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Enslaved people were overwhelmingly denied access to education, and in turn there are limited archival sources penned by enslaved African Americans themselves. To understand the lives and history of enslaved people and their descendants, other sources like genealogy and oral histories play an important role.

In this live Q&A with author and genealogist B. Bernetiae Reed discusses her book, The Slave Families of Thomas Jefferson, and the meticulous genealogical research she conducted to write it.