What do you think?
Rate this book
The Fiddler on Pantico Run: An African Warrior, His White Descendants, A Search for Family
A prize-winning journalist’s quest to uncover the hidden history of his remarkable American family, part black and part white—all descended from an African slave who won his freedom in the Jamestown court in 1672, one of the country’s first free black men.
“My dad’s family was a mystery,” writes prize-winning journalist Joe Mozingo. Growing up, he knew that his mother’s ancestors were from France and Sweden, but he heard only suspiciously vague stories about where his father’s family was from—Italy, Portugal, the Basque country. Then one day, a college professor told him his name may have come from sub-Saharan Africa, which made no sense at Mozingo was a blueeyed white man from the suburbs of Southern California. His family greeted the news as a lark—his uncle took to calling them “Bantu warriors”—but Mozingo set off on a journey to find the truth of his roots.
He soon discovered that all Mozingos in America, including his father’s line, appeared to have descended from a black man named Edward Mozingo who was brought to the Jamestown colony as a slave in 1644 and won his freedom twenty-eight years later. He became a tenant farmer growing tobacco by a creek called Pantico Run, married a white woman, and fathered one of the country’s earliest mixed-race family lineages.
But Mozingo had so many more questions to answer. How had it been possible for Edward to keep his African name? When had some of his descendants crossed over the color line, and when had the memory of their connection to Edward been obscured? The journalist plunged deep into the scattered historical records, traveled the country meeting other Mozingos—white, black, and in between—and journeyed to Africa to learn what he could about Edward’s life there, retracing old slave routes he may have traversed.
The Fiddler on Pantico Run is the beautifully written account of Mozingo’s quest to discover his family’s lost past. A captivating narrative of both personal discovery and historical revelation that takes many turns, the book traces one family line from the ravages of the slave trade on both sides of the Atlantic, to the horrors of the Jamestown colony, to the mixed-race society of colonial Virginia and through the brutal imposition of racial laws, when those who could pass for white distanced themselves from their slave heritage, yet still struggled to rise above poverty. The author’s great-great-great-great-great grandfather Spencer lived as a dirt-poor white man, right down the road from James Madison, then moved west to the frontier, trying to catch a piece of America’s manifest destiny. Mozingos fought on both sides of the Civil War, some were abolitionists, some never crossed the color line, some joined the KKK. Today the majority of Mozingos are white and run the gamut from unapologetic racists to a growing number whose interracial marriages are bringing the family full circle to its mixed-race genesis.
Tugging at the buried thread of his origins, Joe Mozingo has unearthed a saga that encompasses the full sweep of the American story and lays bare the country’s tortured and paradoxical experience with race and the ways in which designations based on color are both illusory and life altering. The Fiddler on Pantico Run is both the story of one man’s search for a sense of mooring, finding a place in a continuum of ancestors, and a lyrically written exploration of lineage, identity, and race in America.
***
From The Fiddler on Pantico Run
As I listened to the dry rasp of the elephant grass, I gazed out over the Kingdom of Kom. A narrow gorge threaded through the lush terrain below, opening into a smoky blue chasm in the distance, the Valley of Too Many Bends. . . . This belt of fertile savannah in western Cameroon rested at a terrible crossroads, with no forest to hide in when the marauders arrived. The kings may have been safe in their fortified isolation, but their people were not. They were taken first by Arab invaders in the Sudan in the north, and then by the southern peoples who found that humans were the commodity Europeans most desired. . . .
Those who survived had been handed from tribe to tribe, through too many hostile foreign territories to dream of escaping and returning home. And then off they went, into the sea.
High on a ridge, three hundred miles by road from the Atlantic, I sat at the headwaters of that outward movement, imagining the people flowing away like the rivers below. I pictured a boy, gazing down into that blue mountain cradle, the grass dry-swishing in the breeze, the drums coming up in the night. A boy suddenly pulled into the current and scrambling to reach the bank. A boy unable to imagine the ocean and sickly white men in big wooden ships and the swampy, malarial settlement called Jamestown where he would be sold to a planter in the year of their lord 1644.
This is the beginning, I said to myself. The beginning of my family’s story, the point just after which my forebears obscured the truth—and n...
“My dad’s family was a mystery,” writes prize-winning journalist Joe Mozingo. Growing up, he knew that his mother’s ancestors were from France and Sweden, but he heard only suspiciously vague stories about where his father’s family was from—Italy, Portugal, the Basque country. Then one day, a college professor told him his name may have come from sub-Saharan Africa, which made no sense at Mozingo was a blueeyed white man from the suburbs of Southern California. His family greeted the news as a lark—his uncle took to calling them “Bantu warriors”—but Mozingo set off on a journey to find the truth of his roots.
