This was a very powerful opening paragraph from a story about Keisha Lance Bottoms, the new governor of Georgia.

Keisha Lance Bottoms and the long road from Crawfordville to Governor’s Mansion:

In 1860, an enslaved man named Sheppard Peek was listed among the possessions of William Peek, a white man in Crawfordville.

His value was placed at $1,400.

On another surviving document, Sheppard signed his name with an X.

More than a century and a half later, Sheppard’s great-great-granddaughter, Keisha Lance Bottoms, was elected governor of Georgia.