Dinah's Legacy

For everything there is a season...this is a season of honor and remembrance for me and my family. Our ancestor, Dinah Miller, was trafficked from Africa to Alabama aboard the Clotilda, the last known ship to traffic Africans illegally for enslavement. This is the season to honor her and call her name.

I am most proud that I get to acknowledge two legacies - as a descendant and a scholar. One legacy is etched in the pain and perseverance of survival, and the other legacy is built from a pursuit of knowledge that stretches far beyond degrees or diplomas. My scholarship is not only rooted in academics but my passion to remember. To reclaim. To restore.

When I create curricula or conduct research, it is my way of preserving her memory and actively honoring her legacy. What would she think of all of her grandchildren if she could see us? Would she be proud of the people we have become and our accomplishments? Each and every day, I strive to live by the wisdom and example of my elders and my ancestors so that I can demonstrate academic rigor. This rigor has manifested in many practical ways, including sharing the history of Grandma Dinah at the recent Clotilda Landing Commemoration in Africatown, AL.

I was so honored to have been asked to share a bit of my 2nd great-grandmother's story. Here's the five-minute speech that I gave under the Africatown bridge on July 5, 2025:

Good morning, I am Dr. Angelia Bendolph, and I am a fifth-generation descendant of Clotilda survivor, Dinah Miller.  I am grateful this morning to honor the memory and legacy of my ancestor, who survived being trafficked across the Atlantic aboard the Clotilda from Africa to Alabama. I am most appreciative about this opportunity to speak her name and remember her by telling parts of her incredible story – her enduring legacy.

Years ago, I remember listening to a TED talk given by Nigerian author Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, titled “The Danger of A Single Story.” The gist of her talk is that when you have only one point of view, you are influenced by that one perspective, so much so that it is hard to receive additional information that differs from the original point of view. That’s what this Landing Ceremony does: it allows the descendants to share their ancestor’s perspective.

I would like to share an excerpt from Dinah’s storytelling, as told by her great-granddaughter, Arlonzia Pettway. I quote:

My great-grandmother came from Africa…We used to sit and listen to her telling us about it…Every day at dinner she would make us bow around her knees so she could tell us her stories. When they landed on this side, there was seven white men waiting. One white man bought twenty-five of them, including her, but not noe of the rest of her family. She was separated from all of them right there and never seen them again…Four big healthy mens, two Indians and two whites was sent to Snow Hill to work with the slaves and get the womens pregnant. So that’s when got pregnant with Sally, my grandmama…Dinah still worked the fields after Sally was born; [she] worked until Grandmama Sally got about seventeen years old. Sally came into Camden and that’s where she met Esau and married him. Later on, they came across the river to Gee’s Bend and worked on the Pettway plantation. End quote

My grandma Dinah had five children: three sons, Shad, John Henry, and Jimmie and two daughters, Sally and Minerva. Dinah and her family had extensive influence on the Gee’s Bend community, located in an isolated area in Wilcox County, an hour southeast of Selma, on a horseshoe bend of the Alabama River. John Henry, her middle son, eventually became the manager of the Gee's Bend estate, and her daughter Sally, who is my great-grandmother, served as the community’s midwife.

There is another legacy that Dinah left behind, her influence on the quiltmaking tradition in Gees Bend. While quiltmaking in Gees Bend was taking place before my grandmother arrived, according to the National Gallery of Art, the art of quiltmaking that has become world-renowned as the quilts of Gees Bend is attributed to my Grandma Dinah. The quilting legacy of Gees Bend that began with my grandmother has endured well over 160 years since she landed in America, in Alabama, a few examples include the establishment of the Freedom Quilting Bee in 1966, Gees Bend quilts subsequent recognition by the art world as works of modern art displayed across the country at art exhibitions in the late 20^th century, and the continued recognition of the community’s quilting tradition in the 21^st century at the annual Airing of the Quilts Festival in Gees Bend.  I am incredibly proud of the legacy and tradition of my Grandma Dinah, as a fifth-generation descendant of my dad’s matrilineal line.

As I close, I want to reiterate the importance of storytelling and legacy. Not only is there a danger in a single story but it also matters who tells the story. I am grateful for the opportunity today to share part of the legacy and story of my 2^nd great grandmother, Dinah Miller, and also I am incredibly honored and privilege to speak her name and pay homage to her agency, resilience, quilting legacy, and her love of family and community that she instilled in her children that has been passed down from generation to generation. Storytelling Matters! Legacy matters!! I am glad that I get to share in honoring both of those traditions with you today! Ase’