Juneteenth
This isn’t a story about my ancestors, but it is one worth telling. Growing up in Texas, I was certainly aware of Juneteenth, which has only been a national holiday since 2021 but has been a Texas state holiday since 1980. To me, as a young person, the holiday wasn’t much different from Memorial Day or Independence Day, one of those summer holidays marked by parades and cook-outs and sometimes fireworks.
Her Children Sign from the Breast
In a 1684 treatise with a title far too long to include here, Increase Mather, a noted Puritan minister, set out to describe instances where God had intervened in the world in remarkable and miraculous ways. Among the “illustrious providences” he recounted was the story of my nine times great-grandparents Matthew and Sarah (Hunt) Pratt, both of whom were hearing and speech impaired but who were also respected members of the church and community in 17th century Weymouth, Massachusetts.