This project began organically: two families, both with an interest in genealogy and history, started to look for something, not knowing exactly what. My mother is a journalist with a love and obsession for knowledge and truth who, through the exploration of history, set out on a search for her family history. Along the way, she met Paula Whatley Matabane, who lived only one hour away and was on the same search. They were two Southern women who found each other. Their connection was a shared ancestor who was a slave master. My family’s ancestor was the slave master, and Paula’s was the enslaved female. This knowledge was extraordinarily hard for my mother to accept at first. She always thought she was from a poor farming family. Paula, on the other hand, knew of her family history and wanted to open a dialogue.