When we talk about tracing our routes, I know where I'm from pretty much the South, North

Carolina to be more exact, but if you try to get really specific, there's a lot I don't

know.

B.A. Parker is the co-host of NPR's Code Switch.

She knows exactly where her ancestors came from, a plantation in North Carolina called

Summerset Place.

She's been told her relatives were among the 13 original slaves.

Before B.A. was born, her mother and grandma went to a homecoming there for thousands of

descendants of the plantation.

I can tell you who my great-great-great-grandmother was, and I think that that's the one thing Summerset

taught me, the importance of knowing your ancestry, because you know most white people

know.

You can trace all the way to the main flower, main flower, daughters of the revolution, but

a lot of times black families can't do that.

So what happens when you can visit the very place where your black ancestors lived

and breathed, but it's also the same place where they lived and died as slaves?

This year B.A. and her mom decided it was time to honor their ancestors and take B.A. to

where it all started, Summerset Plantation.

I'm Aisha Roscoe, and this is the Sunday Story.

Here's B.A. with a story of her journey to the plantation.

You can hear more about B.A.'s efforts to trace her roots on M.P.R.'s cold switch podcast.

Lately, I've been trying to figure out what kind of descendant I want to be.

...