VOA标准英语2010年-Tracing Family History Gets Easier for
时间:2019-02-06 作者:英语课 分类:VOA标准英语2010年(一月)
Artist James E. Taylor produced this sketch 1 of the Freedmen's Bureau office in Richmond, Virginia, issuing food rations 2 to old and sick former slaves in 1866
Some Americans can trace their heritage back to what we sometimes call the "old country" from which our ancestors came. But the ancestors of millions of blacks were slaves in the American South. They were given only first names, and sometimes the last names of their masters. So African Americans' search for their family roots can be arduous 3. But two historical treasure troves certainly help.
Reconstruction 4 era groups kept detailed 5 records
As the U.S. Civil War of the 1860s wound down, the federal Congress created two agencies to help freed blacks cope with life amid the white southerners who had held them in bondage 7.
One was the Freedmen's Bureau, a sort of social-service agency that helped former slaves record marriages, births and deaths; claim land taken from their former masters and settle legal disputes.
Library of Congress
Fiery 8 abolitionist orator 9 and former escaped slave Frederick Douglass was the last president of the Freedman's Bank
The other was the Freedman's Bank, which was designed to be a safe place to keep their funds.
Each institution kept careful records. These documents would have been extremely helpful to African Americans who, later, were trying to trace their family origins. But they were filed away in boxes or on reels of un-indexed microfilm, useful only to the most dogged of researchers.
Utah prisoners and church members index the archive
But that all changed earlier this decade. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, known as Mormons, meticulously 10 transcribed 11 and then indexed thousands of Freedman's Bank microfilm records onto a single compact disc. More than 500 inmates 12 at Utah State Prison did much of the painstaking 13 work on their own time, not as assigned prison labor 14.
Here's an example of one record on the disc:
"Amanda Harris, brought up – Atlanta, Georgia. No age given. Complexion 15 – yellow. Occupation – 'at home.' Husband – Thomas. Children – Rosa, Bell, Robert, Carol (dead), three died young. Was carried to Atlanta as a child. Taken from her mother by the traders. Was too small to know any of her relatives."
Howard Dodson, a historian and director of the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture in New York City, has said that such records provide what he calls a bridge back across the divide from freedom to slavery.
Freedmen's Bureau records will offer more insights
And the news is also good for those who would like to examine the vast records of the Freedmen's Bureau.
In 2000, Congress ordered that the tattered 16 and yellowed Freedmen's Bureau records stored in thousands of boxes at the National Archives also be indexed and put on microfilm. The job was assigned to Howard University, which was founded in Washington in 1867 by the Freedmen's Bureau commissioner 17. And once again, the Mormons in Utah are helping 18.
Read more of Ted 6's personal reflections and stories from the road on his blog, Ted Landphair's America.
- My sister often goes into the country to sketch. 我姐姐常到乡间去写生。
- I will send you a slight sketch of the house.我将给你寄去房屋的草图。
- They are provisioned with seven days' rations. 他们得到了7天的给养。
- The soldiers complained that they were getting short rations. 士兵们抱怨他们得到的配给不够数。
- We must have patience in doing arduous work.我们做艰苦的工作要有耐性。
- The task was more arduous than he had calculated.这项任务比他所估计的要艰巨得多。
- The country faces a huge task of national reconstruction following the war.战后,该国面临着重建家园的艰巨任务。
- In the period of reconstruction,technique decides everything.在重建时期,技术决定一切。
- He had made a detailed study of the terrain.他对地形作了缜密的研究。
- A detailed list of our publications is available on request.我们的出版物有一份详细的目录备索。
- The invaders gut ted the village.侵略者把村中财物洗劫一空。
- She often teds the corn when it's sunny.天好的时候她就翻晒玉米。
- Masters sometimes allowed their slaves to buy their way out of bondage.奴隶主们有时允许奴隶为自己赎身。
- They aim to deliver the people who are in bondage to superstitious belief.他们的目的在于解脱那些受迷信束缚的人。
- She has fiery red hair.她有一头火红的头发。
- His fiery speech agitated the crowd.他热情洋溢的讲话激动了群众。
- He was so eloquent that he cut down the finest orator.他能言善辩,胜过最好的演说家。
- The orator gestured vigorously while speaking.这位演讲者讲话时用力地做手势。
- The hammer's silvery head was etched with holy runs and its haft was meticulously wrapped in blue leather. 锤子头是纯银制成的,雕刻着神圣符文,而握柄则被精心地包裹在蓝色的皮革中。 来自辞典例句
- She is always meticulously accurate in punctuation and spelling. 她的标点和拼写总是非常精确。 来自辞典例句
- He transcribed two paragraphs from the book into his notebook. 他把书中的两段抄在笔记本上。
- Every telephone conversation will be recorded and transcribed. 所有电话交谈都将被录音并作全文转写。
- One of the inmates has escaped. 被收容的人中有一个逃跑了。 来自《简明英汉词典》
- The inmates were moved to an undisclosed location. 监狱里的囚犯被转移到一个秘密处所。 来自《简明英汉词典》
- She is not very clever but she is painstaking.她并不很聪明,但肯下苦功夫。
- Through years of our painstaking efforts,we have at last achieved what we have today.大家经过多少年的努力,才取得今天的成绩。
- We are never late in satisfying him for his labor.我们从不延误付给他劳动报酬。
- He was completely spent after two weeks of hard labor.艰苦劳动两周后,他已经疲惫不堪了。
- Red does not suit with her complexion.红色与她的肤色不协调。
- Her resignation puts a different complexion on things.她一辞职局面就全变了。
- Her tattered clothes in no way detracted from her beauty.她的破衣烂衫丝毫没有影响她的美貌。
- Their tattered clothing and broken furniture indicated their poverty.他们褴褛的衣服和破烂的家具显出他们的贫穷。
- The commissioner has issued a warrant for her arrest.专员发出了对她的逮捕令。
- He was tapped for police commissioner.他被任命为警务处长。