The Legacy of Molly Graham continues through Five great grandsons. The descendants of Molly Graham are as follows: The great-great grandson, Army First Sergeant John D. Givens, Army Sergeant Samuel Givens, Army First Sergeant Thad Givens, Marine Staff-Sergeant Lloyd Edwards. The great-great- great-great grandsons, Army First Lieutenant John P. Givens III, and Army Private First Class Andrew Givens
If you meet Molly Graham descendants and ask them why they served and those who are now serving in the United States armed forces, they will tell you that some of the Union Army soldiers risked their life and was willing to make the ultimate sacrifice of their life by coming across the Combahee River on a log raft to rescue Molly Graham and her three daughters from their would-be killers the Rebel soldiers during the Civil War.
Molly descendants will tell you, also, that they are fighting for all people of all races to have their resume too. And that they are proud to have served all the people of the United States of America, and their family, and their community family.
Molly Graham owes no one today because we the descendants of Molly have paid the debt that she owes. How the debt was been paid. God thought it out and God thought it through. We are no hero, just ordinary men who decided to do extra ordinary things.
We did not let our fear become bigger than our faith. We did not become angry because we know that if you want to be free there is a price to be paid. Freedom is not free. We didn’t follow the crowds; we just changed our mind set.
As Molly Graham descendants, we will continue to put ourselves in harm way when harm way is seeking us out. We will fight for the least, the last, the lost, and the left out. And we will continue to build bridges for tomorrow’s leaders to help the least, the last, and the left out to cross over the many rivers that they must cross for their success.
Molly Graham knew that her prayers and trusting in God one day her and her three daughters would be free. Yes, today, we stand waist deep into the past, while keeping an eye on the future. God have turned their (children) burden into a blessing and have blessed her family’s legacy into a rich heritage.
Our faith in God will be the only chains that will bind us to our spiritual history and to our family history. We recognized that Molly Graham and her three daughters were forced into slavery and their experience as a slave was a setback which became the foundation for our setup and success.
Knowing our story brought peace to our troubled souls and comfort to our minds in what seemed like what was a hopeless situation for Molly Graham and her three daughters. And because of this knowledge of our family history, we will never separate their struggles from our success.
Life will offer us many roads, but just one journey. We will not wait on man to give us anything. What man gives; man can take away. We will wait on God! What God give no man can take away.
At a point in our life, we will face giants. Things that will loom large in our life. It will try to consume us and overwhelm our thoughts and try to intimidate us. Sometimes when we are faced with a problem, we see no clear solution and sometime giants will scare us, but they won’t go away without a fight.
God has given Molly Graham descendants a vision for themselves, for their family, and for their community. The vision that we have received from God sometimes causes us to be fearful. We can’t borrow a vision. We can’t be copycats. It must be tested. We won’t act in contradiction of our makeup. Because our vision must fit our God given personally. We will be who we are, and where we come from and where we are going. Because our vision must be Spiritual. It’s God’s plans for us.
Knowing our family story of slavery, we can still hear the anguished cries of our ancestors’ voices, and the sound of the whip that still echoes in their ears. We can imagine the time that they spent while in enslaved and remembering those who were brutally captured and forcibly enslaved, as they left the peaceful womb of their Africa homeland.
Our life is now dedicated to paying homage to our ancestors for their leadership, their vision, and the legacy that they left for us. Because of them we have a better understanding of how to accept our past.
We know and we will remember that our past will shape our future. We know and we will remember that our final gift come from God. We know and we will remember today that our ancestors didn’t believe in an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth, because if they did, after the war ended, we would have a blind and toothless nation.
They taught us that racism exist but not with diverseness. And because of God’s unlimited love and his unlimited blessings we have emerged transcending Race, and language barriers, and we have served and contribute to every major level of professional career and employment.
Our ancestors kept planting godly seeds in our hearts that grows and strengths our determination, our will power, and cultivated it with God's love. They told us that it was all right to examine our history, but it was wrong just to complain about the negativity in the past. We must invest in maintaining the promise of our hopes, and dreams and always think of ways to energize and nourish our future.