He soon discovered that all Mozingos in America, including his father’s line, appeared to have descended from a black man named Edward Mozingo who was brought to the Jamestown colony as a slave in 1644 and won his freedom twenty-eight years later. He became a tenant farmer growing tobacco by a creek called Pantico Run, married a white woman, and fathered one of the country’s earliest mixed-race family lineages.
But Mozingo had so many more questions to answer. How had it been possible for Edward to keep his African name? When had some of his descendants crossed over the color line, and when had the memory of their connection to Edward been obscured? The journalist plunged deep into the scattered historical records, traveled the country meeting other Mozingos—white, black, and in between—and journeyed to Africa to learn what he could about Edward’s life there, retracing old slave routes he may have traversed.
The Fiddler on Pantico Run is the beautifully written account of Mozingo’s quest to discover his family’s lost past. A captivating narrative of both personal discovery and historical revelation that takes many turns, the book traces one family line from the ravages of the slave trade on both sides of the Atlantic, to the horrors of the Jamestown colony, to the mixed-race society of colonial Virginia and through the brutal imposition of racial laws, when those who could pass for white distanced themselves from their slave heritage, yet still struggled to rise above poverty. The author’s great-great-great-great-great grandfather Spencer lived as a dirt-poor white man, right down the road from James Madison, then moved west to the frontier, trying to catch a piece of America’s manifest destiny. Mozingos fought on both sides of the Civil War, some were abolitionists, some never crossed the color line, some joined the KKK. Today the majority of Mozingos are white and run the gamut from unapologetic racists to a growing number whose interracial marriages are bringing the family full circle to its mixed-race genesis.
Tugging at the buried thread of his origins, Joe Mozingo has unearthed a saga that encompasses the full sweep of the American story and lays bare the country’s tortured and paradoxical experience with race and the ways in which designations based on color are both illusory and life altering. The Fiddler on Pantico Run is both the story of one man’s search for a sense of mooring, finding a place in a continuum of ancestors, and a lyrically written exploration of lineage, identity, and race in America.
***
From The Fiddler on Pantico Run
As I listened to the dry rasp of the elephant grass, I gazed out over the Kingdom of Kom. A narrow gorge threaded through the lush terrain below, opening into a smoky blue chasm in the distance, the Valley of Too Many Bends. . . . This belt of fertile savannah in western Cameroon rested at a terrible crossroads, with no forest to hide in when the marauders arrived. The kings may have been safe in their fortified isolation, but their people were not. They were taken first by Arab invaders in the Sudan in the north, and then by the southern peoples who found that humans were the commodity Europeans most desired. . . .
Those who survived had been handed from tribe to tribe, through too many hostile foreign territories to dream of escaping and returning home. And then off they went, into the sea.
High on a ridge, three hundred miles by road from the Atlantic, I sat at the headwaters of that outward movement, imagining the people flowing away like the rivers below. I pictured a boy, gazing down into that blue mountain cradle, the grass dry-swishing in the breeze, the drums coming up in the night. A boy suddenly pulled into the current and scrambling to reach the bank. A boy unable to imagine the ocean and sickly white men in big wooden ships and the swampy, malarial settlement called Jamestown where he would be sold to a planter in the year of their lord 1644.
This is the beginning, I said to myself. The beginning of my family’s story, the point just after which my forebears obscured the truth—and n...
320 pages, Hardcover
First published October 2, 2012
27 people are currently reading
482 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 30 of 52 reviews
September 26, 2012
I won this book in Goodreads Giveaways: A good examination of the meaning of race and heritage on the American sense of identity. What does it mean to a white extended family when one of them digs up an African ancestor? This book finds out - my favorite chapter was after the author published the story of his family and then collected the reactions. Some were pleased, others horrified, many were in denial ("we're Italian!!"). The discussion from white supremacist websites was fascinating - what does it mean to be "white" or "black"; especially in a country where the races have lived side by side, and mixed for hundreds of years? Why does it still matter so much to us? Should the author, or his relatives, feel any different? I really enjoyed getting a look at the American psyche, and the history of the slave trade and racial mixing early in our history. Recommended for anyone who wants to understand racial identity better and likes to ask the question "what if?".
June 17, 2013
As an avid family historian I was immediately drawn to the premise of Joe Mozingo's book, and throughout I found myself often nodding in agreement with the thoughts and feelings he experienced as he journeyed to connect to his long-forgetten slave ancestor.
