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The Shields Family: A Dichotomy Of Race In Us Society Through Two Family Lines, Joseph C. Platt
The Shields Family: A Dichotomy Of Race In Us Society Through Two Family Lines, Joseph C. Platt
Methods of Historical Research: Spring 2021
The history of the Shields families of North and South Carolina, beginning with William Bryant Shields Sr. and Moses Shields respectively, offer dichotomous responses to American racial hierarchies over the decades. Generations of race mixing within the Shields family has its roots in the sons of Irish immigrants pursuing relationships with enslaved women. The one-sided nature of the power dynamic in these relationships takes on different dimensions in the lives of the mixed-race children of William Bryant Shields Sr. and the lives of Moses’ son, Henry Wells Shields, Henry’s slave Melvinia Shields, and her children. Both family lines take efforts …