The story of how my grand father came to be is like many stories in the south during time of slavery.
John Penniston was born on a plantation named after its owner Mr. Penniston. Mr. Penniston's first name is unknown, but very well may have been John. According to the stories my mother told me, the child John Penniston was the only son born to Mr. Penniston after he had sired two daughters by his wife. The child John was born to a house slave whose name I admit with shame is not known. This would have been the name of my great mother. As the story goes: My grand father grew into a handsome young man light enough to almost pass for white.
My great grand father Mr. Penniston loved his mulatto child and gave him special treatment, much to the chagrin of his to daughters. It was becoming apparent that young John Penniston would receive a portion of the estate at the passing of his father.
The daughters were so incensed that they set out a plot to ruin the relationship between their half brother and their father.
The created stories of John and his mother stealing valuable pieces of silver and gold.
The plot almost worked till one of the daughters exposed herself by wearing an item that she reported stolen by John's mother.
It didn't take Mr. Penniston long to see what was really going on with his girls, and their scam was foiled.
The girls were not finished though.
The next plan would have been the end of my grand father's life if his trusted house slave(my great grand mother) hadn't over heard the daughters talking about poisoning John.
Being a house slave and tending to the comforts of everyone in the house she could be in the house and mostly very quiet as not to disturb the napping family trying to keep cool in the steamy New Orleans afternoons.
Over hearing what seemed to idol conversation, the word poison came floating passed her ear on a hot summer breeze through the opened door of the girls room.
The slave gasped and ran to where her master was laying on his bed on top of his bedding.
Her voice would not be muffled by all the effort she put forth to speak softly.
"Mr. Penniston ". She blurted. "Dem evil girls is trying to kill your son".
She knew how much he loved his son and at that most important moment, gave him full possession of her only child.
"He got to leave this house for day kills him". "Yo boy"!
Right then the evil sisters joined the startled Mr. Penniston and his panic stricken concubine.
"Poppa"! "She's just trying to put her son in a position to take over your land". One of the girls said.
Mr. Penniston was forced to take a firm position. Should he believe his daughters or the mother of his only son.
What he did next would create a life for my grand father that few slaves could ever imagine.
He shipped young john off to his own home land. France! French was spoken in the house of Mr. Penniston and John would have no problem living in France with the rest of the Penniston family that remained there.
John received the education of a wealthy young man from a fine university somewhere in Europe.
A few years later John came back to the U.S., but not to New Orleans. He had become a Pharmacist in Europe and he heard that colored people had settled up the Mississippi and created their own communities where Pharmacist could do very well. St Louis was his home till he met and married Julia. A young very beautiful woman from New Orleans herself, who had moved to St. louis after slavery had been abolished. Julia was mulatto too, but her skin was light enough to pass for white, but she chose not to. As it was in those days as it is today the lighter your skin the easier it was and is to find work, but usually nothing better than domestic help.
John had changed his last name to Douglass as to keep his sisters from finding him and also to make sure that he would be kept from any inheritance he probably wouldn't have gotten anyway.
Douglass may have been the name of his mother who was sold to Mr. Penniston and came to him with that name.
this was the beginning of the Douglass family
Children were the next order of business. First born was Louise, next Mabel, next came Inez(my mother), then John Penniston Douglass and last born was Thea. Aunt Thea was unfortunately killed in a car crash. She had a daughter named Sylvia who was a model in New York and could be found in issues of the still popular "Ebony Magazine". Sylvia was not only beautiful, but very smart and quite a free thinker. She left us a few years ago. To give you an idea of how wonderfully she felt about her family, when she found out that she could not beat her cancer, she decided to visit the home town of her mother, and the remaining relatives.
Her cousins Vincent, Yolande, her son Miles and me. We had a great time talking about everything from including how she felt about the time she had left on this Earth.
She chose to be happy and made sure that everyone she spent time with was a time of celebration of not only her life, but everyone she loved. If she had any fear of what was to come she didn't show it to me. Brave, and beautiful, and loving is how I will remember her. She is survived by her daughter Samantha who accompanied her on her visit to St. Paul.
I hope that when my family reads this posting that they will respond with any information that would make this posting more accurate, like spelling of names and events, pictures,etc. This is your story!
These Stories are from my memories of information given to me by family members with much family pride!
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