There's something inherently uncomfortable about a White person exploring the connections to slavery sometimes. I once saw a documentary (thank you, PBS Independent Lens!) on a group of people from Virginia who traveled back to England to where they had an ancestor who they found out was a slave. While visiting the slave barracks relics they were all overcome with emotion until the Black chaperone/escort spoke up and said "You know, you really just don't know what it's like to live with racism. Cry all you want about this man a long time ago, but I live in it now." (I'm paraphrasing, of course.) That was evidenced many times in Mozingo's journey, from the uber-racist shirttail cousins he met in the South to the racism experienced on a airplane in Africa.
In the end, though, I think Mozingo was aware of the complicated nature of his experience and has the proper level of self-awareness to make it work.
There's something inherently uncomfortable about a White person exploring the connections to slavery sometimes. I once saw a documentary (thank you, PBS Independent Lens!) on a group of people from Virginia who traveled back to England to where they had an ancestor who they found out was a slave. While visiting the slave barracks relics they were all overcome with emotion until the Black chaperone/escort spoke up and said "You know, you really just don't know what it's like to live with racism. Cry all you want about this man a long time ago, but I live in it now." (I'm paraphrasing, of course.) That was evidenced many times in Mozingo's journey, from the uber-racist shirttail cousins he met in the South to the racism experienced on a airplane in Africa.
In the end, though, I think Mozingo was aware of the complicated nature of his experience and has the proper level of self-awareness to make it work.
November 30, 2012
Amazing research takes this well beyond the usual tale of chasing our relatives. There is a great deal of history of the slave trade both in Colonial America and Africa--and the various nations who were in Africa and who were part of the slave trading. It was easy to identify with his compulsion to find out more about his family's origins. An excellent exploration of many cultures and many influences across centuries and what they might mean to a contemporary family.
Read
May 3, 2014I just started reading this book after receiving this book from my brother for Christmas. My grandfather was a Mozingo and we too had heard the stories of where our family had come from. Our paternal side was easy-we were German to the core. But the other side was a mystery. This book cracks open the history of our family, the good and the not-so-good. I'm looking forward to learning more.
September 11, 2012
Received as an ARC from the publisher. The author's search for his family's roots leads him to a free black man who came to this country in the 1600's, ultimately resulting in racial intermarriages, until the white man author confronts his white relatives. An excellent history of the slave trade in early America and the racial life in this country and in Africa. Should be required reading for all American History classes.
October 21, 2012
Impeccably researched. Riveting.
December 11, 2012
LOVED this book! A well-researched quest to find family history has surprising and controversial results. It's piqued my thirst for history.
December 13, 2021
I have to admit that the title of this book kind of threw me; rarely is there a book with the phrase "An African Warrior" in the title (written by a man who up until the realization described in this book was regarded by all, including himself, as only ever having had European/European immigrant ancestors) that is not going to be patronizingly colonial. However, once I actually got past the title and started reading, I was drawn into unraveling the historical/ancestral/genealogical mystery. The whim of archiving that preserved the first Mozingo in America's suit for his freedom is so incredible; I can't imagine what it would be like to see my family name written in a document from the 1600s, period, let alone the other revelations included in that document.
So this book is definitely a good fit for anyone who enjoys genealogy and the thrill of the research chase. But even beyond a simple "hey here are my ancestors and how I trace back," the author provides well-written, well-researched, and informed insight into the different time periods of each of the different eras of his family. I particularly appreciated not just that he cited his sources (nerd that I am), but that he made it clear throughout the narrative how much of his journey was influenced by the help and generosity of distant family members, researchers, and historical experts he worked with along the way. I don't know how much of it is a reflection of my own listening habits, but as I was reading, I could 100% imagine this as a podcast; not just the transcriptions and elaborations of interviews, but the vivid scene setting of the different areas the author journeyed to along his quest.
I do wish the author had authored other books, because after reading this, I'd definitely read another by him. Oh well, time to go archival newspaper column spelunking.
Disclaimer: Received this book for free through Goodreads' First Reads giveaway program.
So this book is definitely a good fit for anyone who enjoys genealogy and the thrill of the research chase. But even beyond a simple "hey here are my ancestors and how I trace back," the author provides well-written, well-researched, and informed insight into the different time periods of each of the different eras of his family. I particularly appreciated not just that he cited his sources (nerd that I am), but that he made it clear throughout the narrative how much of his journey was influenced by the help and generosity of distant family members, researchers, and historical experts he worked with along the way. I don't know how much of it is a reflection of my own listening habits, but as I was reading, I could 100% imagine this as a podcast; not just the transcriptions and elaborations of interviews, but the vivid scene setting of the different areas the author journeyed to along his quest.
I do wish the author had authored other books, because after reading this, I'd definitely read another by him. Oh well, time to go archival newspaper column spelunking.
