Over lunch, we talked about what each of us knew of the Sumner family. I had gone to school with some of the descendants. And Ms. Nicholas had done a fair amount of research about this prominent family for the Historical Society. But when we really started to examine what we knew, it turned out most of our information was pretty general. More like oral history than historical fact. Now, I was never one to discount oral history as valid and useful, but it came with the mystery. That seemed odd for a family as prominent as the Sumners. Even the most withdrawn and quiet wealthy white family in this area typically had a fairly extensively documented history available. That was just the nature of running a plantation. When you had that many people to do your work for you, you had plenty of time
