Eager family history
All Americans share the inheritance of our country’s convoluted history. We need to own this national history as the predicate for building a better future. For Bob Eager, his family history is deeply embedded in a difficult past and has compelled him to confront his complex heritage.
Beginning in the early colonial period, Bob’s family tree includes numerous examples both of “hard history” and civic accomplishment.
Most of Bob's ancestors were Southerners who lived in the slave states or later in the Jim Crow South—where racism and discrimination were embedded. Many were owners of enslaved persons in colonial Maryland, Revolutionary New York, and antebellum North Carolina.
These facts about his ancestry parallel the country’s history. The "hard facts" are that the U.S. economy integrated the cotton slave economy. The economic activity and wealth generated by slavery hugely benefitted White Americans and shaped the whole American economy. This historical reality is shared by all Americans today.
Eager family stories illustrate connections between family history and national history:
Signer of the Declaration of Independence
William Floyd (1734-1821), Bob's direct ancestor, was one of the largest landowners on Long Island, NY, and holder of many enslaved African-Americans. He was also a Revolutionary War general and a signer of the Declaration of Independence as a member of the Continental Congress.
As owner of a 'northern plantation,' he had much in common with Southern members of the Continental Congress. He was close friends with Thomas Jefferson and James Madison. The Floyds owned slaves into the 1830s.
Confederate General and "New South" Leader
Bob was named after his paternal great-grandfather, Robert D. Johnston (1837-1919), a North Carolina slave owner who served as a Confederate brigadier general in the Civil War. His great-grandmother, Johnsie Evans Johnston (1851-1934), was a granddaughter of Gov. John M. Morehead (1796-1866), a slave and plantation owner who became known as the "Father of Modern North Carolina."
Right: Gen. Robert D. Johnston, CSA, c. 1865
Railroad Tycoon and Philanthropist
Dorothy Gerard Hopkins Eager, Bob's mother, was from the close-knit Baltimore Hopkins family. Her cousin, Johns Hopkins (1795-1873), was chairman of the B&O Railroad. He founded and endowed The Johns Hopkins University and Hospital.
While he has long been portrayed as a Quaker who opposed slavery, recent census research reveals that four enslaved men were in his household in 1850. Hopkins’ will specified that the hospital serve all patients, including Blacks. However, the hospital facilities were segregated until the 1950s, when the first Black undergraduate was admitted to the University.
Left: Johns Hopkins, c. 1870