Disclaimer: Received this book for free through Goodreads' First Reads giveaway program.
October 1, 2019
This is the story of a white man who discovers he has African ancestry and that some of the branches of his family tree have retained a sense of themselves as black whereas others have fully assimilated into the category of "white" and deny their black heritage.
The Fiddler on Pantico Run is a great read--Mozingo uses all his journalistic skills honed over a full career in the field to plan, travel, research, and investigate various threads of this history. He uncovers his own personal family connection to the trans-Atlantic slave trade and the ways in which the law and the status of blacks in America shifted like the proverbial sands. His earliest ancestor on American soil, for instance, was granted his freedom after a period of indentured servitude, and early free blacks could (legally) and often did marry whites. But then the law might change, and a marriage be deemed invalid or property or even one's own freedom taken away. Mozingo really shows how unhinging that must have been for people to live through. He does a great job of balancing speculation and story-imagining with acknowledgement that the hard facts are few and far between from those early days.
Mozingo's book also tells two contemporary stories--one is of his travels to and experiences in Africa, where he travels to try to understand what it must have been like to have been kidnapped and sold to whites. He notes how various African peoples kidnapped and sold other African peoples to white slavers, and he traces back names similar to his own to various possible areas of origin. The conversations he has with Africans along the way and the kindness they show him as he searches form a moving story on their own.
Then there is the story of all the Mozingo relatives he traces in the U.S., both black and white. He faces up to the racism of some of the white branches of the family who insist that the name originated in Spain, and he shows quite clearly that the strict delineation between black and white is absurd in a world packed with mixed-race people.
Throughout, Mozingo does an amazing job translating years of research, eons of history, and a complex personal journey. An excellent read.
The Fiddler on Pantico Run is a great read--Mozingo uses all his journalistic skills honed over a full career in the field to plan, travel, research, and investigate various threads of this history. He uncovers his own personal family connection to the trans-Atlantic slave trade and the ways in which the law and the status of blacks in America shifted like the proverbial sands. His earliest ancestor on American soil, for instance, was granted his freedom after a period of indentured servitude, and early free blacks could (legally) and often did marry whites. But then the law might change, and a marriage be deemed invalid or property or even one's own freedom taken away. Mozingo really shows how unhinging that must have been for people to live through. He does a great job of balancing speculation and story-imagining with acknowledgement that the hard facts are few and far between from those early days.
Mozingo's book also tells two contemporary stories--one is of his travels to and experiences in Africa, where he travels to try to understand what it must have been like to have been kidnapped and sold to whites. He notes how various African peoples kidnapped and sold other African peoples to white slavers, and he traces back names similar to his own to various possible areas of origin. The conversations he has with Africans along the way and the kindness they show him as he searches form a moving story on their own.
Then there is the story of all the Mozingo relatives he traces in the U.S., both black and white. He faces up to the racism of some of the white branches of the family who insist that the name originated in Spain, and he shows quite clearly that the strict delineation between black and white is absurd in a world packed with mixed-race people.
Throughout, Mozingo does an amazing job translating years of research, eons of history, and a complex personal journey. An excellent read.
April 25, 2013
What's in a name? More than you could ever imagine for journalist Joe Mozingo. His name had always puzzled him, was it Italian? European? Joe Mozingo decides to find out. His decision will change his life. He travels from California to Indiana to Virginia to the Carolinas and finally to Africa. On the way he meets family members from every possible group from conservative rural folks to city dwelling people who really did not care where the name came from.
He finds when he reaches Cameroon and Angola that his last name Mozingo appears in a variety of forms and settings. He starts with Edward Mozingo who arrives as a slave in 1640's Virginia begins his quest from there.
This book is compelling, emotional and most of all a primer on the idea that ancestors do matter and they do reach across time and space to reach the current generation if only to say-- I was here, I am here, I am the thread that holds us all together.
Pragmatic, funny and intriguing-- this book is a real page turner-- you will start to wonder about your own family's connections. Highly recommend this wonderful book!
He finds when he reaches Cameroon and Angola that his last name Mozingo appears in a variety of forms and settings. He starts with Edward Mozingo who arrives as a slave in 1640's Virginia begins his quest from there.
This book is compelling, emotional and most of all a primer on the idea that ancestors do matter and they do reach across time and space to reach the current generation if only to say-- I was here, I am here, I am the thread that holds us all together.
Pragmatic, funny and intriguing-- this book is a real page turner-- you will start to wonder about your own family's connections. Highly recommend this wonderful book!
