I Am Nobody's Slave: How Uncovering My Family's History Set Me Free HarperCollins Publishers
By Marybeth Gasman, Forbes, Image: screenshot from article, January 14, 2025
In I am Nobody’s Slave: How Uncovering My Family’s History Set Me Free, Lee Hawkins examines his family’s legacy of trauma and bold resilience as a result of enslavement. He draws on historical data, oral history interviews, genetic testing, and genealogical research to tell a powerful story that has led to healing despite the intense trauma imposed upon the family. I had a chance to talk with Hawkins about his work.
I started by asking what the most transformative moment in uncovering his family’s history was and how it contributed to a sense of personal freedom for him. Hawkins stated, “My father left Alabama at twelve, joining one of his older sisters and her husband in Minnesota as part of the Great Migration. His mother had passed, and he was the youngest of fourteen, deeply affected by her death. Though my grandmother had little formal education, she was wise enough to make it her final wish that her children leave Alabama in the early 1960s. My aunt and her husband honored that wish, so just days after the funeral, my father was on his way to Minnesota in a 1961 Ford Fairlane with two of his sisters. Leaving his father, who couldn’t raise four teenage girls and a young boy alone, was a struggle in itself.”
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