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Research & Revelations from the granddaughter of John Fields, formerly enslaved runaway with the spirit of entrepreneurship.

His-story inspires people of all races and walks of life. My great-great grandfather, John Fields, was a formerly enslaved runaway with an open heart and spirit of entrepreneurship. He lived passionately working and serving his community until his last breath at 104 years old.
— Kim Bettie

Thank you for visiting my historical journal and documented discovery of my great-great grandfather’s life lessons before and after enslavement. I’m sharing my research and revelations to inspire, motivate and transform.

You can click on the bolded links for more information about the research. And, click on the title of the blog to leave or read comments.


 
What a Mighty Good Man
 
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What a Mighty Good Man

In America we call it Smiling Depression, Professor Makoto Natsume in Japan calls it Smile Mask Syndrome (SMS). It’s when you spend so much time faking your smile you’re no longer aware you are smiling even in stressful or upsetting experiences. This was painfully true of my mother who was always crying and picking the scab of her emotional wounds. By the time I was three, my sisters and brothers were grown and had their own lives. I thought it was my job to inspire her. “Mommy it’s okay, everything’s going to be alright,” I would say over and over, using my little hands to wipe the tears from her eyes. She would tell me her hopes and dreams about leaving my dad, moving to Arizona and becoming a nurse. As I sat on her lap, in a chair in the front room of our house in Detroit, I would say, “You can still be a nurse mommy, you can still leave.” It was the 1970s, and we had one of those velvet pictures of a black woman with a single tear rolling down her cheek, hanging on the wall. That picture, was symbolic of mother. Even on her happy days, she would dance around the house cleaning and singing her self-made song, “Trust no man, not even your brother, if they must be trusted let them trust one another.” She taught that sad song to me, my two sisters and our daughters. Every tear she cried became a yellow brick I used to build a wall of protection around my own heart. Deep down, I was determined to prove her wrong. The harder I tried; the more I failed.

One night, when I had finally had enough, I cried out to God and he answered, “Google your great-great grandfather.” Wait…what??!!?? My grandfather died in early 1950s, well before the internet was invented. I opened my laptop and did a search for John W. Fields, out of obedience. I was shocked to find: articles; blogs, colorized pictures; lesson plans. His slave narrative had been recorded in 1937 when he was 89 years old. Born a slave, he ran away in 1864 when he was sixteen. He ran from Kentucky to Indiana after overhearing that slaves had been set free and his master had no intention on telling them. In spite of the trauma he endured, he married the woman of his dreams, co-founded a Baptist Church and acquired land. He was healthy and worked until he was 104 years old. He even built several homes on his land, renting houses to white people and living with them in the same neighborhood. 

For the first time, I felt at peace. No longer did I hear mom’s sad song in my head. Instead, I heard a song by Salt “N” Pepa, “What a man, what a man, what a mighty good man…yes he is.” As I drifted off to sleep, I wondered how my life might have been different if this was the song my mother would have sang to me about my great-great grandfather. I slept hard that night, and I had a dream. As I wandered through the wilderness, all of the bricks around my heart fell off and created a yellow brick road to self-discovery.

Excerpt from Black Beautiful Brilliant: The Black Woman's Evolution to Self-discovery, Peace, and Confidence

https://www.amazon.com/Black-Beautiful-Brilliant-Self-discovery-Confidence-ebook/dp/B07RT81VRM

If He Can, We Can
 
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If he can, we can

A few years ago I learned I had, as a legacy, one of the slave narratives from the survivors born into slavery. As I prepared to read about his experience I really didn’t know what to expect. What I read in my great-great grandfather's interview about his life formerly enslaved and as a free man, has impacted me more profoundly than I ever imagined. Through research and revelation I now realize that I not only inherited his resilience, but also his ability to keep open heart in spite of circumstances and his spirit of entrepreneurship.

My name is John W. Fields and I’m eighty-nine (89) years old. I was born March 27, 1848 in Owensburg, Ky. That’s 115 miles below Louisville, Ky. There was 11 other children besides myself in my family. When I was six years old, all of us children were taken from my parents, because my master died and his estate had to be settled.
— John Fields
I can’t describe the heartbreak and horror of that separation. I was only six years old and it was the last time I ever saw my mother for longer than one night. Twelve children taken from my mother in one day. Five sisters and two brothers went to Charleston, Virginia, one brother and one sister went to Lexington Ky., one sister went to Hartford, Ky., and one brother and myself stayed in Owensburg, Ky. 
— John FIelds
When my master’s estate had been settled, I was to go with widow’s relative to her place, she swung me up on her horse behind her and promised me all manner of sweet things if I would come peacefully. I didn’t fully realize what was happening, and before I knew it, I was on my way to my new home. Upon arrival her manner changed, and she took me down to where there was a bunch of men burning brush. At the age of six I started my life as an independent slave.
— john Fields
I immediately resolved to run away
 
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I immediately resolved to run away

What I believe is so remarkable about my great-great grandfather is his mindset on freedom. He understood the systemic implications of slavery, yet did not let it permeate his soul. He remained independent and steadfast in making something of himself and leaving a legacy. He was the kind of man who played by the rules until he realized he was being manipulated unjustly. Then, he found the resolve to throw caution to the wind and fearlessly flee.

At the beginning of the Civil War I was still at this place as a slave. It looked at the first of the war as if the south would win, as most of the big battles were won by the South. This was because we slaves stayed at home and tended the farms and kept their families.
— John FIelds
To eliminate this solid support of the South, the Emancipation Act was passed, freeing all slaves. Most of the slaves were so ignorant they did not realize they were free. The planters knew this and as Kentucky never succeeded from the Union, they would send slaves into Kentucky from other states in the south and hire them out to plantations.
— John FIelds
For these reasons I did not realize that I was free until 1864. I immediately resolved to run away and join the Union Army and so my brother and I went to Owensburg, Kentucky and tried to join. My brother was taken, but I was refused as being too young. I then tried to find work and was finally hired by a man at $7.00 a month. That was my first independent job.
— John Fields
We Are Family
 
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We are family

I decided to finally make a visit to the New York Family History Center and Genealogy in Manhattan to do research on my great-great grandfather, John Fields. Family Search has 4,600 local facilities in 126 countries where anyone can access genealogical records and receive personal assistance with their family history. These centers include the world-famous Family History Library in Salt Lake City, large regional facilities in places like Mesa, Arizona, and Los Angeles, California, and smaller centers that are usually found inside Latter-day Saint meetinghouses.

The Manhattan center was packed with people researching, Elder Adams agreed to talk with me and gave me a quick tour. I learned that the Mormon Church obtained copies of post–Civil War records created by the Freedmen’s Bureau. When the slaves were set free, the Bureau opened schools, managed hospitals, gave food and clothing and legalized marriages during the reconstruction era.  Elder Adams told me that by gathering the handwritten records on roughly 4 million African Americans., the project would digitized the footprints of those born into slavery. FamilySearch, along with the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History, galvanized organizations and people worldwide to help get the files indexed and digitized.

As my tour of the church and family center was coming to an end, I asked Elder Adams why on earth the Mormon Church cared so much about African Americans reconnecting to their roots.  As Elder Adams and I walked down the corridor of the family center together, he looked over at me and answered very sweetly:

We are all brothers and sisters in the afterlife.
— Elder Adams, New York Family History Center and Genealogy