Columbia, SC - The precise number of African people transported to North America as part of the slave trade is unknown. Once sold, these men, women and children ended up living and dying in obscurity. It is rare to be able to pick out the thread of one slave’s life from this human tapestry and follow it down through history to the present day, even more unusual when that slave is a child.

In 1756, Priscilla, a ten year old girl from Sierra Leone was sold at auction to Elias Ball, a wealthy rice planter in South Carolina. Beginning in February, the story of her life and the family tree she founded will be the subject of a new exhibit, Finding Priscilla’s Children, at the South Carolina State Museum.

Priscilla’s story is told through a document trail that goes back 256 years beginning with her trip from Sierra Leone on the Rhode Island slave ship Hare and tracing her life on the Ball plantation. Dying in slavery at age sixty-five, she was survived by her ten children. While researching his own family tree, Edward Ball, a descendant of Elias Ball discovered Priscilla’s history allowing the seventh generation of Priscilla’s descendants to eventually be re-united with her fellow countrymen in Sierra Leone.

“When I saw the exhibit at the New York Historical Society, I was struck by the fact it was about a child,” said Curator of History Elaine Nichols. “Since children are a part of all families, Priscilla’s story has broad appeal as a personal story about connections and associations.”

In conjunction with the exhibit, the SC State Museum will offer a genealogy workshop on February 16 to guide African Americans in researching their own personal family heritage.

Finding Priscilla’s Children can been seen Feb. 15 through May 11. For more information contact Elaine Nichols at (803) 898-4953 or www.southcarolinastatemuseum.org.