February 9, 2013
This story was quite intriguing as I also research my family history and genealogy. Reading about the author's journey, both figurative and literal, to find his history was interesting, but also, at some points, fell flat. I found it difficult to understand the inclusion of all of the people that were portrayed in the book. The story would have been just as interesting if some of the more stereotypical "rednecks" were left out of the story. I understand the larger picture Mozingo was trying to paint of the racial issue within his extended family and, in a larger sense, the racial picture that paints of the United States. His family's story is a microcosm of the story of race in the United States. However, it was a bit drawn out in places. A few of the "rednecks" would have sufficed, in my opinion. Overall, a decent read about a man trying to connect with his family history and to learn about his origins.
October 18, 2012
Excellent!!!
A Fantastic story about finding ones family's roots and following them all the way to the present. I's also a great way to learn about our country's history as well as the slave trading that went on and all early settlements on the east Coast.
He made his entire family's tree bloom with life and excitement as well as hardships and tears through many different generations. I found it extremely interesting from the very first page to the very last page. Great book and highly recommended by me. I have so many friends that want to read this now.
I won a copy of it on Goodreads.com and very pleased about it.
A Fantastic story about finding ones family's roots and following them all the way to the present. I's also a great way to learn about our country's history as well as the slave trading that went on and all early settlements on the east Coast.
He made his entire family's tree bloom with life and excitement as well as hardships and tears through many different generations. I found it extremely interesting from the very first page to the very last page. Great book and highly recommended by me. I have so many friends that want to read this now.
I won a copy of it on Goodreads.com and very pleased about it.
August 12, 2013
I got interested in this book after I heard Joe Mozingo interviewed on the NPR show Fresh Air. His search for his family's ancestral roots & the meaning of those roots makes for a compelling story.
But it really is so much more than that. Mozingo's artistry with language transcends the story of one man's quest for the truth about his geneology. It's the story of the whole of humanity.
As he unpacks the loaded question of, "What is my race?" Mozingo comes to understand that "Now and then an obvious fact of life hits like a revelation, and this one hit me then: every person, every leaf, every fish, every dog and virus traces back to the beginning of life."
But it really is so much more than that. Mozingo's artistry with language transcends the story of one man's quest for the truth about his geneology. It's the story of the whole of humanity.
As he unpacks the loaded question of, "What is my race?" Mozingo comes to understand that "Now and then an obvious fact of life hits like a revelation, and this one hit me then: every person, every leaf, every fish, every dog and virus traces back to the beginning of life."
May 1, 2013
Joe Mozingo is an investigative reporter who wondered about his unusual sir name until the day he stopped wondering and began investigating. His journey takes him to the other side of the country from his home in southern California and beyond, to Africa. Along the way he is introduced to the depths of current racism in the US as well as to complete acceptance of mixed race families. I found it fascinating and easy to read. A must read for fans of Who Do You Think You Are?
January 31, 2016
I really enjoyed the first 3/4 of this book, about a white man searching for his black ancestor, but I thought it bogged down at the end with the history of Portugal and Africa. Edward Mozingo and his decscendants were just so interesting to me that I didn't want to leave them to hear about anything else, but this book has a lot to teach about racial identity in America in the story of this amazing familiy.
July 6, 2013
I hope Joe Mozingo continues to write and research. This is a brave and carefully crafted that reads like the best mysteries. I stopped before finishing, because I didn't want his storytelling to end. My only regret is that Mr. Mozingo is not sharing his skills and work ethic to young journalists throughout the world.
January 2, 2013
Great book. Since I work in the genealogy division of a library I, of course, enjoyed the genealogical search by the author. I learned more about the importation of slaves than I had known before and it wasn't pretty.
December 30, 2013
An interesting search for ancestors in Africa post-Alex Haley. Quite riveting and a brave effort by the writer. Do not read if you aren't open minded about miscegenation cover-ups in the good ole USA.
June 4, 2016
One of the best non-fiction books I've read in a while. Beautifully written.
March 15, 2021
Super interesting history of a variant of my Grandma's maiden name. Turns out we are not from France as previously described but rather from the African Congo.
November 16, 2017
This non-fiction account of the white author's search for the African roots of his family name is partly a piece of journalistic research and partly a personal memoir. It never fully succeeds at being either, but it does contain a number of interesting historical and personal insights. He traces his genealogical roots to the area around colonial Jamestown, Virginia. There all the Mozingos appear to have originated from Edward Mozingo, an African slave brought there in 1644 and who won his freedom in a court case in 1672. Edward married a white woman and his children and their issue eventually spawned both black and white family trees.
