Fifteen years after its hardcover debut, the FSG Classics reissue of the celebrated work of narrative nonfiction that won the National Book Award and changed the American conversation about race, with a new preface by the author The Ball family hails from South Carolina—Charleston and thereabouts. Their plantations were among the oldest and longest-standing plantations in the South. Between 1698 and 1865, close to four thousand black people were born into slavery under the Balls or were bought by them. In Slaves in the Family, Edward Ball recounts his efforts to track down and meet the descendants of his family's slaves. Part historical narrative, part oral history, part personal story of investigation and catharsis, Slaves in the Family is, in the words of Pat Conroy, "a work of breathtaking generosity and courage, a magnificent study of the complexity and strangeness and beauty of the word ‘family.'"

Ancestors and descendants of Carlisle Bablin (Babylon) Ball (1831-1917) and of his wife, Margaret McVicker (Shreve) Ball, who moved from Kentucky to Grayson County, Texas. Ancestors lived chiefly in Kentucky and Virginia. Descendants lived in Texas, Oklahoma, California and elsewhere.

Ball Family

The Ball family of Dublin and elsewhere in Ireland between the early 1400s and 1918. Includes Ball families in Great Britain and the United States.