Bessida White and the Search for the Menokin Enslaved
Bessida White (center), with Descendants of the Enslaved Persons at Menokin Karen Beverly (left) and Judith A. Gordon (right)
We celebrate Bessida White’s historic work with the Descendants of the Enslaved Persons of Menokin to discover their their ancestral roots and forging lifelong friendships rooted in shared experience.
Read the account of Bessida’s work with the Search for Menokin Enslaved here!
Bessida White of Middlesex County is an activist, genealogist, and retired attorney whose interests include Africana history and culture, and African American, women’s, and LGBTQ+ rights. She became the first black woman to serve on the bench in Virginia when appointed a substitute judge of the General District Court of the City of Richmond in 1983. White has served as a founder, officer, and board member for numerous legal, women’s rights, historical, fine arts, and genealogical organizations across the state and nation.
Bessida collaborated with Menokin to found and launch the Menokin Descendant Engagement Team in its mission to encourage, facilitate and enhance research about Menokin’ enslaved population and their descendants. Ms. White brings an incredible methodical and thorough approach to her research coupled with the ability to connect on a human level with the descendants of Menokin as they discover their ancestors as a direct result of her dedicated work.
In September of 2018, Bessida was engaged by the Menokin Foundation to identify persons who were enslaved at Menokin and to locate their present-day descendants.
The scope of this phase of the Menokin search was limited to those persons enslaved by the last Menokin enslaver, Richard Henry Harwood, during his ownership of Menokin from 1837 to 1865. Multiple record types were searched. However, just four categories of records were found to provide information about the Menokin enslaved. Within two months of the launching of the project, numerous Menokin descendants were identified and contact was made with them.