Welcome to the website of author and journalist Bill Sizemore.
Bill Sizemore spent eight years researching and writing the story of his slaveowning Virginia ancestors, their slaves, and the descendants of those slaves.
The author's great-great-great-grandfather was a small-time tobacco farmer in Mecklenburg County, Virginia. In contrast to large planters with hundreds of slaves, he was far more typical: He owned fewer than 20. The book traces the lives of generations of African-Americans who descended from his slaves, up to the present day.
Recent Blog Posts
At the birthplace of American slavery, a rally for reparations
Increasingly across the country, Americans are beginning to have a serious conversation about reparations for African-Americans. And what better place to advance that conversation than…
Uncle George and I make our film debut
At a moment when our nation is going through a painful reckoning with its long history of systemic racism, the timing could not be better…
W&M’s Morton Hall: a prime candidate for renaming
Here’s an op-ed I wrote for the Virginia Gazette of Williamsburg (July 11): It’s good news that a working group of administrators, alumni, students, faculty…