience with services like Ancestry.com and genetic testing company 23AndMe — which previously she used to research her father’s Caribbean roots. Davis recently interned with the Norfolk Public Library’s Sargeant Memorial Collection on a project related to slave ship records from Baltimore, New Orleans, Richmond and Norfolk.
“We bounce ideas off each other,” Davis said. “We exchange ideas and what we found to bolster our research. It’s a very collaborative effort.”
The interns said they feel the historical significance of their research. It’s more than a job.
“It’s very fulfilling to work on this project,” Davis said. Laville added, “It's just amazing what having knowledge, and these resources can do for the general public. It’s hard work, but with a big payoff … It's a pleasure, really.”
Monarch legacy
Goodwyn hopes the new internship is the start of an impactful, long-lasting effort. He knows there’s much to be done.
“I really get a great sense of satisfaction when I put a family back together,” he said. “When people who had just been names on an inventory or names on a tax list or names on a will — when I can actually say, ‘Oh, no. You’re actually family! I can see how you’re related!’”
He’s also proud to help his alma mater lead in this area. “ODU is my heart,” Goodwyn said.
He’s seen the university grow and change over the decades to the point where Old Dominion has become the school of choice for many young members of his family up and down the Eastern Seaboard.
His blue connections run deep. He said he’s related to at least two administrators at the university.
“That’s another reason why this was so important for us,” Goodwyn said. “We are ODU through and through.”
Top photo: Old Dominion University Students Malana Laville and Roland Davis are the first interns to work with Gabriel Jacobs EPOCH Initiative. It seeks to reconnect families separated by enslavement. Photo by Sam McDonald/ODU