Now, over three hundred years later, most white Mozingos think their name derived from Italian or Basque forbears. Some joined the KKK while others learned of their African roots and embraced them. The author interviewed dozens of Mozingos or relatives of the original white owner of Edward as well as academics and historians. The Mozingos he interviewed ranged from middle class whites and blacks to what some uncharitable folks might term white trash - poor, relatively uneducated, and bigoted, although also often welcoming and open, at least until the topic of their name possibly being African arose. After traveling the U.S. researching his name, the author flew to Africa to try to trace Edward's origins further. He found Mozingo to be a common name in Cameroon and Angola. He was welcomed in both countries.
The book was fascinating for me because I recently learned that despite being very white (blond, blue eyes) I, too, have an African ancestor. Reliable family and census records establish that my paternal great great grandfather married a woman who was the granddaughter of an Alexander Fuller in North Carolina who was described in a store account of 1763-1765 as a mulatto carpenter. Like Edward, my ancestor was free, practicing a trade, running store credit and owning land. He, too, married a white woman and all his grandchildren were listed in later census records as white. Unlike Mozingo, I was never able to identify the likely black African man who first reached American soil. I know it was a man, though, because various DNA relatives of mine named Fuller carry an African haplotype (a genetic marker than can come from only one parent) on their Y chromosome. In researching my own history I learned that intermarriage was quite common back then and not frowned on or made illegal as later when racism set in hard. Many African slaves were freed after a period of indentured servitude, just as the poor Irish and English were. The author gives an eye-opening account of life in those times.
One area where he falls short, though, is that he never really establishes his direct connection to Edward. He had his DNA tested and he did not have the African haplotype on his Y chromosome that would mark him as a direct descendant along the male line. He speculates that he descended from one of Edward's unmarried daughters who kept the Mozingo name. In fact, he speculates about a lot of things. The book is filled with his many accounts of things based on little more than his imagination "I could envision so-and-so sitting here..." "Perhaps this is where such and such might have happened" "I felt like ...." The author's travels in Africa bear the same problems. He goes to various villages and talks to many experts, but never really establishes where Edward came from. He does paint an extraordinary picture of slavery in Africa that preceded the European and American slave trade and continued long afterward. I certainly cannot defend the horrific slavery era in the U.S., but compared to what those same slaves might have experienced in Africa, they might actually have been better off. Slave trade in Africa continued into the 1950s and might even still be occurring there today.
Another failing is in the DNA arena. He does not have the African haplotype, but there are plenty of other African genes. He never reveals whether his DNA test showed him to have any African ancestry at all. Mine did, which helped me to trace where it came from despite it being less than 1% of my DNA. Because there was one female in my line, I do not have that haplotype either, but do have a third or fourth cousin who is 70% sub-Saharan African. I get the feeling the author was padding his book with speculation in part as filler and in part as wishful thinking of himself as a sort of white Roots story. He spends a lot of verbiage describing local countryside, his hotel accommodations, and the booze he is obviously quite fond of. It would be a better book without this. Even so, you can gain a very good insight into the colonial era African-American experience on both sides of the Atlantic from this book.
Now, over three hundred years later, most white Mozingos think their name derived from Italian or Basque forbears. Some joined the KKK while others learned of their African roots and embraced them. The author interviewed dozens of Mozingos or relatives of the original white owner of Edward as well as academics and historians. The Mozingos he interviewed ranged from middle class whites and blacks to what some uncharitable folks might term white trash - poor, relatively uneducated, and bigoted, although also often welcoming and open, at least until the topic of their name possibly being African arose. After traveling the U.S. researching his name, the author flew to Africa to try to trace Edward's origins further. He found Mozingo to be a common name in Cameroon and Angola. He was welcomed in both countries.
The book was fascinating for me because I recently learned that despite being very white (blond, blue eyes) I, too, have an African ancestor. Reliable family and census records establish that my paternal great great grandfather married a woman who was the granddaughter of an Alexander Fuller in North Carolina who was described in a store account of 1763-1765 as a mulatto carpenter. Like Edward, my ancestor was free, practicing a trade, running store credit and owning land. He, too, married a white woman and all his grandchildren were listed in later census records as white. Unlike Mozingo, I was never able to identify the likely black African man who first reached American soil. I know it was a man, though, because various DNA relatives of mine named Fuller carry an African haplotype (a genetic marker than can come from only one parent) on their Y chromosome. In researching my own history I learned that intermarriage was quite common back then and not frowned on or made illegal as later when racism set in hard. Many African slaves were freed after a period of indentured servitude, just as the poor Irish and English were. The author gives an eye-opening account of life in those times.
