Awards
Awards
Awards
A History
People have always lived in the interstices between black and white.
My family is descended from slaves and slave owners who lived in Maryland, Virginia, and South Carolina. They settled in Washington, D.C. in the nineteenth century.

In 1835, my grandfather’s grandfather, an eighteen-year-old slave named Herbert Harris, is brought to the District of Columbia. His master dies, and Herbert is able to obtain his freedom through the courts. He builds a prosperous real estate business and marries Ellen Carroll.

Charles M Wilder
1837-1902
Herbert Harris (center)
1816-1879

Caroline Wilder Harris
1865-1939

Herbert Harris II
1894-1966


Minnie Carsten
1862-1933
Bertram Welsh
b. 1901

Ellen Carroll Harris
b. 1826
Charles M Wilder (1837-1902) born a slave in Sumter, South Carolina, Wilder was a self-educated carpenter who represented Richland County in the Constitutional Convention of 1868. He served as deputy marshal and postmaster. He held many party offices during the Reconstruction and was a Director for several white-controlled businesses. After the Reconstruction, Wilder received several appointments from Governor Wade Hampton.

William Harris
1854-1928

Alice M Harris
1900-1999

Frank Nell
1896-1918
Charles M. Wilder
1837-1902