Henry Louis Gates, Jr. investigates the life of a slave known only as Priscilla. As just a young girl, Priscilla was purchased at a slave auction in South Carolina by a rice planter, Elias Ball. She arrived on Ball’s South Carolina rice plantation in 1756, alone, without family. Ball valued children as a long-term investment. He bought six children, none of them older than ten. In a memoir, Ball advised, “Do two things with your money, buy land, and buy young slaves.”

Source: Priscilla, a Slave | The African Americans: Many Rivers to Cross | PBS