One area where he falls short, though, is that he never really establishes his direct connection to Edward. He had his DNA tested and he did not have the African haplotype on his Y chromosome that would mark him as a direct descendant along the male line. He speculates that he descended from one of Edward's unmarried daughters who kept the Mozingo name. In fact, he speculates about a lot of things. The book is filled with his many accounts of things based on little more than his imagination "I could envision so-and-so sitting here..." "Perhaps this is where such and such might have happened" "I felt like ...." The author's travels in Africa bear the same problems. He goes to various villages and talks to many experts, but never really establishes where Edward came from. He does paint an extraordinary picture of slavery in Africa that preceded the European and American slave trade and continued long afterward. I certainly cannot defend the horrific slavery era in the U.S., but compared to what those same slaves might have experienced in Africa, they might actually have been better off. Slave trade in Africa continued into the 1950s and might even still be occurring there today.
Another failing is in the DNA arena. He does not have the African haplotype, but there are plenty of other African genes. He never reveals whether his DNA test showed him to have any African ancestry at all. Mine did, which helped me to trace where it came from despite it being less than 1% of my DNA. Because there was one female in my line, I do not have that haplotype either, but do have a third or fourth cousin who is 70% sub-Saharan African. I get the feeling the author was padding his book with speculation in part as filler and in part as wishful thinking of himself as a sort of white Roots story. He spends a lot of verbiage describing local countryside, his hotel accommodations, and the booze he is obviously quite fond of. It would be a better book without this. Even so, you can gain a very good insight into the colonial era African-American experience on both sides of the Atlantic from this book.
January 22, 2020
The author's last name is one of two known African-American surnames that originated in Africa. He wanted to learn about his father's family history, and given the hint that it may have come from Africa began a search for long deceased ancestors and people living today, white and black, with his same last name. He has an interesting family history.
November 14, 2020
Wonderful example of genealogical research motivated by a personal connection. While the author makes assumptions which might set the teeth of a rigorous genealogist on edge, it is still great coverage of an man of mystery and his many descendants.
September 1, 2013
This book is profound, relevant and interesting. It is about identity, genetic and cultural heredity. The author is on a quest that is meaningful to him, and to us.
A black slave, 'Edward' Mozinago, was probably 10-15 when he arrived in the Virginia area in the 16th century. He retained his name (Mozinago) which was rare for slaves of this era. Edward was probably literate in his native tongue., a 'princeling' on the losing side of an intertribal conflict in Africa. Edward successfully sues for his freedom after 30 years of service in the colonies, then lives out his life as a respected free man.
As Edward's descendants pass through the 16th, 17th and 18th century, the author shows how the color line became more of a barrier, race became more 'codified', slaves became an economic necessity to large tract tobacco farmers. Edward's descendants that could pass as white, learned to carefully guard their status. Over time, the 'secret' of their African ancestor was not spoken, until it was forgotten. Yet, an unconscious defensiveness was perhaps inherited in their 'biological-emotional' evolution--producing some of our modern stereotypical racist rednecks. When one of their daughters defies their norms to marry a 'black' man, these ancestors of Edward reject them from the family.
The economic/cultural background to the African sellers and Spanish, English and Dutch buyers of African slaves gives larger context to our moral dilemmas. Man may be rational, but his logic (and religion?) is too often used as a tool to justify whatever is in his or her best interest.
A black slave, 'Edward' Mozinago, was probably 10-15 when he arrived in the Virginia area in the 16th century. He retained his name (Mozinago) which was rare for slaves of this era. Edward was probably literate in his native tongue., a 'princeling' on the losing side of an intertribal conflict in Africa. Edward successfully sues for his freedom after 30 years of service in the colonies, then lives out his life as a respected free man.
As Edward's descendants pass through the 16th, 17th and 18th century, the author shows how the color line became more of a barrier, race became more 'codified', slaves became an economic necessity to large tract tobacco farmers. Edward's descendants that could pass as white, learned to carefully guard their status. Over time, the 'secret' of their African ancestor was not spoken, until it was forgotten. Yet, an unconscious defensiveness was perhaps inherited in their 'biological-emotional' evolution--producing some of our modern stereotypical racist rednecks. When one of their daughters defies their norms to marry a 'black' man, these ancestors of Edward reject them from the family.
The economic/cultural background to the African sellers and Spanish, English and Dutch buyers of African slaves gives larger context to our moral dilemmas. Man may be rational, but his logic (and religion?) is too often used as a tool to justify whatever is in his or her best interest.
April 1, 2013
I read Mozingo's articles in the LA Times and loved them. It took a while before I got the book. I liked the book because it talks about ancestry, and most of us, like the author, have no idea what our ancestory is. Mozingo's was intriguing because it's truly rare.
