The story of Turner family begins in Africa and continues to this day in Vermont. Through one family’s story, it is possible help students understand the enduring impacts of slavery and grasp the rich cultural traditions preserved and shared through Daisy Turner’s stories.
“This thing is in me. If I just had read it, it would be a different story. But I’ve lived it.”
This website includes lessons and activities connected to 4 key ideas:
Enslaved people were human beings with aspirations, dreams, fears, and families. They resisted their enslavement in small and large ways.
Slavery was an institution designed to create profit for enslavers. Enslaved people were viewed as property and provided their masters with great wealth.
Systemic racism is a foundation of American society. Throughout history Black Vermonters have faced bias and discrimination, and this is still true today.
After slavery, freed people worked to maintain their cultural traditions and create new futures for their families. Stories of enslaved people live on through their descendants.
Alessi married a part-Cherokee woman named Rose, and their son Alexander, or Alec, was born in 1845. In 1862, during the Civil War, Alec escaped from the Gouldin plantation and joined up with the Union Army. At that time he took the last name Turner so Gouldin couldn’t claim him.
Daisy Turner was born to Sally and Alec in 1883. She lived most of her life in Grafton and died in 1988 at the age of 104. In her later years Daisy became a renowned storyteller and much of what we know about the Turner family stems from her reminiscences and oral histories she told to folklorist Jane Beck, which Beck analyzed, corroborated, and contextualized in her book, Daisy Turner’s Kin: An African American Family Saga (2015).
The Lessons
People, Not Numbers
Enslaved people were human beings with aspirations, dreams, fears, and families. They constantly resisted their enslavement in small and large ways.
Lesson: The Turner Family: Resisting Slavery
Story: The Blood-Stained Primer
The Business of Slavery
Slavery was an institution designed to create profit for enslavers. Enslaved people were viewed as property and provided their masters with great wealth.
Race & Implicit Bias
Systemic racism is a foundation of American society. Throughout history Black Vermonters have faced bias and discrimination, and this is still true today.
Lesson: The Turner Family: Encountering Implicit Bias
Story: Daisy’s Black Doll
Building New Lives
After slavery, freed people worked to maintain their cultural traditions and create new futures for their families. Stories of enslaved people live on through their descendants.
Lesson: The Turner Family: Building a New Life
Story: Coming to Vermont
Further Reading
Journey’s End: The Memories and Traditions of Daisy Turner and her Family: Recordings of Daisy Turner
Daisy Turner’s Kin: An African-American Family Saga: Lecture by Jane Beck
Vermont Folklife Center: Daisy Turner
Turner Hill Interpretive Center
Vermont’s African American Heritage Trail created by the Vermont Partnership for Fairness and Diversity
Picture Books
Alec’s Primer, retold by Mildred Pitts Walter
Daisy and the Doll, by Michael Medearis and Angela Shelf Medearis