Genealogy

A History

People have always lived in the interstices between black and white.

My family is descended from slaves and slave owners who lived in Maryland, Virginia, and South Carolina. They settled in Washington, D.C. in the nineteenth century.

In 1835, my grandfather’s grandfather, an eighteen-year-old slave named Herbert Harris, is brought to the District of Columbia. His master dies, and Herbert is able to obtain his freedom through the courts. He builds a prosperous real estate business and marries Ellen Carroll.

Charles M Wilder (1837-1902) born a slave in Sumter, South Carolina, Wilder was a self-educated carpenter who represented Richland County in the Constitutional Convention of 1868. He served as deputy marshal and postmaster. He held many party offices during the Reconstruction and was a Director for several white-controlled businesses. After the Reconstruction, Wilder received several appointments from Governor Wade Hampton.