We must use all our energy to elevate ourselves, our family, and our community. And that our elevation must be the result of self-efforts and God Blessing. We know that we were growing up in a time that was filled with deliberate indifferences. The days when water fountains and bathrooms were labeled "White Only and Colored Only," and we attended different schools. And the time when there were different laws for black soldiers and white soldiers. We fought in the same war but were buried in separate graveyards.
We the great-great grand “Children,” are the new drum majors of our family, and we will continue to beat the drums for our family. Our roots are grounded deep in the soil of Africa and America. Many centuries ago, our ancestors were captive brought to America and sold into slavery. Leaving a deep and rich history behind. Our ancestors were filled with tears for their loved ones that they left behind and will never see again.
But they were committed to remembering their past, and now we’re committed to remember the past and telling our younger generation within our family and our community so that they will never forget where they started from, and they will know where they are going.
Now that we have discovered their hidden dreams that held them together during slavery and brought them to a new life in the new South. We are blessed with God’s spiritual vision showing us our many strengths and possibilities. We will not stand by allowing the world to infect us with a lethal dose of self-pity. We have a job to do “Build bridges for tomorrow’s leaders.”
Our first purpose in life is to serve our God, to love our family, to love our neighbors to continue to get and complete higher education, to become leader in our community and on all level of County, State, and federal governments, and teach at higher learning Universities and Colleges.
Our Bible tells us that a people without vision would parish. And we know that a vision for our family and our community was desperately needed during this time of racial injustice and hopelessness in the New South after the Civil War ended.
Our Character cannot and will not be determined in peace and quiet. But only through our trials and tribulation that our soul will be strengthened, our vision will be cleared, and our ambition not impaired, and our success will be achieved.
Molly made sure that we were able to be successful and climb the ladder of success to go up as high as we could but never too high to become uppity. Our ancestors were not concerned with the labels inside our clothing but what was inside our hearts. They were not concerned with the size of our hat but what is inside our head.
They were not concerned with the size of our shoes but where we were walking. Through our faith, courage, and perseverance, we learned how to work hard and how to be humble. In this world where there is no cross bearing there can be no crown wearing and where there is no battle there can be no victory.
Maybe the reason why some people in this world may misunderstand us is that they see the glass half full, and we see the glass half empty. However, we want to fill the glass up so that everyone has a resume.
The gift that we have come from God and how we use our gift is our gift back to God. Giving is a responsibility. Giving is not an opportunity. Giving is our response to God. Building bridges for tomorrow’s leaders. Because it’s not about us it’s about God.
As Molly Graham descendants we will continue to put ourselves in harm way when harm way is seeking us out. We will continue to fight for the least, the last, the lost, and the left out. We will continue to fight so that everyone has a resume.
We will continue to build bridges for tomorrow’s leaders. We are just ordinary men that must do extra ordinary things in Jesus Name. And we will never let our fear become bigger than our faith.
We are determined not to let anything, or anyone write or change the ending to our life story because this is our responsibility. We know that our mind has stretched to a new idea, and it will never again return to its original dimension. We are committed to serve victoriously and encouraging while guiding our family in their own life journey through a relationship with Jesus Christ.
Molly Graham and her three daughters grabbed hold of the pieces of their life and held on to them until they gained their freedom. Now we will pick up the lost and broken pieces of our family history in America and put them together. We will find the hidden dreams of our family and community family and put all the broken pieces together.
We will pick up the broken pieces from our biblical history, our African history, and our African American history. We may have started out with some of our broken or lost pieces, but we will put them together.
Now we can proudly say that with God's continuing blessing to Molly Graham from slavery to her descendants. Our journey continues, just listen to our story. Some of our pieces may still have been broken or lost but we have picked up all the pieces that we could find, and we are going on anyhow.
We have repaid the debt for great-great-great mother, Molly Graham and her three daughters. But we have many more rivers, and seas and oceans to cross. And many more bridges to build for tomorrow, leaders. God has fit us for duty to serve Him. Thanks Be to God.
Molly Graham descendants where are they?
