Many of Ball's relatives were unhappy with his decision to investigate the family's slave-owning past. They assured him that the Balls were kind and generous masters. Digging up that period would cause trouble, divide people, they warned. Despite the protests, Ball pursued his inquiry, finding written evidence that the image of the benevolent master was far from the truth. Ball began his investigation with the lengthy paper trail, poring over thousands of private and public records.
Old papers are beautiful things.
And in the current fashion of writing history, he tells us everything he learned from them. Unfortunately, there are too many people over three centuries to keep straight. And as favored names reappear in different generations, the reader must shuffle back pages to sort out who fits where. The author also traveled widely to interview descendants of the Ball slaves and soak up family stories handed down from parents and grandparents. Overall, the tangle of names in the oral tradition is as confusing as the maze in the archives.