I was 19.

I was still in college, and I wasn't really, you know, I wasn't a history buff.

And, you know, of course, slavery.

We all knew of slavery.

All knew of the history.

But I went to a predominantly white high school.

So it was like one chapter, and that was it.

This is Tomlin Polite.

Back in 1992, Tomlin was a freshman at South Carolina State, which is about an hour and a half from where she grew up in Charleston.

One day, as she's going about her business, her dad calls.

My dad's like, I need you come home for the weekend.

When Tomlin gets home, she walks in to find her dad standing over her kitchen table. There's a family tree laid out. And there's a man, a white man, there with her dad. Tomlin didn't recognize the man, but she did recognize a couple faces on the family tree. I know, that's my dad, you know, and this is my granddad. The strange man standing in her kitchen was Edward Ball.

Ball had contacted Mr. Polite for one reason.

He had a connection to their family tree.

He kept going back and back and back, and he said, I have traced through my family's records, your family's records,

to this little girl who was named Priscilla by my ancestors.

He said, we don't know her real name, but we know that she was called Priscilla once she

was purchased by Elias Ball.

The moment was surreal.

The descendant of a slave owner had come looking for the descendants of the enslaved.

But this moment was just the beginning of an incredible journey.

Today, the story of Tomlin and Priscilla, which takes us to a small island off the coast of Sierra Leone, called Bunce Island.

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