I felt as if his discovery left many questions begging to be asked. I've had some similar experiences, looking at my family tree, like, "oh... hey, that part of the family tree isn't forking..." or my mom and aunt visited some kin, who I met a long long time ago, but wouldn't recognize if they rang my doorbell, and they gave mom a picture of my great great grandma, who happened to be Cherokee. Not that I can do anything about my progenitors marrying cousins, nor do I feel any closer to my native American roots, but it's funny. In Mozingo's case, it was ironic, and not as funny, some family refused to believe, or acknowledge the overwhelming body of evidence.
The book petered out, without an epiphany about who Joe Mozingo really is. As unfortunate as this sounds, it is stuffed with wonderful observations of bias, prejudice, expectations, and understanding.
Read it. It's american, deluded, self depricating, self egrandizing, and most of all, honestly introspective. If all my future reads make me ponder life and relationships this much, I'll be a richer man.
I felt as if his discovery left many questions begging to be asked. I've had some similar experiences, looking at my family tree, like, "oh... hey, that part of the family tree isn't forking..." or my mom and aunt visited some kin, who I met a long long time ago, but wouldn't recognize if they rang my doorbell, and they gave mom a picture of my great great grandma, who happened to be Cherokee. Not that I can do anything about my progenitors marrying cousins, nor do I feel any closer to my native American roots, but it's funny. In Mozingo's case, it was ironic, and not as funny, some family refused to believe, or acknowledge the overwhelming body of evidence.
The book petered out, without an epiphany about who Joe Mozingo really is. As unfortunate as this sounds, it is stuffed with wonderful observations of bias, prejudice, expectations, and understanding.
Read it. It's american, deluded, self depricating, self egrandizing, and most of all, honestly introspective. If all my future reads make me ponder life and relationships this much, I'll be a richer man.
July 31, 2013
Interesting book about a White reporter who decides to study the origin of his unusual last name "Mozingo." The book was full of interesting facts -- e.g., this was one of only a handful of African names to survive slavery. The book was also an interesting commentary on racism in America -- many of his distant relatives refused to believe that they had any black blood. But ultimately, the book was a bit boring. He chronicled his meetings with members of the various branches of the family all across the US, but most of those people were just not that interesting. Also, the author added VERY long, long quotes (some lasting multiple pages) from Faulkner and other authors. I don't mind a relevant quote here and there, but why do authors do this? At one point he was describing his research into the family history to his parents, and their eyes started to cloud over -- and this was information that was actually relevant to them. That's how I felt at several points in this book.
May 20, 2015
This was a very good book, well written and full of interesting historical information, especially for anyone interested in genealogy and family history. I really enjoyed reading this, with a few reservations. One peculiar statement that had nothing to do with the author's search for his family history: "Children form no lasting memories before grade school." What an out-of-place and untrue statement! The author or his editor should have caught this mistake and removed it before publication. And I wish the author had made a bigger deal about the long-lost fiddle that had belonged to his ancestor. Although the fiddle was never found, for the sake of the narrative, I wish he had mentioned it more often: made a bigger deal out of wishing it could be located. On a positive note, there was lots of humor adding to the enjoyment of the story. I found this witty and talented author's dedication and determination to be admirable and remarkable.
December 20, 2012
This was an interesting book about a journalist who wanted to know where his name came from. He is a white man living in Los Angeles when he finds out that his last name, Mozingo, probably came from Africa. He sets out on a quest to find the truth. He meets all kinds of people with that last name. Racists who cannot believe that the name is not Italian to black descendants. Some have even intermarried with blacks and whites. It is interesting that he tried to find out exactly when the first ancestor to cross the color line did it and there is no written record. Someone was light enough and no one questioned the race card even in those pivotal days just before and after the Civil War. Mozingo after his travels around the United States does make it to Africa and finds his name, but of course there are no relatives because his family had been here before the American Revolution.
March 13, 2016
l found this a fascinating account of one man's journey to discover who his ancestors were. He knew where his mother's ancestors were from, but he had heard only vague stories about where his father's family was from.
It was after being told by a college professor that his name may have come from Africa. That made no sense to him because he was a blue eyed white man.
He found out that everyone in America with his last name appeared to be descended from a black man who was brought to America as a slave in 1644.
It was after being told by a college professor that his name may have come from Africa. That made no sense to him because he was a blue eyed white man.
He found out that everyone in America with his last name appeared to be descended from a black man who was brought to America as a slave in 1644.
June 27, 2013
I was really excited to see a book about genealogy written for the general public, but I was a little disappointed in The Fiddler on Pantico Run. The author's linkages of his ancestors were often tenuous, and several wouldn't stand up in the professional world. Still, it was an interesting unfolding of his unusual African roots. The best part of the book was the exploration of a family moving from black to white to black again over generations.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 52 reviews